It was dark.

That was my first impression.

There was no light anywhere. My feet stumbled blindly over the pavement, my knees bleeding from re-opened scabs. My throat hurt. Air wasn't getting through to my lungs; it stuck in my mouth, coming out with a squeak squeak. My teeth chattered, my eyes burned, searching for a trace of, well… anything…

Snap.

To the left. I whirled, eyes closed. It didn't make a difference anymore.

Snap.

I turned around, the noise echoing through my ears.

Rustle.

There. The sound of something whizzing through the air. A long, high-pitched scream. The sound of the body hitting the ground never came. I strained my ears, wanting to hear something through the awful cloud of darkness, but there was nothing. Nothing to see, nothing to hear, just the feeling of the all too firm pavement under my feet.

Blood trickled down my hand from the murdered heartless. However, I did not care. It made no sound, just pouring away into oblivion. Kinda like me.

My body stumbled on, wry muscles not giving up. But I was just denying the inevitable, and I fell.

My body hit the concrete harshly. A rattling wheeze coming from deep within the confines of my screaming lungs. But no more can be said. And no more can be done. I lay my head against the ground, eyes looking into nothing. Somewhere between waking and sleeping.

The comforting weight of the keyblade grew heavier in my hand. As I began to give up, it began to leave me. The keyblade has no feelings. It just bends the user to a prophecy, and if that person can't fulfil it, then the key moves on. It's in pain too, but not enough to care about its wielder. Maybe some day it will… maybe some day…

Maybe some day I'll die…

Then what would happen? If I died, who would the key go to? Would it return to Riku, the failed experiment that it left in shambles? Sometimes I think it would, sometimes, I think it won't… Cloud, Leon, Yuffie, Kairi? Wakka, Tidus, Aerith, Selphie? Could, any of these people be forced to go through this crushing pain, just because the keyblade tells them too?

Maybe some day I'll die…

Would someone take care of my friends? Who would help Riku to make coffee in the mornings, or find mushrooms for Kairi? If, they're even still alive… What would happen to the worlds? All the wielders before me, they all failed as well. Is this our way? Are we meant to all fail, bleed and break? Is there meant to be no peace?

Or, is someone eventually supposed to step forward and break the vicious cycle?

Maybe some day I'll die…and…

And what?

And… and… and then…

And then what? What?

And then, and then…

What are you trying to say?

Maybe some day I'll die…and then, will the keyblade break, forever and ever and ever?

Huh?

Maybe some day I'll die…and…

Stop it… I don't want to hear anymore. I don't care… Don't tell me!

Maybe…

Please stop!

…some day…

Please! No more!

Maybe this is the last time?

…stop…

Maybe… you're the last chance and… everything's-

No, I don't want to know anymore. It's not important!

…everything's-

PLEASE LEAVE!

Everything's… going to die…?

Silence. Awful, awful silence. What do you mean? No answer comes from inside me. What was that supposed to mean? Nothing's going to die. Not while I'm here, it's all too important to me. Nothing can die. Nothing. Nothing like nothing is nothing in nothing is…

The keyblade is trying to leave. It's straining against my bleeding fingertips, letting out its wail. The cry from deep writhing its soulless shell. Aching to be set free. And somehow, I just know, that it's never come this far. It wants to leave, but where would it go? I pull it back, it can't leave, I need it to much. It pulls against me even more.

I wrench it back, straight into my chest, where it cuts into me, leaving a deep, ugly scar. But I don't care.

It's going to stay with me. Until the end. It started this mess, it will end it. With me, or without me, it will not back down now.

"Sora…"

Me body jerks into life, picking itself automatically off the now blood soaked floor, my weapon held erect, waiting.

"Sora…" it whispers again.

I shut my eyes, trying to decipher where the voice is coming from.

Silence.

And then it's all around me.

"Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora..."

I reach out two hands to cup my ears, the keyblade landing against the ground with a dull clank, the metal reverberating. And as soon as my grip is gone, it is too, if there had been light, I would have seen the god fragments disparate, but there is none.

"Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora…"

So loud, echoing off meshes of swirling tumults. Darkness in motion. Pain. Pain. Pain.

And then, a face.

Shadow Sora. Huge, yellow eyes look up into mine, tendrils of black hair misting about its face, as if set into some demented motion. Its mouth never moves as it talks, hands clasped, essence wavering.

"You know…"

"Know what! What do I know!" I yell back, voice coming out hoarse from lack of use.

The heartless inclines its head, a no.

"You know…"

"What do I know!

"You know… the name…"

"What name!" my voice builds up, nearly hysteric.

The shadow shakes its head. It's like a newborn trying to speak. Testing each word before it's used.

"Question… isn't what name… is… whose name?" the heartless says.

"I don't understand! You aren't making any sense!"

"Don't… need… sense…" its fake voice trails off.

"Yeah, but I do! What is everyone trying to tell me!" I screech, tears pouring out of my red-rimmed eyes.

"Tell you… what you… need to hear…"

"What do I need to hear?" I ask softly.

"N-name… the name is what… you need to… hear," it whispers, voice faint.

"What is the name!" I screamed.

"You… already know… name…" it trails off.

"NO I DON'T!"

"Name… is… already inside…"

My breathing was even more desperate; it felt as if something was crawling its way up my lungs, trying to break through my mouth. I could taste the name on my lips. And it tasted strangely like a sour paopu fruit…

"Search…"

"Huh?" I asked.

