Disclaimer: I don't own the characters; all credits go to the game!

Sora woke up from soft hands that shook him awake and he heard Kairi's voice: "Riku is awake!"
A bit sleepy, he opened his eyes and saw the joy on her face. She was so beautiful when she smiled...

"Come on, sleepyhead! Just go and see for yourself, he's ok!"

Still a bit sleepy, Sora stood up from his bed and let Kairi lead him to Riku. When they entered the room, he couldn't be happier to see his friend alive and well. Riku tried to sit up straight, but hissed when a shot of pain went through his body.

"You shouldn't be moving Riku, let your wounds heal."

Kairi tried to convince him, but in vain. Their friend already sat up straight. His leg, arm and torso were treated with bandages, but he seemed better than yesterday. Sora walked to him and gave him a smile while standing there with his hands behind his head: "Well, I almost thought you were a goner back there..."

"Hah, you don't get rid of me that easily."
"I know. So, when can I kick your ass again?"

Riku looked at Aerith and she looked shocked: "You need to rest for another day before you can even stand, let alone fight. No fighting soon, I'm sorry Riku."
"You're the doc, Aerith."
"I'll go get some fresh bandages. Kairi, could you help me?"

Kairi nodded and they left the two boys alone in the room.
Riku looked at Sora and asked the question where Sora really wanted to know the answer from: "Who was that man?"
Sora took place next to Riku on the bed.

"I really don't know, never seen him before. But I'm pretty sure that he is the reason we're here. "
"Yeah, we only need to find out what he wants to achieve."

The only thing was that Sora did know what that man wanted to achieve in these three days... Should he tell Riku? Maybe he had some good advice... No, he didn't want to expose his friend to more danger than he already had been through. Riku wouldn't admit it, but his bandages were already starting to show red spots on it. His wounds weren't healed yet.

"But now you need to rest, just leave them to me!"

Riku looked at Sora and saw that his leg also had a bandage.

"Your leg, did he do that to you?"
"Yeah... but he was holding back for some reason. He did the same attack that hit your shoulder."
"I see... Sora, just take care of Kairi. This guy is bad news, he's really fast."
"I know. Just get a quick recovery, alright? Then we can defeat him together."
"Will do. I'll be back in no time."

Suddenly the door swung open and Yuffie got in the room. She looked at Sora.

"Bad news. We've got a distress call from Leon. Kairi is already on the way. Let's go."
"Right," Sora looked at Riku before he left the room, "Just rest, I'll take this one."

He followed Yuffie outside. Sora ran as fast as he could, Kairi already left! Could she handle this?

"What was Leon doing in the town anyway?"
"Well, he went to check the situation in town. But apparently those creatures showed up again. It's nothing like Leon to send a distress call for something small..."

They went faster and got to the town. But the fight they saw was a high-levelled one. Leon was fighting against two black coats at the same time. Those were the same coats from before, the one with the lances and the one with the arrow guns. Kairi was trying to get to Leon, but there were more and bigger unversed in her way. She couldn't handle them all to reach Leon in time. Sora immediately came into action and went to help Kairi.

"Well, I guess that you go backup Kairi while I help Leon. Nice strategy, Sora."

Yuffie began throwing her knifes at a couple of unversed that were in the way and jumped over the others towards Leon. She landed next to him in her battle pose.

"Help has arrived."
Leon looked at Yuffie and said: "You take care of that one. The third one hasn't shown up yet."

Yuffie looked at the one with the arrow guns. This would be a fine match. They both attacked at a long distance, so she just needed to show that her skills were better than his.

"Do you mind telling me your name before you're going down?"
"It's very rude to ask someone's name before you've introduced yourself, lady."
"Is that so? Well, I'm Yuffie then."
"Xigbar. It will be a pleasure to take you down, Yuffie. I normally don't fight ladies..."
Yuffie threw a couple of her knifes at Xigbar: "One advice: don't let your guard down!"

They started charging at each other and dodged each other's attacks. The fight had begun.
Meanwhile, Sora had reached Kairi. She just took an unversed out in one swing of her keyblade. Sora summoned his keyblade and began helping her out. But there was no end of them. For every unversed that they slayed, two others appeared. After a few minutes, Sora and Kairi stood with their back at each other. How would they get out of this? Maybe they could reach a higher ground... Yeah, that should work! Sora looked around and saw the perfect spot.

He spoke to Kairi: "Kai, this isn't going to work. Let's get higher up, then we can get them all in one blast."
"Ok, just lead the way."

Sora took Kairi's wrist and pulled her with him to the rock. Now they were ten foot above the ground. Perfect. Every unversed was defeated before it even got close to them. Sora looked at Leon and Yuffie's fight; it seemed the fight had turned. The coats were backed in corners, it would be over soon. He started charging for an ultimate fire blast on all those unversed down there. But then an unversed grabbed Kairi's leg and pulled her down...

"Kairi!" Sora immediately grabbed her hand and held on to it. Now that he couldn't do that attack, he dismissed his keyblade and held on to Kairi with his two hands. The unversed wouldn't get her!
"Just hold on Kairi! I'm going to pull you up!"

Sora tried to pull her up, but the unversed was still holding on to her leg. Kairi screamed in pain. Damn! As long as that thing held on to her, he wouldn't be able to pull her up without hurting her...

Protecting that girl again?

No, not now! He couldn't deal with that old man if he had to hold on to Kairi like this...

"Coward! Are you letting your minions do all the dirty work?"

Kairi's expression turned from pain to fear as she looked at Sora's right side. The voice spoke again.

Why would I be a coward? I'm here, aren't I?

A shiver walked through Sora's back. Was he here? He looked at his right side and there he stood, those yellow eyes of him were full of joy. He really enjoyed this... What was he planning this time?

