Flip Side

"-ight?! Sora, wake up! Are you alright?!"

Blinking his eyes, he wasn't entirely surprised to feel tears on his lashes. What was surprising was the slight ache on one side of his neck, kind of like when Bruce had stuck him with a needle back in the Batcave. He lay there for a moment before what happened on the Island came back to him.

"Riku! Kairi!" He bolted upright, wincing when his head protested. Loudly. A hand clamped down on his shoulder and he turned to face Dick. His eyes filled with tears at the sight of his friend. "I couldn't save them. They were counting on me to protect them and…" His chest tightened beyond the point of words. He couldn't speak, he couldn't breathe, he didn't know how he could continue like this. Riku and Kairi, his best friends since always, were gone.

"Sora." Dick's voice was calm, too calm. Sora felt his anger flare up, rarely touched but always hot and ready to blaze. How could he be calm?! Riku and Kairi were gone and he just – "Riku and Kairi are fine. What you saw wasn't real." What?

He whipped his head around. Riku was sitting on the ground, holding his head. Jason knelt next to Kairi, helping her to sit up. Both of them were alive. Tears filled his eyes again, but different tears. Tears of relief. And joy. Absolute joy.

Standing, he wobbled and would have fallen if Dick hadn't grabbed him. As quickly as he could, he stumbled over to his friends, needing to talk to them, to touch them, to know they were both real. He collapsed between them, wrapping one arm around each of their shoulders. They both seemed as surprised as he had been that they were all alive. That they were all ok.

"What happened?" Riku was the first to break the silence. Sora couldn't fault him. He wanted to know too.

Jason's face was invisible behind the mask, but his tone was grim. "Scarecrow. The same thing that happened to Croc happened to him. He released his fear toxin on the entire block. My air filters kept it out long enough to give Wing and myself the antitox. We would have given it to you three sooner but…" He shook his head, obviously upset.

Jason stopped talking, so Dick continued. "Scarecrow kept us busier than we would have liked. He's normally fairly easy to beat once you have the right antitox – no muscles to speak of – but with a Heartless on his side, we didn't have any openings to take without leaving the other to serious injury." His mouth tightened. Clearly, both he and Jason felt like they had failed. Sora couldn't help but draw parallels to his… fear vision? He smiled at them, forgiving them instantly.

Kairi's eyes narrowed. "What's your definition of serious injury? Because half of those look really serious."

He gave them a quick up-and-down. Nightwing's suit was ripped in three places, blood weeping out of the large wounds on his chest and thighs. There was a bruise forming on his forehead that extended into his hairline. Red Hood had a large cut running across his Batsymbol and left arm, and he winced every time he shifted either his right ankle or his chest. His mask was cracked above one eye.

Hood, having done his own survey, snorted. "We've had worse. A few cracked ribs won't kill me." He swore when Nightwing poked him in the chest.

"No, but they will slow you down." The acrobat turned his gaze to the three Islanders. "How about it? Got enough juice for a quick fix? I'm not looking forward to facing another inmate with a concussion."

Jason swore and grabbed his brother's head, checking the injury. Dick winced at the motion and batted Jason's hands away. Smiling at their antics, Sora summoned his Keyblade. "Heal!" Green light and the sound of bells filled the quiet Gotham air. The vigilantes' injuries knitted themselves together, the bruise on Dick's head fading to nothing. At the same time, the light rejuvenated the Keyblade Wielders. The shock and stress of seeing their greatest fears melted away. Not completely – it would always be there, hiding at the backs of their minds – but enough to bring the metaphorical sunshine back to their lives.

It wasn't long before their group started towards the city again. By now the buildings of Gotham were no longer part of the skyline, but towered above them, blending into the inky sky above. No one could help but feel tension build as they approached the city. The repercussions of what they had already faced would weigh on their shoulders for a long time to come. Nonetheless, they kept trudging forward, until finally they stopped where the grass was suffocated out by concrete. Jason turned around to face the others.

"Alright guys. I have no clue what's in there. But I know it's gonna be worse then what we've already had to deal with here. Whatever happens, we stick together. I don't thinking we're going to last very long one on one."

The others' serious faces told him they understood and with that, they crept into the depths of the city.

