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Hello and goodbye! Yup, this is the last little bit. Thank you for reading up until this point! This was a massive fic and I hope you had as much fun reading it as Arrow and I did writing it.

And without further ado, the Epilogue.

Spoiler: Epilogue

Bruce didn't know where he was. He didn't like that. He couldn't remember what had happened to him. He didn't like that even more. Slowly, he opened his eyes, years of crime fighting putting his nerves on edge for what would follow. To his surprise however, he wasn't met with a mad lunatic or killer psychopath, though he was in his Batman suit as he had expected. He was standing on a sidewalk in one of the more affluent streets of Gotham, with rays of early morning sunlight bathing him in a warm comfortable glow. He blinked. This was Gotham right? He didn't have much time to think on it. Already, his presence was attracting quite a crowd, and his brain worked furiously to try to put the pieces of his memory back into something recognizable. Pulling out his grapple gun and shooting into the air, his thought process seemed to unjam itself. The resulting wave of memories was so distracting he nearly messed up his landing. But Batman didn't stumble. Ever.

Desperately, he looked around from his now high vantage point on top of a tall white factory building as memories came rushing back to him. He, Tim, and Damian had been fighting heartless, protecting citizens, trying to stop the army of monsters from devouring them. Jason and Dick, along with the Keyblade Wielders, had split up promising to get off world to try and cure Jason. This entire revelation was making Bruce's skin crawl. Where were his sons? And why did his city look uncharacteristically peaceful and not like an army of evil creatures had just come storming through it, hellbent on corrupting people's hearts?

If there was one thing Batman hated, it was being uninformed. And at the moment, he felt very much that way. Unable to spot either Damian or Tim, he reached a hand up to his communicator in his ear, speaking quickly. “Red Robin, Robin, Report.”

There were a few numb seconds of reverberating silence, then. “Uh, hey, um, Batman. What...where are-”

Tim's confused voice was suddenly cut off by Robin's.

“Present and accounted for. But I seem to be suffering from a mild case of amnesia.”

Tim growled at being cut off. “You and me both. What the heck happened?”

Damian took in a sharp breath as if he were about to say something, but Batman swiftly cut him off. “If neither of you are injured, rendezvous on top of the old fabric factory on twenty-second street.”

The two quickly complied, their channels falling silent, and in the resounding quite, Batman used the time to try and reach Jason and Dick via comm. links, which turned out to be a complete failure. Soon both of Batman's young vigilantes were standing next to him gazing up into his white-out lenses with slightly confused expressions, a chilly morning breeze making all three capes flutter around them dramatically.

“Nightwing.” Damian began. “He and Hood, where are they?”

Frowning, Bruce looked down at his son. “Communicators are a dead end, there's no response. It's possible they are off world, in which case we wouldn't get a signal.”

Tim was frowning too. “Why is it that none of us can really remember how we got here? Maybe if we could figure out what happened between fighting all those Heartless and now, we could come up with a more accurate idea of where Nightwing and Red Hood are.”

Batman found this a perfectly logical option, and was just about to say so when something very peculiar happened.

His cellphone rang.

Of course, this wasn't Bruce Wayne's normal cellphone that nearly every single woman in Gotham had, nor was it his dreaded work phone. No, this one was special; only to be dialed in extreme circumstances. Hearing its shrill ring echo through the air made his blood run cold, as well as freeze Damian and Tim in their tracks. They both knew that noise. Yet Bruce slide the phone from his belt and answered it on its second ring.

“Bruce, you there?” Batman almost sagged with relief when he heard the familiar voice of his eldest.

“I'm here Dick.”

“Good, because I have a lot of explaining to do. Well, I guess me and Terry actually.” Terry? Who...?

“Hey, leave me out of this Dick! OW, careful. This is the third time I've got stitches there you know.” The voice, clearly Jason's, could be heard rather far off in the background. They were using an alias. Necessary, considering Jason Todd was still legally dead.

Ignoring it, Dick continued. “Anyway, we're at Gotham General. The emergency room actually.”

Bruce stiffened immediately. They were injured seriously enough to visit the hospital? Why weren’t they at the Cave if they needed medical attention? In fact, why were they even in Gotham for that matter?

“Are you okay?”

