So . . . it's been a while. This chapter has two POVs, both Riku and Sora. Riku comes first, Sora's is after the section break. I hope you guys enjoy this update. I worked pretty hard on it, but even I feel like it's a little too far on the weird scale. Granted, most of the odd things that happen here will be answered in the chapter after this, but still if you have any pressing questions feel free to ask.

The good news is we literally only have a few chapters left until the end. Like, two or three. So, thanks for holding out this long guys. I couldn't have done it without you!

"R-Riku?"

I smile. "Hello, Kairi."

"You're . . . you're here . . . you're alive."

I chuckle. Alive, huh? Aren't I lucky. "Yeah . . . so are you. You kind of look like shit though."

I watch her try to get into a sitting position. Her arms collapse on her, and she moans, her voice flowing as softly as the stream of blood beneath her. "I've been better," she mutters.

Haven't we all?

This thought crosses my mind, but I don't say it. I don't have a right too, because that's not how I feel. "It's good to see you, Kairi."

"Where's . . . where's the King?"

"He'll be here soon." I chuckle softly. "I think . . . we're going to make it out of this without a scratch. I really do."

"Oh, he's-" She pauses to cough. "He's been a real gentleman to you, has he? Good for you, Riku . . . good for you . . . " She leans against the wall, getting into a sitting position. She's had her eyes closed the entire time. She still doesn't see what's on me. Not sure how I feel about that.

I tilt my head forward, turning my head from side to side. "Where's Sora?"

"Namine is taking care of that." I stiffen once as she casts cure on herself, looking like a passable human now instead of a bloodied corpse. "He'll be here soon."

"Funny . . . I thought only people with full hearts could enter this place." I smirk. "But I shouldn't be surprised. You're as special as ever, Kairi."

She laughs, patting her breastplate with her fist. "Oh, please, don't even try to sound jealous. This here? This is giving me problems." She opens her eyes, giving me a wide smile. But it barely lasts a second before her eyes dip in focus, and then they widen and I watch the fear take her over. "R-Ri-Ri . . . "

I shrug. It's the only movement I can do, actually, but I'm not telling her that. "What?" I ask, calmly.

"Your . . . your. . . stomach . . ."

At that I smile. "Relax. Won't be much longer now. We're almost done. We're going to go home."

"Riku!" Her muscles coil and she springs towards me in an uncontrollable sprint. She reaches for my body right when Sora appears in a portal of darkness, landing right on top of her.

I couldn't hold it in then. My laughter bounces off my chest as the gears in my stomach twist and turn. "Sora, it's about time."

He groans, covered in blood and metal shrapnel. He glares at me and I give him a small smile back. My grin morphs into a smirk as his angry look turns into a look of horrid fascination.

Again, I couldn't help it. Their facial expressions remind me of when we used to watch scary movies together. Kairi would always be the one mostly in shock, Sora would deny that he was scared, and then I would be there in the middle to reassure everyone that we were looking at illusions. Their faces remind me of home . . . thank goodness we're almost home . . .

"Riku?" Sora's voice is a little deeper now. Almost . . . Roxas-like.

I tilt my head, giving him a once over. "You are Sora, right?"

He splutters in shock, a look of agitation on his face. "Yes! I mean, sort of! I mean-UGH!" He grips his hair, his eyes shooting razors at my chest. "RIKU! What is that?!"

Well, now that the elephant is out of the room . . . "It's our ticket home," I say proudly, making sure to keep my voice calm so that I don't upset them.

Sora's face turns red. Well, it was worth a shot. "What do you mean our ticket home?! You have a freaking BOMB strapped to your chest!"

I look down at the white screen strung along the front of my stomach, watching the numbers drop in line with my heartbeat. I look up and smile at them. "Yeah . . . it's a bomb. A bomb that we will let go off . . . and then the darkness will finally be gone."

Don't Be a Gentleman: The White Knight

"Are you insane?!" Sora shakes me. "What the hell are you saying?!"

"I just explained what's going to happen. You're not picking the best time to be dense, Sora." I smile. "But that's understandable."

"Shut up! Shut the hell up!" He slaps me. "What the hell did that bastard do to you?!"

"Sora, knock it off! You're not helping." She pushes him to the side away from me. "Heal your wounds, let me see if I can get this off him." She bites through her bottom lip, eyes glued to the screen.