The place was definitely different than the actual Gotham. The absence of flustered people bustling around the dirty streets, not to mention the loss of warm light glowing from street lamps, made the city feel dead. Even the rats were gone. Strangely enough though, garbage still littered the ground. To Jason and Dick especially, it just felt wrong. Nevertheless, they crept further and further into the maze of buildings, prepared to be ambushed at any second. They weren't foolish enough to think they could just get to Wayne Enterprises without a fight. In fact, the more they walked, the more the building tension made them itch for something to happen. All that could be heard was their heavy breathing, and the crunch of their shoes on broken glass and forgotten flyers.

"Well, well," a deep smooth voice sank out from an alleyway to their right. "What do we have here?"

Everyone stopped. It wasn't like they could run from anything they came across. Fighting was their best choice, and they sure as hell didn't want to turn their backs on the enemy.

The person spoke again, but this time the voice was laced with a higher pitched, and if possible more sinister tone. "You certainly don't belong here. Not now. It's just... doesn't feel right, ya know."

Nightwing stiffened, now recognizing the voice. He locked eyes with Jason, who gave the minutest of nods, indicating he had come to the same conclusion.

A dark figure melted out of the shadows, but the lack of light made it impossible to see any defined features. He stopped just outside completely revealing himself in the moon light.

"Here's the question. Do I attack the Bats, or do I attack the little punks first?"

Instinctively Red Hood and Nightwing stepped forward and drew their weapons protectively, even as the distinctive metallic ring of a coin being flipped into the air echoed around the alley. The shadowy figure caught it, and for a second there was silence.

"... Bats it is! But don't worry. I have a few friends who would be more than happy to entertain the kiddies."

And in a split second, the world exploded into complete chaos.

Kairi screamed as something grabbed her from behind. She fought and struggled to break its grip while summoning her Keyblade, as huge fingers tightened around her shoulders. Sora was already facing her, Keyblade in hand, and staring up at the huge form of a Dark Thorn. "Kairi!"

He leapt at it without a moment's hesitation, but something hit him from behind as well and he went flying forward, right into Riku. The two crashed into the pavement, and struggled to scramble to their feet as four Invisibles surrounded them. Kairi managed to twist herself enough to strike at the huge Heartless's arm. Unfortunately, that only seemed to make it mad, and it tightened its grip. She coughed as air was forced out of her lungs, but remembering her training, willed the panic out of her mind and quickly studied her enemy. There had to be a weak spot. The chains! Lurching forward, Kairi reached down and caught the end of one of the links on a chain wrapped around the Dark Thorn's ankle, and pulled up. To her relief, the creature automatically lost balance and began to stumble forward. She quickly pulled her blade free and jabbed it into the Heartless's wrist. Reluctantly it let her go and she dropped free and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid its huge feet. She jumped up, turning to face it as the Dark Thorn caught its balance. It turned to face her, an angry look in its eyes. Kairi braced herself and ran forward to meet it.

Jason and Dick were heaving problems of their own at the moment. One of the top villains in Gotham and a number one psychopath, Two Face was trying his very best to kill them. It was strange to fight him, because unlike the other villains, Harvey seemed to have at least slight control of his actions. He was very concise and aware of his surroundings. Or so it seemed. At the moment he had a gun in his hand, a big one, and was having a bit of a fire fight with Red Hood. Shots rang through the air as the two zigzagged across the alleyway, hiding behind dumpsters and building support beams. Nightwing was jumping from fire escapes to windowsills, gliding through the air and deflecting bullets with ease. His plan was to close in on Dent while he and Jason shot it out down below. But Harvey was smart. He wasn't letting his attention stray from one crime fighter for too long. As soon as Dick got close enough to attack, Two Face would send a hail of bullets his way, forcing Nightwing to retreat, all the while hiding from Red Hood's fire. All in all, the scene was extremely chaotic.

Frustrated at how ineffective his plan had been thus far, Dick pulled out a batarang and aimed it directly at Two Face's gun. The villain was used to this kind of tactic and ducked the projectile before sending a few bullets Nightwing's way. Nightwing growled and deflected them, then flipped down to regroup with Hood. The firing had stopped for the time being.

"All this is doing is wasting your bullets Hood," he whispered. "We need a new plan."

Jason glared at Nightwing through the mask. "You think I don't know that, idiot?! But what are we supposed to do? It's not like we can just walk up to him. I don't know if you noticed, but those are armour piercing rounds 'Wing."