“More or less. Terry's leg is pretty cut up though.” Bruce could hear the phone shift as Dick stood, followed by footsteps. Bruce knew Dick well enough to realize he was pacing, a recent habit of his high energy son when he became overly nervous.

“Sora and Kairi aren't in the best of shape either, but Riku...” He trailed off, obviously at a loss for words. Bruce knew that kind of silence only too well.

“I'll be there soon.” He said roughly before hanging up and facing the other two. “They’re here.” He said simply. “In Gotham.”

Without another word, the three streaked off the building, and soon vanished into the brilliant sunrise, and out of sight.

~*~​

Slowly coming to, the first thing Riku noticed was that his throat was sore. Really sore. So much so, that his immediate concern when he first opened his eye, was to find some water. Wherever he was, it was really bright, assaulting his vision and making him blink several times before closing his eyes again. However, in the little amount he did see, he became aware that he was surrounded by several people. It was only then that he realized someone was talking. He concentrated hard to make out the words.

“I swear I saw him blink guys. No really. He's awake, I'm pretty sure!”

“Go get the doctor Dick, will you?”

“Sure thing.”

“Hey Riku you lazy butt, hurry and wake up will you?”

“Jeez you idiots, give the guy some breathing space.”

“Was that supposed to be a pun, ya know with the collapsed lung and all?”

“No Sora, it definitely wasn't...”

“Tt.”

Riku managed then to blink a few times, and stared around at everyone bleary eyed. He was in a white, overly clean room, which had his brain immediately thinking hospital. As he had thought, several individuals were sitting in chairs or standing around, looking down at him with concerned expressions. He shifted, realizing that he was indeed lying on a soft bed and covered in warm, if rather scratchy, blankets. Waiting for his brain to catch up with his eyes, he gazed at Sora who was standing to his right, a huge smile planted on his face as usual.

“Hey Sora.” He rasped. “Got any water?”

But it seemed Sora was so overjoyed to see his best friend conscious again that he didn't take in a word of this request, simply diving forward and wrapping his arms around Riku's neck, being careful of the bandages. “Oh my gosh Riku you’re finally awake! We've been waiting forever, well Bruce said it's only been like two days but that's still a really long time! How are you feeling? Any better? The doctors fixed up your lung and back and everything because we couldn't heal it with magic! But they said you’d be out for a few days while you healed and it's been what seems like forever! Did I say that already? Oh and I don't know how much you remember but we totally saved Gotham and Joker is in jail and-”

Mercifully at that moment, Jason stepped in and put a hand around Sora's mouth, dragging him backwards while Kairi offered Riku a cup of water, complete with straw. He took it gingerly, realizing that moving was still indeed very painful, and sipped the water gratefully. It was cool and refreshing, soothing his throat somewhat as he drank.

“Not too fast Riku!” Kairi said, taking his water away to his great displeasure. “The doctor said not to give you too much at first.”

Grinning, Riku looked up at her. “Hey Kairi, nice to see you too.” It was then that he noticed a sling around her right arm, and he was suddenly bombarded with foggy memories about the previous fight. He could remember getting injured, but only bits and peaces from after that. Apparently everything had worked out for the best however, accounting for the fact that Tim, Damian, Jason, Kairi, Sora, and supposedly Dick were all present and accounted for. Though, as he gazed at all of them in turn, he couldn't help but notice that everyone involved in rescuing Gotham's heart was pretty banged up. Sora had bandages peaking our from under his short sleeve T-shirt, Jason's leg was in some sort of cast while crutches lay beside his chair, and as Dick walked back in with the doctor, Riku noticed more then a few bruises on him as well.

Once the doctor came in, he checked his vitals, asked him how he felt, assessed his injuries, and explained to him he had had quite a serious case of pneumothorax, whatever that meant. As he left, the doctor went on exclaiming how miraculously fast Riku was recovering. Next thing Riku knew, Kairi and Sora were back, leaning over him and beaming.

“You have to get better soon!” Sora was saying excitedly.

“Yeah!” Kairi exclaimed. “We all need to heal up. There's something really important we have to do.”

Riku raised his eyebrows questionably at them, but they just smiled mysteriously. Even Sora, who was usually awful at keeping secrets.

