Destined Shadows

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Kingdom Hearts Franchise... (Saiyoku): *sighs* Except for me, yada yada yada... (Me): Don't ruin my fun!

Riku held Saiyoku's arm to keep her from moving.

"It's just… do you… still feel the same way about me? Even though… I look like this?" He asked quietly, avoiding her eyes.

Saiyoku paused and looked behind her in disbelief, "What?" She asked, her voice shaking with a small laugh. She turned around to face him and he let go so he wasn't twisting her arm, "I…" She hugged him, wrapping her arms around him tight, "I still love you."

"You… what?" Riku's eyes grew wide and his face grew red. That wasn't what he had been expecting. Saiyoku just laughed into his chest and pulled away, running through the Dark portal, leaving a stunned Riku behind. He couldn't believe what he just heard her say.

"C'mon Riku!" Her voice sounded from inside the portal, and Riku walked through in a dazed form of mind.

He joined her on the other side in the hotel, the fake nighttime already showing through the windows. He shook his head, "How could you just say something like that and run off?" He asked. She was already sprawled on the couch, her hands behind her head.

"Hm?"

"I did hear what I thought I heard, didn't I?"

"And what DID you hear me say?"

"That you love me."

She stood up and looked him straight in the eye, "Then you heard me correctly." She went into her bedroom and halfway closed the door, "Goodnight. I'll see you in the morning." She shut the door all the way, leaving Riku still in disbelief. He clenched his head in hands and just thought to himself, why does she have to be so nonchalant about this kind of stuff?

He sighed and decided to head in for the night, the door shutting behind him as we went to bed, the Darkness haunting him in his dreams.

--

"Good morning DiZ."

DiZ turned to the two of them as they walked through the door, "Good morning you two."

"How's Roxas?" Riku asked him, rubbing the back of his head tiredly.

"I think he took to his new personality well. You wouldn't be able to tell he was part of the Organization or that he didn't belong in Twilight Town. Yesterday was the planning and reforming process, so now it's as if he had always lived there. Also, Roxas had his first day spending time with his new friends… of course he's already been faced with a problem…"

"What's going on there now?"

"Everyone's still asleep."

"As it should be." Riku muttered, his hood still over his head. How he still wanted to be in his bed.

"Cranky little bugger…" Saiyoku smacked him in the back of his head playfully. She peered over DiZ's shoulder and saw the sleepy simulated Twilight Town on the monitor. He stood up and offered her the chair, "I have to take care of a few more details on the town. For now, you two need to look after Roxas. If anything goes wrong, then come and find me."

"What could go wrong?" Saiyoku asked, shrugging her shoulders. DiZ laughed coldly, "We'll soon find out."

He left without another word, leaving Riku and Saiyoku to handle watching after Roxas… though none of them knew how to use a computer.

"Let's find Roxas." Saiyoku said, anxious to test it out, but Riku grabbed her hand and shook his head, "Let's not."

"What? Come on, if we have to watch him then we need to be able to see him."

"Do YOU know how to work a computer?"

"No."

"Neither do I. We could break it or do something to Roxas that would prevent Sora from waking up."

Suddenly, one of the keys on the computer changed to a green color and began flashing, which freaked both of them out.

"What did you do, Saiyoku?"

"I didn't do anything! The key just started doing that!"

"Well, what do we do?"

"I don't know… Press it?" She reached forward and clicked on the green button, which stopped it from flashing. The other smaller monitors surrounding the main one all switched from the screens of different data to different places in Twilight Town, including Roxas' bedroom. The sound flipped on and the main monitor changed from the whole of Twilight Town to Sora's data.

"Well, that wasn't so bad." She said, sighing with relief that the whole thing didn't explode.

"You're lucky. You could've broken something."

"Wait! Shush! He's waking up!"

"He can't hear us, moron."

"I know, but this is our job. I wanna know what he's saying."

"He hasn't said anything yet. He's just waking up."

"Shut up."

Saiyoku watched, Riku peering over her shoulder. Roxas sat up in his bed, pushing the covers off and yawning. DiZ had gone the extra mile in setting up Roxas' room like that.

"Another dream about him..." Roxas muttered sleepily.

"Him? Is he talking about Sora?"

"We'll ask DiZ when he gets back."

Roxas turned to the giant window beside his bed and pushed it open, receiving a nice breeze from the sunset filled air. The bells were chiming on the clock tower at the top of the Station; a nice good morning to the waking town. The trains and tram were already up and running, sending absolutely no one anywhere.

He got up out of bed, and Saiyoku immediately spun around in her chair.

"Yep, this is where I stop watching. I'll start watching again when he's done."

Riku was already sitting on the ground beside the massive computer, waiting for something more interesting.

"Hey, Saiyoku?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure." She spun her chair again to face him, "What'cha need?"

"Can you not call me Riku while DiZ is around?"

"Huh?"

"If I'm going to look like him and sound like him, then I might as well be called him… so from now on, please call me Ansem."

"No. I'll do anything but that. Just because you look like him doesn't mean that you ARE him; you're still Riku underneath."

