Fan Fiction ❯ Brightness and Darkness ❯ Into the Pits of Hell ( Chapter 13 )

Brightness and Darkness
Chapter Thirteen: Into the Pits of Hell

Pairings: Sora/Kairi, Riku/OC, Cloud/Aerith, Leon/Yuffie, and maybe Riku/Sora

Author's Note: It's time for chapter thirteen. I dug myself into a hole by ending chapter twelve the way I did, but…I'm back and ready for some action! Umm…like I said before, chapter twelve ended way wrong and I intend to fix my actions. *gulp* Eh…hehehehehehe…let's get started then. *prays that the chapter will be okay* And let me makes this clear: KAZE DOES NOT GO SUPER SAIYA-JIN! Her transformation is somewhat similar, but it's quite different.

WARNING: There will be yaoi in this chapter!

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It was quiet. Too quiet for Aerith's liking. She glanced around the room. Yuffie had stopped her pacing twenty minutes ago and was now leaning against Leon, her head propped on his shoulder, eyes closed contently. Leon, who seemed to not care, was sitting with his arms crossed, gray orbs closed, and was starting to doze off with Yuffie. King Mickey's hands were folded over his lap, looking down at the ground.

The Ancient sat with her legs crossed, breathing softly. She was becoming rather nervous with the silence. It was unnerving really. It was a rising need of hers to have somebody's voice ringing through the room right about now, just to preoccupy her mind. She had felt Kaze's power rise incredibly high not ten minutes ago and was contemplating on whether or not to go to the Dark Depths and force her way in there.

King Mickey was perceptive of her tension.

"You must calm down," Mickey's voice was smooth and calm. "Don't worry so much. They will be fine."

Aerith sighed, "You're right, but what if th--oh no!"

Leon opened his piercing blue eyes, "What is it?"

"It's Kairi," The emerald eyed Ancient breathed, "She's gone. I can't feel her power anymore. Kaze and Cloud are still in the Dark Depths. Sephiroth and Ansem are gone too."

Mickey's gaze lowered, "She must have been taken then."

"It's the only logical explanation," Aerith stated.

"But how?" Leon asked. "If Kaze is as powerful as everyone says she is and Cloud was there to help protect her, then how did she get captured?"

"If I knew, you would've been the first one I told!" Aerith snapped. "I don't see into the future. I can't predict things before they happen, Leon, so I would appreciate it if you wouldn't ask me so many questions."

Leon frowned at Aerith's sudden temper. It wasn't rare for the Ancient to get hot under the collar, and today seemed to be one of the days where she wasn't in the best of moods to converse about evil beings and sudden disappearances.

Yuffie yawned and sat up, stretching a little bit. She looked around the room, noticing all of the gloomy faces, "What happened? Did someone die or something?"

Leon abruptly popped Yuffie in the back of the head, "You dumbass, what kind of question is that?! You know what's going on!"

Yuffie took this time to stand up and rear back, punching Leon across the jaw, something that if given the current circumstances hadn't happened, was mighty foolish. "I have you know I'm not a dumbass as you say! I know I'm slow sometimes, but that doesn't give you the right to call me a name. And if I knew what was going on, do you think that I would've asked?!"

Leon slightly moved his jaw to the side, popping it a little bit. Aerith stood up, ready to stop any sort of argument between the two when an inky black bubble appeared in the room and a body shot out of it. Yuffie turned around, wiping away her tears, to see the red cape that belonged to Cloud. Aerith, forgetting the lovers quarrel they had, ran over to her boyfriend, worry sketched all over his features.

"Cloud!" The emerald eyed Ancient yelled and bent down, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder, "Hey. Are--are you alright?"

The blonde groaned and sat up, rubbing his head slightly. He blinked a couple of times before realizing where he was. Aerith's face was looming up in his eyesight. Perhaps out of worry of Kaze down in the dark depths, Cloud gave no recognition that Aerith was speaking to him and concerned of his well being. Standing up hastily, he tried to run through the portal again before it closed; however, he didn't make it and the inky, black portal shrunk and disappeared.

"Fuck!" Cloud abruptly cursed and punched the wall angrily. It was final. He was going to kill Kaze himself. He punched the wall again and again, before leaning his forehead against it, lightly screaming.

