As Sora kept running through the streets, Riku ended up panting and he had to stop and take a break. Seriously, how did Sora suddenly become way faster than him? Usually when Sora ran he only lasted a few seconds before he passed out. The church bell at the top of the Second District started ringing three whole times for the whole town to hear, which was definitely effective in making the current scene more dramatic than it already was.

"What are you waiting for Riku, we gotta find the Keyhole!"

Riku finally managed to catch up and grab Sora's hand, stopping him in his tracks.

"Sora! Please, just...calm down!"

"But Riku we gotta find the-"

"Look...what we need to…" he said in between breaths, trying to regain his energy. "We can't just run off in random directions hoping to find the answer. We need to relax and just...think for a while about what we're supposed to do."

"But running aimlessly has always worked for me so far...wait, actually…" Sora's voice began to change from his usual gleeful tone to a sad one. "Yeah, you might be right..."

Riku could tell something was troubling him. They were like soul mates, their hearts connected since they first met. Well, not literally, but you know what I mean.

"Sora, if something's troubling you, then we can talk about it."

Riku's comforting words managed to get through to Sora, and he started smiling a little. Not like the fake smiles from before, it was a genuine smile which made Riku's heart melt.

"R-Really?"

Riku patted him on the back. For once he had to break his tough guy facade and let the caring instincts in him take over, even if part of him didn't really want to.

"Yeah. There's nothing wrong with hiding your emotions and just being yourself."

"T-Thanks…"

Both of them sat down on a bench, gazing up at the stars. They both silently chose to ignore the fact that multiple stars were going out one by one.

"So, what's troubling you Sora?"

For Riku this was pretty strange. For the first time in a long time, Sora was...nervous. He was usually so confident, at least that's what he seemed to be on the outside. Not even when Kairi was giving them a hard time, he was still strong. This seemed like his moment of weakness. But then again, with Riku breaking out of his persona, maybe it was a moment of weakness for him too?

"Well...if I tell you, do you promise not to judge?"

Oh god...is he going to tell me that he loves someone else? I knew it, he loves someone else doesn't he. I guess I really am not good enough for him.

"I promise I won't," Riku lied.

"I'm glad…" said Sora, trembling a little from nervousness. "Well you see...about the Keyholes...I-"

...And suddenly, warping through time and space, Dolan and Gooby appeared!

They both fell from the heavens onto Sora, making all of them collapse unto the ground. Riku was not pleased.

But Sora was, he immediately jumped up to greet his two good friends, hugging them and cuddling them affectionately which successfully made Riku green with envy.

"Dolan, Gooby! You're back!" Sora cheered. "Where have you been?"

"We've been on an adventure!" Dolan quacked, his happiness being extremely out of character.

"Hyuck, he's right! We found a bunch of dat gold stuff that you spend stuff on!"

"And we saved a bunch of worlds from the forces of darkness!"

"And I helped my son graduate from college, hyuck!"

"And we discovered the meaning of loooooove~"

As soon as Dolan said that, hearts started to float around him, and a heart was even beating in each eye like they do in anime. Wow, how does he even do that? Sora thought to himself.

"That sounds so awesome guys! I'm glad you had such a fun time off screen!" said Sora as he continued to embrace his two best friends.

Riku had had enough of people getting in the way of him and Sora. He was finally going to give them a piece of his mind.

"Hmph, you both did all of that, and yet you're both still useless. What a shame," Riku mocked.

Sora gasped at RIku's sudden sass, his hands covering his mouth and everything.

"Riku! Those are things we think, but don't say!"

"Well someone had to say it, they're just a liability that do nothing but hold you back. Especially Dolan. Yeah, thanks for the heal Dolan! Oh right, you're didn't, cause you're already dead."

Dolan was pissed.

"Hey! I was once a powerful mage back when I had hands!" he quipped. "And if it wasn't for your...gorgeous hair and your beautiful...beautiful pants…wait. What were we talking about again?"