As usual, they're both ignoring me. I should be kind of pissed . . . but I'm not. There's no reason to. That's the blessing Vanitas gave me. Soon, they'll have it too. It will be good for them, they worry too much.

"What the hell happened?" I blink, glancing at an even more angry and slightly healthier looking Sora (or Roxas, still not sure yet). "Well?"

"Well, for one thing, your puppet-master is the king's brother. You'll find out his name if you open that box," I lean my head in the direction of the stool across from us, "I think you're the only one who can do it."

"I don't give a damn about that psycho's name! Tell. Me. What. Happened." Sora's eyes are blazing, full of righteous anger and confusion.

I almost forget to respond. Sora has a very expressive face. It's fun to watch it twist and morph like this . . . I can't believe I spent so much of my life arguing with him over stupid stuff when there was this change happening every split second. I can't take it for granted. "Whatever happens to most hostages. It's nothing I couldn't handle."

Smiling is so much easier now. I rarely ever did it, but I'll make up for it now. Or . . . maybe I should take it easy. The more I do it the more horrified Sora looks. Actually . . . maybe . . .

"Sora! Sora, I think you need to look at this!" Kairi shouts. It makes me do a double take. I forgot she was here.

It's a bad habit. I've always struggled balancing the two of them, trying to spend time with them equally. It's easier with Sora (for obvious reasons), but I really should give Kairi respect where it's due. There's so much I can improve on, so many things I can do better now . . . "Hey, Kairi-"

"Riku, we have to get you out of this," She says, though it's hard to understand since she's sobbing now.

I sigh. "It's going to be fine. Really. It won't hurt me."

Sora's voice is cracking now from the stress. "Listen to yourself, Riku! You sound crazy!"

I give him a pointed look. "Calm down. It's going to be okay."

"Sora . . . I think he's paralyzed," Kairi says with a shudder. She touches my shoulder, poking my joints. I react to none of it.

"Oh no . . . no . . . " he sits in front of me, tears in his eyes. "Riku . . . "

"You guys are making this into a bigger deal than it has to be." I smile reassuringly, hoping, wishing for them to understand. "It doesn't matter. I don't even feel the pain."

Their faces darken. I backtrack. "This is a good thing. All my darkness . . . Ansem . . . it's all gone. I can be normal now. I'm completely normal . . . and soon, you guys will be, too. We'll leave with no darkness. Doesn't that sound great?"

Kairi shudders, touching my shoulder. "No, it doesn't. The darkness . . . that's part of you, Riku."

What surprises me most is Sora's response. "None of us can exist purely on light or darkness. You somehow found a way to cope with your darkness. You've always had to struggle with it in you . . . what does that make you if something that connected to your heart is missing?"

No, this is wrong. They don't understand. "No, Sora, I was wrong. What you did . . . taking my darkness away . . . that was good. You did the right thing. What you did was noble. I'm only repaying the favor."

"Riku, I messed up! I took on too much! I made things worse!"

"Sora, I think he's just trying to rile us up. So that we'll be too distracted to stop this thing." She starts maneuvering me from side to side, glaring at the wire ensnaring my chest.

I forgot. I'm dealing with Sora and Kairi, two of the most stubborn people on the planet. "It's not going to matter. Once the darkness leaves your souls completely we'll all be free. You'll be happy, none of us will have to worry. It's . . . good."

"Come on, Riku! Fight this! Help us save you!" Sora stands, pointing his Keyblade at the device. "Dammit! I'm blasting this thing off!"

Kairi scowls at him. "Sora, don't! You could set it off!"

"What else are we supposed to do? Do you know how to defuse a bomb?!"

She frowns. "No, but I'm going to figure it out."

I stare at the ceiling, counting backwards from a hundred in my head. "You won't. You both know this, you'll have to trust me. For three minutes you have to trust me." I continue counting, trying to block out the sound of their frantic breaths.

"He's lost it."

"No, we just need to awaken the darkness inside him."

At that I snap my head back down, staring at Kairi with wide eyes. "You can't do that." What was that? Was I . . . afraid? Is that how I felt just a second ago?

Impossible. Vanitas took all of that away.

"So, what? We get him angry?" Sora's determined stare increases the faint notes of nausea in my stomach. I look away from them both, trying to keep my head clear.

"No. We need something stronger than that. A memory. We have to help him see reason so that he can help us."