King Mickey stood up and cleared his throat, "What happened, Cloud?"

"Why can't I feel Kairi's energy?" Aerith asked.

"Where's Kaze?" Yuffie asked.

Unlike everyone else, Leon didn't utter one word. He knew Cloud better than anyone else, except Aerith, and knew that when he punched walls and cursed to no ends, then he surely wasn't in the mood to be asked question after question, or it would get violent. However, Leon thought he was taking their pestering fair enough; besides, it wouldn't be decent to punch the living hell out of a mouse king, his as of now postponed girlfriend, and that babbling ninja that would be crowned idiot, would it?

Cloud inhaled sharply before turning around, "Would you all mind shutting up for one fucking moment and maybe I can explain!"

Total silence.

"Thank you," The blonde ex-soldier breathed in slowly before raising his eyes to glance at King Mickey. "Ansem has Sora and Riku captive along with Kaze's son and Kairi's daughter, Laiktu and Kioko. Sephiroth kidnapped Kairi and is giving Kaze till dusk to show up at his castle or he'll take Laiktu's innocence and kill everyone."

Still total silence.

"And that's what happened," Cloud muttered, and left it on that note.

It was another round of silence before Aerith cleared her throat and spoke, "Wh-where's Kaze now?"

Cloud's expression fell and he looked at the ground. He was still angry with her, but his concern did not lessen. "Right now, she should be at Ansem's castle."

-

Kaze landed on the other side of the darkness portal silently. She glanced around and frowned when her eyes came on the sight of the castle. Rolling her eyes, she examined it more thoroughly. It was just like her father to have something so…large and exquisite. How did the man expect her to find him in such a huge place? Maybe she should've brought Cloud with her. In any case, she unlocked the portal to the Dark Depths and left the gateway to the "castle of doom" open if Cloud wanted to join her.

With her staff in one hand and her stone cold expression on her face, she walked down the path to the doors and kicked them open, causing them to fly off the hinges. She stepped inside the doorway and was immediately met by several Heartless. Pointing her staff at them, her eyes morphed colors and they all exploded.

Kaze lifted up her head and started following the several amounts of staircases, "FATHER! GET DOWN HERE NOW!"

She heard the faint, sadistic chuckle of her father before more Heartless surrounded her. Coal black eyes darted from side to side, watching the heartless circle around her. Wrapping her fingers tighter around her staff, the Princess of Darkness let out an ear-piercing scream that was heard all around the castle. One by one, the Heartless exploded as she transformed slowly. Kaze eyes shot straight up and she expanded her wings, levitating off the ground and flying straight up as the last explosion rocked the castle.

It was time to finish this once and for all.

-

Riku groaned as he sat up, rubbing the back of his head. He glanced around the room, nothing the other three bodies that littered the floor. Standing on shaky legs, he shuffled towards Laiktu, shaking the boy lightly.

"Hey. Hey Laiktu, wake up," Riku called softly to his son.

It was then that a very high-pitched scream reverberated off the walls. Laiktu's sky blue eyes opened automatically. He knew that voice and scream anywhere. Kioko's eyes opened slowly and it took her a minute to recognize the scream. It sounded evil and full of hatred. Sora's eyes shot open and he jumped up rather quickly, immediately regretting doing so. The world seemed awful hazy.

Laiktu looked down at the floor and then up at Riku, who was still by his side, "That was mom. She must have taken that bastard's threat."

Riku nodded, crossing his legs and sitting down beside Laiktu, "Kaze's always been like that. She takes anything as a threat."

Kioko scooted over towards Laiktu, "Do-do you think she'll come for us?"

Sora slowly walked over to the trio, still trying to fight the haziness. He went to bend down and landed on his rear harshly. He groaned, rubbing his tail, "Of course she will."

"She has to save Aunt Kairi too. I hope that hippie looking fucker doesn't do anything to her."

Kioko's eyes brimmed with tears at the thought of someone hurting her mother. Instead of wrapping herself around Laiktu, she shot forward, colliding with Sora's chest. The male brunette didn't know how to react. He was more stunned that Kioko chose him over Laiktu, the boy she'd known all her life. Hesitantly, Sora wrapped his arms around his daughter's body as her sobs filled the quiet dungeon.

