Fractured Twilight {KH Fanfic/Boy Of Choice}

Riku End

An ear piercing sound of destruction was heard, causing Riku to wince from such a sound. His head was pounding and his body aching as his eyes fluttered open to adjust to the sunlight shining in his face. He realized he got to see the light of another day in spite of the impact he received just a few minutes earlier. Feeling grateful Riku began to painfully push himself into a sitting position, but that feeling was short lived as another ear piercing crash filled his ears.

"The fighting... It's still happening?" Riku began to look around, noticing the others were still rendered unconscious.

He began to scramble to stand as he darted to the nearest person that being Sora. With his heart pounding out of concern for his friend he pressed two fingers against Sora's neck to check for a pulse and a sigh of relief escaped his lips. If him and Sora were alive, surely everyone else was... Right? They were still simply unconscious as he thought?

Another crash perked Riku's attention and in that moment he realized who was missing. Desperation filled his body as he noticed the abstract crater close by, one that wasn't there before. 'Ember!' He screamed in his head, not able to croak out any words. Despite his body screaming at him to cease any movement Riku began to claw his way towards the newly created hole in hopes she was there.

Riku's desperation was great, causing him to trip right at the end. As Riku collapsed he resorted to crawling, dragging himself to peer over the ledge. To his dismay there he saw Ember facing Xehanort alone, and his chest tightened at the sight. Both were beaten and bruised, blood oozing down from multiple wounds inflicted on one another. However that never stopped either of them from engaging in battle, both thrashing around to gain the upper hand. Riku knew he had to go down there. He had to help. Ember was fighting so hard and yet there he was barely able to even run to her.

Riku felt almost helpless, but was determined to try. He squeezed his eyes shut and threw himself off the ledge of the cliff, tumbling down and following the curve that was created. Riku cried out from the pain, his muscles aching tremendously as he was impacted severely. The fall downwards was an unpleasant one, but one he was willing to face... He had to do it for her. She needed him. She couldn't face Xehanort alone.

As Riku collapsed onto the ground below he hissed through his teeth, grasping his throbbing muscles and shakily pushed himself to his feet. Ember was right there within his grasp he just had to push himself forward.

Riku summoned his Keyblade and did everything he could to shake off the burning feeling he was receiving and began to advance. He timed his arrival so perfectly that just as Xehanort had thrown an orb of darkness Ember's direction Riku was able to jump in and knock the blast away before it even reached her. He turned to her with a relieved smile, grateful that despite the beatings she was alive.

Ember blinked in surprise at Riku's arrival. He was surprised himself to see tears swelling in her eyes and threatening to fall. With a quivering lip she took a deep breath and shook her head. "I-I thought... You were dead."

Riku tenderly smiled with a closed mouth. His heart dropped at her words that broke his heart. He didn't want her to ever feel that way; the feeling of knowing a friend was dead... The feeling of having to fight through that pain. He knew it all too well.

"I'm alive, that's all that matters." Riku tried to reassure her and was compelled to keep that smile no matter how much it wanted to falter. "Thank you for holding your own for so long, but now you're not alone. Let's finish this together."

Riku only confirmed that Sora was alive, unfortunately he wasn't confident about the others. However he couldn't bring Ember down now, he needed to build her up for battle. She needed that positivity to keep going.