Welcome to Story from the Shadows! Thank you for reading! Below is an Author's Note. Skip down to the story if you don't care.

I have two reasons for writing this fanfic.

1- The overall plot of it has already been determined for me by the game. This makes it an excellent exercise to help me get over my nearly frequent cases of writer's block.

2- Riku is one of my very favorite characters, and some part of me feels I can relate myself to him. So, in one way, I think that I'd be able to do this successfully because of that. But in another, people are always pointing out to me Riku's frequent stupidity in Kingdom Hearts when he trusted in Maleficent and was so easily turned against his best friend. So I figured that I would write Riku's side of the story from Kingdom Hearts to see if people would better understand. After all, Riku's only human-he feels things like jealousy, mistrust, and hate, and he makes mistakes too.

Either way, I don't know how many people will want to read something when they already know the ending and all that. This fanfic will have a lot of scenes that weren't in Kingdom Hearts, because we actually don't see a lot of Riku in Kingdom Hearts. I don't care so much about the ending- I like writing more about character growth and that sort of thing, so at the very least I'm having fun doing this. If you like it too, you can let me know by reviewing. Thanks.

-Aer

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Riku sat on the railing of the balcony outside his window, watching as night spread its shadows over the islands he reluctantly called his home. A strong breeze was blowing from the horizon, traveling over the water and up the streets and through the branches of the trees, causing their leaves to rustle with an excited and anticipatory whisper. The wind played with the youth's strands of white hair as he regarded the islands and the sea. His cool blue eyes were uncharacteristically full of excitement. Inside of him a thousand thoughts and emotions were battling for attention.

With any luck, this would be his last night on these islands. This would be his last chance to see night engulf the familiar roads and houses, or to feel the familiar wind that carried the smell of salt on it, or to hear the susurrus of the waves drifting in and out that had been a constant his entire life. And as much as he tried to take it all in, to feel the wind on his face and the cool night air, he couldn't help turning his thoughts to tomorrow, tomorrow when the three of them- Sora, Kairi, and himself- set sail on their raft to leave this cage behind.

All he'd seen his entire life were these islands- full of natural beauty and resources, but lacking any adventure or magic. Over the years, the ordinary dulled the beauty in Riku's eyes, and all he could see was a cage keeping him in from the wonders of the outside world. The water surrounding these islands on all sides were simply there as a way to keep him trapped, but tomorrow, with his raft, he and his friends would travel farther than they ever had, to the world beyond this.

Riku was certain of this outside world. He'd always felt it, since he was young. And then there was Kairi, who had one day come out of nowhere, without any memories of her life before. Tonight he felt it stronger than ever, like a shiver in the air, almost tangible. Other worlds existed outside his own, and he was being drawn to them. He could feel it in the growing wind and see it in the gloom surrounding the island he and his comrades spent their free time playing on. That was the destined shore they'd set off from tomorrow.

There certainly was something about that island tonight, although Riku was having a hard time explaining to himself what it was. He felt an inexplicable need to go there, even though they wouldn't set off until tomorrow. He stared at it, unaware that he was concentrating on it so until a particularly strong gust almost upset his balance on the railing. He realized with some shock what his wandering mind hadn't let him before.

"A storm?"

A glance at the sky showed dark and angry clouds shifting restlessly in the wind. Riku's first thought was for tomorrow, and of the danger a storm would present to the raft. Mentally berating himself for not noticing earlier, he sprung off of the railing, latching onto a nearby tree trunk and safely sliding down it to the ground- a route he'd used many times before when he was in a hurry. From there, he sprinted down the dark and empty streets towards the shore as the wind gusted around him.

By the time his shoes were crunching through the sand he was out of breath, but he'd gotten there as quickly as possible. He began dragging his small boat out towards the water. After all of this time waiting, after all of the work he and his friends had done, all the searching and scrounging and building, putting up with the curiosity of Selphie and the others, he would not allow all of their work to be blown away by a storm the night before they were set to sail. He hopped in and began rowing arduously towards the island he and his friends played on.

The waters were rough, and although he had made the trip several times before he was working up a good sweat by the time he was finally tying his boat to the makeshift dock on the island. Despite this and the danger presented to their raft, he felt full of energy, energy that tingled down his spine and threatened to give him the shivers. He wasn't sure why, but he was glad to be on this island at this exact moment, with shadows spread over the sands and the storm threatening overhead. The feeling that had been drawing him in on the balcony was only getting stronger.

'The raft!' He reminded himself, a little annoyed at the way it had slipped to the edges of his mind. He began running towards the opposite end of the shore, towards the wooden wall that separated the two halves of the island. Their raft was on the other side. But before he reached halfway, something caught his eye. He slowed and stopped, the raft pushed out of his mind once more. He looked towards the waterfalls, which seemed to be reflecting light from some source and were oddly bright in the shadows. Next to them was the entrance to Riku's, Sora's, and Kairi's secret place, a hole hidden by the surrounding leafy foliage. Only instead of a hole, there was a door.

Riku was climbing up the ridges towards the door before he realized he had made the decision. He stood before the door, which, like the waterfalls, was oddly bright. He felt unusually dazed. He reached out a hand and touched the door.

Riku and Sora had found the secret place when they were very young, back when they had first begun exploring the island. Even back then, they had been looking for adventure, and although the hidden cave failed to provide any exciting monsters to defeat, each of them had felt drawn back to the spot, and so they had claimed it as their own, and spent much of their time playing in it and scraping drawings into the rock walls. When Kairi had come, both of them agreed to admit her into their secret abode as well.

