Author's Note: Tis the next installment everybody! Woohoo! This chapter's a normal length too! In this chapter, Shad's a horrible, lying, conceited, manipulative... well, why don't I just let you read it?
Oh, and glad to know that you take that as a compliment, Shad.
EDIT: I fixed the italics. Now things should make more sense. Sorry about that, I didn't even notice...
"Dammit, Cid, why'd you have to go and break my concentration?" Sora's Shadow muttered, angrily, completely ignoring them. "I was on a roll there! A roll!" He made a couple incomprehensible noises, clenching his hands into fists. "Damn you…" he said, and then rounded on them. "No, actually, it's you I should be mad at! I would've been fine, if it had only been Cid, I could've recovered. But, no, you had to go and screw everything up!" He groaned. "Not like it really matters whose fault it was, I've completelylost control of Sora now!"
He glanced between the two of them a few times, noticing the rather pissed look on the Memory Witch's face. Plus, she was radiating a lot of anger, too. It really was a good thing that she wasn't incredibly bright.
As in, full of light, that is.
Riku, the other Riku, the- Sora's Shadow frowned at him for a second. He'd eventually get confused if he only called him Riku or some small variation of it. He took a second to pick "Riku's" memories, hoping to find some embarrassing nickname or something. He found something shortly, though it wasn't embarrassing…
Real Thing.
He'd have to stick with it, because he didn't have enough time to find something else.
So, the Memory Witch looked rather pissed, and Real Thing looked confused and angry. He wasn't entirely sure if the anger was directly caused by him, or if it was merely a side-effect of the confusion.
Why was it that every Riku had such complex emotions?
He grimaced, then, realizing something else.
"You, uh, didn't happen to hear all of that, did you?" he asked.
"That depends," the Memory Witch spat. "Did you just call me a-"
He laughed. "Well, that depends. Did you just call me a-"
Real Thing summoned his blade, obviously not wanting to bother with the banter. "Take that back!" he shouted.
Sora's Shadow raised his eyebrows. "Well, that explains a lot," he mused. "And here I was thinking it was just him…" He turned to the Memory Witch. "How many guys is that that you have-"
"Take. That. Back," Real Thing repeated. His voice had almost a growl to it.
Sora's Shadow frowned, then swallowed the rest of what he was going to say to the Memory Witch. He didn't really like the look she was giving him, plus, if he kept going he would probably make her really upset, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to deal with Real Thing afterwards.
He returned his attention to Real Thing, and shrugged lazily.
"Make me," he dared.
Real Thing looked a bit taken aback by that, but his anger quickly overrode it.
Sora's Shadow laughed.
"Oh wait! You can't!" He grinned.
Real Thing growled. Legitimately growled.
Sora's Shadow raised his hands in defeat. "Okay, okay! I take it back, sheesh." He rolled his eyes. It's not like it really mattered. "Isn't worth getting my head chopped off for anyway," he muttered, then smirked. "Might want to watch your darkness though, Real Thing."
Real Thing blinked a few times in shock.
"What?" he asked. "Where'd you hear that?"
Sora's Shadow grinned and tapped his head. "I'm just like her," he said, nodding at the Memory Witch. "I can read your memories. Or, well, most of them." He shrugged. "It's definitely a lot of them."
Real Thing's brow furrowed in confusion.
"He can only see dark memories," the Memory Witch explained to him. She might have said more after that, but Sora's Shadow stopped listening. Something else had caught his attention.
"Wait! Shh!" he commanded, holding up a finger to silence them. "Shh just a sec!"
"Why should-"
"Shh!"
He concentrated on listening, glad that Sora hadn't cut off connection with him. He wouldn't have wanted to miss this. "Is he… crying?" he said, slowly, uncertainly. He listened harder. Sure enough, it sounded like Riku was crying. "Did I make him cry!" He laughed, then, feeling rather accomplished. "I made him cry!"
"Made who cry?" Real Thing asked.
"Your Replica…" the Memory Witch mumbled.
Real Thing made a face that was something between confusion and shock.
"He's… crying?"
Sora's Shadow laughed. "I know! So unlike you, isn't it, Real Thing?"
Real Thing growled.
"What did you do to him!" the Memory Witch demanded. Sora's Shadow laughed slightly, as she was throwing a lot of anger at him. Pity she was from another universe and her anger didn't affect him…
"Whoa, whoa," he said, holding up his hands. "Calm down there, Witch!"
"Take that back, too!" Real Thing said. There was a rather 'no-nonsense' tone to his voice, but Sora's Shadow ignored him.
"Remember what I said last time about you being the reason he's so messed up?" he asked the Memory Witch, and then laughed. "Yeah, it's about ten times worse than I originally thought it was." He grinned.
They glared at him.
He ignored them.
He wanted the Memory Witch to feel how much she had hurt Riku. She already had a vague idea of it, but if she truly knew-
He pulled a bit of darkness towards him, prepared to use it. Then he noticed the look Real Thing was giving him. He frowned.
Great, he can smell darkness, can't he?
Dammit.
There goes THAT idea…
He let go of the darkness, and then smirked.
Whatever, I don't need the darkness. I can do enough damage with words alone.
"Because of what youdid to him," he said, acting as if he had never paused in the rant. "He now holds the world at an arms-length, not caring about anyone only because he doesn't think they care about him." He chuckled slightly. "Because he's so used to being an afterthought."
The Memory Witch might have winced at that.
He chose to believe she did, just because it made him feel better.