“You'll see.” They said together, doing a spectacular job of annoying him.

~*~​

Sora had never ridden a motorcycle before. Not a real one anyway. That was painfully apparent to Jason, despite the kid's claims to the contrary. His balance was way, way off as they rode down the busy streets of Gotham at the highest possible legal speeds. Jason had to keep reaching behind him and poking the kid into a better position. They would have been going faster, but Alfred, Bruce, and an assortment of crazy crime fighting children were driving behind them in a gratefully inconspicuous van. Jason had opted to ride his new motorcycle, courtesy of the losing teams – being the Demon Spawn, the Replacement, Bruce, and Dick. They had paid up on their side of the bargain, Jason had made sure of that, and now he and Sora were riding in front of them, rubbing in their victory as much as humanly possible. Sora had been bought a bike too, but as he was far to young to ride it here legally, it was safely stored in the cave. Which was just as well: Jason suspected the kid would cause some major chaos if he were allowed to ride one of these babies on his own. The bikes were beautiful, with one of the most powerful engines Jason had ever handled, and coloured red and black with a few streaks of white spread throughout its design. Needless to say, Jason thoroughly enjoyed the ride to their destination.

Large flag poles, multicoloured balloons, screams of delight and glee mixed with the mechanical whirring of rides, the wafting smell of cotton candy, popcorn and corn dogs, and a lot of happy people met them as they pulled into the parking lot of Amusement Mile. Riku, only cleared to come out yesterday by his doctor, and the only one left in the dark, simply stared up at the large sign bearing the park's logo, before his expression slowly turned into a smile. Dick on the other hand, was bouncing around like he had drank about 8 cups of coffee in the past 4 hours. Which, in reality was totally possible. He danced around the group, happily questioning which rides they should go on first, and already pleading with Bruce to let them stay until the fireworks at 9:00 PM. Despite themselves, everyone began contracting his infectious good mood, Bruce, Damian, and Jason even cracking small smiles as they walked into the front entrance.

Sure, it had its quirks, but in the end, Gotham was worth saving, if only so Jason could share it with his friends and family. Besides, he thought as they passed through the gates into the amusement park beyond, We've earned a little free time.

Last chapter! Hooray! After this, there's an Epilogue and then Gotham Hearts is over and I won't bother you with horrible violence ever again. No promises.

Spoiler: Chapter 35 - Journey's End

Wind was whistling in his ears and he knew he was falling. He'd jumped off of enough buildings to know the feeling. Cracking his eyes open, Dick took stock of where he was. Falling from Wayne Tower, but too far away to have jumped off. They were just passing the 75th, 74th, 73rd floor. And beside him was Jason, who was just waking up, and Sora, who was solidly out cold. Angling his body, he smacked Jason on the shoulder a few times, making sure he was fully awake (“Back off Dick, I'm up!”), then headed over to Sora.

Grab around waist, pull grapple, double check the strongest cable is in, aim, fire. The hook flew and embedded itself in one of the gargoyles protruding from the building. The slightly elastic nature of the cord kept Dick's arm from being ripped off, but with his and Sora's combined weigh, along with the speed of their fall, it did get dislocated. Gritting his teeth, he hit retract.

Jason alighted first, on the next gargoyle over. He raced over to help pull them up, something Dick couldn't do with his arm like this. Well, he probably could, but the risk of either dropping Sora or falling would be a lot higher.

“Alright Dickie-Bird, let's get this set.” One sickening pull later, Dick's shoulder was back in place and throbbing. Jason continued, “Alright. We need to get back up there. I'll carry Sora this time.”

Dick nodded. Clearly, the question of how they had ended up falling would have to wait until they weren't standing on a century old gargoyle. “See you at the top Little Wing!”

“Is that a challenge?”

“Always.” Gripping the grapple in his less-injured left hand, he shot upwards, Jason and Sora close behind.

The first thing he did when reaching the top was check on Joker. If he had gotten loose, there wasn't much point in looking for Riku and Kairi. A morbid thought, but then again, he had been hanging around Jason for the past... he didn't even know how long anymore. There hadn't been a proper day and night cycle since they had landed in Traverse Town. Oh well. Not the strangest thing he'd seen. It would just make his report highly inaccurate.

