Author's Note
This is (possibly) the final part to my Yume series. I actually never planned on ACTUALLY writing this, but I figured it'd be good to show another part of Yume. If you wish to read the previous Dream and I'm a Nobody parts, you'll have to go to my previous account starrytwilightakina and read those stories. Although, it might (emphasis on might) be all right to read if you haven't read the other ones. I just wanted to get this off of my chest.
A Cruel Heartless Creature
The crescent sliver of light illuminated the dark and lonely street, creating an obscure feeling of fear and hunger. If one looked closely, he or she would notice the irregular movement of the shadows. These shadows did not follow the flicker of the lamppost or movement of the light above. No, these shadows move by their own will. One figure moved as well, clothed with the color of the darkness itself. If one didn't take a second look, the person might've looked like a shadow himself if the person had not heard the slight thud of his heavy boots and the occasional clink of metal against metal.
He moved with purpose, making sure not to grab the attention of the shadows around him. He knew he could kill them all easily, but this was not his purpose today. He had heard from a source that something dark had manifested in Traverse Town. It had taken a form of a human girl, not much older than sixteen or seventeen. He had wondered who she was and why she had taken form.
"Excuse me, but… are you a keyblade wielder?"
Riku turned around, shocked to hear a young girl's voice. Looking no older than eight, she wore a simple sleeveless blue dress. She had slightly messy hair that fell to her shoulders. Her hands were placed behind her back, and she had a timid look upon her face. Riku calmed down slightly. "I am. How do you know that?"
"Would you like to escort me home, please?" the young girl asked, averting her eyes. She gave a shy smile. "Mommy will be angry if I don't get home soon."
Riku paused for a moment. This seemed really strange. There was something wrong with this picture, but it didn't click why. A twisting sense of uncertainty thrashed in his heart. He shrugged, doing his best to dismiss the feeling. This girl needed his help and he should give it. Anyway, she was so adorable. How could he say no to a face like that? He shook his head. Now he was beginning to sound like Sora. "Lead the way."
The two walked in silence: the young man and the little girl. No disturbances. No problems. Soon, they reached her house. It was simply designed, like the rest of the town. Riku paused and thought it over. It looked familiar though. He blinked and held in a gasp. That was right. This is the location of the strange manifestation. He couldn't let the girl in.
"Thanks for dropping me off," the girl said cheerfully, walking forward and grabbing a key out of her pocket. Riku noticed a strange marking on her right hand as she reached for the key. Xehanort's symbol. He frowned and his keyblade appeared in his right hand. He raised it above me, ready to strike. The girl placed the key inside the keyhole, pausing a moment to speak. Her voice changed, sounding like a normal teenager rather than a young child. "Would you like to come inside?"
"They said you had the form of a teenage girl," Riku said, cursing himself in the back of his mind. He should've known that no girl could get that deep into Traverse Town without having their heart being devoured by heartless. A young girl would've brought a lot of attention to herself, not to mention a young heart is usually what heartless were after. They weren't attacked at all. They walked in silence. Nothing moved or stirred on the way here.
"Did they now?" the girl asked, turning around. She now had the form of a teenage girl. Long, wavy black hair cascaded down to the middle of her back. Her eyes were a bright golden color and they seemed illuminated in the dark street. Her dressed had turned black and was torn at the edges. A slight smirk touched her lips. "I won't ask again. Would you like to come inside?"
"So you can kill me?" Riku asked, doubting the sincerity in her voice. He had never encountered something so sinister and innocent at the same time. It was an incomprehensible feeling. "So you can take my heart and then devour it?"
"I have a heart. Why in the world would I want yours? And I definitely don't want more of me, if that's what you're thinking," the teenage girl replied. She walked into her house, motioning Riku to follow. After taking a moment to think, he also entered the household. Yume sat in what was presumably the living room. There were only two chairs. The entire house was otherwise devoid of furniture. From where he entered, the two chairs sat in the middle of the room facing each other. The chairs were big and cushiony. To the right, there was a door, and to the left was a window. Ahead of him was an unlit fireplace with ashes in it.
As far as he could tell, Riku couldn't sense any other beings in the house other than himself and the heartless named Yume. Yume took a seat and motioned for Riku to sit in the chair across from her. "Please."
Riku took a seat. He was wary of her motives. A million questions raced in his mind. Such as, why hadn't she engaged in combat or what made this heartless manifest into a person like Xehanort? Yume yawned and sat back in her chair, as if she were waiting for something. Riku stood again, moving to the window. He didn't see any heartless. He blinked. No, he saw them, but they were at the end of the street. They were gathered like a dark, moving line.