Laiktu shook his head, "Kioko, stop crying for fuck's sake! You're going to wake the dead!"

Kioko, however, sobbed harder and louder at her friend's comment as Sora stroked the girl's soft brown hair. Laiktu rolled his eyes and crossed his arms and chest, puffing up.

"You cry too much, Kioko," His male childish voice said smoothly. "Grow up and stop being afraid."

Riku smirked, looking down at his son, "You can't honestly tell us that you're not the least bit afraid."

"Not really," The seven-year-old stated. "Mom always told me that fear is something irrational. That I should never fear. Enemies smell fear and feed off of it."

Sora eyed the young boy. Did Kaze really teach him such harsh values? He was just a child after all, and what Kaze's past taught her should not be instilled into what was her future; her only son. "But fear is in everyone's heart."

He knew this very well, having being the keyblade master and knowing just how much control fear and darkness wielded in the purest of human beings. No one was safe; it wasn't any exception to that particular rule.

"You're one to talk, Sora," Riku eyed his friend. "You're afraid of almost everything."

Sapphire eyes hardened at the comment, "No I'm not and shut up." The experience toughened him up at the most, but he wasn't a complete wuss beforehand as Riku thought him to be.

Kioko's wails had now calmed down to light sobs as she turned around in Sora's arms, wiping her forearm across her eyes, "Laiktu has been afraid. When we were at the Secret Place, the voice of that creepy man came from it and Laiktu and Kaori were the first two out of the place."

"Hey, at least I had enough sense to not go inside," Laiktu retaliated. "Kaori's dumbass wanted to go in there so bad. He's so damn stupid."

Sora and Riku exchanged rather curious glances at the mention of another child. It somewhat reminded them of their escapades with Kairi, Tidus, and Wakka on the island before all of the Heartless nonsense arrived. When they were blissfully thinking of all the perks of exploring new worlds would bring them. They just shrugged their shoulders and continued to listen to the two childhood friends.

God how they missed those days…

Sora soon realized that Kioko was still resting her head on his chest, breathing deeply. He glanced down at his daughter and saw a content smile on her face as she inhaled and exhaled evenly. Glancing up at Laiktu, the boy was slowly leaning against Riku's shoulder, his ocean blue hair fell over his face as he finally slumped over, falling asleep. Riku's facial expression was nothing more than shocked. Gradually, he wrapped his arm around his sleeping son causing Laiktu's upper body to fall into Riku's awaiting lap.

"It's amazing how much these two are like us," Sora said softly to his life long friend.

Riku nodded, moving some of Laiktu's hair out of his face, "Not only us, but Kaze and Kairi too. Laiktu seems to have inherited Kaze's temper and foul mouth."

"She's not the only one of the two with a foul mouth and bad temper."

"You better be glad you're out of arms reach from me, Sora," Riku stated in a somewhat threatening way, but in a friendly tone. His smiled friendly at Sora before clearing his throat.

"Sora, there's something I've been meaning to tell you."

The platinum haired man's voice was rather shaky. Sora raised an eyebrow and nodded to Riku for him to continue. The twenty-three year old glanced into his friend's sapphire eyes and gathered his nerve. Okay, how was he going to say this?

"What do you think it would've been like if you and I were ever more than friends?"

Sora's shocked expression told Riku all he needed to know. Damn, he thought, maybe I shouldn't of asked him that question.

-

Kairi felt something cold on her face as she woke up. The dripping of water was heard as a small drop fell on her cheek and rolled down to her neck. Groaning, she pushed herself off the floor and was automatically pulled back down.

"What the hell?" She shook her arms and heard the faint jingle of metal. Ansem and Sephiroth had attached her to the wall. Just fucking peachy, she thought maliciously. Nothing was going according to plan here lately.

The door squeaked open and in stepped Sephiroth, that smug, over confident look on his face. His cold gaze bore into hers and she started moving uncomfortably. Why, oh why, was she left alone with Sephiroth? Not only did the guy creep her out, but also he was much stronger than her. She gulped, preparing herself for the worst as the man raised his arm and snapped his fingers; however, no pain came to her body, but she did feel the chains pop off her wrists.

Kairi scrambled to her feet, reaching inside her pockets and all over her body for the key chain of the Ultima Weapon. Fuck! Where is it?