Joker, luckily, was still pinned to the wall, giggling about butterflies and copper piping. Dick stuck a tranq dart in his neck. And just around the bend of the roof, right where Dick had seen them last, were Kairi and Riku. He still wasn't doing too good, but Kairi was up. She had a hole in her shoulder that was hastily bandaged with what looked like strips from her cloak, but she was moving and she was trying to tend Riku.

“Hey Kairi.” Kneeling down next to the girl, he checked Riku's wound. It still had the driver's license taped on it, and Riku was breathing mostly normally. A bit liquid sounding though. They'd better get him to a doctor before he got any worse. “Alright. We probably shouldn't move him, but leaving him up here with the Joker is probably more fatal. They're doing some renovation downstairs. Grab me two six foot two-by-fours, two one foot ones, and a bit of canvas or plastic sheeting. And a hammer and a bunch of nails. The more the better.”

She nodded and dashed off. While she was gone, Jason arrived and carefully leaned Sora on the dome. Five minutes later, she arrived with all the supplies and, after a moment of fussing over Sora, declaring that he was being a “lazy butt”, started helping with the construction. Five minutes and four bruised fingers later (how Dick could throw a batarang with pin point accuracy but couldn't aim a hammer was beyond him), they had a makeshift stretcher, which they loaded Riku onto. It ended up being Kairi and Dick carrying it because Kairi couldn't carry Sora's weight and Dick still couldn't hold much on his shoulder.

Finally, after much hassle and near spills – by the end of which Dick was convinced stairs were the devil – they ended up in Bruce's office, with the object of their hardships in sight.

Jason stalked up to the pitcher of water sitting on a side desk, lifted it, and dumped it over Sora's head.

The teen woke up sputtering. “Who- wha-” Finally focusing on Jason, he pouted. “Why did you do that?” Dick set Riku down on Bruce's desk before allowing himself to laugh. Bruce wouldn't mind. And it definitely wouldn't be the first time someone had been bleeding on the thing.

“You're the expert on Keyhole finding. And you're useless in that capacity when you're napping.” Dick said, matter-of-factly.

“I wasn't napping,” he said, contradicting it immediately by rubbing his eye. “I was drained. Drive takes a lot out of me.”

“Drive?” They probably had a moment or two for Dick to indulge his curiosity.

“Drive mode. It uses my bond with my friends to give me a massive power boost, a skill or two, other stuff. I kind of... used it accidentally after Kairi got stabbed. I beat the Joker's Heartless with it though.” He was looking up at them like using Drive without asking was some big deal. Dick didn't see it. Then again, being turned into energy to fuel someone else's attacks wasn't the weirdest thing that had happened to him.

Jason seemed to have the same thought. “Kid, you know that conversation we had the day we met, the one on the rooftop?” Dick did. He'd been eavesdropping through the comms... “I've seen everything. Now calm down and let's get this Keyhole sorted.”

Sora visibly brightened and started looking through the room. “Usually, we just run into the things, but they're normally in incredibly important places to the world. They give off a type of darkness that Heartless are attracted to, so finding Joker here is another good sign.”

Dick sighed. “It's a big building though. And I really don't think we should move Riku any more. Me and Sora are least injured, so we'll go looking for it?” Jason made a noise of protest, which Dick cut off. “Don't even think about it Jay. Not even going into your shoulder and side,” which weren't bleeding anymore, but still looked pretty bad, “I saw you fight. Your legs are still hurt, aren't they?”

Grumbling, Jason said, “Yes. They reopened during the fight with Joker.”

That was a lie. Dick could see thread peeking out from a hole in his pants, and he wouldn't have had time to stitch himself up between now and then. Hm. Maybe not a complete lie. His leg was bleeding in a few places. Had he popped his stitches? That could wait though. “Great. So you're staying here and me and Sora will go looking for the Keyhole.” As he walked past, he clapped a hand on Jason's shoulder. “Keep them safe little brother.”

“Course Dickie. Now get gone before I shoot you and take your spot.”

Chuckling lightly, Dick followed Sora out of the room. “So, what does a Keyhole look like anyways?”

“Like any keyhole I guess. Black, glowing a bit.”