"I hate those Heartless, purebred and emblem. They're so disgusting and filthy, living on like animals in the wild," Yume commented, playing with her wavy hair. Her hand was stamped with Xehanort's symbol, but it was partially blacked out with some type of ink. Riku turned around, confused. "I tell them to stay far away from me and they do so. I can tell they want to eat me, rip me apart with their grimy little hands to reach the heart within me. It's just a struggle for power, really. Is it hard to see with that blindfold on?"
"Why am I here?"
"I was bored and needed a playmate," Yume replied, shrugging. She turned, laying her head on the arm of the hair and draping her legs over the other arm. "I got wind of your coming, so I decided to lead you here safely."
"Don't lie!" Riku shouted angrily. He slammed his fist into the wall, only to find that the wall was protected by some kind of shield. He stared at the wall, confused.
"I have to protect my home, you know. If you invite any type of heartless, they climb on the walls and wreck things. It's annoying. I like this house," Yume replied to Riku's unsaid question. She yawned again and stretched, her hourglass figure clearly outlined in her dress. Riku turned his face away, wondering if she had any shame.
"Do you need pencil and paper to remember things?"
Riku stared at Yume confusedly. He shook his head, and Yume sat upright. She smiled at him, giving a close human-like feeling. She nodded and motioned for the chair again. "Then ask the questions that you and the King have."
"About the heartless?"
"About the heartless," Yume repeated. She stretched once more and shook her head as if something were in her hair. She twirled a curl around her finger. "Then I'll let you take my heart, but capture it before it flies off to Xemnas's castle, okay? I don't want to see her, if she's even still alive."
"Who?"
"The other me. The other Yume," she replied, looking away for a moment. Riku sat there for a moment, thinking of all the things that he wanted to know about Heartless. Most of it was answered in Ansem's reports. He opened his mouth to speak when Yume interrupted him. "I know you know a lot from Ansem's reports, but that's from the perspective of a human. Don't you want to know the truth from a real heartless?"
"Why do you have a human form? Why did Xehanort have a human form?" Riku asked, answering Yume's question. She paused, thinking over the question.
"I think it's because we were strongly attached to the darkness, so much that it consumed us as we consumed it. Xehanort had his own plans, and I had mine. Of course, we have different goals, but neither of us let our hearts be completely absorbed in this darkness without consuming a lot of its power. I'm sure it has to do with our strong desires. I've never seen a man more determined than Xehanort," Yume replied, shrugging. She looked out the window, remembering something very distant. "The only difference between us is that Xehanort looked like himself, and I grew up."
"What was your… desire?" Riku asked, almost afraid to ask. If this heartless admired Xehanort, then Yume might be a psychopath after all. Yume frowned, giving a look that she knew what Riku was thinking. She 'hmphed' and turned away.
"I'm not crazy like him. I admire his passion, that's all!" Yume assured, her eyes poking holes into Riku's soul. She sighed. "I didn't want to be forgotten. I didn't want to be another number on the death list or another heartless to be taken hostage or used. I hated that thought. I will not be something to be used or thrown away. I will not!"
Riku's keyblade appeared in his hand again. He felt a surge of power from Yume, more powerful than anything he'd ever encountered ever since he faced the darkness in his heart. After awhile, she calmed down and apologized for her irritable behavior. He shook his head. "I didn't think heartless had feelings."
"No, most of us don't," Yume replied, sighing. "Being sucked into the darkness, you begin to feel everything negative. Hate, hunger, desire… it becomes so strong that you begin to not want to feel at all. In order to no longer feel that deep and unending pain, you allow the darkness to consume you completely, but I'm sure you know that already, Riku."
"You really do know a lot, don't you?" Riku asked, hearing his name called at last. Yume shrugged.
"I had to grow up. Can't have a body like this and still think like a second grader," she replied. Her eyes closed and the house began to shiver. "Ah, the heartless are getting restless. What a shame. We might not have much time left."
"How come you didn't kill me?" Riku asked. "I know you didn't want my heart, but I came here to dispose of you. I'm sure you don't want to die."
"You have a connection to Sora, so I had to meet you. I was hoping that you'd bring him with you, but I guess he's under the control of that girl now," Yume stated. She closed her eyes. "I wanted to meet him again, but I guess going to his best friend really didn't help."
"He's… sleeping, right now," Riku replied.
"I know. He's under that Nobody's spell, right…? She's fixing him. She's fixing what she broke," Yume said, her tone turning dark. Riku stared at Yume, amazed that she knew. Who could've known that a Heartless could be come this intellectual? It was amazing. She was displaying tons of emotion. She didn't fit the category of a heartless at all.
"Are you really a heartless?" Riku asked. "Or are you a wielder of darkness?"
"Look at this," Yume said, holding the back of her right hand to Riku, showing the symbol. She frowned. "I was stamped."
