Finally finished this! Sorry I'm an awful procrastinating person.

I'm really thankful for everyone who has taken the time to read this. It means a lot to me! I hope you all are enjoying it as much as I am. Anyway, here's the next chapter for your reading pleasure.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix and Disney. I own nothing!

The chilly morning air succeeded in discarding any feelings of drowsiness Riku still had. An unfortunate side effect of growing up in a tropical climate was having almost no tolerance for anything remotely cold. Destiny Island's "cool" weather would be considered warm on most worlds. Riku shivered slightly and tried in vain to warm up his exposed arms. He really needed to start wearing long sleeved shirts, or at least a jacket.

Riku looked over his shoulder at Lea. Because of how tired he was, the older man hadn't spoken at all as they had made their way to the training area. However, now he seemed to be gaining energy. Riku couldn't understand how Lea could stand outside in a t-shirt and with wet hair and still seem perfectly fine. Actually, the amused grin on his face told him that Lea was enjoying Riku's discomfort. It annoyed him, but he couldn't seem to stop himself from shivering.

"You know, I could help you warm up," Lea commented happily, earning him a scowl from Riku.

"NO. Don't you dare set me on fire. Not again."

Lea's laughter was far from reassuring. "Hey, accidents happen!"

"Yeah, accidents." Riku glared at Lea as he continued to laugh. He still had a few scars from some of those "accidents", and he wasn't quite over them yet. Seeing yourself on fire could be considered a traumatic event. Crossing his arms in front of himself partially for protection but mostly in an attempt to warm himself, he waited for Lea to calm down before speaking. "Don't. Seriously. You already know how to handle fire; we're here to work with Keyblades. If you want to set enemies on fire that's fine, but you should worry about that later."

Lea gave a little salute and an "Aye, aye, teach" before summoning his Keyblade. Adrenaline was pumping for both of them now as they faced each other, weapons in hand. The cool breeze pulled back, almost like the world around them was holding it's breath in anticipation. The tension mounted and was almost at a breaking point when a sudden shout broke the silence.

"Riku!"

Losing his concentration, Riku stumbled forward a bit in surprise. He was about to yell at Sora for being stupid when Lea decided to take advantage of the distraction. Riku yelped and brought up his Keyblade just in time to avoid taking a blow to the head. He leaped away to collect himself, but he couldn't decide who to direct his annoyance at first. Sora and Lea were both getting on his nerves, and Kairi, who had arrived with Sora, had fixed him with such an intense and worried gaze that it was making him uncomfortable. He really didn't want to deal with any of this right now.

Lea, elated by his almost hit, pressed forward with his attacks, unaware of Riku's growing annoyance. So what if each blow after his initial one was blocked easily? He had finally gotten Riku to give ground! As much as he joked about actually winning a training match, he knew he wasn't nearly good enough with a Keyblade to do so. However, that small victory gave him a glimmer of hope. Maybe he could-

A well-aimed strike sent Lea's Keyblade flying from his hand. A few seconds later, the sound of it clattering against the ground could be heard, slightly muffled because of the distance. Riku waited for the noise to cease before stating as calmly as he could manage, "Work on summoning it back to you. Once you do that, you can continue the fight with Sora. I'll work with Kairi today."

He left Lea to grumble and walked over to where Sora and Kairi stood watching. Kairi was still staring at him with a worried gaze while Sora looked both disappointed and slightly guilty. He couldn't help feeling a little bit of satisfaction as he purposely turned his back to Sora and heard a small indignant noise. It might have been slightly childish, but he was still annoyed.

Kairi maintained her concerned frown, but she seemed to realize that Riku wasn't in any mood to talk right now. Instead of prying, she quickly summoned her own Keyblade and walked out onto the training ground. Riku let out a relieved sigh and followed her, leaving Sora to accept his fate and reluctantly go over to help Lea. Both of his friends could hear him patiently trying to explain to the older man, once again, how to summon his Keyblade back to him. Being overly enthusiastic as always, Lea's wildly swinging arm made contact with Sora's head as he tried again. Riku shook his head and grinned at Kairi as he tuned out Sora's yelping and Lea's frustrated curses. Now it was time for him to get serious.

