Shadow Puppets

Wayne Enterprises slowly drew closer as they worked their way forward. And as much as they tried to avoid it, no one could help but be filled with dread when they saw the huge tower. It was like willingly walking to their doom. Each step brought fear and uncertainty buzzing through their skin. Everyone's instincts screamed at them to turn around, tried to warn them that this place was dangerous. But they stuck close together, latching onto each others' presence like a lifeline. Jason and Riku took the front of the group, refusing to show fear and striding forward with fierce determination. Nightwing hung back with Sora and Kairi, every once in a while giving them reassuring smiles and getting nervous ones back in return. Heartless showed up every so often, clawing their way out of the ground to stop the groups' procession. Whenever this happened, they would all surge forward as one, overwhelming their attackers, while simultaneously learning how to work as a team. Maybe their fear grew the deeper into the city they wandered, but their trust in one another was growing too.

Sora was just starting to think those towers were getting way to close when it happened. Riku suddenly froze, his posture becoming tight and rigid. The three behind him halted immediately while Jason took a few steps more before noticing he was alone and turned around.

"Um, Riku?" Sora asked tentatively. He was starting to get a bad feeling. A very bad feeling.

Riku didn't respond. So Jason tried this time. He stepped in front of his friend noting his glassy eyed expression. Muttering angrily under his breath, Red Hood waved a hand in front of Riku's face. There was no response. Riku didn't even blink. Frowning, Jason put his hand on Riku's shoulder and shook him slightly, Riku's head rocking back and forth with the motion as Kairi came to stand next to Red Hood.

"Riku?" She asked uncertainly. Her friend's eyes ever so slowly turned to look at her. Cold fear shot down her spine, and she stumbled backwards. Riku's eyes were yellow.

"Kairi!?" Sora was by her side in a second, which she hated and loved him for. "What's wro-" He fell silent when he saw Riku's eyes.

"Oh no..." He mumbled under his breath. "No no no!"

Suddenly Jason staggered forward as pain lanced threw him. It hit him fast and fierce, like burning fire licking along his bones. He groaned and fell to his knees, squeezing his eyes shut to deal with the sudden shock. Somewhere in the background he could register panicked voices, but his world was already melded into a white hot mist. The only thing he could fully comprehend was his body's violent tremors as it fought against the stabbing pain. Sound and sight were obviously not registering at the moment, so it surprised Jason when he heard a voice.

Jason, it said simply.

Fighting to form a thought, Jason searched through the haze in his mind for who was speaking. Suddenly his thoughts came together and it clicked.

"D- darkness?" He managed.

Jason! The voice said again. And this time he could hear the urgency in it. Attack. External force. Must stop.

It took him a while, But comprehension spread threw Jason like an explosion. Some kind of foreign darkness was trying to corrupt him! And his darkness was fighting back.

Need...help, the normally monotone voice of his darkness ground out.

And suddenly, Jason knew what he had to do. Desperately trying to ignore the awful pain and gathering up all his will power, Jason focused everything he had on driving out whatever this foreign presence was. He could feel his conscious melding with his darkness, and together they began to slowly, very slowly, regain control. It was like pushing against solid air, facing something they couldn't see, but knew was there. They were winning, it was backing down! And just like that, the world came back into focus.

Jason gasped. He was on the ground, trembling.

Pushing himself up, he checked on his darkness. "Uh, you okay?" He thought at his darkness.

Fine. Came a short answer in his mind as he blinked a few times to clear his head. Then, Thank you for the assistance.

Jason was surprised. His darkness 'thanked' him? "Uh, you totally saved my butt." He thought sheepishly. "I should be thanking you."

It was then that the full seriousness of the situation dawned on him.

Kairi and Sora were fighting Riku and Nightwing!

Jason froze, unable to take in what his eyes were telling him. Riku was charging towards Kairi, an angry sneer on his face as he swung his Keyblade at her retreating form. She nimbly twirled around and parried his strike, but the force made her stumble back a few steps. Lunging forward, Riku jabbed at her, and she jumped to the side. Jason caught a brief glimpse of her face, and felt dizzy. Not only was she scared out of her mind, she was hesitant to actually attack. That was all kinds of dangerous. Jason supposed he couldn't blame her, but as he saw her duck a vicious looking strike without taking the opening that followed, he knew something had to be done fast. No one could run forever, and even though she was doing quite well, Kairi was obviously outmatched. It was all she could do to dodge, using her small stature to her advantage.