"Please, Saiyoku. If you won't do it for that… then think of it as a sign of resolve. I helped in the destruction of all those worlds… there's so much I need to atone for. This is how I'll do it. I will no longer be myself."

Saiyoku sighed and glanced back at the computer screen, instantly regretting it. She quickly regained her composure, "I had a little to do with that too, you know."

"You did not. You may have been there, but against your own will."

"That's not it. I WAS there; I could've stopped you from making those wrong decisions."

"No you couldn't have. I was too stubborn then to have really listened to you."

"But I could've tried harder. Even if you hadn't listened to me, I still could have said that I had tried. But I can't really even say that. Sure I pestered you about it every now and then, but I didn't REALLY try to get you to change your mind."

Riku sighed, "Then what are you saying? Do you want to do something to atone for your mistakes too?"

"That was my own personal agreement."

"What?"

She smirked, "I don't like the fact that you want me to call you Ansem in front of DiZ—"

"Or Naminè, or anyone else."

"What? Oh, okay… fine. I don't like the fact that you want me to call you Ansem in front of DiZ, Naminè, or really anyone else except when it's just the two of us, BUT I will let it slide as my own form of small atonement. Happy?"

"Thank you."

"Now, let's see if Roxas is done." She glanced back at the screen. He wasn't there anymore, but was running toward the Usual Spot instead. She continued to stare at the screen as he joined up with Olette, who was on her way there as well.

"Whoa, hard to believe that these guys are fake! Olette looks exactly the same, and sounds and acts like her too!"

"DiZ is really amazing at that."

Saiyoku kept her eyes on the screen, fascinated by how complex DiZ had made his simulation. Every detail was in order as the two friends joined Hayner and Pence inside their hangout. The three in the back kept up a conversation—Hayner obviously furious about something—while Roxas kept to himself towards the front. He kept looking at his hands, thinking hard, all other conversation not registering in his head. The train could be heard rattling on the tracks above, sending a shower of dust every once in a while when it passed.

"Man, doesn't that tick you off?" Hayner asked Pence for reassurance, and he nodded, "Yeah, that's just wrong."

"What are they talking about?" Riku asked her, confused.

"I think they're talking about the problem DiZ mentioned. Whatever it is, I don't know yet."

"Seifer's gone too far this time." Olette complained. The three friends all looked over at Roxas, waiting from his feedback on the situation. He hadn't heard what they were talking about, so he just went with a little hesitant nod. Hayner rolled his eyes and jumped down from his 'seat' on the water heater to the next door building.

"I mean, it's true that stuff's been stolen around town. And we've got a score to settle with Seifer and everything. So if he wants to think we did it, I can't really blame him." Hayner began as he crossed the room before stopping in front of Olette,

"See… that's not what really bugs me. What REALLY bugs me is that he's goin' around tellin' everybody that we're the thieves! Now the whole town and their mothers are treating us like the Kelpto Club!" He continued on before stopping next to Roxas and looking at him, his face clenched with anger, "Have you ever been this ticked off before in your life? 'Cause I haven't. Nuh-uh, NEVER."

"Wonder what was stolen."

"Who knows?"

He turned away from Roxas and beat his fist in his palm, "Now… what to do."

Neither Olette nor Pence could think of anything, so they turned to Roxas, who was still only half paying attention. He pulled something out of the top of his head, "Uh, well… We could find the real thieves. That would set the record straight."

Pence stood up, "Hey, that sounds fun!"

Hayner became skeptical, "What about Seifer?"

Roxas continued with this idea, "First, we gotta clear our names. Once we find the real culprit, everyone will get off our backs."

Hayner moaned, upset that he couldn't deal with Seifer first. Pence picked up his camera and became worried, looking around the same place as his camera had been.

"Oh, no! They're gone! Our---- are gone!" Pence yelled, not finding what he had been looking for. He gripped his throat and tried to get the word out, but nothing came.

"All our ----, gone?" Hayner asked, understanding immediately. He did the same thing, wondering what was going on.

Olette gave it a try, but couldn't say it either, "You can't say ---- why not?"

Saiyoku looked at Riku, "I'm not going crazy am I, or are they really not able to say a certain word?"

Riku stood up and joined her again, watching the monitor and listening closely, "No, I wonder what word it is."

"We'll find out… Hey, wait. Maybe there's something wrong with it. Go get DiZ."

"Right."

Pence put down his camera, "But you do understand what I'm saying, right? Our ---- are gone!"

Roxas stood up and joined the circle, "Stolen… And not just the ----. The word ----. They stole it, too!"

"What kind of thief is that?" Hayner asked, folding his arms, "Seifer could never have pulled that off."

"Yeah." Roxas agreed, happy that he gave up on Seifer.

Riku arrived shortly with DiZ, the man quickly taking over the chair. He pressed several buttons when suddenly the screen with Sora's data on it switched to a screen with tons of numbers and data and codes. The screen turned red and began to flash, a buzzer sounding off.

"They found him already." DiZ said, exasperated.

"What?" Saiyoku and Riku asked simultaneously.