They started out with simple attacks and parries. Kairi was very methodical in her training and fighting, always warming up and slowly building to whatever technique she needed to work on. Riku felt it was a welcome change of pace from Lea, who liked to immediately jump into a battle and show off the moves he had learned. Speaking of, he vaguely registered a shout of triumph that sounded like Sora. Lea must have finally summoned his Keyblade.

Kairi suddenly lunged from his right, forcing him to focus once more. She was beginning to pick up speed. The real fight would start now that she had found her rhythm. He could feel his anticipation building, and the persistent headache he'd had all morning was almost forgotten as he returned each attack. It was like a relaxing dance, both of them jumping, dodging, striking, and parrying with the familiar ease that came with hours of practice together. It may have been kind of strange to feel calm during a fight, but he would take whatever he could get at this point. It felt so nice to not have to worry about his problems or his friends pestering him. He could fully immerse himself in the moment.

Of course, Kairi had to choose that moment to start up the one conversation he had been hoping to avoid. "You know, Sora's just worried about you. So am I. We want to help you, but you always keep your problems to yourself!"

"I know," Riku practically growled. He knew it wasn't logical to keep everything hidden, but what good would it do to tell his friends about it? All they would do is worry and try to keep him away from the fight with Xehanort. Like that would help anything. I've already got a part of him in my heart causing this mess. He blocked a strike to his left and swiped at Kairi's legs, causing her to jump back and giving him a bit of time to relax. "Look, I know you and Sora are big on the whole sharing is caring thing, but I just need to solve some things on my own. I'd like to avoid bothering you all with my problems if I can."

A loud shriek followed by laughter pulled his attention away from the fight. He looked over to see Sora frantically trying to put out the small fire that had already consumed part of his sleeve. Lea, being the helpful person he was, stood to the side and mocked his opponent. He couldn't hear exactly what was being said from this distance, but he could guess that Sora wasn't too happy about it. Their training completely forgotten, the two Keyblade wielders proceeded to bicker loudly. It never failed to amuse Riku when Sora got upset. The puppy-like faces and dramatic arm flailing made arguing almost enjoyable sometimes.

He ducked quickly to dodge an attack from his right. The sudden movement threw him off balance once again. Honestly, when had he gotten so clumsy? Looking back as he blocked another strike, he could tell Kairi had decided to get serious. Her grim, determined gaze promised nothing but defeat for him in this match. The silence around him told him that Sora also knew what was happening. Unless he wanted to leave this with several borderline serious injuries, he was going to have to step up his game.

The only problem with that was he hadn't exactly been on his game this whole morning. It was hard to amp up something that didn't exist in the first place. He gave ground as he frantically tried to formulate an attack strategy. Kairi was ruthless, swinging at him again and again in quick succession, refusing to give him any time to think. He soon found himself on the ground, a slightly panting Kairi pointing her Keyblade at his chest and grinning in her victory.

Just as he was accepting the fact that he would lose this fight, he felt something stirring within his chest. Without wasting time to think about it, he grabbed onto whatever it was and pushed. His own face mirrored Kairi's shock as she was thrown backward, away from him and almost to where Sora and Lea stood watching. After a brief silence, Sora let out a victory yell and rushed to help Kairi to her feet.

Riku frowned as he put away his Keyblade. Yes, he had won, but something felt… wrong. With as awful as his fighting had been up until the very end, he should have lost. But when he had been down, he had felt a sudden surge of power, one that definitely wasn't his. What was Ansem doing? Why would he-?

He fell to his knees, a feeling of dizziness washing over him. Sora shouted his name, but he could no longer focus on his surroundings. Instead, a different voice filled his head.

Hello, Riku.