This Is Like... 2 or 3 Weeks Late... I Deeply Apologize.

Chapter 4: L.I.G.H.T (I)

"Riku!"

The voice sounded so familiar, yet distorted all at once. It sounded as if he were deep, deep under water.

"Ri…. s… ay… m…. ere… fo… o… Ri… ik… Riku!"

What was that? That made no sense.

He tried opening his eyes, only seeing faint swirls of blue and brown before everything went black again.

Everything hurt. He could hardly even move.

Faint sounds came to him. Almost as though someone was crying.

"Sora….."

The name barely even passed his paling lips. The brunette's eyes shot toward the boy in front of him.

"Riku?" He said, wiping his eyes, "Riku, I'm getting you out of here okay?"

Sora tried his best to pull himself together before attempting to analyze Riku's state better.

He looked an absolute wreck.

Sora wasn't sure if it was even safe to pick him up. He paused in his worry, cursing himself for not thinking of the idea sooner.

"Okay, don't panic, I'm going to try to heal you okay?"

The brunette bit his lip in hesitation, he knew that the worse the injuries, the more healing would hurt. He had to help though, Riku looked a mess. He didn't want his best friend dying on him. But what if the pain was too much?

Reluctantly, Sora summoned his keyblade and pointed it toward Riku, casting curaga.

The minute the magic hit Riku, he arched of the ground, groaning in pain.

"I'm sorry, Riku, this is the only way." Sora yelled over the whir of magic and Riku's shouting. The sound was driving him up a wall. He was only hurting his best friend more. He could feel himself weakening after summoning it a few times and stopped the magic before he got completely drained.

Riku relaxed, his cuts and bruises had heal significantly, but he still looked horribly out of shape.

"Riku?" he tried, watching his friend's face carefully. Riku's eyes fluttered open as he shifted his gaze to see Sora.

"I'm gonna pick you up now, okay?" Sora said. Riku only closed his eyes again in response, most likely bracing himself for more pain. Sora began to attempt at putting Riku on his back so it would be easier to carry the taller male.

Just as he stood up with the boy on his back, he heard various screams for where he had just come from. With the Organization.

Blue eyes stared out at the waves, that day still haunted him. Constantly. Seventeen years had gone by so slowly.

Sora returned to Destiny Islands, without Riku, only to find that Kairi was nowhere to be found either. All in all, he was alone now. The islands seemed so empty now.

The boy hugged himself and grit his teeth to prevent himself from crying. He couldn't let himself slip into that dark state. He had to keep himself filled with light, if he went into the dark… that would mean trouble for Roxas.

He shifted his position and crawled towards the edge of the ocean to get a look at himself. All he saw was the same exact face he would have seen all those years ago.

"S-Sora…" he tried to get the name out.

"Yeah?" Sora responded amazingly enough when Riku could barely even hear his own voice.

"What… what is…"

"I don't know, Riku. But whatever it is, let them deal with it. We have to go."

Riku could feel that they were moving, but whenever he tried opening his eyes, all he would see is a blur of different colors. It made him so dizzy that he just opted to keep his eyes closed.

All too soon he was knocked to the ground, nearly screaming in pain once his back hit the hard marble.

"What the fuck?" he heard Sora yell. "Riku… Riku, there's a force field. I don't know what's making it happen… I suppose I could go check?"

Riku really wanted to respond. He could tell Sora just kept rambling to fill in the silence, but his mouth just wouldn't work for him.

"Don't try to talk Riku, just, stay here. I'll be right back, I promise."

He could hear the hesitance in his voice, the quiver in his words. Riku's eyes shot open and he reached out, weakly grabbing Sora's arm.

"N-no… ple-please…" he pleaded, eyes moving frantically to meet Sora's. If only his head would clear and he could focus. The brunette only gently moved his hand.

"I have to get us out of here. Please. Just, relax."

Before Riku could get out anything else, Sora had ran off.

"Sora!"

The boy jumped, nearly landing face first in the water when the voice shouted out at him. He wasn't expecting anyone to come down to the beach where he was considering he had left his house so early.

A hand grabbed him to help him regain his steadiness.

"Didn't mean to scare you. You were staring at the water so hard you didn't hear me calling the first fifty times."

Sora looked at the smiling woman in front of him. She reminded him so much of Kairi at times.

"Oh," he brushed off his shirt and let the girl help him up.

"Sorry, Aqua."