"But you're a purebred, aren't you?" Riku asked, raising an eyebrow. Purebreds didn't have that stamp on them, and he was sure that she was probably human at one time. She couldn't be artificial.
"Partially."
"Partially?"
Yume paused, making Riku believe she was looking into the depths of her heart. She got up and pressed her hand against the door to the right. Light shone through the cracks around it. Sighing, she pushed open the door. Blinding light illuminated the room. Riku was blindfolded, but he still had to cover his eyes. It was as if the light penetrated his soul rather than his eyes though. "Do you want to see why I am what I am right now? Follow me."
She walked into the light.
Riku stood there, lowering his arms. Thus far she hadn't hurt him. In fact, she had plenty of chances to kill him. He wasn't sure why, but he felt as if she was human. He felt like she was whole. It was strange. Without wasting another moment, he followed Yume into the light.
"Mommy, why are we here?"
Riku found himself in a laboratory. There were many shelves, each one lined with a bottle. He walked closer, seeing that there inside these bottles were hearts. Each bottle was labeled with a name and a personality. His eyes widened. Was this Xehanort's laboratory?
"It was a small base of his. I was one of the 'living' species that he fed the heartless to."
Riku turned to Yume. She stared at the bottles of hearts, ignoring the small child and woman standing on the side of a cage. Inside the cage was one of the purebred heartless. Sensing the heart of the girl and the woman, it slammed crazily against the cage that held it. The woman smiled gently.
"You'll be all right. You love Mommy, right? That's why you need to stay here. I'm going back inside."
"What about this scary thing?"
"Be strong, Yume."
The woman left the room, leaving the young Yume with the heartless. It crashed against the cage, reaching its hand out for Yume's heart. It was clear that this little Yume was afraid. She was so terrified that tears stung at the edges of her eyes, but she couldn't move. Riku stared at the teenage Yume, who seemed engulfed in reading the labels of the hearts on the wall. He noticed her lips move.
"3, 2, 1… go."
At that moment, the heartless broke out of its cage and attacked the small Yume. Riku cried out, his keyblade appearing. He charged to attack the heartless when Yume's words stopped him.
"You can't help here. These are memories," Yume commented, appearing at his side. Together, they watched the small Yume fight with her life to defeat the heartless who craved for her heart. The smaller Yume had instantly jumped back from the heartless, but she tripped and fell, landing on her butt. The heartless was upon her, but she had quickly thrown a jar with a heart in it at the heartless. The heartless chased the easier prey. Another heartless grew from the heart that it captured. Small Yume cried out in horror.
"MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!!!"
The heartless continued to chase after the smaller Yume. She ran around the room from the both of them, throwing whatever she could find, but not the heart-filled jars. Eventually, the small Yume grabbed hold of a small scalpel. With it, she leaped onto one of the heartless and stabbed it over and over again until it disappeared as a heart. She turned, her eyes bloodshot with fear and instinct, and attacked the other heartless before it could touch the heart of the one that had fallen. She rose from the fallen heartless, a new sense of hatred and age in her eyes. A large bloody cut burned on her back. She had cut herself in trying to escape from the heartless. There was another cut on her upper thigh.
Riku watched the battle in horror. Just what had been done to this girl? The older Yume watched this, tears in her eyes. Riku noticed and frowned.
"Don't hold back those tears."
"I can't help it. I'm a heartless, and we can't cry," Yume said, something catching in her throat. She wiped away at her eyes to find nothing there. Yume's mother appeared in the doorway, her eyes cold and angry. She slapped the smaller Yume angrily.
"You weren't supposed to do that! If he doesn't get your heart, then I don't get the money!"
"So, we went back again and again. My mother needed that money because we were poor and about to get kicked out of the house. Xehanort did pay her though. He paid her more and more until we were out of debt. By that time…"
Riku and Yume were in a new scene. This Yume looked around the same age when he had first seen her, about 8 years old. Her eyes no longer had that childish look in them. Rather, she looked old. She looked used. She looked scarred.
"Why did you stay with her?" Riku demanded. "So many people would have—"
"Saved me?" Yume finished, a smile playing on her lips. "Who? We were poor and had nothing in return."
"Your money doesn't matter. What matters is that you're safe and out of harm's way!"
"I don't know why I loved my mother so much," Yume said, tilting her head slightly. The young Yume walked up to her mother, a bright smile on her face. Her eyes returned to their rightful younger brightness, despite the coldness in her mother's eyes. Her mother hit her, making smaller Yume fall back.
"You're a MONSTER. I've seen you fight to the death, even without any type of weapon. You're not my daughter. You don't belong anywhere. You're just a cruel heartless creature! There is no longer anything HUMAN about you."