"Hyuck, don't ya see Riku? We're memes! We're supposed to be useless, it fits our character."

Riku then walked up to Dolan and poked him lightly on his belly. Then Dolan died.

"Tell me then, are these "memes" supposed to die that easily?"

"Hyuck, you'd be surprised!"

"...Wow. You really are pathetic."

Gooby then ended up staring at the ground, feeling sorry for himself.

"Well dat's true, hyuck."

Sora crossed his arms and looked towards Riku judgingly. RIku wasn't used to this at all, so he wasn't sure how to react.

"Aren't you being a little mean Riku?"

"Me? I'm being realistic. If we're gonna find this Keyhole, we're gonna have to leave them behind."

"Hyuck, but we need dat key that Sora has! ...I think. Come to think of it, I'm not even why we're doing all dis."

"STOP! There's no need for us to fight like this! We're friends!" said Sora in the hopes of calming everyone down. Starting one of his long and boring friendship speeches, the American flag appeared behind him, along with the national anthem being played in the background.

"We may not have any idea what we're doing! We may have no one to help us through this! We may have failed in everything we've ever done so far! We may not have any hope in stopping the bad guys! We may not be able to stop the Heartless invasion! We may not be able to defeat Ansem...umm...whoever that is! We may not-"

"How long does dis go on for?" Gooby whispered quietly to Riku as Sora continued his loud and obnoxious speech.

"Three hours...if we're lucky."

"-know how to restore the worlds that have fallen! We become Heartless ourselves somehow! We-"

…

Six hours later…

...

"We may accidentally trigger a glitch! We may forget to save before turning the game off! We may get amnesia and live the rest of our lives as chickens! BUT I KNOW ONE THING! I KNOW THAT TOGETHER, AS FRIENDS, WE WILL…"

There was a moment of silence.

"Hyuck, what were you gonna say there Sora?"

The background and music that was blurting out from nowhere dissappeared.

"I...I don't remember," he said, an anime sweat drop dripping from his face. Which then made Riku, Dolan and Gooby have weird purple lines on the top of their heads, and chibi versions of themselves fell onto the floor with a comical sound effect as they did so...it would be way better if you could actually see it for yourself, but sadly you'll just have to read about it.

"So basically, we have no way to win?" said Riku cynically.

"...Yeah. Pretty much," Sora admitted. He was never one to give up, but even he had to admit that they really were lost.

"Does anyone know what we should do?" asked Riku to his three comrades.

"I have an idea!"

"If it's about pants, then we don't want to hear it Dolan."

"How about we ask Leon?" Sora asked earnestly.

Ugh, it's always with him and his cosplaying freaks isn't it? Riku thought to himself bitterly.

"No. They'll be more of a hindrance to us than anything. The only people we need are each other."

Dolan and Gooby's faces immediately lit up with excitement.

"...I meant just me and Sora," Riku added matter-of-factly. The two started sulking at being left out, awwwing in dissapointment.

"Well I can't think of any other way," said Sora. "If only we had some kind of deus ex machina that would conviniently show up and lead us to the Keyhole. But what's the chances of that happening?"

...There was another moment of silence. The three watched as Sora tapped his foot on the ground impatiently, looking up at the sky.

"I said...if only we had some kind of deus ex machina to help us!"

...There was still nothing but silence.

"Sora, what are you-"

"Shhhh, it should be coming any minute now," Sora whispered. "Anyway, *ahem*...I SAID! IF ONLY WE HAVE SOME KIND OF DEUS EX MACHINA TO HELP US!"

"Sora I don't-"

"DID SOMEONE SAY DEUS EX MACHINA?!"

Suddenly, warping through time and space, Guard Armor appeared! He landed perfectly on the ground, causing a loud thud to echo through the Second District.

The four instinctively drew their weapons, ready to fight. The Guard Armor however, did not attack.

"MY BRETHEREN. I AM NOT HERE TO FIGHT. I COME IN PEACE."

