Journey's End
Wind was whistling in his ears and he knew he was falling. He'd jumped off of enough buildings to know the feeling. Cracking his eyes open, Dick took stock of where he was. Falling from Wayne Tower, but too far away to have jumped off. They were just passing the 75th, 74th, 73rd floor. And beside him was Jason, who was just waking up, and Sora, who was solidly out cold. Angling his body, he smacked Jason on the shoulder a few times, making sure he was fully awake ("Back off Dick, I'm up!"), then headed over to Sora.
Grab around waist, pull grapple, double check the strongest cable is in, aim, fire. The hook flew and embedded itself in one of the gargoyles protruding from the building. The slightly elastic nature of the cord kept Dick's arm from being ripped off, but with his and Sora's combined weigh, along with the speed of their fall, it did get dislocated. Gritting his teeth, he hit retract.
Jason alighted first, on the next gargoyle over. He raced over to help pull them up, something Dick couldn't do with his arm like this. Well, he probably could, but the risk of either dropping Sora or falling would be a lot higher.
"Alright Dickie-Bird, let's get this set." One sickening pull later, Dick's shoulder was back in place and throbbing. Jason continued, "Alright. We need to get back up there. I'll carry Sora this time."
Dick nodded. Clearly, the question of how they had ended up falling would have to wait until they weren't standing on a century old gargoyle. "See you at the top Little Wing!"
"Is that a challenge?"
"Always." Gripping the grapple in his less-injured left hand, he shot upwards, Jason and Sora close behind.
The first thing he did when reaching the top was check on Joker. If he had gotten loose, there wasn't much point in looking for Riku and Kairi. A morbid thought, but then again, he had been hanging around Jason for the past... he didn't even know how long anymore. There hadn't been a proper day and night cycle since they had landed in Traverse Town. Oh well. Not the strangest thing he'd seen. It would just make his report highly inaccurate.
Joker, luckily, was still pinned to the wall, giggling about butterflies and copper piping. Dick stuck a tranq dart in his neck. And just around the bend of the roof, right where Dick had seen them last, were Kairi and Riku. He still wasn't doing too good, but Kairi was up. She had a hole in her shoulder that was hastily bandaged with what looked like strips from her cloak, but she was moving and she was trying to tend Riku.
"Hey Kairi." Kneeling down next to the girl, he checked Riku's wound. It still had the driver's license taped on it, and Riku was breathing mostly normally. A bit liquid sounding though. They'd better get him to a doctor before he got any worse. "Alright. We probably shouldn't move him, but leaving him up here with the Joker is probably more fatal. They're doing some renovation downstairs. Grab me two six foot two-by-fours, two one foot ones, and a bit of canvas or plastic sheeting. And a hammer and a bunch of nails. The more the better."
She nodded and dashed off. While she was gone, Jason arrived and carefully leaned Sora on the dome. Five minutes later, she arrived with all the supplies and, after a moment of fussing over Sora, declaring that he was being a "lazy butt", started helping with the construction. Five minutes and four bruised fingers later (how Dick could throw a batarang with pin point accuracy but couldn't aim a hammer was beyond him), they had a makeshift stretcher, which they loaded Riku onto. It ended up being Kairi and Dick carrying it because Kairi couldn't carry Sora's weight and Dick still couldn't hold much on his shoulder.
Finally, after much hassle and near spills – by the end of which Dick was convinced stairs were the devil – they ended up in Bruce's office, with the object of their hardships in sight.
Jason stalked up to the pitcher of water sitting on a side desk, lifted it, and dumped it over Sora's head.
The teen woke up sputtering. "Who- wha-" Finally focusing on Jason, he pouted. "Why did you do that?" Dick set Riku down on Bruce's desk before allowing himself to laugh. Bruce wouldn't mind. And it definitely wouldn't be the first time someone had been bleeding on the thing.
"You're the expert on Keyhole finding. And you're useless in that capacity when you're napping." Dick said, matter-of-factly.
"I wasn't napping," he said, contradicting it immediately by rubbing his eye. "I was drained. Drive takes a lot out of me."
"Drive?" They probably had a moment or two for Dick to indulge his curiosity.
"Drive mode. It uses my bond with my friends to give me a massive power boost, a skill or two, other stuff. I kind of... used it accidentally after Kairi got stabbed. I beat the Joker's Heartless with it though." He was looking up at them like using Drive without asking was some big deal. Dick didn't see it. Then again, being turned into energy to fuel someone else's attacks wasn't the weirdest thing that had happened to him.
Jason seemed to have the same thought. "Kid, you know that conversation we had the day we met, the one on the rooftop?" Dick did. He'd been eavesdropping through the comms... "I've seen everything. Now calm down and let's get this Keyhole sorted."
Sora visibly brightened and started looking through the room. "Usually, we just run into the things, but they're normally in incredibly important places to the world. They give off a type of darkness that Heartless are attracted to, so finding Joker here is another good sign."