Just then, something came hurtling towards Jason and he had to back flip to avoid it. The object in question, turned out to be Sora. He was already scrambling to hit feet, a rather dazed look on his face. "Nightwing!" He shouted, jumping backwards, apparently unaware of Red Hood. "What are you doing!? Stop!?"

But Nightwing wasn't stopping. He was charging forward, his eyes set on Sora, yellow through the mask. Despite the fact that his brother was attacking them at the moment, Jason couldn't help but notice the absence of aerial manoeuvres that were so deeply ingrained in Nightwing's fighting style.

Of course, these thoughts all passed thorough Jason's head in about a second, and before he knew it he had drawn his good old knife and was face to face with Nightwing, glaring into those poison yellow eyes. His blade ground against Nightwing's escrima stick for a fraction of a second before the second stick flashed threw the air and he had to duck to avoid it. He moved swiftly to dodge Nightwing's knee to his face, then jumped to the side, sticking his leg out as he went. It absolutely shocked him when Nightwing didn't jump to avoid it and stumbled forward. But the next second the vigilante caught his footing and was heading towards Sora again, who was staring at Jason with a mixture of relief and uncertainty. He met Dick's next strike with his Keyblade, gritting his teeth against the impact. His eyes caught Jason's for a second before he was twisting around Nightwing to avoid getting hit again.

"Hood!" He called while an electric escrima stick tore at the air inches from his face. "You okay?"

Jason almost flinched. The kid was way too selfless. He started running towards them, eager to stop Dick from doing any major damage, though that was pretty unlikely seeing how viciously he was attacking Sora.

"Fine. What's-"

He had to pause as he flattened himself to dodge a kick, then was forced to do a handspring backwards to avoid another.

"What's gotten into them!?"

Sora spoke between blocking Nightwing's strikes. "No. Idea. Help. Kairi."

Jason wanted to argue, but he knew Sora was right. She had much less experience. He turned, and right on cue, a scream made his blood run cold. His eyes fell on Kairi, pinned against a grimy building wall with Riku drawing back his blade. The sight made him feel sick it was so wrong. Before he knew what he was doing, a batarang was flying threw the air and embedded itself in Riku's hand. He growled a very familiar sounding growl, one that had his own voice overlaid with a much deeper sinister one, as he dropped his Keyblade. To Jason's relief, Kairi took the opportunity to actually slash at him, and he stumbled back, dropping her. She landed on her feet and stumbled to the left, trying to get distance between herself and Riku. Hood was about to charge forward when-

The shadows.

"What?!" Jason thought in response to his darkness's sudden comment. He was already sprinting to get to Kairi before Riku did.

Thankfully, his darkness elaborated. They are being controlled by a Heartless. It is the shadows.

Blood was pounding in his ears with each step. "What are you talking about? The Heartless are always shadows."

This time his darkness sounded annoyed. They are being controlled. Look at their feet.

Reluctantly, Jason's eyes left Riku's Keyblade for a split second to glance down at his feet. He had to do a double take. Long shadows were twisting along the ground, all conjugating around the boy, and moving to wherever he stepped.

"How do we stop it?"

He came to a stop in front of Kairi just as Riku did. There was a flash and both blades clashed against one another, followed by a second strike, then a third.

Defeat its source. Then drive the darkness out.

Growling while simultaneously ducking under Riku's blade, Jason looked around for a Heartless. The next moment a kick brought him back to his senses as he found himself sprawled on the hard cement. Riku was jumping forward, blade facing down. Jason rolled, barely dodging, then leapt to his feet.

"Where is it?"

His darkness replied quickly this time.

The shadows lead back to it.

Without missing a beat, Jason drew his gun with his free hand and discharged seven bullets in the direction indicated. The satisfying sound of a dissolving Heartless told him he had found his mark.

Unfortunately, Riku was running up at him slashing like a madman, and Jason had to back up quickly to avoid the strikes. He could already tell however that the attack pattern was much more uncoordinated.

"Now what?"

Riku got a hit in, but luckily the blade just scraped against his armour.

We must make contact for a few seconds.

"What, like touch him? While he's swinging a razor sharp blade at us!?" Jason snapped as the razor sharp blade in question flew past his left ear.

"Yes."

Jason blocked Riku's next slash with his knife, and the two blades once again scraped against each other in a stalemate.

"Kairi!" He shouted. "Come hold his arms!"

To his surprise, Kairi appeared behind Riku in seconds and grabbed his wrists, thrusting his arms back. She couldn't hold him for long. Jason had to act fast.