"Looking for this?" Sephiroth asked as he held up the item Kairi was looking for. Smirking he placed it in his pocket. "You won't be getting it back anytime soon, my dear. As a matter of fact, I think I'll keep it and use it on the other keybearers an--"

"You wish!" Kairi yelled as she held out her arm and let lose a fury of Thundaga attacks buying her time to jump over Sephiroth, landing behind him silently. She shot up and ran straight out the door deeper into the dungeon. She turned corners and ran into several dead ends before she stopped for a breather.

"O...kay…" Kairi huffed, bending over, supporting herself on her knees, "I…think I lost…him…"

Chills shot up Kairi's spin the minute she finished her sentence. Turning around, she smashed right into Sephiroth's chest. Her breath caught in her throat as he grabbed onto her biceps.

"You can't hide from me, Kairi," The ex-SOLDIER breathed. "Stop trying to put off the inevitable."

"Get the fuck off of me!" Kairi screeched, raising her KI dangerously high. A bright white light surrounded her body and Sephiroth flew off of her, landing on the wall. The Princess of Heart lunged forward and took back her possession: the Ultima Weapon key chain.

"I'll take this back now!" Kairi threw the key chain into the air and caught it before running off down the corridors again. She felt Sephiroth's KI rise and she knew it was time for a battle.

Where was Kaze when you needed her?

-

At that moment, Kaze was gliding down corridors, breaking down doors looking for her father. She couldn't pinpoint his energy enough to open a portal directly to him.

"Bastard!" Kaze gritted her teeth together, "Come out and fight me, father."

When she wasn't answered, Kaze clinched her left hand tighter, causing her black, razor sharp fingernails to puncture her skin. She licked her lips and bared her fangs, "Have it your way. If it takes me blowing up this castle to find you then so be it."

The ground started to shake lightly as Kaze rose her KI. Her eyes radiated black as her hair started to stand up in several places. She was risking a lot by using this much power, but if her father chose to hide from her, the choice to use the power was the only way. The aura around Kaze pulsated the further she dug into her powers. The ends of her hair sharpened, and, right when she was going to unleash her rage, she stopped.

"Kairi…" Kaze blinked when she felt her friend's KI skyrocket and Sephiroth's right behind her. Inhaling sharply, her power decreased with every second. Turning her head sharply to the right, Kaze held up her bloody left hand and summoned a portal.

It wouldn't hurt to visit Sephiroth, now would it?

-

Sora stared blankly at Riku. His question was…unexpected at the most. Why would he choose to spring the awkward situation on him now in the foulest of places? Swallowing harshly, the brunette tried to find the right words to say.

"Well--"

"I don't want you to think bad of me, Sora," Riku said softly, cutting Sora off. Sora had a good feeling where the conversation was traveling down to.

"I know it was a strange question, Sora," Riku stared, "but…for the longest time, before I met Kaze, I had an…unexplained infatuation with you."

That came out pretty well. If you bypassed Sora's dumbfounded look. Riku took a deep breath and decided to finish his confession.

"The way you moved, the way you spoke--it was so enchanting."

He couldn't help it that his eyes followed Sora on more than one occasion, sometimes straying to parts he wasn't even supposed to be considering on another guy. But it was Sora, the boy he grew up with, the only boy that could make him feel this way.

"You had my eye for the longest time and, after realizing that you and Kairi were meant to be, I met Kaze."

Riku wasn't completely dense to pull something on Sora, as much as he was tempted to. If Sora had suspicions that Riku was a bit fond of him, now he knew. They had their significant other and all thoughts or attractions either of them might have held for the other was dismissed. Riku and Kaze were… considerably happy with each other. So why ruin Sora's relationship for his selfish, unnatural feelings?

Sora didn't know how to respond to Riku's overacted "confession". He locked gazes with his friend. Although he didn't want to admit to himself at the time, Sora did have a small crush on Riku. When he was younger, the aquamarine-eyed boy had invaded his personal thoughts more than once. Now how to tell him that in words?

"Riku, I--" Sora began, but this long kept revelation of Riku's must have been tearing him up pretty badly, for he rushed into a ramble of how he wanted Sora to stay his friend.

