Rhannnion: So... people are actually reading and enjoying this still? Yay! I checked the um... stats the other day... and see that it's doing really well... Thanks to all who are reading!

... Wow... um... in case that was misleading... this isn't the final chapter...still plenty, plenty to go.

Chapter 17—Drag Down the Sunrise

Sora was leaning against the wall of the outside of the village. He was idly watching the patrols come in and switch guard. He stretched his arms over his head, still tired but he not hungry enough to join the others for breakfast. His stomach was unsettled and his mind nervous. He wanted to prove to Riku that he could protect and take care of himself. He wanted to prove to everyone that he was worthy of being the keyblade master before they spent more of their time trying to protect him instead of defeating Organization Thirteen.

The sun was rising slowly and he decided that taking a short walk wouldn't bother anyone too much. There was a cave just beyond the village that he'd wanted to check out. Supposedly there was a shrine to peace deep within it. He walked along it lazily, noting that this was where they had stored their explosives. Not sure that was the wisest of ideas, but this wasn't his war, wasn't his army. The shrine was small but elegant. He smiled at it and slowly knelt in front of it.

"You're all the same." A roughly, clipped voice spoke angrily.

He jumped up and spun to see a tall angry man with an ugly face glaring at him. In his hand was a wicked blade that resembled a wave with its curves. Sora called the Sleeping Lion to him as he glared the man down.

"Who are you!"

"You don't know who I am?" He let out a long laugh. "Fool."

He stepped back and a large simmering barrier appeared, like the one that Hades had used back in Olympus. He ran and slammed his fists against it. The man merely laughed at him.

"I am Shan Yu… Not that that information is important to you." He turned and walked away. "I'll be sure to tell your friends how you died."

Sora turned swiftly when he heard something crash behind him. He was surrounded by Heartless, large and wicked looking, some of them were flyers others were centaurs with long lances. Sora stared in horror, how was he supposed to survive this?

Roxas stared at the rising sun without much interest. Ever since Axel's 'visit' he's mind had been preoccupied. Tifa had noticed immediately and had pried the information out of him. He thought that's she'd have been disturbed by the fact that he'd been talking to someone from the Organization on friendly terms but she seemed okay with it. In fact she wanted to meet Axel, which made him flinch. Axel wasn't exactly… people material and it wasn't as if he could go find the nobody, using his powers of the Darkness had been restricted.

"Hey, sleepy head." Tifa jumped over the side of the couch and sat beside him. "What'cha thinking so hard about?"

"…nothing." It didn't seem worth it to explain all the confusion running rampant in his head. He'd only get confused within it and drag the midnight haired woman down with him.

"Thinking about the Organization… or about Axel." She smiled at him slyly.

He rolled her eyes at him and pulled his knees up to his chest, for one without emotions, he sure as hell felt like he was in emotional turmoil. He shifted and leaned his head back and then looked over at her.

"Sometimes in the morning... I wonder what it would be like… to drag the sunrise down…" He looked over at her, blue eyes meeting brown. "And try to remember what it was like before I knew of Sora or Axel or even Organization Thirteen. When I was just some kid running around in the third district, just trying to get by."

"And now you'll never be that person again… but that's not really all that bad is it?" She asked with a smile.

"I couldn't really tell you. It's not like I have a heart that can tell me the difference." He almost wanted to smile when Tifa didn't have a response to that. She liked to lie to herself and pretend that he had a heart, but he wasn't about to live in her little fantasy world. "I think I'm going to go see what Yuffie's up to." At least she didn't lie to herself.

He found the cheery ninja sitting out on the deck of what use to be the Radiant Café, looking out into the people who had made some semblance of a life even though their everyday was filled with fear. Most of them didn't even have a real clue of what was going on. Roxas wished that he was one of them some days before he realized that he would drive himself mad with a need to know.

"Hey you." She didn't seem as cheery as she usually did, but he could guess why. A new breed of heartless had caught a patrol by surprise and had killed three of them and left Cloud Strife almost mortally wounded.

"How's it going?" He asked as he climbed up on the rail beside her and watched the people pass them by, it almost felt like they were frozen as the rest of the world went out around them.

"Cloud's doing better." She turned on the rail to face him. "Laguna managed to get some strong magics imported here. They barrier's even stronger then before." Her smile was thin and grim, it kept the people inside safe, but not the ones who were supposed to be insuring their safety.

"But not enough to stop the patrols." She nodded her assent and he gave her a thin smile. "We can count on the others. They'll be back soon. And if what Axel's told me is right, one hurdle was taken care of for us. The Organization killed Ansem."

"But there is still the Organization… and after all this… then what? Radiant Garden has still been destroyed." She whispered. "We were lucky that Raine's grave made it into the barrier."

"You all care a lot about a simple grave." Roxas shrugged, their sentimental efforts had no affect on him. "And it's still there. It's a lot rebuild… but it's still there."

"I guess you wouldn't even begin to understand how important Raine's grave is to Laguna. You don't feel love." Well, that stung a bit, but Roxas couldn't exactly feel the sting either.

"I guess I wouldn't." He shrugged his shoulders. "After all, I'm merely a nobody."