Dick sighed. "It's a big building though. And I really don't think we should move Riku any more. Me and Sora are least injured, so we'll go looking for it?" Jason made a noise of protest, which Dick cut off. "Don't even think about it Jay. Not even going into your shoulder and side," which weren't bleeding anymore, but still looked pretty bad, "I saw you fight. Your legs are still hurt, aren't they?"
Grumbling, Jason said, "Yes. They reopened during the fight with Joker."
That was a lie. Dick could see thread peeking out from a hole in his pants, and he wouldn't have had time to stitch himself up between now and then. Hm. Maybe not a complete lie. His leg was bleeding in a few places. Had he popped his stitches? That could wait though. "Great. So you're staying here and me and Sora will go looking for the Keyhole." As he walked past, he clapped a hand on Jason's shoulder. "Keep them safe little brother."
"Course Dickie. Now get gone before I shoot you and take your spot."
Chuckling lightly, Dick followed Sora out of the room. "So, what does a Keyhole look like anyways?"
"Like any keyhole I guess. Black, glowing a bit."
"Wait. Really? I've seen one of those." At Sora's incredulous expression, he explained. "Yeah, back during my fight with Dark Joker. I thought it was another Heartless, but it didn't attack so I forgot about it." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Oops?"
That got a laugh out of Sora. "It's cool. Now we know where to find it!"
Once they got up to the roof, just as a precaution, Dick hit Joker with another tranq dart, then pulled Sora to where he had seen the Keyhole. High in the air and stuck to the back of the spire, it was pretty much invisible. Still, a fitting place. It was at the height of Wayne Enterprises, the building every eye turned to when entering Gotham, the most prominent building on the skyline. Really, Dick had only seen it because Joker's Heartless had thrown him.
"So, how does this work with worlds that have already fallen to darkness?" As far as Dick could tell from all the stories the Keyblade Wielders had told him, locking the Keyhole would only keep Heartless from going in. Saving a world that was already lost... A bit trickier.
"Well, normally, we'd go inside of it and defeat all the Heartless. But Master Yen Sid made this!" Reaching into his cloak, he pulled out a sphere, about the size of an apple and glowing slightly, as well as a slip of paper with "Instructions" written on it in flowing script. "It's pure light. He said it would 'eradicate all Heartless within an enclosed area'. He gave it to me while you and Jason were making breakfast."
"And we didn't use it before because...?"
"It takes a ridiculous amount of magic. He started making this one over a decade ago. It's not his only one, but he'd like to save them as much as possible." He gave the instructions one last going over, then summoned his Keyblade. Sticking the ball of light on the tip, he hoisted it and pointed it straight at the Keyhole. "Might want to close your eyes."
The warning came a second late. The sphere floated up a bit, then a beam of light coming from the Keyblade pierced it and ended at the Keyhole, glowing so brightly that Dick feared for his retinas. His eyes snapped shut, the harsh white light turning into the much dimmer red of his eyelids.
"You can look now. I don't think you'll want to miss this."
He did so, looking out on Gotham. For a minute, nothing changed. Black stones, black lights, black sky. Then, suddenly, the darkness stared dissipating, beginning at Wayne Tower and spreading out. Small lights appeared on the streets which eventually became the people of Gotham, going about their business as if nothing had changed. The sky brightened in increments, still a nighttime black, but one lit with stars and light pollution. It was Gotham. Dirty, grimy, horrible Gotham. And Dick wouldn't change it for the world.
Well, not completely true. He did want to get rid of the crime and make it a better place to live for all the people who lived here, but now he was getting off track and should probably listen to what Sora was saying.
"All the people who lost their hearts to the Heartless will be back too. And unless they were directly involved with the events, they probably won't remember anything. It's all back to how it was."
Sora allowed himself one more glance at the newly restored city, only now fully appreciating that all the hardships they had been through had amounted to something so amazing, before turning on his heel and hurrying back to the roof entrance. Riku was seriously hurt. Even a world's heart being restored, along with all the hearts in it, wasn't enough to distract him from the dire situation of his best friend. Dick was right behind him as he swung open the door and bolted down the stairs three at a time.
"Sora, wait!" Dick suddenly called out from behind him. "You're bleeding."
A slight wave of irritation shot through Sora at being delayed. Of course he was bleeding, he had been in the path of multiple razor sharp daggers right before blacking out, but none of the cuts had been too bad. Granted, he hadn't had time to really look himself over. He called back to his friend without slowing his pace. "It's fine Nightwing, just a few scratches. I'll cure them once Riku's better. Do you know where we can take him to get help?"
The slight pause that followed told Sora Dick didn't want to switch topics, but to his great relief, Nightwing seemed to except that Riku was in the more immediate danger and answered. "Yeah, paramedics are gonna be his best bet. If Hoodie didn't get his head knocked around too bad in that last fight he probably already called them."
