One Change - A KH "What If?" (DISCONTINUED/MOVED)

kh2(18)

A blast of darkness shot at Riku. He deflected it with the wing on his keyblade and then lowered it, lightly shaking his head. "It's more like.." he aimed his keyblade at his opponent, shooting back the same blast of darkness. They deflected it, but a dark aura wrapped over their left hand. They flinched at it, trying to wave it to get it off. Their hand opened and then shut, clamping down the darkness.

"No." Riku told him, shaking his head. "You can't suppress the darkness. It only makes you more susceptible to it overtaking your life."

Terra nodded and opened his hand. The same dark conflagration soon appeared over his hand, but he faced it without fear. But when he looked over at Riku, he had a small frown. "I thought.. if I gave into its power, I'd just be allowing it to overtake me.."

Riku suppressed a sigh and walked closer to Terra. Their training wasn't going bad, but teaching someone how to use the darkness without it have taken over them before proved a challenging ending task that Riku wanted to quit from time to time. Once he got closer to Terra, he spoke. "While that is initially true, I've showed you how to lock it down, so it can't effect you anymore." He quickly paused, looking Terra in his deep blue eyes. "You.. do remember how to do it, right?"

Terra lowered his keyblade, loosening out of his battle stance. "Yes, I do."

Riku released a breath, then nodded. "Alright, so-"

A loud bell chime snapped away his attention, and he looked at the path down. That could mean one of two things. Kairi, Ven and Aqua were back already. Or.. intruders. Riku sighed and looked at Terra. The keyblade master had a worried expression, and made his keyblade disappear. They both took off quickly, though Riku was a bit slow on the start. While Terra ran, Riku shifted along the building. He could only hope that it was nothing, but they still had to check. Luckily, if it were intruders, there were five keyblade wielders here, so they could handle themselves.

Riku, soon enough, looked down at his body, where there were quite a few splotches of inky black patched over his body and clothes. And, the more he shifted between shadows, the larger and more problematic they became. Sure, he wouldn't fall to darkness again from it, but it would take longer for them to vanish. Reluctantly, he peeled himself out of the shadows for a moment, and ran on foot. The light felt so good against the darkness in that moment. Riku slowed to a walk and let the sunlight warm his body. Darkness was oddly cold, but that could have just been from him moving between the shadows, and shadows were cold. Riku did eventually hurry off again, though he didn't use the shadows this time, he would rather not have the shadows irritate and make him cold for the rest of the day.

He quickly caught up with Terra, though, and reached the forecourt in no time. Any stress he had felt previously simply melted away at the sight of his friends. Terra was speaking with Aqua a few feet away from Kairi and Ventus, but something about their body language was.. iffy. Though, before he could manage to even attempt to read the situation, Kairi and Ventus stepped up to him.

Kairi had her hands laced together behind her back, and was leaning around to the side, clearly inspecting Riku. When she had finally finished circling him for the third time, she frowned and hummed thoughtfully. There was a visible crease between her brows, and when she looked up at Riku, she didn't exactly look happy.

"Riku, you know you don't always have to use your power, right?"

Riku stifled a sigh and crossed his arms. "Well, I was kind of running down a mountain. The bells didn't help, I didn't know if there were any intruders or not."

Ventus cleared his throat, though he didn't speak. His eyes looked dark and calculating, and every so often, he would glare at the stone beneath him. Riku would have asked, but Kairi hugging him sucked away all his attention and pushed it onto her. The simple act made Riku feel warmer, specifically on the spots where the darkness clouded over him. Looking down, he could see the blots of darkness- specifically the smaller ones- significantly shrinking, even if it was by just a bit, it was still progress. He sighed at the overwhelming warmth radiating off of his friend. He hugged her back, feeling a bit greedy about her light. He wanted to keep it for himself- which was impossible- and keep warming himself.