"Yeah right! You're a Heartless!" Sora replied. "You don't even have hearts!"

"MY ANATOMY IS OF NO CONCERN. WE MUST BOTH FIND THE KEYHOLE."

"Why would we help you find it? You're a Heartless! You probably want to find it so that you can find the heart of this world and destroy it! Just like you did with Deep Jungle!" Sora accused angrily.

"I UNDERSTAND YOUR CONCERNS. BUT I AM ON YOUR SIDE."

"But you're a Heartless! The ones with the Darksides!"

"Hyuck! Sora, I think we should listen to what he has to say."

"THANK YOU, BIPEDAL DOG. YOU TRULY ARE THE WISEST OF YOUR KIND."

"Hey what about me?!" Dolan inquired.

"ANYWAY. YOU MUST KNOW THAT I SEEK NOTHING MORE THAN TO ASSIST THE HEROES OF LIGHT. YOU SEE…"

Sad music began to play. Tears of Light (I think that's what it's called) from BBS would probably be fitting for it but we haven't gotten that far yet.

"MY FELLOW LAMPPOSTS HAD GUIDED CIVILIANS TO THE LIGHT WITHIN THE DARKNESS FOR CENTURIES. HOWEVER. PEOPLE BEGAN TO ABUSE THAT LIGHT, AND THEY ALL FOUGHT IN A WAR TO CLAIM IT FOR THEMSELVES. MANY CHILDREN FOUGHT IN THIS BLOODY WAR, AND THE LAMPPOSTS DEVELOPED A HATRED TOWARDS HUMANITY. A WALKING POTATO SACK HAD CONVINCED THEM TO TURN TO THE DARKNESS-"

"DARKNESS!" Sora was obligated to cry out.

"YES. THE DARKNESS. WE CONFIDE IN THE DARKNESS AND YET WE DO NOT TRULY UNDERSTAND IT."

"I always thought it was just a bunch of purple stuff that did bad things," said Sora.

Riku began to sweat from fear a little, shaking uncontrollably as he remembered what happened that night...

"Me too...not that I've ever had any contact with the darkness or anything...nope, not at all! Never had I once done that," Riku had lied. Everyone, even Sora, had found Riku's actions a little strange, but they didn't have time to focus on that/

"THEY HAVE LOST SIGHT OF THE WAY. THAT IS WHY I MUST GUIDE ALL THE LAMPPOSTS TO THE LIGHT."

Sora frowned, still not convinced.

"I can't trust you."

"I ASSURE YOU THAT MY INTENTIONS ARE TRUE."

The rage deep inside him started to awaken, and he clenched his fist. Riku started to notice that something was wrong, not sure what to do.

"But like I said, you're nothing but a servant of the dark. You're in no position to guide anyone to the ight when you're already stuck in the darkness your self," Sora muttered dangerously, his chilling tone sending shivers down everyone's spine.

Even the lamppost wasn't sure how to react to this sudden change in Sora's behaviour.

"B-BUT, MY FUNCTION WAS TO ALWAYS GUIDE PEOPLE TO-"

"SHUT UP! I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT!" Sora screamed suddenly at the Guard Armor, which made everyone silent for a moment. Riku desperately wanted to try and calm Sora down, but he was too afraid to even approach him. He was literally scary, it was like some kind of hellish entity had possessed him.

Flashes of images from what happened at Deep Jungle flew through Sora's troubled mind, and they were enough to set him off his edge. After what they did...after what the forces of darkness did...they don't deserve forgiveness.

Sora had failed to save the worlds not just once, but multiple times, and he was not about to let that happen again.

Sora looked down at the ground, twitching a little, his eyes were bloodshot and from the looks of it he was ready to start mass genocide.