I shake my head slowly, closing my eyes as I hear Sora speak urgently. "Riku, remember Ansem? Remember what he made you do?"

"Yes, I do. But just talking about the past won't make my darkness reappear."

"One minute left," Kairi mutters. She gives me a desperate look. Sora paces back and forth between her and me, and I watch him go through ten different emotions in his eyes alone.

I suck in a deep breath as the weight from my body gradually starts to disappear. My skin is white now, and nearly glowing. It looks like I'll be waking up early. "It's almost over . . . don't be afraid."

They both shield their eyes, backing away from me as the light coating my skin shines brighter. They both turn away, shielding their eyes and shaking like the wavering shadows that shy away from the light. It makes sense for Sora to do this since the darkness in his heart is growing. But for the princess of light . . . well, it will make things interesting at least.

I can't remember the first moment I realized that this whole world didn't exist . . . that we all were traveling through a twisted dream. But I see everything so clearly now, I understand why we're all here . . . and I know what has to be done for all of us to wake up.

But I can't say anything anymore. My body is made up of light now. My job is done.

My heartbeat rises as the light surrounding me shoots up, creating a hole in the ceiling. I make it out of the opening, flying past the sky and out of the cage my best friend made for himself. I don't hear the explosion.

A split second. That's all it took.

I didn't have time to think, to breathe. I barely finished shaping my mouth to say Riku's name when the bomb hit.

Except it wasn't an ordinary bomb. When Riku said our darkness would be taken away, he literally meant it. The bomb was an empty vacuum of space. A dark sphere, sucking up any darkness in the room. It distorted the darkness, it flattened it, turning them into lethal shards of purple glass as it shot towards the middle of the hole.

Kairi had grabbed my hand a split second after it went off, preventing my body from getting eaten. "Sora!"

"Grab onto something!" I yell, gritting my teeth as the armor on my body starts cracking.

She stood up, shaking holding me with both hands now. Her blonde hair, matted and dirty, remained flat against her face and her armor started chipping, but not nearly as fast as mine. "I don't need to," she mumbles. "It's not affecting me."

What?

She doesn't have any darkness in her.

I gasp at the sound of Roxas' voice. It felt louder, louder than I had ever heard it. Like he was right beside- "Roxas?"

I've been pushed inside your heart. There's . . . there's a lot of darkness here . . .

"Sora, what's going on?" She yelps as her cheek gets spliced by a random shot of darkness. "You're getting heavier."

I swallow, watching the rest of my armor fall off. If anything, I should be lighter. "You may have to let me go then."

"NO!" NO!

Ow! Did you have to shout?!

That vortex will tear you apart! Trust me, if you get sucked into that thing you could put yourself into a coma!

What do you mean? It would just take the darkness out. Sure, I'll be sort of like a zombie, but-

Ugh, how could you be this stupid! You mean you haven't realized it yet?!

What?!

I'm brought back to reality when Kairi screams. Most of her armor is off now, and there's nothing to protect her from the stuff being pulled into mass of darkness building up behind us. She can barely hold onto my fingers. "S-Sora . . . please . . . "

Dammit!

Roxas, I have no choice! She's getting hurt!

You do . . . just hold on a second . . .

I frown, looking down at the light shooting out of my stomach. "Oh hell, he's gonna . . . "

Kairi screams as a particular nasty shard slices across her hand, impaling me in the shoulder. I slip out of her fingers, and before I can reach the black hole my stomach bursts as something hard pierces into my heart. Or at least, that's what it felt like. Roxas appears in a whirlwind of smoke and darkness, hand shoving at my chest.

I hear something inside me snap I crash into the wall. I watch with horror as Roxas gets sucked into the hole. A second explosions sends a wave of energy toward us. The sound is so loud that my ears pop and scream with it. I immediately cover them, staring in awe at Roxas' shaking form.

His eyes are yellow and there's a small circle of purple fire around him. He keeps twitching, skin completely black. He almost looks like . . . like . . .

"That . . . that isn't what I think it is, right?" Kairi asks. She falls to the ground on her knees.

"It's still Roxas . . . but he's different now." I push myself up, shuddering. It's like almost all the energy in my body has been sapped out. "I think he took most of my darkness so that he could come out so that I wouldn't get hurt."

"How nice of him," an eerie voice shouts from above.