It was a perfectly normal cave. Most of the time. Only sometimes, when Riku was alone, he would on occasion find a door standing between the rock walls. It had no handle or keyhole, and Riku had no idea where it came from or where it led. But he felt dazed and drawn to it when he saw it, just as he was now with this door.

He blinked, suddenly brought back to reality. The wind had gotten stronger, and the shadows had somehow gotten darker. For a moment, he thought he saw one or two of them move. By now, the raft had been completely driven from his mind. And as he looked towards the sky, he realized that he no longer needed it.

There in the dark and cloudy sky, above the smaller island where he often sat on a leaning palm tree looking over the waters, a light was beginning to grow. It was a vibrant red, with dark blues and blacks swirling around, growing into a weird sphere of energy. He knew somehow that this was better than any raft. The feeling he'd had since that evening, and, some subconscious part of him realized, his whole life, of being drawn in grew to its strongest point.

He dashed towards the wooden shack that held the stairs to the bridge connecting the islands, kicking up sand behind him, catching more and more glimpses out of the corner of his eye of shifting shadows. Once or twice he even thought he caught sight of eyes peering out at him, yellow and full of hunger. But he wasn't afraid, not afraid of the darkness.

His feet pounded their way up the stairs and across the wooden bridge. The wind here was even stronger, swirling upwards into the sphere above. He looked up at it and knew that he was prepared to do anything it took to reach through to the worlds on the other side. This was everything that he had dreamed about or had wished for, and it was happening before his very eyes. He wasn't afraid of leaving the islands, the cage that had contained him his whole life. But he would have to wait for Sora and Kairi. He wasn't going to leave without them

He didn't have to wait for very long. He could see Kairi making her way across the beach, heading for the strange door just as he had done. Only she was opening the door, with actions that looked slow and dazed, and seemed not to notice the weird sphere in the air or anything else around her. She disappeared through it and it closed behind her. And now Sora was approaching in his boat. The shadows, which now were clearly moving and taking on the shape of small creatures with glowing yellow eyes and twitchy antennas, seemed to be hindering his progress as he too moved towards the door.

Riku turned his back on the island and looked up at the sphere, now a good size bigger than it had been. His eyes, excited and alert, scanned it and took it in. Its center, surrounded by billowing clouds of shadows, glowed a deep red. Electricity crackled along the outer surface. As the wind gusted up past him, Riku almost imagined that he could feel the winds of another world coming through the sphere. He closed his eyes.

The sound of feet pounding across the wooden bridge rose to his ears. Without turning around, he knew that it was Sora. The spiky-haired youth skidded to a halt behind him.

"Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you!"

"The door… has opened."

"What?"

"The door has opened, Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!" He turned around towards Sora, trying to explain to his friend what this meant. They didn't need the raft anymore. This was so much better.

"What are you talking about? We gotta find Kairi-!"

"Kairi's coming with us!" Riku interrupted impatiently. Of course Kairi was coming with them, couldn't Sora see that that wasn't what was important right now? He was too excited to catch the stunned look on Sora's face caused by his tone. He turned back to the sphere hanging overhead. Something was calling to him through that sphere, and it made him feel not quite himself, but he welcomed the feeling- it was a powerful one.

"Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us. I'm not afraid of the darkness!" His mind was made up- had been made since he'd gotten the idea for building the raft. He didn't care if he never saw his family again, or what happened to this island once he left. He wasn't going to lose this chance.

He turned towards Sora and reached out his hand. He had made his choice. It was time for Sora to make his.

"Riku…" Sora said, and for some reason his tone seemed… worried.

A pool of darkness spread out below Riku's feet, sending up shadowy tendrils reaching and grabbing, like fingers. They wrapped themselves around Riku's legs, spreading up around his torso and to his arms. But the white-haired boy wasn't afraid, didn't even flinch. He welcomed these shadows. He wasn't afraid to go through the darkness to get what he wanted. His arm remained stretched out to Sora, welcoming and inviting.

Sora began to run towards him, but was halted as a similar pool of darkness spread out beneath his feet too. He looked shocked as the tendrils began wrapping themselves around his feet and up his legs. Riku watched as his friend stretched out a hand towards his own, straining against the darkness to reach him.

Come on, Sora, come on. His own thoughts sounded far off and distant to him in his own mind. His vision of Sora was intercepted in part by the shadowy tendrils rising and writhing all around them like dancing flames.

Their hands were nearly within reach of each other. Come on, Sora, just a little farther… Sora's hand flailed uselessly in the open air. Riku realized he was still smiling. Too excited to do otherwise, he supposed.

Then, suddenly, it seemed as though Sora was shifting farther away. The dark wisps around him thickened, engulfing him. He caught one last look through the gaps of Sora's stark blue eyes, confused and maybe even a little frightened. Then the darkness swallowed everything.

Silly Sora… Were you… afraid…?

Then Riku's own consciousness blacked out.

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So concludes the first chapter in Riku's side of the story. If there's anything you'd like me to know- perhaps you spotted some grammatical errors, or errors differentiating this story from the game (it actually has been a while since I've played), or if you have some constructive criticism to offer, or maybe, just maybe, you enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to more- please, please let me know by reviewing. Thanks to all who read!