“Wait. Really? I've seen one of those.” At Sora's incredulous expression, he explained. “Yeah, back during my fight with Dark Joker. I thought it was another Heartless, but it didn't attack so I forgot about it.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Oops?”

That got a laugh out of Sora. “It's cool. Now we know where to find it!”

Once they got up to the roof, just as a precaution, Dick hit Joker with another tranq dart, then pulled Sora to where he had seen the Keyhole. High in the air and stuck to the back of the spire, it was pretty much invisible. Still, a fitting place. It was at the height of Wayne Enterprises, the building every eye turned to when entering Gotham, the most prominent building on the skyline. Really, Dick had only seen it because Joker's Heartless had thrown him.

“So, how does this work with worlds that have already fallen to darkness?” As far as Dick could tell from all the stories the Keyblade Wielders had told him, locking the Keyhole would only keep Heartless from going in. Saving a world that was already lost... A bit trickier.

“Well, normally, we'd go inside of it and defeat all the Heartless. But Master Yen Sid made this!” Reaching into his cloak, he pulled out a sphere, about the size of an apple and glowing slightly, as well as a slip of paper with “Instructions” written on it in flowing script. “It's pure light. He said it would 'eradicate all Heartless within an enclosed area'. He gave it to me while you and Jason were making breakfast.”

“And we didn't use it before because...?”

“It takes a ridiculous amount of magic. He started making this one over a decade ago. It's not his only one, but he'd like to save them as much as possible.” He gave the instructions one last going over, then summoned his Keyblade. Sticking the ball of light on the tip, he hoisted it and pointed it straight at the Keyhole. “Might want to close your eyes.”

The warning came a second late. The sphere floated up a bit, then a beam of light coming from the Keyblade pierced it and ended at the Keyhole, glowing so brightly that Dick feared for his retinas. His eyes snapped shut, the harsh white light turning into the much dimmer red of his eyelids.

“You can look now. I don't think you'll want to miss this.”

He did so, looking out on Gotham. For a minute, nothing changed. Black stones, black lights, black sky. Then, suddenly, the darkness stared dissipating, beginning at Wayne Tower and spreading out. Small lights appeared on the streets which eventually became the people of Gotham, going about their business as if nothing had changed. The sky brightened in increments, still a nighttime black, but one lit with stars and light pollution. It was Gotham. Dirty, grimy, horrible Gotham. And Dick wouldn't change it for the world.

Well, not completely true. He did want to get rid of the crime and make it a better place to live for all the people who lived here, but now he was getting off track and should probably listen to what Sora was saying.

“All the people who lost their hearts to the Heartless will be back too. And unless they were directly involved with the events, they probably won't remember anything. It's all back to how it was.”

Sora allowed himself one more glance at the newly restored city, only now fully appreciating that all the hardships they had been through had amounted to something so amazing, before turning on his heel and hurrying back to the roof entrance. Riku was seriously hurt. Even a world's heart being restored, along with all the hearts in it, wasn't enough to distract him from the dire situation of his best friend. Dick was right behind him as he swung open the door and bolted down the stairs three at a time.

“Sora, wait!” Dick suddenly called out from behind him. “You're bleeding.”

A slight wave of irritation shot through Sora at being delayed. Of course he was bleeding, he had been in the path of multiple razor sharp daggers right before blacking out, but none of the cuts had been too bad. Granted, he hadn't had time to really look himself over. He called back to his friend without slowing his pace. “It's fine Nightwing, just a few scratches. I'll cure them once Riku's better. Do you know where we can take him to get help?”

The slight pause that followed told Sora Dick didn't want to switch topics, but to his great relief, Nightwing seemed to except that Riku was in the more immediate danger and answered. “Yeah, paramedics are gonna be his best bet. If Hoodie didn't get his head knocked around too bad in that last fight he probably already called them.”

They were running past offices now, except that the large rooms were now occupied with important looking men and women going about their usual business as if it were any other ordinary day. As if their hearts hadn't just been sleeping in darkness. A few heads turned to look at the blurry figures streaking past, but by the time they had blinked to clarify what they had seen, there was nothing there. Luckily the upper levels of Wayne Enterprises were reasonably isolated, and the recent construction helped even more in reducing the number of people using the office space.