They were running past offices now, except that the large rooms were now occupied with important looking men and women going about their usual business as if it were any other ordinary day. As if their hearts hadn't just been sleeping in darkness. A few heads turned to look at the blurry figures streaking past, but by the time they had blinked to clarify what they had seen, there was nothing there. Luckily the upper levels of Wayne Enterprises were reasonably isolated, and the recent construction helped even more in reducing the number of people using the office space.
Skidding to a halt in front of the door, Sora burst into the room, causing Kairi and Jason to look over at them quickly. A first aid kit lay open on the floor between them and Jason was helping Kairi to bandage her shoulder while she held a cloth to Riku's bleeding chest. Jason was just finishing tying off the bandage and limped over to them, ignoring the first aid kit, despite the obvious attention his leg, shoulder and side needed. Riku was still lying on Bruce's desk, his eyes half closed as he took what had become laboured breaths.
"Please tell me you called an ambulance." Dick said, looking pleadingly at Jason who raised an eye brow.
"Course I did. I'm really not as heartless as you all think." Then his expression melted into something more serious. "He's getting worse fast Dick."
Nightwing nodded, walking quickly over to Riku's side and stopping next to Sora who was looking extremely uncomfortable with the whole situation and slightly panicked. Nervously, the boy looked down at Riku, then over at Kairi. "Can't you just heal that?" He asked, nodding at her now fully bandaged arm.
She shrugged, regretting it immediately with a wince. "I tried. But it wouldn't heal. Tried Riku again too, but no luck." She bit her lip and looked over at him. "Maybe we've healed one to many times or something. Or the darkness that was so close to the world's heart corrupted our magic somehow. I don't know." She shook her head desperately.
"I think the problem is in all the wounds inflicted by Joker. They're the only ones that won't heal." Dick said darkly. "Maybe his darkness has a special kind of power that corrupted any kind of light magic."
The room then lapsed into thoughtful silence.
Calming down slightly in the resounding silence, Sora took the time to inspect the skin on his arms for injuries. He supposed it wasn't surprising when he found a few deep cuts. He hadn't even felt them with how distracted he'd been. But the majority of his body was quickly starting to ache and throb. He looked over at Kairi, then summoned the Kingdom Key and raised it. "Cure!"
The spell sparkled around him, conjugating close to his cuts and bruises, especially a rather deep one on his back he hadn't noticed. That must have been what Dick was worried about. But in front of all of their eyes, the magic simply shimmered for a few seconds before fading, leaving his injuries raw and painful.
There was a pause as they all took in the ineffectiveness of the magic that had probably saved all their lives by this point, before Jason stood up, breaking the silence. "Well, no use crying over it." He said, roughly putting a hand on Sora's shoulder. "You magic users will just have to learn to deal with doctors for a change." Despite the circumstances, he grinned. "If you're good Sora, you might even get a lollipop."
There was a weak laugh as Riku – apparently conscious enough to follow the conversation – turned to grin at Sora, who frowned at Jason. "You do know I'm sixteen right?" Sora growled.
Dick joined in, giving a very exaggerated gasp. "What? You're such a shorty I thought you were ten!"
Sora rounded on him indignantly before a wave of laughter burst through the room, stopping him in his tracks.
"Guuuys."Sora said irritably, his face slightly red. But he was smiling all the same.
Still chuckling, Dick walked over to a door on the left, and rummaged through its contents for a few seconds before pulling out what were unmistakably a few pairs of clothes. He held them up for all to see. "Alright kiddies, we better get changed and come up with a good plan to tell the paramedics. I vote for Riku's injuries being a result of ignoring the rules and playing around with the construction equipment."
Even through his painful gasps, the teen still managed to give Nightwing a death glare Batman would be proud of.
As it was, the next few minutes were hectic as everyone rushed to the bathrooms across the hall to slip on t-shirts and jeans, before coming back and hastily cooking up a plan in which Riku had ignored the many labels posted around the labs to sneak into one of them before tripping and injured himself. They hoped this would at least justify the ugly burn running across his back. The final plan had just been decided on when the paramedics arrived with a stretcher, quickly setting to work on properly treating Riku's wounds. They began checking his vitals and giving him oxygen, lifting him onto the stretcher and wheeling him away quickly. As they left, the previously busy atmosphere of the room fell strangely quiet and still. The remaining four looked at each other before Dick hurried over and dug some keys our of one of the desk drawers.
Jason looked up hopefully. "Can I dri-"
"No."
"Oh, come on Dickie you're such a slow-"
"No!"
AN: Just the Epilogue left! I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as we've enjoyed writing it.
A few comments I should address. First, to the Guest who always comments, no, there probably won't be a sequel. At least, not before KHIII comes out. And whatever we do there would depend on the events of the game. Thank you so much for following us thus far.
Secondly, to the reviewer with the less than positive outlook on our fic (even though you probably won't read it far enough to see this), thanks! No, seriously. I needed a laugh. Ahahaa. *wipes away tear of mirth*
Alright, that's about everything. See you all next Tuesday for the Epilogue! Read and enjoy~!