"Now you listen to me...you're a Heartless. You lost your heart to the darkness. Why should we help you?! The darkness is EVIL. It has hurt so many people, destroyed so many worlds, anyone who EVER succumbs to it deserve nothing more than to be executed where they stand, slowly and painfully. Not one of it's pathetic little servants deserve ANY kind of redemption for what they've done. They brought up upon themselves. And, I, Sora, will make sure to destroy every last bit of darkness that's left in this game world! And you...you're just one of the many stepping stones I need to take to achieve that goal."

The lamppost actually began trembling, stepping back a little to get away from this dangerous key wielding boy.

"S-STEP BACK. I DO NOT WANT TO HURT YOU!"

Sora grimaced, letting out a chuckle. His eyes couldn't be seen from the dark shadow that covered them.

"Oh...what a shame...because I want to hurt you."

...It was a massacre.

His three friends had to cover their eyes so that they wouldn't be able to see the horrors in front of them. Sora had completely demolished him, whacking at him without mercy and offering it no chance to fight back. It let out horrifying and garbled screams of pain as it was being stripped down to a pile of wires and rubble.

"%2&*&$!Y2*(^$)(!#+!" was it's final scream of pain before it had shut down completely. It was now, for all intents and purposes, dead. Sora glared at it's shattered remains, panting from all the destruction he had caused. A smirk of satisfaction appeared on it's face.

"Guide yourself to hell, bastard," were Sora's final words to his foe.

Riku slowly advanced towards Sora, reaching out to him. But he had to be careful, his mind was plagued with fear. What if Sora found out about his experiences with the darkness and turned on him? What if Sora never forgave him? Based on that display, he doubted that Sora would be pleased…

He refused to be Sora's enemy, he refused to ever fight him, even if it meant saving the universe. No matter what, he would make sure that they would stay together against all odds. Because he loved Sora. Yet, at the same time, he was terrified of him.

"Sora...I…" Riku rasped, feeling anxious and unsure of what to say to him. He didn't know if he could bare to look at Sora's face, right now Sora's back was all he could see. "D-Do you need to t-talk about anything?" Riku stammered, his voice shaky. "Because...well..y-you know I'm here for you and-"

"SORA! COME QUICK! WE FOUND IT!"

Both Sora and Riku turned out at Dolan and Gooby's simultaneous cry. And once they did, they were shocked at what they saw.

They had found the Keyhole.

Well, Dolan and Gooby had.

"Gawrsh, the Keyhole must have been behind us all along!"

"And you think the oh so great Riku would have noticed by now," said Dolan, sighing. "Wow. She really is useless, am I right?" he added snarily, pointing at Riku.

Sora wasn't even paying attention to the insults hurled at his best friend best anymore. His eyes twinkled and his mouth was agape as he slowly advanced towards it, completely bedazzled by all the pretty lights.

"It's...it's beautiful..."

He started kneeling down and praising like it was the messiah.

"Oh great Keyhole, finally you have bestowed your presence onto us. You are worthy, we are not."

"I think you're supposed to lock it Sora."

"But wait...how do I do that Riku?"

"Oh I don't know...maybe with your Keyblade?"

"My what? ...Oh right." Sora chuckled a little as a sweat drop went down his face. "I like calling it Kiburado better. Sounds more Japanese."

"Well whatever you call it, you should probably use it now."

"Ok!"

After a minute long demonstration of epic anime sword weilding poses, he pointed his Keyblade directly at the Keyhole and started charging his super powerful laser attack.

"AAAAAAAAAH!" was his battle cry. "BY THE POWER OFLIGHT, I SUMMON FORTH, THE SUPER DUPER LASER OF OPENING AND CLOSENING!"

And so, a giant beam of light erupted from his oversized key. It's blast could be heard all the way to the heavens, the reverb given to Sora's battle cry enhancing the epicness even further, not to mention the epic orchestral music playing in the background. Choirs going all out until their throats were sore, the pounding brass, the driving percussion, all of it was way too much for the PS2 to handle. It was a breathtaking moment of pure ecstacy, the spectacle was mindblowing.

