Cure

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Frustrated, Kryon chucked the stick across the room and dropped onto his knees. He had to go find Donald.

The teen quickly took off the worn jacket Thing had thrown at him the day before and covered the pale body of the boy.

"Don't die. If you die, it'll be my fault," Kyron pleaded as he stepped out into the dark, wet alleyway.

"Donald!" He called out as he splashed through the puddles.

Finding a duck in a large city filled with alleyways; that'll be pretty difficult.

xxx

"Turn left and keep going until you come across a stop sign," Rod muttered to himself as he made his way down the twisting alleyways. It was scary to be walking by himself, especially with the drizzle and the occasional shadow he made when he walked in front of a street lamp.

That Donald Duck guy was sure bad at giving directions. He was probably already at the warehouse by now. Rod winced as the left side of his chest started throbbing again. Whatever these heartless were, they were sure nasty boogers.

"Ahh!" Rod screamed as he felt something heavy bump into him.

"Be gone, you heartless…fiends! Argh!" Rod flapped his arms around and kicked off the body on top of him.

"R-Rod?" a familiar voice called out his name.

Rod opened his eyes as wide they can go and tried to see clearly through the light rain.

"Rod! It's you!"

The blonde felt himself being hugged and his hair ruffled.

"Kyron? Is that you?"

"Who else can it be, you idiot." Kyron laughed.

"Oh my freakin go-KYRON! Man, I was worried sick, you ding dong! Dude, you're safe!" Rod couldn't help but crying as he bear hugged his friend.

"Wow, you're alive. I can't believe this. I thought you were dead," Kyron said as he helped his friend stand up.

"Ah ha ha, me too!" Rod laughed too, the crack in his voice being evidence that he was still going through puberty.

"How did you manage to find this street?" Kyron asked.

"Oh, this one duck told me." Rod said as he wrapped an arm around his friend's shoulder.

Kyron froze and stared at Rod.

"Duck?"

"Yeah, he told me that he knew you-"

"Where is he?" Kyron shook his friend and frantically looked behind him as if the gray fowl would appear any second.

"Whoa, chill. He went ahead of me; he's supposed to be at the warehouse," Rod said.

Kyron raised a brow, frowning.

"But I just came from there. I would've seen him by now."

Rod shrugged.

"Who cares if you see him or not? You can always look for him later. I'm cold, let's go to wherever you're staying," Rod blew into his hands and rubbed his arms.

Kyron shook his lion-like head.

"No, I have to find Donald. He's the only one who can save the dying boy," Kyron murmured.

Rod dropped his arms to his sides.

"Oh" was all he was able to say.

"Here, why don't you go back to the warehouse and I'll go look for-"

"No," Rod said defiantly, "I already lost you once; I'm not losing you again, bro."

"But you're injured. You might bleed to death!"

Rod shoved Kyron with his fists.

"That's not the problem right now! Do you know how freakin' scared I was? These heartless whatevers were trying to kill me! Nuh uh, I'm not going myself, Ron."

Kyron ran a hand through his hair. He knew better than to argue with Rod; he rarely changed his mind.

The brunette let out a long sigh and patted his friend on the shoulder.

"Ok, but if you die, it's not my fault," Kyron said somewhat sarcastically.

Rod smirked and ruffled his friend's spiky, wet locks.

"That's my boy. Let's go!" He whooped as he started to run the opposite way from where he was headed, but fell flat on his face after a few seconds.

Kryon laughed as he ran after Rod; he was the "cool" one most of the time, but he sure acted like an idiot a lot too.

As soon as Kyron was able to catch up to the blonde, the two friends started to walk. Both had their mouths shut tight as if they had stirred the dark creatures awake. They walked down one alleyway and occasionally turned left or right, but they knew they weren't making any progress.

"You know, it would be a lot easier if we just stay put in one place," Rod finally said, "'Cause there might be a chance that we and that duck are just circling each other."

Kyron silently nodded and halted below a small sign that read 'ITEMS' in peeling letters . It was able to block off a little bit of the cold rain that ran down his back.

The two fifteen-year-olds were silent again as they waited for someone they knew to walk by. It was irritating and annoying, but Rod was right; it would be impossible to find somebody in a city by walking around. They continued to share silence for a couple more minutes until Kyron finally decided to make conversation.

"Hey, what do you think would've happened to us if we weren't attacked by those heartless?" Kyron asked.

Rod thought for a while. The truth was; he never even thought about where he and Kyron would go after they broke out of the orphanage.

"Do you think we would've been better off than now?" Kyron added.

"I don't know…but I'm certain that it would have been better than being trapped in that orphanage," Rod finally replied.

The two stood side by side for a bit longer, the pitter patter of the rain making up for the silence. Light footsteps stepping through the various puddles soon joined the beating. Rod was the first to notice the dark silhouette emerging from the shadows.

"Hey, Ron," He nudged Kyron in the ribs.

"Hm?"

"Look over there," Rod whispered as he pointed at the wet figure.

Kyron squinted his eyes. Could it be…

"Squall?" Kyron called out.

The figure froze in its tracks.

"Squall? Is that you?" Kyron called out again.

The person, who Kryon decided was a man, only turned around and hastily started to walk the opposite direction.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

The brunette stepped out into the pouring rain and chased after the man. He shook away his damp bangs from his eyes and picked up his speed.