Skidding to a halt in front of the door, Sora burst into the room, causing Kairi and Jason to look over at them quickly. A first aid kit lay open on the floor between them and Jason was helping Kairi to bandage her shoulder while she held a cloth to Riku's bleeding chest. Jason was just finishing tying off the bandage and limped over to them, ignoring the first aid kit, despite the obvious attention his leg, shoulder and side needed. Riku was still lying on Bruce's desk, his eyes half closed as he took what had become laboured breaths.

“Please tell me you called an ambulance.” Dick said, looking pleadingly at Jason who raised an eye brow.

“Course I did. I'm really not as heartless as you all think.” Then his expression melted into something more serious. “He's getting worse fast Dick.”

Nightwing nodded, walking quickly over to Riku's side and stopping next to Sora who was looking extremely uncomfortable with the whole situation and slightly panicked. Nervously, the boy looked down at Riku, then over at Kairi. “Can't you just heal that?” He asked, nodding at her now fully bandaged arm.

She shrugged, regretting it immediately with a wince. “I tried. But it wouldn't heal. Tried Riku again too, but no luck.” She bit her lip and looked over at him. “Maybe we've healed one to many times or something. Or the darkness that was so close to the world's heart corrupted our magic somehow. I don't know.” She shook her head desperately.

“I think the problem is in all the wounds inflicted by Joker. They're the only ones that won't heal.” Dick said darkly. “Maybe his darkness has a special kind of power that corrupted any kind of light magic.”

The room then lapsed into thoughtful silence.

Calming down slightly in the resounding silence, Sora took the time to inspect the skin on his arms for injuries. He supposed it wasn't surprising when he found a few deep cuts. He hadn't even felt them with how distracted he'd been. But the majority of his body was quickly starting to ache and throb. He looked over at Kairi, then summoned the Kingdom Key and raised it. “Cure!”

The spell sparkled around him, conjugating close to his cuts and bruises, especially a rather deep one on his back he hadn't noticed. That must have been what Dick was worried about. But in front of all of their eyes, the magic simply shimmered for a few seconds before fading, leaving his injuries raw and painful.

There was a pause as they all took in the ineffectiveness of the magic that had probably saved all their lives by this point, before Jason stood up, breaking the silence. “Well, no use crying over it.” He said, roughly putting a hand on Sora's shoulder. “You magic users will just have to learn to deal with doctors for a change.” Despite the circumstances, he grinned. “If you're good Sora, you might even get a lollipop.”

There was a weak laugh as Riku – apparently conscious enough to follow the conversation – turned to grin at Sora, who frowned at Jason. “You do know I'm sixteen right?” Sora growled.

Dick joined in, giving a very exaggerated gasp. “What? You're such a shorty I thought you were ten!”

Sora rounded on him indignantly before a wave of laughter burst through the room, stopping him in his tracks.

“Guuuys.”Sora said irritably, his face slightly red. But he was smiling all the same.

Still chuckling, Dick walked over to a door on the left, and rummaged through its contents for a few seconds before pulling out what were unmistakably a few pairs of clothes. He held them up for all to see. “Alright kiddies, we better get changed and come up with a good plan to tell the paramedics. I vote for Riku's injuries being a result of ignoring the rules and playing around with the construction equipment.”

Even through his painful gasps, the teen still managed to give Nightwing a death glare Batman would be proud of.

As it was, the next few minutes were hectic as everyone rushed to the bathrooms across the hall to slip on t-shirts and jeans, before coming back and hastily cooking up a plan in which Riku had ignored the many labels posted around the labs to sneak into one of them before tripping and injured himself. They hoped this would at least justify the ugly burn running across his back. The final plan had just been decided on when the paramedics arrived with a stretcher, quickly setting to work on properly treating Riku's wounds. They began checking his vitals and giving him oxygen, lifting him onto the stretcher and wheeling him away quickly. As they left, the previously busy atmosphere of the room fell strangely quiet and still. The remaining four looked at each other before Dick hurried over and dug some keys our of one of the desk drawers.

Jason looked up hopefully. “Can I dri-”

“No.”

“Oh, come on Dickie you're such a slow-”

“No!”

Hey all! Shorter chapter today, but it kind of makes sense. The entire chapter takes place within about five minutes, so...