Dolan and Gooby were unimpressed.

"Is he done?" Dolan whispered impatiently.

As the orchestral music had finally reached it's massive crescendo, the sscene had ended and the Keyhole was locked.

Sora sighed in relief as his duty had been done.

"Well, that's that!"

Riku, for once, beamed with happiness as the world was saved.

"We did it," he said calmly.

Sora wrapped Riku's shoulders around his arms, nudging him playfully.

"Yeah we did! And we wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for the power of friendship!"

"Hey!" shouted Dolan. "Riku didn't even do anything! Why is she even here?!"

"Well, with all due respect Dolan...at least he can actually fight."

"...Touché."

…

And so, the four idiots decided to rest up for a bit before moving onto the next world. To do this, they broke into a hotel through the windows, and since no one was currently residing there, Sora officially declared that this would be "The Super Mega Fun Hotel of Epicness and Wonderness". That's the thing with video games, they live by the law of finders keepers losers weepers. Once you find something you want, you just take it or die trying.

Dolan and Gooby slept together in one room, while Sora and Riku slept in the other. In the same bed.

And to all you yaoi loving people out there, no they (unfortunately) didn't do anything. Sleeping together was a common occurence for them anyway, being enslaved together by a heartless bitch really made them closer somehow. Sometimes both of them would cry themselves to sleep and wipe each others tears off. It was cute, yet really depressing.

As they were both about to drift off to sleep under the covers, Riku figured that this would be the perfect time to confront Sora about that...incident.

He gently nudged Sora, who slowly opened his eyes and yawned loudly. Like Kairi always said, Sora was a lazy bum. And if he ever slept on the job he recieved some whipping from her. Somehow, this made Sora sleep even more than usual…

"Shuddup you ur not mah mom," Sora slurred groggily as he started to wake up. Once he was fully awake, he was finally aware of his surroundings. "...Riku? Why did you wake me up?"

"Sorry about that...I just wanted to talk you about something."

"Sure, what is it?"

"It's just t-that…" said Riku, stammering once again. Dammit not now! This is important!

"Yeah?"

"W-Well...I j-just...I've been worried about you."

"Why? The game has been pretty easy so far. This isn't Proud Mode."

Riku was once again taken aback, having no idea what Sora was talking about.

"Well, anyway...I mean...today y-you were acting...pretty depressed."

"Wha? I'm always happy, that's part of my character. And it's not like any of this is real anyway, so it doesn't matter."

Ok now Riku was even more confused, and even more worried about Sora's wellbeing at this point.

"It's just...when you were fighting against that Heartless...y-you were-"

"-I don't want to talk about it," Sora snapped, the aggressive tone in his voice that's usually absent from his voice surprising Riku a lot.

"Well...ok…"

Even Sora realized his sudden change in attitude, so he gave Riku a reassuring smile, yet there was still a hint of sadness.

"I'm fine. Really...I just don't feel like talking about it. Besides, we should get some rest. We have a long day ahead of us."

As much as Riku hated to admit it, Sora was right.

"...Good night, Sora."

"Good night Riku."

And so Sora immediately fell asleep, but Riku couldn't no matter how hard he tried. He tossed and turned and nothing was working. Maybe I just need to go out for a bit...I'm sure Sora won't mind. It's not like he'll wake up anyway, he's such a hopeless sleepy head.

…

Riku was sat on the rooftops of Traverse Town, enjoying the gorgeous view. He didn't want to admit it to anyone but he was a little sad to leave this world...he really would miss this place. But not as much as he would miss Sora...if the two were to ever lose their way, and become enemies.

"Ahhh Riku, it has been a while."

Riku shuddered as he heard that familiar voice. He decided to show up once again, huh?

"Enjoying the darkness too I see?"

He frowned as soon as that word was mentioned. Once he turned around, he was face to face once again with the hooded figure, the walking potato sack. He had been gone for a quite a while...or maybe he had never left.

"...Ansem."