"Yo! Wait up!" Rod shouted as he ran after Kyron.

"Squall! Wai-"

"I'm not Squall!" the figure shouted carrying anger in his voice.

Kyron stared at the man in front of him, confused. Rod finally caught up with his friend, his weak heart racing. He stared up at the man as well and gasped.

"Mr. W?"

"Mr. W? What's he doing out here?", Kyron thought.

The three stood in the rain for awhile, unaware of the fact that they were standing in the middle of the street being beaten with bullets of water.

"Mr. W," Rod repeated.

Sora's shoulders slumped and his knees buckled underneath him. His heavy eyelids drooped over his eyes and he lied on the floor, gasping for air.

"Hey! Yo, teacher!" Rod ran over to Sora's side and shook him.

The blonde turned over to his friend.

"What are you doing? Help me!"

"Oh, right," Kryon said apologetically as he rushed to the other side of his teacher.

The two tried to pick him up, but the wet clothes on their backs and draping their teacher made it difficult. Rod gave up and dropped the unconscious man's arm.

"This is useless."

Kyron remained silent as he continued to try lifting up Sora. Finally, he managed to get him onto his back. With some difficulty, he got up with his knees wobbling underneath him.

Clang

Rod stared at the gleaming object that slipped out of the motionless hand. He silently picked it up and examined it.

"So, this must be the keyblade," He thought as he followed after Kyron.

xxx

"Hey, what about Donald?" Rod exclaimed as he trailed after Kyron into the warehouse.

Kyron didn't answer as he dropped the man on his back onto the grimy mattress. To his relief, the dying boy on the floor was still breathing…barely.

He turned to Rod.

"You stay here and look after these two; I'll go look for Donald."

Rod waved the keyblade in the air.

"What? We won't have enough time to cure-"

A blinding green light filled the room.

"AHH!" Rod screamed as he dropped the weapon as if it was a hairy spider.

The keyblade fell on the floor with a dull clunk and the green light faded away from its point. But less than a second later, the green light seemed to encircle the boy lying on the floor.

Kyron and Rod held their breath as they waited to see what would become of the dying boy.

"That green thingy's gonna kill him," Rod said under his breath. "What are we gonna do?"

Kryon shushed him and didn't take his eyes off the boy. Something, something Rod said had activated that key-like weapon.

Finally, the boy slowly opened his eyes as if it was painful and got up with difficulty. He looked around as if he was confused and then his eyes fell on the two teens standing next to him.

"Um, where am I?" He asked. His voice carried tiredness and pain, but he was alive.

Kyron gasped in disbelief.

"You're gonna live!" He blurted as he pulled the shocked teen off from the floor.

"Hey, who are you? What do you mean? And where are my parents?"

Question after question tumbled out of his lips as Kyron smiled at Rod as if he was the best superhero in the whole world.

"You did it, Rod! You! You bonehead you," Kyron laughed as grabbed Rod by his neck and ruffled his already messy hair.

"Now, we just have to figure out how to make that green stuff appear again and point that sword over there at Mr. W!" Kyron said happily.

"Whoa, hold on for a second!" Rod pulled away from his friend's deadly grasp and chocked out.

Kyron and the boy looked at him.

"Slow down, ok? First of all, who is this guy?" Rod asked as he pointed rudely at the confused teen.

"Um, my name is Auro and I'm thirteen year old," he said, shaking with nervousness and cold.

He looked up at the two figures looming over him with trembling emerald eyes. The blank stares they gave him told him he had to tell them more.

He cleared his throat a couple of times and tried to squeeze back his tears.

"My mom's name is Aerith and my dad's is Cloud. We were on our way to adopt a little sister for me, but then, but then-"

Auro broke down into tears and hugged the jacket over him closer to his body.

"Don't worry. I don't have parents either, and nobody at the orphanage had parents, too," Rod said with a grin.

The thirteen-year-old started to cry even harder.

Kryon slapped his face, shaking his head. What was wrong with his friend today?

"Look, Auro. There's a fairly high chance that your parents are still alive. I mean, Thing and Squall are strong people. I'm sure they were able to save your parents," Kyron said reassuringly.

"So pull yourself together and don't lose hope!" Kyron said firmly, but kindly.

Auro gave a mere nod and cuddled back onto the floor, sniffling.

Rod smirked and nudged Kryon.

"You sounded like some old grandpa back there," Rod said through his grin.

"Oh, shut up. We have to figure out how to cure Mr. W," Kyron said as he reached for the keyblade.

"Ok, ok," Rod said as he took the keyblade from Kyron's fingers.

The two sat around their teacher and thought.

"Ok, so what as the last thing you said before that green light appeared?" Kyron asked.

Rod sat there, deeply in thought. What was it that he said? He was complaining about how they didn't have enough time and that they had to-

"Cure!" Rod exclaimed.

The same green light encircled the keyblade and shot through Sora's body. Afraid that comments would stop the magical light, the two friends intently waited to see what would happen. The light had now faded and Sora was still lying motionless on the mattress, but his breathing had become deeper and slower.

For several minutes, the only response the two got from the green light was the light knocking on the roof and their teacher's breathing. Kyron had almost given up hope when Sora moaned without warning.

"I'm sorry, Kairi," he mumbled.