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

When Sora woke up, he laid in a small bed, covered with warm blankets. Rays of moonlight entered the room through the window.
He wondered what had happened after he lost consciousness. When he looked next to him, he saw Kairi sitting in a chair, sleeping. The fight had been around noon, would she really have stayed by his side all that time? He looked at her and could only admire his friend. She looked so peaceful while she slept that he almost felt like they were back on the Islands. Not a long time ago, they were sleeping on the sand, dreaming away by the sound of the waves that rolled on that beautiful beach.

But they weren't at the Islands anymore. Sora sighed and a tear rolled over his cheek, but he didn't care. Could Aerith have saved Leon or was he...
He didn't dare to ask, because if he would, then it was a fact.

He looked at his hand and the black spot had vanished. What was that back there? The pain had spread to his heart... What would that mean? Sora hated it, that man didn't even give them time to recover from their previous wounds. He suddenly remembered the exact words of the old man: 'If you wait too long, more of your friends will suffer. Maybe not by your hand, but by your ignorance.'

Sora looked at his hands. Could he accept that deal? He didn't know and looked back at Kairi who was still asleep. How could he ever see her getting hurt? And when he accepted that deal, she would be safe. He sat up straight and went out of his bed silently. He didn't want to wake Kairi up.

As he got closer to the door of Leon's room, he slowed his pace. Would he be strong enough to look inside? He held his hand on the doorknob. It was as if time stood still. What would he do? If he opened it and Leon wouldn't be in there... He let go of the doorknob. He didn't want to know the truth. He slowly backed away from the door and walked to the front door. Once he was outside, he sat on the floor with his back against the wall and his left arm supported on his left knee.

He looked up at the stars. Everything seemed so peaceful... All the worlds looked so quiet. He stayed there, watching the stars. When the stars disappeared with the night, he looked at the rising sun. The rays of light woke up the sleeping world. The second day had begun. A palette of colours painted the clear sky. How could nature be so beautiful when the world was so wrong? He looked at his hand and the black spot was back. Would he tell the others? He didn't have much time to think about that, the front door opened and Kairi stepped outside. She looked relieved when she saw Sora sitting on the floor.

But then her expression turned to concern when she asked: "How long have you been out here?"
"A while."
She sat herself next to him and it was comforting to have her here. A minute passed. Sora held his two hands together and said to her: "I went to his room, but I couldn't open it. I don't know if I can handle it to know what's happened to him... such a vital point... and so much blood..."
Kairi looked at her friend and said: "Sora..."
Sora knew that she would tell him the news, good or bad, and looked her in the eyes. She looked at the ground.

"Leon is in a coma. Aerith stabilized him, but his heart is very weak..."
"So he's fine for now?"
"Sora... he... we don't know if he is able to wake up. From the looks of it, he seems to be in a deep sleep and he needs to get out of it on his own strength... And if he does wake up, we don't know if he'll be fine. He lost a lot of blood. That could've caused more damage than we know..."
".. Right"

So actually Leon really wasn't fine at all. But he was still in this world. Sora just needed to trust the will power of his friend. Would he accept that deal? Maybe that was the only way to keep Kairi and Riku safe... But then he needed to do what that old man ordered him to...
Sora didn't know what to do anymore, his confidence started to fade.

"Sora how's your hand?"
"My hand? Fine, why do you ask?"
"It's just... When you touched Leon, that entire black aura went to your hand... and when you attacked that man, you... it was... it started covering your arm, starting from your hand."
"It did?"

So that was what he felt earlier, the dark aura that spread to his heart came from that black spot. And it started spreading from the moment that he had summoned his keyblade...

"You need Aerith to take a look at that, it isn't fine at all."
"No I'm fine, it's not a wound and Aerith has Leon to take care of."
"I got a bad feeling about this, Sora."
"Kai, I'll be fine. Don't worry so much, it was just an attack from that man to get away."
"But-"
"Let's get inside; the others should already be awake by now."

