Four

I threw open the doors to Ansem's room, and stormed in angrily.

"Riku? Whatever seems to be the matter?"

"I'll tell you what the matter is!! My best friend just replaced me with two aliens!!"

"Aliens? I'm afraid aliens don't exist Riku, you must have been seeing things"

"I was not seeing things!!" I yelled, and pounded both my fists on his desk.

"I know what I saw, I'm not going crazy!" Ansem was silent for a moment or two, then looked up at me with questioning eyes.

"What did these so called aliens look like?"

"I don't know…they kinda looked like mutated animals…"

"Ah, I see…" He said as he got up and walked over to the window.

"Now that you've found your friend, are you still eager to return home with him?"

"Not…really…"

"Have you thought about what I said earlier?"

"Yeah, a little"

"And?"

"I'll do it; I'll train with you. I'll become the next master of the darkness" Ansem said nothing, but walked back to me, and placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Excellent choice. We'll begin in five minutes by the little pond out front. Come prepared, and don' t be late" Without saying another word, he left the room.

"Come prepared? I don't even know what to prepare for…"

Five minutes seemed to have pass by faster than a heartbeat, and I found myself once again beside the pond. Ansem was standing beside the pond at one end, and I was standing beside the other end, waiting for his first attack.

"Your first lesson, will be quite easy. All I want you to do, is dodge a couple attacks"

"Piece of cake, bring it on" Instead of coming at me, he stood where he was, and lifted his hands to eye level. A black shadow ball appeared in each of his hands, and sent them both at me.

I sidestepped the first one, and rolled out of the way of the other one easily enough, only to stand up and come face to face with a third one. I stumbled around blindly, then tripped and fell backwards.

"You're not concentrating! Get up, and try it again!" I immediately stood back up, and prepared myself for another attack.

This time, he threw five shadow balls at me all at once; I managed to avoid the first four perfectly, but the last one slashed my right cheek badly.

"Focus! Don't let a little scratch like that blind you!" He sent more shadow balls at me, but there were too many of then to count; all I could do was try and avoid them.

After what seemed like hours, my energy was rapidly depleting, and I felt like giving up tight then and there. I closed my eyes for no more then a second, and instantly felt some shadow balls slam into me.

I fell backwards, and hit the ground lifelessly. Again my lungs felt like they would explode, and breathing became harder once more. I heard footsteps fall beside me, and opened my eyes slowly.

"What are you doing boy? Get up, we have much more work to do"

"I…Can't…"

"What do you mean you can't?" He said, and tapped his foot impatiently.

"I…don't…have any…energy…" Ansem started laughing, and held his hand out for me to take. I put my hand in his, and he helped me to my feet.

"I suppose you could use a break for now. We'll continue your training later" He helped me walk back to the castle, and pulled out a chair for me in the dining room.

"You must be thirsty, do you want some water?"

"Sure, thanks" I watched him walk into the kitchen, and laid my head on the table.

"Here you go" I heard him say, and felt the cold glass next to my cheek.

"Thanks" I said, and picked my head up.

"You did well today"

"Really?" I asked, and took a sip of the water.

"Yes; but you could do better"

"I did the best I could do, isn't that what matters?" Ansem looked at me, and laughed slightly.

"For now, yes; but what are you going to do once you see Sora again? He'd beat you in a fight with both hands tied behind his back" With that, I slammed down the cup, and stood up angrily.

"I might not be able to fight, but I'm not weak! I could win against Sora blindfolded!"

"Oh really?" He said quite calmly, and the next second, I was down on my knees, gasping for breath.

"You may be strong against humans, but what of monsters?" He let go of his spell on me, and I fell sideways onto my back to the floor.

"You're still weak Riku, you need more training. Get some rest, and we'll begin again once you're ready" He got up, and walked past me to the door.

"If you ever want to get stronger, then learn to get up by yourself. Quit relying on other people to help you; they won't always be there when you need them" With that, he left the room, leaving me alone and helpless.

After a few minutes of lying there, I finally got up with a surprisingly easy effort.

"How much stronger could that have made me? What a joke…" I said, and laughed to myself, then as I was heading back to my room, I noticed Ansem standing on the upstairs landing, and smiled triumphantly at him.

"You call that a challenge? That wasn't even worth my time"

"I didn't expect you to get up so fast. That was good for your first try, but the next time you might not be so lucky" He said, and then turned and disappeared into his room, closing the door behind him.