"I know it's not right!" Riku declared, reminding himself that their kids were present in the room and could wake up at any given moment. He cleared his throat and began in a soft passionate voice, "I know it's not right, but dammit Sora, if loving you is wrong, I'd rather go to hell than to die with what is right! I love Kaze, yes, but I can't see us together like I see you and me! And that fucking sickens me! I thought Kaze was my soulmate…what a load of bull. Sora, you are everything in the world to me, a friend, a brother, a… lover…perhaps."

Sora's eyes began to water with restrained tears. Riku held all of this from him, from Kaze, from everybody he knew, even from Sora himself, and yet Sora wasn't as surprised as he thought he would be at Riku's confession. If anything, he felt more relieved he wasn't the only one who felt this way. But he couldn't say this to Riku….

How could he express it…?

The brunette shifted Kioko in his arms and scooted closer to Riku. Stopping by his left side, Sora reached up and cupped his friend's cheeks in his hands. His thumb lightly brushed the skin as he stared into Riku's eyes. Riku was starving for him; the glint in his eyes told Sora he needed this more than anything else right now, and he wanted to help him with whatever he needed. Sora was a bit hesitant as he inched his lips closer to Riku's own. He had the right idea, but wasn't sure if he had the guts to carry it out. After all, Riku was still with Kaze; the thought of kissing her man was taking the inclination to touch Riku in this way. Riku, on the other hand, wanted Sora badly, and no doubts or anything else was going to hinder tasting Sora's delicate lips. Riku's hand snaked through Sora's spiky locks before pulling Sora against him, crushing their lips together.

So much for words, Sora thought humorously.

The kiss was…intoxicating. The faint scent of sandalwood filled Riku's nose as Sora's tongue slipped past his lips and into his hot cavern. Their tongues seemed to dance together intimately as they both explored the others mouth. Riku's free hand trailed up Sora's side, causing the brunette to shiver slightly. This was something the platinum haired man had wanted for years, but it felt…wrong. But Riku had never stopped doing things that he felt were wrong before, so why was he hesitating now? He had wanted it before, and now that it was actually happening, his eagerness was slipping away drastically.

Guilt…

The feeling of guilt washed over his body as the kiss deepened even more, Sora moaning loudly, but not loud enough to wake the two children. Riku was actually feeling guilty for kissing Sora, but why?

Kaze…

The mother of his child and, undoubtedly, the love of his life. Kaze had shown him so much love and tender care when he was blind and this was how he was repaying her. The unwelcome feelings surfaced again and Riku, just for a minute, had regretted ever meeting Kaze.

Sora broke the kiss somewhat reluctantly and gazed into the other man's eyes. Throughout the years of friendship, the younger of the duo could always tell what the older was thinking by reading his emotions, and he saw it. The guilt. And it was then that Sora realized that Riku was truly in love with Kaze, and now he felt guilty for what he did. Riku, as much as he tried to deny it, loved Kaze so much, and who was Sora to worm his way into their relationship in such a way? Riku would live without him, he had came this far…

How was he going to explain this to Kairi?

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AN: Phew…okay, that was a load off. I had wanted to do a yaoi scene SOOOOOO bad, and now I've finally done it! I want to thank Silver(yet again) for correcting my mistakes and helping me with the fic. She's always so kind and helpful to me when I ask, and I don't know how to repay her. I don't know how to repay any of you for everything you've all done. The support and everything! ^_^ I hope everyone loved this chapter and I'll have chapter 13 up as soon as I can!

Oh…and I'm not going to do a reviews corner for this chapter or probably any of the rest. Haha. It takes up too much space and you guys always think the story is longer than it is suppose to be! Gomen! You all know how much I love you guys, right? If you want to ask any questions or chat email me: Winggundampeace@yahoo.com or IM me on AIM: LadyRekka1974.

Next Chapter: Cloud visits the Dark Depths and makes a final decision on whether or not to help Kaze as he somewhat heals his relationship with Aerith. King Mickey explains Kaze's origins and Yuffie confesses her "undying" love to Leon. Meanwhile, Kairi is stuck in a corner with Sephiroth as Kioko, Laiktu, Sora, and Riku watch. Will Kaze arrive in time to save her? Stay turned!

~~Winter Peacecraft-Yuy