Fun fact: Second last chapter here. After this is Chapter 35 and then the Epilogue. Yup. The Door to Gotham Hearts will be forever closed.

Oh well. Read and enjoy!

Spoiler: Chapter 34 - Knight Form

Sora's world stopped. Riku was laying on the ground, probably dying, and Sora couldn't help him. At all. And then Joker's Heartless started shifting into a second form and hit Kairi and everything was going wrong all at once. He cried out in anguish, but that quickly turned into a cry of vengeance. That thing would regret hurting his friends.

He didn't notice Dick and Jason vanishing. He did, however, notice the rush of power hitting him like a brick to the face. It felt similar to his Drives – the sudden burst of strength, the feeling of invincibility, the boost to his magic – but different enough that he knew he'd never been in this Form before. It felt similar to Final Form – he even had two Keyblades – but darker, like it had been meshed with Anti-Form. The Keyblades were very similar to each other, with pure black shafts and handles, and a gold guard. The difference came in the blades. One was blue and similar in shape to the blue bird on Nightwing's chest. The other was red, just like Red Hood's bat... symbol...

Oh.

Oh.

A quick glance around confirmed it. He'd accidentally gone into Drive mode and his friends had somehow affected it enough to give him a new Form. His clothes were almost exactly the same, mostly black, but now his shirt had a blue bird on it and his jacket was brown.

He stopped himself before he could waste anymore time. He hadn't meant to, but he was in Drive now, and those were limited. He couldn't waste it.

He took one last look at Riku and Kairi, promising them that he would get this done soon so they could get proper medical attention, then hefted his Keyblades and charged.

Pure energy. That was all Sora felt as he bolted towards the Heartless and broke through its defenses with a series of wicked fast slashes. As soon as his enemy was vulnerable, he thrust his Keyblades down, aiming for the Heartless's shoulders. It stretched out its hands with amazingly quick reflexes and caught his swords. Sora had to push off its chest, flipping up and tearing his weapons out of the creature's grasp. It hissed and lunged at him again. Summoning the energy within him, Sora willed himself to stay airborne for a few more seconds so he wouldn't fall right into the Heartless's path. It stretched out a hand, ready to electrify him, and Sora chose that moment to perform a complicated aerial maneuver, slashing the Heartless's chest and using the force to dodge left past the oncoming attack. As he fell, he turned in mid air as to keep locked on to it. As soon as his foot touched the ground, he launched at it again.

The Heartless's new form was definitely posing more of a threat, which was troublesome seeing as it had managed to catch Sora off guard in its previous state. He had to abandon his frontal assault and flip backwards as it shot blades from the tips of jet black wings it now sported from its back. The creature also had razor sharp teeth that complemented its wicked smile. Three whip like tails slashed through the air in front of and behind it, acting as both an iron defense and a barrier. Sora studied the new form, wanting to find an opening again but unsure of the most effective way. Suddenly he didn't have time to contemplate anymore as it lunged forward, electricity crackling around its fingers. Sora jumped and flipped right over its back, but not before being slashed by one of the monsters tails. He skidded to a stop behind it and whirled around, throwing his red Keyblade at its exposed back. It connected and the creature let out a low giggly growl before turning and charging him again. He had to re-summon his second Keyblade to block the new assault of knives the creature was launching at him. He slashed them out of the air, amazed at his new reflexes. He wasn't even grazed. Then he thrust his blue Keyblade up to block a strike from one of the Heartless's tails. It lifted its wings, the tips of which were glowing, suggesting another dagger attack, as it meanwhile lashed out with its other two tails. Instinctively Sora sprang forward and caught onto one of the tails, using what had to be Dick's acrobatics to flip up and land on the Heartless's shoulders. He started attacking its head with everything he had, landing hit after hit, and though he was sure he had dealt a great deal of damage, the creature shook him off before he could finish it. Sora rolled forward as he hit the ground, and came to his feet just in time to see the Heartless launching itself into the air. He was just about to follow when something hit him. Hard.

Pain blazed across his back and he fell to his knees, his mind immediately thrust into a confused daze. He managed to shake his head and jump to his feet, stumbling forward as he attempted to avoid blacking out. Luckily he was able to grasp the situation pretty quickly despite the new agonizing injury. An Invisible stood behind him, it's sword poised for another attack. How had he forgotten about the other Heartless? He slashed his red blade across its chest, the power behind the strike vaporizing it in seconds. But there were dozens more closing in. Okay, Sora thought. Air battle it is.