"And he's come to expect nothing more from the world," he continued. "So whenever anything more is given to him-" He laughed. "He can't handle it. He can't handle being loved!"
The look on her face was priceless, and the guilt he was getting from her was even better. Real Thing looked pretty pissed now, but he was too busy enjoying her pain to notice.
"And it's all your fault," he said, grinning. "You screwed him up! Not just because of what you did to him mentally, with his memories and everything, but because of what you did to him emotionally-"
"Cut it out!" Real Thing shouted.
Sora's Shadow pushed back all possible shock he had towards that and instead laughed, knowing it only make him even more pissed. It really was a shame they were from a different universe…
"My, my," he said, throwing a look at the Memory Witch. "Doesn't that sound familiar?" He turned back to Real Thing. "Though, why do you care? From the sounds of things, you didn't-" He slowly stopped, realizing something.
He might be restricted to only seeing dark memories, and only picking up thoughts when they were strong enough, but he could feel anyone's emotions, no problem.
And right now, he could feel a rather surprising emotion coming from Real Thing.
Love.
Real Thing loved the Memory Witch.
Or at least, that's Sora's Shadow assumed.
"Well then!" he laughed, and then turned to the Memory Witch. "Looks like you had another boy fall for you. What'd you do to this one?"
"Shedidn't do anything!" Real Thing snapped. "I love her of my own free will!"
Sora's Shadow raised his eyebrows. "Ain't that a shocker?" he said, and grinned. "I wonder what your Replica would do if he knew. Oh wait, I don't need to wonder! I know exactly what he'd do!"
"What would he do?" Real Thing asked.
"Oh, he'd be absolutely pissed for starters. Then he might try to kill you." He looked over at the Memory Witch, who was grimacing at the thought. "See? Even she knows it!"
"He's changed," she said, firmly, but her firmness quickly fell into uncertainty. She didn't actually know whether or not he was any different than he had been all that time ago. She certainly seemed to hope that he was.
"Well, let's find out," Sora's Shadow said. He thought about what he was going to say for a second. "Hmm… Real Thing loves the Memory Witch," he muttered, his voice slowly gaining the sing-song tone he had used earlier. He grinned. "Real Thing loves the Memory Witch." He repeated, much firmer.
Satisfied, he clenched his hand into a fist, calling to the darkness inside of Sora. It reacted typically, rearing up, ready to be-
It was pulled away from him.
"Cut it out!" Sora yelled.
His Shadow flexed his fingers, a tad shocked. "Damn, Sora!" he exclaimed, amazed and yet terribly annoyed. "When did you figure out how to fight back!"
"How's that working out for you?" the Memory Witch asked, sounding rather amused now. Real Thing snorted.
"Oh, you be quiet!" he muttered.
"I'm tired of you doing this to me!"Sora said, before he could say anything more to the Memory Witch and Real Thing. "It was annoying when it was Cloud, it was just plain MEAN to Aerith, you were downright RUDE to Tifa, and I don't even KNOW how I feel about what you did to Leon. Now you've made Riku cry. Riku! CRY! I'm not going to let you get away with this anymore!"
He rolled his eyes.
"Oh please! You weren't even aware I was doing it!"
"Well, I'm aware of it now, and I'm not letting you do it again!"
Oh of course.
Of course Sora had to go and get determined right when he really wanted to use him. He swore and pounded his fist against the ground in annoyance. "I'm not letting you get away with it again," he repeated in an extremely mocking tone. Sora only returned it with annoyance.
The Memory Witch laughed. He glared at her.
"What?"
"You do realize that we can only hear half of this conversation, right?" she replied.
"Sounds like Sora's not being cooperative, though," Real Thing said. He was smirking.
Sora's Shadow didn't like it.
"It's none of your business," he spat. "And if me talking to Sora out loud bothers you, then suck it up!"
"Are you… talking to someone?"Sora asked, confused as always.
"No, I'm talking to myself," he replied, rolling his eyes. "Of course I'm talking to someone, idiot! Can't you hear them? I can hear everyone on your end!"
Sora started to reply, but he didn't give him the chance.
"Listen, Sora, could you do me a-"
"No."
He made a face.
"I just need you to tell Riku-"
"Haven't you bothered Riku enough?" Sora interrupted, and he got the sense that he was glaring. Plus, he could feel a lot of annoyance building up inside of Sora.
Maybe just enough to-
A very sharp pain shot through his head, and he swore, before angrily turning to the Memory Witch. She had quite the glare on her face and a rather large amount of anger burning in her.
"Stop it!" she warned. "I'm sure he's upset enough already, we don't have to-"
"Could you stop!" he hissed through clench teeth, trying to avoid clutching his head. It hurt so much that he could hardly see straight, let alone even think properly. To make things worse, the pain doubled as Sora caught drift of it.
"Will you leave this Riku-" she began.
"No, seriously! You're hurting Sora!" he gasped, frantically.
The pain stopped immediately. He had to bite his tongue to prevent himself from sighing in relief.
"You weren't just lying to make her stop, were you?" Real Thing asked.
He angrily shook his head, though he regretted doing so afterwards. It hurt. "No! I mean it!" he said, bitterly. "I mean, seriously, they're all crowding around Sora right now to make sure he's okay. Aerith's worried, Yuffie's confused, no surprise, Riku's not paying attention, which is lucky for you, and Tifa- Dammit!" He pounded his fist against the ground again. It actually kind of hurt this time. "She just told Sora to cut off connection with me, and he listened." He clenched his hands into fists. "One of these days, Tifa, you are going to regret getting in my way…" he muttered.