Dick bit his lip. He had noticed and Jason was right. Those bullets were extremely dangerous.

"I wanted to try and bait him out of all his ammo. I'm sure you've noticed he's a bit trigger happy tonight." Jason breathed.

Dick nodded. It did in fact seem as if Harvey was simply attacking without a plan, which was quite unlike him.

"Whatever he's doing, it has to be a trap." Nightwing said. "It's always a trap with Dent."

Before Jason could respond, there was a yell and Sora came flying through the air and landed roughly on the pavement a few feet away from the two vigilantes, right in the line of fire.

"Shi-" Jason shouted but gunfire cut him off. Nightwing was already propelling himself forward with amazing agility and with a few expert strokes from his escrima sticks the bullets went flying in three different directions. But now he was wide open too, and Sora was stunned behind him. Hood knew Nightwing couldn't be that lucky for long, and in a split second decision, leapt over the wooden crate they had been using for cover and charged the villain, who had likewise crawled out of his hiding place. Harvey scowled as Red Hood charged him, but aimed what looked like an AK-47 straight at him. Instinctively, Jason reached into his belt and drew out a smoke pellet. It exploded, billowing smoke into the air as Jason dived to avoid a hail of gunfire. He only hoped the bullets would avoid his friends as well. He rolled a few times to the left and then crouched low, surveying the scene. He was used to fighting in low visibility but his helmet made things even easier. He spotted the silhouette of Two Face running forward, probably trying to escape the cloud of smoke. He was going to pass Jason in seconds. Holstering his gun, Red Hood pulled out his taser and counted down. Three, two, one, NOW! He charged forward, ready to knock Two Face out with 50,000 volts, but instead of feeling his taser connect, Red Hood was thrust backwards with such violence he hit the stone wall of a building hard enough to hear something crack. His very disoriented mind hoped it was the wall and not him. He slid to the ground gasping, trying to figure out what had hit him. It couldn't have been Dent. He hadn't been able to see in the smoke!

A rush of wind announced the presence of Nightwing landing next to him. Hood pushed himself into a slightly more dignified sitting position and coughed.

"What happened?" Nightwing asked, looking very much alarmed.

"Don't know. I was ready to take him out under cover of the smoke, and then... gah, something hit me."

Nightwing glanced up at the huge dent in the bricks lining the building. "Definitely wasn't Dent. No way he has that kind of right hook."

Jason groaned in agreement as Dick stood up and helped him to his feet. Pretty much everything hurt, but not enough to put him out of commission. Thank God for body armor.

"How's Sora?" He asked, still catching his breath.

"Fine. Just a bit winded."

"Good."

The smoke was clearing now. And the two were scanning the area for Two Face. He couldn't have gone far in those few seconds. The sound of the Keyblade Wielder's fighting echoed around the battlefield, but Dent was nowhere in sight.

Nightwing shifted anxiously. "Where-"

He was cut off by a sudden terrifying roar. Both he and Jason froze at the bone chilling sound coming from their right. They turned just in time to see a huge black dog oozing out of the shadows. And on its back, smiling menacingly, was Two Face, complete with glowing yellow eyes and black throbbing streams of darkness running down his skin.

The dog Heartless was streaking towards them through the air and it was only thanks to years of training that they could duck in time to just avoid its snapping jaws and six inch claws.

"I think I know what hit you Hood!" Nightwing shouted while rolling to hit feet.

"Ya think!?" Hood shouted jumping up and looking wildly around. "That thing was freaking huge though! Did it just melt into the shadows?"

In response, a growl had them both whirling to their right where the huge dog was forming once again from the shadows lining the alley walls. This time the two were ready, and ran to meet it. The dog gave a single bark that made the hairs on Jason's neck stand up, but as it streaked towards him through the air, he ducked down again and aimed three shots into the creature's belly. It snarled and fell to the ground, making the earth shudder. But it wasn't defeated by a long shot. Darkness oozed from its wounds, but it circled around, quick as lightning and ran at Red Hood. This time Jason had to jump to the side to avoid its huge clawed feet. A blur was all he saw as he ducked away, but he knew Nightwing was going for Dent from behind. He heard an angry yell from Two Face, and a triumphant laugh from Dick. Scrambling to his feet, Jason turned around just in time to see Two Face on the ground with Nightwing standing next to him, one foot on the AK-47 while the other rested on Harvey himself. He was just about to knock Dent out with a quick jab from an escrima stick, when the huge shadow of the dog bounded towards him.