"Nah, you're much more then that. You just need to figure out what you are." She grip the rail firmly and leaned back to look up in the sky. "Raine was the keyblade master before Sora… and Laguna's true love… she's important to us all."

"And yet you've never met her." Roxas studied the girl before her.

"I don't have to meet her to love her." She jumped off the rail. "There are some people you just… love. Sometimes you never even have to meet them. And almost always, you never have to tell them."

As Yuffie disappeared into the streams of people, that helped to keep what was left of Radiant Garden running in someway, he vaguely wondered if he and Axel were one of those people. Even if they didn't have hearts.

Sora swung his blade fast and quickly, slicing through Heartless after Heartless not daring to look around in case they were multiplying. The large ones took more then one strike and he'd been hit more then once, but to fall down probably meant he wasn't getting back up. And that was not an option. He fell forward against the peace shrine and when he managed to roll over he realized that he'd just defeated a room full of Heartless by himself and survived. He watched as the shimmering barrier fell and closed his eyes. He was safe for now; a little rest wouldn't hurt anyone…

"Wake the fuck up Sora!" Was yelled at him as his protesting body was furiously shaken. He looked up bleary eyed into a worried Riku.

"Shush… my head hurts." He mumbled under his breath trying to escape and Riku sensing his distress stopped shaking him immediately.

There was still a thin veil of darkness on the floor from the spells that Shan Yu had cast and Riku was a bit apprehensive about staying in this place too long. He picked up the barely conscious keyblade master and slowly carried him out of the cave and back towards the village to receive some medical attention. And hopefully find out what happened in the peace shrine.

Sora woke up hours later, on a bed in a strange place with a warm hand encasing his own. He blinked open tired sky color eyes and saw his sleeping friend lying beside him. He reached his free hand up and tangled it in sliver hair, closing his eyes again and falling back asleep, he felt safe here, with Riku to keep him company.

When Riku woke up, he had a hand tangled in his hair and a little brunette cuddled up against his chest. With a little smile he slowly shook him awake. Sora looked up at him with sleep hazy eyes and he can't help but smile at him and reach up with the hand not entangled with Sora's and brush across his cheek.

"Sleep well?" He asked as he continued to stroke his cheek.

"Yeah." The brunette mumbled under his breath and burrowed against his friend. "Still tired though."

"Too bad… I want to know what happened in the peace shrine." Riku moved into a sitting position pulling Sora with him. "Now talk."

"There isn't much to say." The keyblade master spoke. "I was caught off guard by a few heartless and was really tried afterward."

"A few? There was enough darkness in there for it to be way more then a few."

Sora closed his eyes, his head hurt and he really didn't want to have this fight, not here, not now, not ever.

"Can we… just not talk about it right now? My head still hurts." He leaned forward and felt pain stretch across his chest and abdomen. "And so do my ribs apparently."

"Fine." Riku pulled him close and wrapped his arms around him. "Rest… but I'm not letting this go."

Sora nodded and closed his eyes and wondered idly if Riku only cared because he was the keyblade master and not because of their so-called feelings that they never really explored.

Saïx paused outside of Castle Oblivion and wondered idly at what Marluxia was up to. Xemnas had told him to be patient that all his plans would come to fruition in good time, but something about the pink haired nobody rubbed him the wrong way. Xemnas in his foolish way had given the underling free reign to do whatever he wished in his castle between time and space as long as it didn't interfere with the main plain.

Saïx was pretty damn sure that it did. Between what was left of Organization Thirteen: Xemnas, Zexion, Xigbar, Axel, Luxord, Marluxia and himself. He realized that they needed to stick together. Quite a few had died, Demyx that fool had gotten captured and Roxas of all things had betrayed them with his foolish thoughts of meeting his 'other.' He should have killed Roxas while he'd had the chance, but he'd let Xemnas sway his decision because he was the leader.

"Lurking around Saïx? You could have just come and knocked." He turned around and saw Zexion standing there watching him. "Or do you having some weird thought that Marluxia is plotting something?"

"My thoughts are my own Zexion." He murmured crossing his arms firmly.

"Ah… You of all people should know that Marluxia spends more time in his gardens then in our so called 'plots' to get Kingdom Hearts. The poor fool just wants to become a somebody again so that he can find a nice quiet place to build a real garden instead of the illusion he's cultivating inside that castle."

"I wonder if you words are truth or just here to misguide me." Saïx cocked his head.

"Is he not doing what the Superior asked? Watching over the witch Naminè?" The black haired nobody lifted in eye at his silver haired peer. "Or are you merely paranoid?"

"Not paranoid. Cautious." He regarded the younger nobody for a few scant moments. "I fear it is time I take my leave. I have things I must… report." He opened a whirlpool of Darkness behind himself and stepped backwards into it.

Zexion smiled to himself, for all the power that he had, in this moonless place, Saïx was would always be useless and he was glad the lower ranked nobody knew it.

Sora watched the approaching sunrise with something that felt like trepidation. The Huns would crest the mountain rise and descend upon them, in a couple of hours if they were lucky. And if Shan Yu's preemptive attack had warned him of anything. Not only did he have battle hardened men at his disposal but Heartless as well. It was eerie, he thought as he watched the sun rise higher and higher in the sky. That on a day that would have once seemed so promising, that all he wanted to do was shove the sun back down below the horizon.