Desperately hoping his darkness knew what it was talking about, he pulled off his glove and placed his hand on Riku's thrashing head. Instantly his darkness guided him to the foreign darkness that had latched itself onto his friend. Riku's darkness was fighting against it too, and with the extra effort of Jason, it was gone in seconds. Riku immediately stopped thrashing and drooped in Kairi's arms. Jason moved to help her, but noticed she was supporting the unconscious boy just fine. Without a second thought he whirled around to help Sora.

He wasn't doing too good. Nightwing might not be able to use all of his moves right now, but he was still a formidable opponent. Case and point, his escrima stick was charged and raised for a finishing blow with Sora stunned and bleeding from a head injury on the ground. Jason shot forward, his knife intercepting the stick.

Gritting his teeth at the electricity, he slashed, knocking back Nightwing's escrima stick, then kicking him in the stomach. Behind him, he felt Kairi move in, setting a Cure on Sora. Good. He would need both of them on this one. He launched himself forward.

Nightwing was a great fighter, but one of the things that had had them fighting to a stalemate every time was his unwillingness to go for the permanently damaging hits, or the killing blows. In anyone not trained by a Bat, it was irrelevant. Hood, back when he was less than amiable with Nightwing, had used and exploited that constantly. But now, every attack was set on kill. Which rankled a bit. That was Hood's thing. Nightwing was stealing Red Hood's thing.

Blocking a blow that would have shattered his collarbone with his gun barrel, he turned the knife upwards, aiming for the arm. Nightwing turned at the last second and instead of getting a knife through his arm, it just grazed him.

He couldn't believe he was doing this again. He knew that it wasn't Nightwing's fault, or his, that this was happening, but he couldn't help the sick feeling in his gut that again. He was fighting another Bat again and even if he wasn't fighting to kill like he had before, he was fighting to win. For Jason, that was almost the same thing. His turmoil didn't show in his fighting though. Batman and the All Caste had trained him too well for that.

As he fought, Hood raked his eyes around his surroundings, trying to find some way to stop his brother without hurting him. Well, without hurting him too badly.

Well, there was an antiques store across the street. Apparently, they were having a sale on cushions. Grinning at the cliche, he grabbed Nightwing's fist and the escrima stick it held, and launched him through the window.

Sora and Kairi were there immediately, desperately holding down Nightwing's arms and legs. Jason shoved in and clapped his hand on Nightwing's forehead. The older man bucked, trying to throw off Jason's touch, but he held on determinedly. Slowly, much slower than Riku's had, the yellow faded from his eyes and he stopped thrashing. It made sense, Jason mused. Dick didn't have the same darkness that Jason and Riku did.

As the adrenaline from the fight started wearing off, he vaguely wondered about the screaming pain in his leg. He hadn't taken a hit there. But he ignored it in favour of dragging his brother out of the window of the shop and laying him next to Riku. Then, he, Kairi and Sora sat around them, waiting until they woke up.

Now that he had a minute, he checked his leg. And then blanched. Idiot. Sora had told him this would happen, right after that first fight. Fighting when under a lot of stress would partially or completely undo a healing. And here he was, leg bleeding in half a dozen places. If Nightwing, if Dick saw this, he would blame himself, even though it hadn't been in any way his fault. But Sora had also said that when injuries reopened like this, he couldn't heal them again. So he grabbed his backpack, glad that Sora and Kairi were watching the other side of their group and too busy talking to pay any attention to him. He grabbed a needle and length of thread and set to work.

Kairi sat next to Sora, helping him keep an eye out for trouble. After a few minutes of silence, she turned a worried look to Riku, then back to Sora. "Sora? Do you think Riku will be alright?"

From the look on his face, he'd been asking the same question. "I don't know." His voice was uncharacteristically sad, almost defeated sounding. But Sora never gave up. "That's kind of what he's always scared of, fighting against, you know? Giving into the darkness, attacking us again."

"But this isn't like that. It's more..." She paused, trying to find an example. "Like the time Ansem took him over. He wasn't in control then and he wasn't in control now." Sora gave her a look and she sighed. "Yeah, he won't see it like that."

They sat in silence for another moment. She looked back at a slight rustling behind her, but it was just Jason grabbing at his backpack. "Sora?" She asked the question that had been bothering her since they had landed in the Realm of Darkness. "Is this how your adventures always are?" Because if they were, she was never letting him out of her sight again.

Sora seemed shocked at the idea though, which eased her mind a bit. "Oh no. Not at all. This is a lot different. More darkness and blood and pain but..." He smiled at her. "I met Nightwing and Red Hood and Red Robin and Batman and Robin. I think it's worth it."

She shook her head, smiling. She couldn't help but think back to their last day on the island, before all of this had started. He was so reliable. She had asked him not to change, and he never did.