Sora hated it to cut her off like that, but if he said the truth... then she would be much more worried than she was now. He stood up and helped Kairi up. He wouldn't take that deal; he would defeat the man on his own strength. He just needed to practice and then everything would be alright. He looked at the sky one last time before they went back into the house, hoping to come up with a plan.

When they got inside, Sora went to Riku's room and was glad to see that his friend was already awake. Riku sat on his bed and seemed to be healing well. Sora took a chair and seated himself next to Riku's bed while Kairi placed herself on the end of Riku's bed. Sora looked serious.

"We need to come up with a plan."
Riku immediately agreed and said: "But for that we need to know what that guy is after."
"Yeah, we'll check Cid's data again, maybe there's a link", said Kairi.

Sora looked at the ground. Should he tell them? They would find out soon enough anyway...

Kairi went on: "And we can split them up in a fight, then they can't count on each other anymore. And maybe we'll have the control instead of walking in the traps of that old man. It could give us a bit more chance in winning this. But that old man is no joke, who's going to fight with him?"
Riku looked at Sora's wounds and then at his own bandages. He laughed: "It seems that you dodged that man's attacks better than me. And back at the Islands, I said that your footwork was slow..."
"Hah, don't mind about that! And you aren't supposed to fight; you need to recover one more day."
"I heal better than Aerith knows, so don't mind about me. And if I take on one of his minions it shouldn't be that hard. What about you, Kairi?"
"Me? I guess I get that guy from before. I think I can deal with him if I focus a bit more."
"You sound like a true keyblade master already. So Sora takes on the big guy? Are you sure about that?"

Should he tell them about the old man's interest in him? He wouldn't be killed, just for that reason.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. But I need to practice a bit more. I think I'll go to Merlin's practice room today."
"Alright, then we'll work on a strategy. Knock yourself out."

Sora thought about the situation before going to practice. Riku was that man's first statement, he had touched Kairi with an unversed and Leon was in a coma. He was just showing what he's capable of. And now Sora had to show him what he was capable of. But what was his weak spot? Sora played their battles over in his head. He always used those minions of him, but he always made his statement himself. So he was always there. But how could he stop him? The furniture started moving and the training had begun. He summoned his keyblade and his hand immediately started aching. It turned black and the darkness crawled up his arm. He dismissed his keyblade and the darkness withdrew. What was that all about? Suddenly a voice spoke...

Well, well, I think you're almost ready now...

Sora looked around, but there was no one in the room. He wouldn't be so nervous if the furniture wasn't moving, so he dismissed the training and saw a man standing in the shadow on the other side of the room. Sora couldn't see who it was, but it was that voice again.

"What are you doing here? How did you even get in here? Unnoticed?"

Well, what can I say? It wasn't that big of a deal. Now let me see that hand of yours.

"I don't care what you did with it, just get out of here!" Sora summoned his keyblade again and the darkness in his hand started spreading again. It hurt less than before.

You're already changing; the dark power is doing its work. It won't take much longer now.

"What do you mean by dark power? What have you done to me?"

I've unlocked a small fraction of your true power.

"What does that even mean? You make no sense at all!"

The man grinned at him and disappeared in the shadows. Sora ran towards the spot.

"Wait, coward! Come back here!"

Better hurry Sora or you'll never see Yuffie again...

"What? Get real!"

But the voice didn't answer anymore and Sora ran out of the room in search for Yuffie. You never know when that man speaks the truth... He came downstairs and saw Aerith making lunch.

"Hey Aerith, have you seen Yuffie around?"
"Yeah, she left a couple of minutes ago. She said that she needed to take care of some things first."

Sora had a bad feeling about this...

"Really? Where did she go?"
"I think that she went to that place from before. Where that man injured Leon."

This wasn't fine at all! Sora immediately called out to Kairi and Riku. They didn't know why he had to check on Yuffie but they went with him anyway. Aerith called Riku back, but he said that he would be fine and the three friends left Merlin's house to search for Yuffie.

Yeah you read it! Leon isn't dead yet! I couldn't let him die that easily ;)