"That was probably the day I broke down completely. I became what my mother said. When I was finally alone in the house, I went into the city. I could sense the heartless around me. I could hear the hearts beating within them. I don't know what the heck fighting those heartless did to me, but I could sense it. There was something that I felt though," Yume explained, watching the 8-year-old Yume wander town. No heartless bothered with her. Her heart was empty anyway. It was almost as if she were just a body. The smaller Yume tripped and fell, but her skin had grown tough. There was no cut, not even a scratch.
"Felt something?"
"A warmth," Yume said, a smile touching the edges of her lips. Her face lit up, remembering something better. She pressed her hand against her heart. "I felt it here, beating in time with my own empty heart. I followed it, hoping it would be my escape. That's when I met him."
"Him?"
A young Yume stared at Sora from afar, hope and childish intent shining in her eyes. She looked her age once again. Older Yume stared at Sora tenderly, a slight blush across her cheeks. Riku noticed both the stare of the young and older Yume, recognizing the glance of hope. Yume chuckled. "I remember thinking, 'This person can save me. I won't be forgotten. He and his keyblade will save me.' I didn't even know what a keyblade was. I just saw the word in my heart and I went, doing my best to find an excuse to talk to him."
The young Yume asked Sora to take her home. He, Donald, and Goofy decided to help her out. Riku stared at the older Yume. She had tears in her eyes once again. He smiled gently at her, forgetting that she was a heartless. Yume smiled on the walk back home.
"I told Sora the things I had hidden deep in my heart, unlocking everything that I had kept in until that very moment. Sora has this uncanny ability to give you hope and make you want to live again. He can inspire you and he can move you. Even if he doesn't mean to, he can go into your heart and fix all the darkness within you. Is it because he wields keyblade?"
"That's who Sora is. It doesn't have to do with a keyblade or with any kind of power. That's the kind of person Sora is," Riku replied. "A sap and still a little kid at heart."
Yume laughed, wholeheartedly. Riku, who was caught by surprise, ended up laughing with her. She grinned, the darkness around her seeming to lighten a bit. "I can see that. Sora is still a little kid, isn't he?"
"He is," Riku replied, smiling back. He stared back at the memory and stopped in his smiling. Yume's mother held her hands around the small Yume's neck. Yume's breaths began to slow until her eyes rolled back into her head. Everything around the older Yume and Riku turned dark.
"There's the end of my life. It was short, wasn't it?" Yume said in a joking voice, but her eyes spoke differently. She turned away and wiped at her eyes again. Riku reached out to comfort her, but she spoke first. "Did you know that heartless can actually feel sometimes? It's just that we feel in such large portions that our hearts sometimes can't handle it. Because our hearts can't handle it, we go berserk and lose control of our sanity. This is why many of those heartless fight so recklessly. They're feeling emotions all the time. Rage. Anger. Sadness. Desire. Hopelessness. Loss. It's too much to bear for them. I can't feel their pain and their anger, but I know it's there. They see the heartless all around them, but they still think they're alone. They think no one else suffers like they do, and it's so sad. The only reason I haven't gone insane is because I still need to tell Sora something."
"We'll go see him. I'll take you there," Riku stated. He couldn't let Yume down, especially after showing him her heart. He couldn't just let her suffer alone.
"I can't go. The heartless here will follow me. Sora is somewhere where I don't want more heartless to go and suffer more. Even worse, I don't want these heartless to hurt more people," Yume replied, shaking her head. Riku was at a loss for words.
"Then can you wait? I can bring him here," Riku said, giving another option.
"No, you have to kill me now."
"Why?"
"Maleficent is looking for me. She's right at my doorstep, and I know I will have to bow to her will," Yume replied, lowering her head. She spoke with bitterness and anger. "I'm strong, but not as strong as she is. I'll become one of those things outside if I resist. Please let me die in this form."
"Are you sure—"
"I am. If you are a man of your word, you won't return to the castle without my heart. Show that you have defeated this dark manifestation and set me free. I'm far from human," Yume quickly said, turning away. She did her best to show a smile to Riku. "But it's been a pleasure meeting you."
"S… same here," Riku answered, his keyblade appearing in his hand.
"Before you kill me, will you let Sora know something when you see him?" Yume said, holding out her hand. Riku looked up, his eyes glazed over from having to kill someone who was wrongly killed. She smiled brightly once more.
"Tell Sora that I believe his answer… and tell him, thank you."
Riku nodded, accepting her last wishes. He swung down with his blade, releasing Yume's heart. He captured it and held it close to him, even though he knew that the heartless were advancing upon him. Taking another moment to cherish the time he had had with Yume, he disappeared back to King Mickey to tell him of what happened. As he ran back, he swore he heard Yume's voice on the wind.
Wouldn't it be great if I could meet all three of you next time?
Riku smirked, keeping hold of Yume's heart.
"Yeah, it would."