I jump at the sound. It's a very similar voice . . . it sounded like me. From the corner of my eyes I can see Kairi tensing up. So she must have realized it, too. We didn't expect this from the king. I clear my throat, "What do you want from us?"

"Nothing much."

I take a few steps back, turning but there's no one there. Weird, I could have sworn I heard him talking behind me. "Stop it! I don't get what's fully going on, but I am done with this! Okay? You baited us here with Riku! Tell me what you did to him!"

"What if I don't want to?"

"Come out here where we can see you!"

"I am here."

I frown, stepping closer to Roxas. It's weird, I'm standing in the ring of purple fire but . . . I'm not getting burned. What just happened?

"Sora, don't!" Kairi runs up to us. "You need to fight it!"

"Fight who? Can you see the king? Where is he?"

The look she gives me chills me to the bone. But instead of trying to console her, instead of asking her what's wrong, I lean back and laugh. "Are you scared, Princess?" I smirk at her once, then turn back to Roxas. "You don't have as much darkness as Riku. I guess I should have saved the best for last." I shrug. "Oh well."

Wait a minute . . . what the hell am I doing?

"Don't do it!" Kairi has her Keyblade out. Before she can even lift it towards me I flick my wrist in her direction, which sends her body crashing into the stool across from us. The chained box on top of it breaks as she slams into it, rolling to a stop against the front doors.

I then turn, slamming my hand through Roxas' chest. When I pull it back out my hand is no longer a hand. Darkness spirals around the tips of my claws and I open my mouth, pushing all of it into my mouth. It tasted like I was eating my own skin.

But I don't stop. Roxas' doesn't even look like himself anymore, just this large purple mass that I have to consume. I can feel it now, all the people's darkness I've consumed. Random strangers, starting with a little girl and then growing wider, extending from bits and pieces of random strangers to my Mom . . . to Riku.

And now I'm eating my own darkness. It's very strange. I feel sick. I feel weak.

But I also feel strong. There's strength in these people's memories. There's power in their despair. I have to get more. But how?

This world . . . isn't big enough. But then again, it's not really a world at all. That's what's stopping this. I can't get more this way. Hmmmm. . .

"Sora?"

Huh . . . I almost forgot about her. I wanted her here . . . why did I want her here again? I stare at the small purple fires, the leftovers of my darkness, and scoop them into my hands, pushing it into my mouth as I try to remember. I clench my claws, digging them into my palms as I glance at her. "What is it?"

She holds up a small white piece of paper. "The puppetmaster . . . his name is Ventus. Does that mean anything to you?"

Ventus... Ventus... the X blade...

I frown. "He is like you. He doesn't have any darkness."

Just saying that brought chills to my core. I remember now. I sent Ventus out to find her, to bring her to me. His core was tainted by me, masked in the darkness of the boy who fixed his heart. But now that his name has been revealed the chains of darkness that bonded him have disappeared. I have to act fast.

She's the one, the only solution I have to figure this all out. I walk toward her, bringing out my Keyblade, smirking at the way it reacts to her light. "Finally. We can finally end this, Kairi."

Predictably, she backs away. "Sora, this isn't you."

She hasn't brought her Keyblade out. Big mistake. I run toward her, aiming for her head. Having her unconscious, even for a few minutes, would be enough for me to do what I have to. She's nimble though, easily evading my attack.

I trained her well.

"Please, we don't have to fight." She yells, bringing out her Keyblade, holding it backwards.

I gasp, recognizing that stance. I tilt my head. "That's not your Keyblade, Kairi."

She gasps, staring at the light, grey Keyblade in her hand. Her hands shake and her body morphs, light flaring around her. It's enough to make me flinch back a little. The light spins around her body and when it disperses a confused boy appears. "What's . . . happening to me?" Two voices echo around me when he/she speaks.

It looks like Ventus is trying to morph with Kairi, similar to how I can feel Vanitas inside me. I almost feel sorry for him. He's only avoiding the inevitable. Well, it's his choice. I guess I'll have to knock them both out.

I hold my Keyblade up high close to my head, feeling it up with a large purple firaga. It's obvious that Ventus has taken over when I watch Kairi's confusion drain slowly out of his eyes, leaving only determination. He coats himself in a shield of light, running toward me, the white knight racing to be consumed within the depths of my darkest obsession.