With a final swing of Way to the Dawn, Riku finished off the Heartless he had been battling, then turned to take stock of the rest of the fight. The others seemed to be holding their own for now, and there were no more Heartless in his immediate vicinity. This seemed like the perfect time to patch up the few scrapes and bruises he had received so far.

Adjusting his grip on the Keyblade, he hoisted it above his head to cast a cure spell. Out of nowhere, a fire spell struck him in the side, blistering his skin with searing pain. Riku clinched his jaw to keep from crying out as he doubled over.

"Stupid Red Nocturnes," he muttered under his breath, glancing up at the red and black Heartless that danced in the air several yards away. To his great satisfaction, at that very moment the Nocturne was hit with a blizzard spell from Sora's Keyblade and vanished.

Riku straightened, trying to ignore the pain in his side and find the strength to try the cure spell again. He had to get back into the battle; his friends were counting on him. But before he could raise his Keyblade, he sensed movement to his left. He spun around just in time to see a Large Body Heartless charging toward him, its huge arms swinging wildly. Instinctively Riku threw his Keyblade up in front of himself to block, but the impact still sent him flying and tumbling backwards towards the edge of the cliff on which they were standing. Way to the Dawn clattered noisily to the ground and vanished. Riku grasped desperately at the stony surface, trying in vain to keep himself from slipping over the side. He watched the Heartless and his friends disappear from sight as he felt himself falling...falling...

At the last possible moment, the fingers of his left hand caught a rock on the cliff's edge and halted his fall. He heard the pop at the same time that sharp pain shot up through his arm. Groaning, Riku shut his eyes and inwardly shook his fist at Roxas. It wasn't very fair, he guessed, to blame a guy who no longer really even existed. But his left wrist had never been the same since their fight at Memory Skyscraper, when Roxas had regained both of his Keyblades and struck Riku with one of them. It was a constant reminder of the one battle that he would have most liked to forget. For a while he had worn a wrist guard for support, but lately it had been feeling a bit stronger so he had given that up. Now there was no doubt that he had re-injured it, possibly just as badly as the first time.

All of these thoughts flashed through Riku's mind in a matter of seconds as he dangled precariously from the cliff's edge. He ventured a look over his shoulder at the ground far below him and immediately crossed that off as a possibility. There were many falls that he knew he could handle, but this was not one of them. He felt positive that none of the others had seen him go over, so help would not be arriving anytime soon. The only option left was to pull himself up, and it was going to take more strength than he thought he might have left.

Gritting his teeth, he swung his right arm up, his wrist and side punishing his every move. His fingers clawed and fumbled but came away with nothing to grab onto. He looked up, squinting against the bright sky, and studied the face of the cliff. There was something there, either a rock or a root, just above where his left hand was holding on. If he could just reach a little higher, then maybe it could be a sufficient hand hold.

Riku took a deep breath, mustering what energy he could. He knew that he was going to have to go for this in such a way that could very possibly make him lose the grip that he did have. But he didn't see another choice, so he began counting to himself.

"One, two...three!" Using his legs for extra momentum, he gave a mighty swing with his arm, but knew almost immediately that he had failed. Once again his right hand slid down the rocks empty, and this time his left hand slipped off as well. He half expected his life to flash before his eyes as he began to fall again, but he felt more of an overall sense of regret.

He had no time to dwell on it, though, because his fall was cut short by a firm hand clutching onto his right arm. Jerking his head up in surprise, he found himself looking into the face of his best friend.

"Riku! Hold on!" Sora called, reaching down his other hand to hoist his friend up.

"Be careful, Sora," Riku replied. The last thing he wanted was for both of them to fall. At that moment, though, Lea's face appeared next to Sora's, and relief flooded through him. The two guys took a firm hold of Riku's arms and began to pull, with Riku walking up the cliff face as much as he could. They pulled him to his feet at the top of the cliff, but he quickly collapsed to the ground, shaky with exhaustion.

"Here," said Kairi, kneeling beside him and holding out a green vial. "This should help."

Riku took the potion with a nod of appreciation, popped the cork out, and downed the bitter liquid. The pain in his side immediately subsided, and he raised his hand to watch a cut from the rocks rapidly close itself and vanish completely. His other minor wounds healed, too, and he could feel his energy returning. Only his wrist continued to throb, though not quite as badly as before the potion. It was such an old injury that he wouldn't have expected it to heal that easily. Probably not even another potion or cure spell would help at this point, or so he told himself. The truth was, he had never mentioned the wrist injury to his friends before, and he wasn't about to do so now.

As the potion continued to do its work, Riku glanced around what had been a battlefield only a few minutes before, seeing now no signs of the Heartless. His friends had done well, despite the fact that this battle had taken them all completely by surprise. This was supposed to have been a simple training mission for Lea and Kairi, but clearly something was going on in this world that none of them had realized.

"Training mission, hmph," he thought. Some teacher he had been today. Riku finally forced himself to look at the faces of the three friends who sat around him, watching and waiting, and cringed inwardly at the concern he saw there. As much as he appreciated them, he couldn't stand to be pitied.

"And that," he spoke up finally, using his instructor voice. "That is why you always have to be mindful of your surroundings. Especially when there are cliffs and Large Bodies around."

The joke had its intended effect. Lea smirked, Kairi giggled behind her hand, and Sora laughed out loud.

"I've got it memorized," said Lea, tapping his temple.

"We're just glad you're okay, Riku," Kairi smiled. Sora offered his hand, and Riku allowed him to help him back to his feet.

"Don't worry about it," Sora assured him with a grin and a playful punch on the arm. "Those things happen to all of us from time to time."

Riku nodded, grateful for his friends' support, but also ready to no longer be the topic of conversation. "How about we head further down this trail and see if we can figure out what's going on with this world?"