"Dusks found their way into the simulation. This very mansion is also in the simulation, but provides an entry point though it is needed for the extraction of Sora's memories. It seems they found a weakness. We'll let Roxas take care of them."

"All right, time for some recon!" Hayner said, and they all ran out of their hangout, Pence grabbing his camera on the way out.

The screen with the data and codes switched back to Sora's data, which showed two loading bars. One was 75% completed, while the other one was empty. Another meter below it kept racing up and down.

"His heart is returning. Doubtless he'll awaken very soon." DiZ said, but Saiyoku had her eyes fixated on the screen with Roxas. He just collapsed onto the floor, and she could hear DiZ's voice from him directly, but also from the computer. This didn't escape his notice.

"I believe he heard me, too. This dusk infiltration is already messing up my simulation. Once they're gone, things will calm down a bit."

Roxas got back up, brushing himself off and showing plain confusion on his face. Olette came back to see what was up, "Roxas, c'mon." He nodded and ran with her to join the rest of their friends to head over to the Marketplace. They talked to several people for information before heading over to the Sandlot where Rai, Fuu, and another person Saiyoku didn't know were facing the scoreboard.

The small person in Seifer's gang pointed to the foursome when they approached, alerting Rai and Fuu. They spun around, Fuu pointing to them in accusation.

"Thieves." She said.

Rai held up his fist, "That was low, y'know!"

The other person didn't say anything, but shook their head, their hands on their yellow mage's hat.

"Oh yeah?" Hayner said, not thinking of anything else to say to that. Seifer walked into the Sandlot from underneath the archway that led into Station Heights.

"Nice comeback there, blondie."

"What'd you say?" Hayner held up his fist and growled.

Seifer scowled, "You can give us back the ---- now."

"Yeah! You're the only ones that would take it, y'know?" Rai said, while Seifer joined his gang, pointing at the group of friends.

"That was undeniable proof that we totally owned you lamers. So what did you do? Burn it? Ha, not that we need some ---- to prove that you're losers."

"Replay."

Seifer laughed at his friend's idea, "Now you're talking!" The four gang members took their stances, while Hayner and Roxas were really the only ones that took their battle ready positions.

"I guess if you get on your knees and beg, MAYBE I'll let it slide."

Roxas stood normally and approached him and took a deep breath, while Hayner reached out in silent protest. Seifer's gang laughed when Roxas got down on one knee and bowed his head.

"Roxas!" Hayner yelled at him in disappointment.

Roxas looked up at the three Struggle bat choices that were lying around on the ground from previous matches. He ran up to the closest one he could find and stood at a distance from Seifer, who just smirked.

"Roxas, focus!" Pence called out to him, and Roxas nodded, attacking Seifer. He hit him with several quick combos, taking him down easily, but Seifer just kept getting back up, and Roxas and he were still in the same positions.

"Come on… quit playin' around and fight!" Seifer taunted, but Roxas wasn't intimidated. He leaped forward and laid a mean combo that sent Seifer to the ground and his friends to his side.

"Seifer's not feelin' so hot, y'know!"

"Tournament decides."

His two friends turned around and helped him up while Pence pulled out his camera and steadied it for a picture. Roxas turned and the camera clicked, Pence sticking out a thumbs-up. A Dusk instantly wrapped around him and grabbed the camera, jumping and flipping through the air in an escape.

"What was that?" Hayner asked, skeptical.

"The thief?" Olette offered, and all four of them took off after it, splitting up to catch it. Roxas kept his eye on it and followed it through the Marketplace and out into the Forest, trailing it to the Old Mansion where the gate was padlocked shut. It had stopped in front of it while Roxas confronted his new enemy, still holding the Struggle bat. The creature's mouth unzipped, showing it was ready to fight.

Roxas made the first move, hitting the silver creature with everything he had, but it barely did anything to the Nobody.

"It's no use…"

DiZ chuckled, "Oh, is that right? Well then, try this."

Roxas' Struggle bat was covered in codes and numbers, changing the bat into a digitalized Kingdom Key. The Keyblade immediately sensed the enemy and was ready to fight, almost pulling Roxas to it.

"What? What… what is this thing?"

"Nice." Saiyoku commented, now fully enjoying watching Roxas. The boy took his stance again— which she noticed was very similar to Sora's battle stance—and he attacked the Nobody head on again, slide dashing around it to confuse it. He took it out after a few more hits, and the Dusk disappeared in a burst of light, pictures fluttering to the ground where it had stood.

DiZ took away the Keyblade, "We don't want him to attract any more of them, now do we?"

--

Saiyoku watched as the loading bar began to fill, the memories that were stuck inside Sora were flashing against the screen. A computerized voice suddenly said, "Restoration at twelve percent." It startled her, and the loading bar stopped moving. Riku approached the computer again after leaning against the wall for some time.

"Organization miscreants… They've found us." DiZ repeated, really annoyed and exasperated.

"But… why would the Nobodies steal photographs?" Riku asked.

"Both are nothing but data to them. The fools could never tell the difference. We are running out of time. Naminè must make haste."

"Understood. We'll let her know."