"Bastard. Let Kairi go!"

Not yet. Let's watch the show first, shall we?

"Show? What show?"

The old man pointed his right hand towards the battle from Leon and Yuffie. Something dark shot out of his hand and hit Sora's two comrades. The next moment Yuffie fell on her knees and a dark cloud covered her body. Leon also fell to the ground in pain. Yuffie was struggling; her hands took hold of her head as if she had a hell of a headache. Sora looked at his friends. What could he do for them?

You see how powerless you are to save them?

"Whatever you're doing, turn it off! If it's me you're after, fight me then! Let my friends go!"

That's the thing, I am after you. But this seems the only way that I can get through to you.

"Just... let... them... go!"

Sora tried to pull Kairi up, but the unversed was still holding her leg. What should he do? If he stayed here, Leon and Yuffie would keep suffering. And if he let Kairi fall...

Suddenly the coats started moving again, but Yuffie and Leon didn't! That cloud seemed to paralyze them. No… They wouldn't... Would the coats attack a defenceless enemy? Not when he was here! The lances of the black coat started to aim at Leon. And the other one with the arrow guns charged again and aimed at Yuffie. Sora immediately came into action. He jumped after Kairi and kicked the unversed that was holding on to her on his head. He caught Kairi before she hit the ground, put her down and ran through the unversed to the coats. Kairi followed him. The coats were done aiming. They raised their hands and fired at their victims...

But both their attacks were blocked by a keyblade. Kairi had blocked all the red laser bullets towards Yuffie and Sora had blocked all the lances towards Leon. Right on time. The coats looked surprised at the old man on the cliff and disappeared. The old man had a weird smile on his face.

Good job. I wouldn't expect less of you.

The old man also disappeared. Man, this was a close one but they made it. He turned to Leon who still had that dark aura covering his body. Sora reached for Leon's shoulder to help him, but something sharp slid in his hand. The aura around Leon and Yuffie disappeared immediately but now there was a black spot on Sora's hand. Sora screamed out in pain. It hurt so much! What was this kind of magic? His hand ached like someone had put a thousand needles in it. What could this mean? Kairi immediately ran towards him: "Sora! Are you alright?"
From the moment that Kairi touched him, the pain seemed to vanish. He stood up. But when Kairi let him go, the awful pain came again. Sora suppressed it and went to Leon. He helped him up and laid Leon's arm around his neck to support him. Kairi still looked concerned. Sora's breath wasn't normal.

"I'm fine... Let's head back."
But suddenly Kairi's voice yelled his name: "Sora! Watch out!"

But it was too late, a shadow had appeared in front of them and Sora didn't notice it in time. A scream of pain. Drops of blood landed on Sora's face. It was that old man again. When Sora looked down, it wasn't his chest that was hit... It was Leon's... The old men's keyblade had pierced Leon's whole body and came out of his back. Blood was dripping on the floor... Could this be real?

No, it couldn't! Leon's legs turned numb and Sora felt his grip loosening. The blade was pulled out of Leon's chest and more blood escaped the fresh wound. So much blood... Leon needed help, right now! Sora laid Leon on the floor and supported his head. Sora tried to stop the bleeding with his free hand... Just a flesh wound... Nothing serious... Leon had been through worse fights than this...

"You're going to be fine, just a flesh wound... Aerith will take care of you, just like she did with Riku."
Leon looked at Sora and laid his hand on Sora's. When he spoke, he sounded out of breath: "Sora... just... take care of... Yuffie... for me..."

Why would he say that? It couldn't be that he was... No way! That would not happen! Not now...

"Don't say that! You can take care of her yourself when we have patched you up!"
"Just... promise... ok?"

Sora couldn't believe this, was Leon really giving up? From whom would he get advice? Who would contact the King? Who would always be there for him... when Leon was gone?

"You can't go... Don't leave us with this mess! It isn't over yet! Hold on to the end! Don't give up..."
"I'm... sorry..."

With those words, Leon's hand fell on the ground and a tear rolled from Sora's cheeks. This was not happening. It could not be happening... It just couldn't...

"No Leon, don't leave us! We need you! Leon!" But Leon didn't react anymore.
"No! Leon! Come back! Leon!"

Sora looked at the man who did this. He had been watching all this time... smiling... Sora hated that man with every bone in his body. Why did he do this? Just for fun? This was no ordinary man; it was the devil in disguise. Sora laid Leon carefully on the ground before he turned to the old man.

"You're going to pay for what you did!"

Is that so? Great, challenge me. That weakling wasn't even worth the effort...

"Bastard! Don't talk about Leon like that!"

Then show me your revenge! Let me feel your despair!

Sora summoned his keyblade and the pain in his hand became worse, but he ignored it. This one was for Leon. He couldn't let that man get away again. No one talked about Leon like that! Sora started charging at the man and the pain in his hand was increasing. It went through his arm, straight to his heart. Something cracked in him. His heart seemed to fail... He laid his attack on the man, but it was blocked. The old men laughed. Sora's legs went numb and he fell on his knees in front of the man. Those yellow eyes stared at him from above and he heard that voice, as calm as always...

In two days from now, you'll be mine. Mark my words, Sora. If you wait too long, more of your friends will suffer. Maybe not by your hand, but by your ignorance.
I don't like to be kept waiting.

That was the last thing Sora heard before everything around him turned black.

Oh no! What now? :p well, let's wait for the next chapter!
Btw, someone asked me if the voice was Vanitas. Actually, I wrote the story with the idea that it was Xehanort ('old man' also refers to him).
But maybe it's more fun if you think it's Vanitas, let your imagination do the trick! :D
PS: I don't know if you guys noticed, but every title is a song that matches the chapter (or I think it does)...