This new form, whatever is was called, couldn't fly. He knew that. But that didn't mean it couldn't hold its own in mid air. He launched into the sky where Joker's Heartless flew, waiting for him, as he left the swarms of Heartless below. Blades shot forward to intercept his midair leap, but it had to be Jason's well trained eyes that gave him the power to strike aside the projectiles. Knives went spinning to the ground, gleaming in the pale moonlight as Sora got close enough to jab his Keyblade into the Heartless's left calf. It howled a crazy laugh as tails once again whipped around him. Having only one Keyblade free to defend himself, Sora took the brunt of the attack, concentrating on swinging upwards to grasp onto the monster's back. Trying to get a good grip on the Heartless was, of course, nearly impossible. Its skin was oily and smooth, so instead of trying to grab onto a shoulder, Sora stabbed his other Keyblade into the thing's lower back so he could keep climbing it. Just in time too, for at that moment it decided to take advantage of its new powerful wings. It plunged downwards, and Sora felt a sudden wave of nauseousness as it pulled out of the dive with milliseconds to spare, twirling in dizzying circles as it lifted the two of them higher and higher into the dark chilly air like a tornado. It was a good thing Sora wasn't afraid of heights. They were easily six stories above the tower now.

When the Heartless's wings finally settled into a more rhythmic beat and the world stopped spinning, Sora could finally summon his second Keyblade into his free hand. The creature might not have been able to shake off his death-grip, but its tails were still dancing furiously around him, striking at his back again and again. He slashed at them until he had some breathing space, then once again gathered himself and grabbed the Heartless's wing joint, spinning himself until he was sitting directly atop the great appendage as it worked to keep them air born. He would never have been able to sustain his balance without this new form as the wing rose up and down, each time threatening to dislodge him. The Heartless tried to lash at him with its arms and tails, but he was sitting in just the right place so that it was unable to reach him with either. If this Heartless was going by a pattern which Sora guessed it was, that meant he didn't have much time before it tried to buck him off again, his sense of urgency spiked.

Grasping both Keyblades tightly, Sora leapt up until he was a few feet above the thing's head. He gave himself a second to breathe, summoning the energy from his friends, then attacked, giving everything he had into the next flurry of strikes. His Keyblades ripped through the air, landing devastating hits that knocked the Heartless back, even in mid air. It kept flinching so he kept striking, using the momentum to push his attack further and further. A knife came flying at him and he flipped sideways, smacking the Heartless's neck as he went. Its hand swiped at his leg, but he was moving too fast, gracefully sliding through the air while dealing devastating blows to his opponent. He could tell the thing was on its last legs when his luck finally ran out. He felt the monster's cold, smooth fingers grab at his shirt and immediately a current of electricity ran through him.

Sora's attacks abruptly stopped as white hot pain overloaded his thoughts. The world went dark, fading in and out as he willed his eyes to stay open. After what seemed like an eternity, he was able to blink the world into focus, and watched transfixed as he became aware he was falling while dozens of knives rained down upon him. He knew blocking was no use. His whole body was either pulsing with pain or completely numb. Suddenly his arms lifted of their own accord, as if drawn to the hail of metal and the giant Heartless now flying down towards him. Panic overtook Sora's thoughts as he watched the scene unfold. Then suddenly, his Keyblades began to glow, and without knowing what he was doing, Sora shot beads of swirling red and blue light from their tips. They were like abnormally large bullets as they flew skywards to intercept some of the knives directly in front of them, but their main target was clear. A cascade of light and dark bullets were on a direct collision course with the Heartless diving towards him. Even as Sora felt the knives that the bullets were unable to stop grazing him, he watched, mesmerized as the monster reeled back before being smacked point blank in the chest by the projectiles. Summoning them had happened in the span of about three seconds, and the Heartless was taken completely off guard as it froze, curled in on itself, and exploded into a cascade of darkness.

And Sora was falling. Falling...Falling. His consciousness slipped away as he stared at the wave of darkness, blotting out the moon and falling through the sky to meet him.