"'Wing! Watch out!" He screamed.

But it was too late. The dog already had its teeth around his shoulder.

Sora was fighting hard, but it seemed like they were getting nowhere. As soon as he had caught his breath, he had bounded back to help Kairi and Riku with the Heartless, but he had found that there were even more then when he had left. Invisibles could take a lot of hits before they went down, and the entire street seemed to be full of them. On top of that, the Dark Thorn was still thrashing around, with Kairi weaving in and out of its attack patterns. As he reached Riku and swung at the sword of a nearby Invisible, Kairi ran up to his side, panting heavily. A cold shock wave of surprise ran down his back when she approached. This was the first time he had really seen her injured. She had bruises lining her shoulders from the Dark Thorn's iron grip, and blood was slowly trickling down her left arm from a gash in her shoulder. On top of that, she looked exhausted – probably not any more than the rest of them did – but seeing Kairi look that way made Sora angry. Really... really angry. He plunged the Kingdom Key into his Heartless's chest, and turned before it had even started to disintegrate.

"Sora, Riku," Kairi gasped. "More than one of us needs to fight that Dark Thorn. I can't land a solid attack when its focus is only on me. We need a distraction."

Riku laughed while swinging his blade downward, succeeding in vaporizing his fifth Invisible. "That's funny. It's the exact strategy these guys are using. Send the Invisibles as distractions while the Dark Thorn takes us out one by one."

The three then had to scatter as the Dark Thorn charged towards their party. Unfortunately, the Invisibles followed them, pressing in around each of them individually so that they had to separate from one another. But Sora knew that Riku and Kairi were right. They had to fight together. The Dark Thorn was going for Riku this time. Its huge, powerful, clawed hands swiping as Riku's Keyblade. He was off balance, and was stumbling backwards with each impact. Suddenly he vanished behind a wall of Invisibles surrounding Sora. He huffed in annoyance and swept them back with a single slash. But they merely blocked with their swords and advanced once again. Sora grit his teeth. Now that he understood what was happening, it was so much more frustrating. He had to back up further as three swords smashed into the ground where he had been standing moments ago. He parried the next blow, and tried his hardest to push forward through the crowed of Heartless, but he had to back up once again as they surrounded him. He could hear Riku and Kairi fighting, along with the roars of the Dark Thorn. He also heard gunfire in the background, and hoped that Dick and Jason were alright. Desperately, he leapt into the air and pulled off one of his more impressive aerial manoeuvres, knocking about seven Heartless off their feet. But it wasn't enough to defeat most of them, and with a sinking heart, Sora saw them get back up, even as the Heartless standing behind them closed in. Sora looked around thinking hard. He needed a way to get these guys off his back so he could go help his friends, and fast. Mercifully an idea came to him! All he needed to do was stop the Invisibles from attacking him so he could get to his friends.

"Deep freeze!"

A jet of icy wind shot out of his Keyblade and swirled around the Heartless closest to him, effectively rendering them frozen Invisibles while blocking the Heartless behind from advancing. Pushing off from the ground, Sora used one of the Invisible's frozen swords as a step to push into the sky and flip over the heads of the remaining Heartless. He spotted the form of the Dark Thorn instantly and glided towards it. It seemed Kairi and Riku had managed to stick together for the most part, but Kairi was holding off the Invisibles from stabbing Riku in the back while he tried desperately to get a good hit in on the Dark Thorn. Sora saw his advantage and in a second, was dropping down, wind whipping his hair around, straight onto the creature's unprotected head. He drove his Keyblade deep into its flesh. The Dark Thorn stiffened, freezing in mid attacked, then swung viciously to the left, throwing Sora off of its back and towards a building. He hit something hard. Very hard. And then everything went black.

AN: Arrow: Guys guys, we knocked out Sora again! I must admit it is a bit fun. Poor Sora. To be fair, the games do it at times too.

Loxie: They do. Poor guy. This is what, the third time we've done this? Oh well. At least we haven't stabbed him.

Guys, brace yourselves. Chapter 28 is massive and brutal. Many violence.

I have no regrets.

Read and enjoy!