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Something has triggered Terra’s darkness. Something about seeing Xion— no one expected it, no one had thought to be on guard when Terra pounced on her like a dog snapping its jaws around an unsuspecting rabbit’s neck.
Kairi responded faster than Riku, summoning Destiny’s Embrace in the half-second it took Riku to process what was happening, wedging it between the two to slice twin gouges just above the elbows, deep enough for Terra to loosen his grip.
Riku doesn’t summon Braveheart, instead opting to throw himself onto the man’s back. It's preferable, despite the man’s bigger size, to use his hands rather than risk hurting Xion if he attacks with his blade.
He gets Terra in a headlock, yanking harshly so that a choked burble escapes from Terra’s throat before there’s nails digging into the muscles of his forearms, and then suddenly the world around him tumbles as Terra crouches at the same time that he bends forward. He’s flipped fully over the broad expanse of shoulders, and his stomach twists as his muscles tense to prepare to be slammed to the ground.
By some miracle, Riku lands with his feet under him rather than flat on his back, his body weight pressing down on Terra’s shoulders forcing the man to brace his hands against the floor and giving Riku the cushion he needs to prevent his ankles from taking the brunt of the impact.
His arms are still locked around Terra when the man shakes his upper body viciously, causing both Riku to lose his footing and Terra to slip out of his grasp. From where he lands on his ass, he can see that Kairi has put herself between Xion and Terra, as well as about ten feet of distance with her keyblade still raised. Blood drips from the cuts on Terra’s arms right onto Riku’s face as he braces one hand on the ground to swing his body around, a crack of pain shooting up his leg as his shin collides with Terra’s.
It causes the man to stumble long enough in his lunge towards the two women that Riku can get his bearings. He clambors to his feet, fingers just managing to close around the flexed tendons of Terra’s wrist.
Once more the edges of his vision blur, this time due to him throwing all his weight into spinning Terra around with himself as the axis, and Terra hits the wall to their left face-first with a sickening crunch. Thick hands fly to Terra’s nose as eyes tinged with yellow lock onto Riku, and then Earthshaker is coming down towards Riku’s shoulder.
Braveheart materializes just in time to deflect, but Riku’s sparred with Terra enough to know that he needs to close the distance, fast, before Terra can put Riku on the defensive. And so, like a dance he’s practiced a thousand times before he releases his keyblade and steps into the space between Terra’s body and Earthshaker’s range, dodging slightly under and around the assault.
On his very first attempt, Riku’s fist connects squarely with the underside of Terra’s jaw.
The man’s head flies backwards from the force of it, and he stumbles again. Riku’s left hand finds Terra’s right wrist once more, digging his nails so hard into the thin skin that it breaks beneath his fingertips, and then another blow to the hollow of Terra's cheek has Riku’s hand stinging.
The man kicks out with a foot, managing to entangle their legs together, but Riku simply uses the new placement as leverage to hook his own foot around the back of Terra’s other ankle, swiping it towards himself and tactically bringing him careening to the ground.
He uses his grip on Terra’s wrist to lessen the impact, trying to be cognizant of not accidentally giving the man brain damage– not that Terra would extend him the same grace right now, but there’s only so far a cure spell can go.
It’s clear that darkness is still clouding Terra’s thought process, so when he makes to stand Riku’s on him in an instant, pinning the wrist in his fingers under his knee, the other landing on the opposite of his body by the man’s waist.
Riku lets his full weight bear down onto Terra’s lower ribcage, and strikes him across the face again. Beneath him, the bottom lip splits, and Terra’s grabbing at Riku’s neck with his free hand. The acrid stench of darkness oozes from each well of blood that opens on the olive skin, and it feels tacky on Riku’s neck under the pads of Terra’s fingers.
There’s a squeeze, not tight enough to choke him but tight enough that the pulse of his heartbeat in his head is more noticeable. Riku punches again, and this time the skin of his knuckles break open across Terra’s cheekbone.
Again, and again. Terra’s stopped struggling now, arm falling from where it was staining the collar of Riku’s shirt with red to uselessly trying to protect his face. Already, bright red bruises are blooming primarily on the left side of Terra’s profile, where Riku has been favoring his dominant hand, and the lid around his eye has begun swelling.
Riku can’t tell if the blood dripping down his temples is Terra’s or from Riku’s knuckles.
It's not often that Riku gets to beat the shit out of someone. He finds himself savoring the burning in his arms, committing Terra’s swollen face to memory, biting down on his own lip to suppress a groan of satisfaction that he did that.
Sweat drips from his brow onto Terra, diluting the stark red just a little bit to pink. Terra’s gone limp now, and hands are grabbing Riku’s shoulders and arms, pulling him up and away. His eyes don’t stray from where Terra lays, until he’s bundled out of view.
When he comes back to himself, he feels a little bad for going overboard. The intention was to incapacitate Terra, not beat him to a pulp. Ultimately, the twinge in his chest is uncomfortable but easy to dismiss, once a.) he reminds himself that he was protecting Xion and b.) they get word that Terra would survive with minimal damage. Thank the skies above for Curaga.
Later on, when Riku is in the shower watching the pink mess of his and Terra's blood circle around the drain, he conjures up the image of Terra beneath him. Water stings the flayed skin of his hand, and when he jerks off to the phantom sensation of Terra’s jaw cracking under his fist, that guilt is a little harder to make peace with.