They sat in silence again, but this was a lighter silence. Cheerier. She was almost disappointed when Riku shifted behind her, but mostly she was happy he was awake.

"Riku! You're awake!" Sora cried joyously, ignoring the way Riku cringed at the noise. Headache probably. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine. I... What...?" He looked around, confused. For a brief moment, Kairi thought he didn't remember. Hoped he didn't. But then his eyes widened and filled with regret. "Sora, Kairi, I'm so s-"

Kairi put a hand to his mouth, stopping the apology before it could form. "Nothing. You have nothing to be sorry for. All that matters is that you're here and none of us are hurt." He nodded, not completely convinced. That was fine. They could convince him better later. After all of this was over.

Dick opened his eyes before any of them could say anything more. He jumped up, crouching low into a fighting stance, a scary expression on his face. Quickly shoving something back into his bag, Jason stood in front of him, hands out to his sides. Kairi was surprised at the gentle tone in his voice. She'd never heard that from him before. "Calm down 'Wing. You're safe. There's nothing in your head."

His face stayed scary for another moment before relaxing into confusion. "Little Wing? Where-?" Just like Riku, his eyes widened when he remembered. "Oh no! Did I hurt you? No, I hurt Sora. Sora, are you alright?"

Dick grabbed Sora's head, looking for injuries. Sora let him for a minute, then pulled away. "I'm fine Nightwing. Kairi patched me up perfectly." At this, Kairi felt a rush of pride. She was getting better at magic. She knew she was.

Kairi's eyes wandered a bit as she listened to Sora and Dick's banter. Both of them were fine. Riku would be ok, maybe not today, but really soon. She would make sure of that. Sora too.

Determination renewed, she focused on the conversation again. Dick was saying something about not knowing Jason could sew. For whatever reason, that got him a bit flustered. "Yeah. The Two Cat shredded my pants pretty badly. You actually got a hit in on the exposed skin, so I thought putting it back together would be better. You know, for protection."

Dick scrunched up his face. "Nooo... I don't remember hitting you in the leg. I think I was mostly aiming for the chest and head areas." The idea made him turn a bit green.

"Well you did!" Jason snapped. Kairi didn't know him very well, but he seemed overly defensive. Dick's face fell immediately, which caused Jason's to soften. "I didn't mean it like that 'Wing. I'm just stressed about all this." Dick still seemed sad, so Jason tried again. "Tell you what. When we're out of this, I'm taking you to Amusement Mile. Games, cotton candy, we'll even ride the roller coaster."

"And the spinning cups?" There was a definite note of pleading in Dick's voice.

Jason just sighed. "And the spinning cups." He braced himself just as Dick enveloped him in a hug.

After another minute or two of excited chattering ("Amusement Mile is so much fun and there's fireworks at midnight on weekends and you guys should totally come!"), they packed up and started moving. Jason was limping a bit. Dick must have hit him pretty hard. Stepping back from the group to walk with him, she asked quietly, "Want me to heal that for you? I could use the practice."

He smiled. "Thanks, but no. Nothing about your skills, but magic can't do anything for this one." At her inquiring eyebrow, he continued, "Sora told me that fighting stressed with a freshly Cured injury reopens it and that it can't be Cured again. It has to heal naturally."

She was confused for a moment, but then the horrible realization came in. "Wait, you mean...?"

Jason nodded. "Yup. But don't worry, it's not as deep as it was. I already have it stitched up. Just do me a favour?" She nodded. "Don't tell Nightwing? He'll think it's his fault and get all upset about it." A wry smile crossed his face. "Then I'll have to take him to Amusement Mile and the circus."

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Wayne Tower stood before them. The feeling of uneasiness that had been gradually building the longer they stayed in this world had reached an all time high. Sora could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as they stopped to stare up at the towers in front of them.

"So..." Jason looked hesitant. "I guess we just... look around then? Yen Sid didn't really know what we would be facing to unlock the Keyhole, so I suppose that means we have to find it."

Kairi shuddered in the damp chilly air. How were they going to defeat the master of this place when they barley survived the fights up until now? She looked over at Sora and Riku, who both had determination flashing in their eyes. Kairi was just about to agree with Jason when a sound rang through the air which made her freeze.

HA HA HA HA!

AN: And they fight each other! Friend against friend, brother versus brother! And it all turns out alright. That normally happens. Except for that laughter at the end. What's that all about?

By the way, this is entire story arc thing is to Gotham Hearts as the World That Never Was is to KHII. As in, the level. So we may or may not be coming up to the final boss possibly.

Oops. Spoilers. Oh well.

Read and enjoy!