The heartless lifted a hesitant finger, and touched my forehead.

"You… will see…"

"Sora? Where have you been, man! I've been waiting ages for you!"

Huh?

"Come on, we promised we'd meet Kairi today, didn't we? We need to finish the raft today!" the voice laughed, full of merriment.

I opened my eyes.

There Riku sat, green eyes smiling down at me with a hidden light, ghostly silver hair dusting his broad shoulders.

"You can't stay in bed all day, now can you? Come one, let's go!"

He grabbed my hand, pulling me out of bed and dragged me out of my bedroom door, paying no attention to the fact that I was only wearing my boxers.

"I know you're a bit lazy, Sora, but this is an all time best! It's already 10! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and we need to go for surf!" the excitement poured out of his voice.

"Huh? Surfing?"

"Of course, silly, don't you remember?"

"No, I don't."

A hurt look passed through Riku's eyes.

"Really?"

"Yeah… I don't really remember anything…"

"Well then, I'll just have to help you remember then!"

I smiled up at him.

"That would be nice…"

"Do you… have name?"

I look around. Broken out of the sweet delusion. A tear falls onto my nose, and I hasten to wipe it off.

"Almost, I need a little more," I reply.

This time the heartless touches my arm.

Riku's holding out a paopu fruit. He grins.

"I know you've always wanted to try one, Sora."

I blushed.

"What about Kairi?"

Riku's face closes, his eyes become hard.

"What about her?"

"Shouldn't you be sharing it with her?" I say. "I mean, she sure as hell doesn't like me anywhere near as much as she likes you, I mean, she ALWAYS blushes when you're around."

"Why would I want to share one with her?"

M eyebrows shot up. Riku didn't like Kairi then?

"So, you gonna share it with Selphie then? But I thought she and Tidus sorta liked each other?" I ask.

"No, I am definitely not going to share a paopu with Selphie; she is way to sugar high, all the time."

"Okay, then who are you going to share it with?"

Riku's eyes flash. He steps closer to me, his arms right next to mind, our bodies dangerously close. His breath brushes against my ear. What's going on?

"Well, I wanted to share it with you," the answer was simple.

He looks up at me through a curtain of long hair, eyes blazing.

Silence.

"Do you… see?"

Another tear joins the first.

"Almost there…"

The heartless connects out lips gently, I struggle, surprised, and then…

White.

White everywhere.

Wait. This isn't a memory, like before. What is it then?

The white isn't light, and yet it seems harsher than the darkness. Cold, uninviting, and it hurts. White, everywhere, I want to go back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back…

Then it hits me. I'm in Kingdom Hearts.

And up ahead.

Could that be?

I run up, legs pounding, aching, muscles pulling, joints popping, but I barely seem to move. I lurch forward, there at last, breath coming even harder than before. The feeling of asphyxiation, suffocating… can't breathe…

I reach it…

"Riku?" I ask tentatively.

There is no reply.

He's just there, half faded, hair blending in with the surroundings, eyes shut… lips blue... He doesn't even flinch as I wave a hand in front of his dark, sooty lashes.

Why am I here? What do I need to know?

Wait…

There's something… in Riku's chest? Light is spilling out from it…

I reach a hand forward, into the light, and into his… heart? My fingers graze against something cold. Without being able to see it, I know what it is. Tears start afresh, and fall onto his pal body lying, floating eerily, in the scathing whiteness. It can't be. It, it just can't be. I pull my hand away, as if I had been burned, nursing my fingers to my chest.

A keychain…

"Now… name?" the heartless asks.

I nod as yes, the knot in my throat starting to slowly subside.

"Riku, is a keyblade… isn't he?"

The heartless smiles sadly.

"He won't live through the up coming war, will he?"

The heartless nods a no.

I nod a yes.

"I understand now. The universe's destiny is to never be happy, isn't it?"

"That's… a sad… notion…" the heartless struggles to say.

"But I'm right, aren't I?" I demand.

"Yes… Real Sora… Is always… right…"

Sadness aches against my rib cage.

"Heartless… wish to… help… we have… the same des-tiny… but we can't… move… can't breathe…" the Shadow Sora says, large, expressionless eyes looking once again up into mine. Trying desperately to say something, but what?

"Will… real Sora… stay? For… a little… time? Help… heartless… to heal?"

I think about it. The heartless had, well, lives I guess, as well. The kingdom key was gone, Donald and Goofy had abandoned me, I would, never be able to hold Riku again. Destined forever to pain and suffering and the imminent prospect of the end. But, what if I could alleviate their suffering, even the tiniest bit? Maybe, maybe that would be enough.

"I will stay."

The heartless nearly smiles.

It draws me against its black flesh, pulling me in for another kiss, and I do not fight it.

Maybe some day I'll die. And then, will the keyblade break, forever and ever and ever? Maybe I'm the last chance and… everything's…

Going to die?

----------

Okay, well, that was certainly very weird. I had he urge to write something different, because I was getting sick of the same old SoraRiku cliché, happily ever after stories. And I had never, ever seen a SoraShadow Sora story. So, this brainchild was born.

Yes, I am well aware that it is very depressing, and the tense jumps around a lot. But it was the only way that this story was going to work.

There are a few ideas I wanted to play around with in this, is the key blade necessarily good, and what if Riku's heart was a key-chain? I mean, you never know…

Anyway, I would be greatly honoured if you would review this, because I would love some feed-back.