"Take care of her, Sora," Riku said, as the doors of Kingdom Hearts closed on him. He didn't deserve Kairi, not after all he had done to hurt the one she loved.
Sora, not me.
Riku turned around as the doors closed, and watched as two Darksiders arose from the blackness in the shadows. They began lumbering toward King Mickey, who was using his keyblade to lock the great doors. Riku jumped toward the heartless, buying time for the King to finish. He drew forth his sword, Soul Eater, and charged forward.
Riku laid into the two of them, drawing their focus away from the King and onto him. A mistimed dodge earned him a few broken ribs from the impact of the Darksider's fist. He still held on through the pain, even as it became difficult to draw breath.
Come on Sora, hurry up. I can't do this forever.
Neo-Shadows began joining the fray, leaping in between the massive strikes of the Darksiders. Riku abandoned all pretense of an offense in favor of blocking and dodging. Another glancing blow from a Darksider and his arm was shattered. The pain and damage seemed to be affecting someone else, someone far away. His connection to his body was fading as his vision grew darker, and blood flowed from the numerous slashes and gouges. He jumped, attacking the Darkisder again. His slashes were erratic, the force behind them pitiful.
Click
A distinctive sound pierced the haze, and he heard someone call his name.
And then the haze cleared in an instant. He felt every ripped muscle, every snapped bone, every hole in his skin spilling his blood. Even as he screamed from the pain, he felt his bones return to his insides and re-knit themselves together, his muscles and skin draw closed over the wounds, making him whole again.
If that was what healing magic felt like all the time, Riku was glad he couldn't use it.
He saw the King burst through one of the Darksiders, its corpse falling as Riku stood up. Two more Darksiders began forming, and Riku focused on the sorrow and shame he felt, his anger with himself.
Darkness coalesced in his hands, responding to his emotions, and he pointed it at the Neo-Shadows, bolts of dark energy smashing into them as he charged forward, cutting and blasting the heartless.
They fought together, he and Mickey, for what felt like hours. Their bodies were weary, their magic exhausted, and their wounds multiplying. Their foes were diminishing as well, growing weaker, and attacking in fewer numbers. Victory was in sight, if only they could hold out a bit longer. A low shudder quaked through the ground, and their foes congregated together, merging into one last Darksider.
Riku looked at the King and nodded. They hadn't spoken to each other yet; two warriors struggling against a sea of heartless had no time for words. If it had been Sora, the shared look would have shouted a contest to be the first to bring it down. They were always competing, with Kairi cheering them on, but her smile was always bigger when Sora—
Metal shattered. Heat and lancing pain covered him.
Riku stopped skidding and tumbling a dozen yards away, bits of his now broken sword flecking his skin with shrapnel. The Darksider pulled back its fist to approach and strike him down, and the King took the opportunity to attack, finally cutting through one of the Darksider's arms. The Darksider was fresh, however, and all of the King's skill and grace meant nothing when he had no energy to fight. Riku was still struggling to his feet when the King was sent flying back toward him, his spine bent and his head hanging to the side, his eyes lifeless. His keyblade skidded to a stop a few feet in front of Riku.
The Darksider lumbered toward Riku, its forty-foot frame gaining speed with each step.
With blood leaking from a dozen wounds across his face, neck, and chest, Riku stumbled to Mickey's keyblade, the only weapon left.
He lifted the blade, unable to raise it to its place in his stance. He put a second hand on it and held it low, a tribute to Sora and his ridiculous fighting style—one final tribute before he died.
The beast continued its charge, and Riku rolled out of the way of the giant fist. Gasping for breath, he stumbled drunkenly toward the beast and swung. Again and again he blindly cut, stepping or outright falling to avoid the gigantic swipes. He cut and cut, but finally he couldn't move anymore. He had no more energy to avoid what the creature sent at him.
He collapsed to his hands and knees. Then his arms gave out; he passed out before he hit the ground.
Pressure woke Riku.
Not someone pushing on him, but a strange squeezing sensation, as if he were being pressed on all sides, from within and without.
He opened his eyes to light. It was not blinding, and strangely, seemed to be coming from behind him. Riku stumbled as he rose, the floor sticking to his bloody hands and clothes. Finally, after several minutes of effort, he turned to face the light.
It was a giant white sphere, floating in the void of Kingdom Hearts.
Broken shards of Soul Eater lay around him, the keyblade was still in his hand, and the King's corpse lay in front of him. All that, the doors, and the orb were the only things in the endless expanse of white.
"Hello?" he called out, hoping there was someone else here, someone else with him. Silence and loneliness were the only response.
Then the orb Pulsed. The void seemed to become brighter, and the pressure around Riku increased.
What was that? What is this strange feeling?
He felt suffused with ideas, half-formed concepts, strange designs and plans. Another [b]Pulse[/b], and the pressure became uncomfortable, the stream of ideas a torrent.
Another Pulse, and Riku was done with whatever the orb was trying to do to him. The pressure became a whole-body pain.
"Stop it, now." he commanded the orb. It Pulsed again in response, and Riku winced at the vice-like pressure.
He pointed the keyblade, hoping its ancient and arcane magic would stop the orb. But it Pulsed again, going faster now.
"Enough!" Riku shouted at it, the pain becoming intolerable. He jumped at it, swinging the keyblade. Pulse
The blade passed straight through the orb as if it were nothing, and Riku fell into the luminescence.
He felt, more than saw, the shift in perspective. He felt the pulses become more rapid but less intense, even as he saw the stars, the thousands of other worlds. He felt connected to every world, something profoundly deep and nurturing. The connections were discrete, each one an individual. He felt them dying, withering with decay. The bonds shouted their pain, their need for sustenance.
Riku was confused; a part of him, the part touched by the bonds, wanted to restore them, healing their pain. Another part just wanted it all to stop, to have a minute to collect his thoughts and figure out where he stood. The vast majority of his mind was too busy trying to make sense of the surge of ideas and plans. With every pulse, the ideas came even stronger, the bonds crying for succor, and the pressure grew.
Finally, Riku fell through the orb and the cries of agony dimmed down to echoes, throbbing with each pulse. Kingdom Hearts was now blinding in its brightness. The only dimnesses were the body of the king, the remnants of his sword, and the locked exit doors.
It seemed as if all he had done was blink when he found himself standing in front of the white, ivory-and-gold-trimmed doors. The pulses were nearly constant, and the pressure and pain indescribable.
If I can get out, I can maybe get help.
But there was no handle, no hinge, no keyhole in the pristine doors. Riku leveled the keyblade at the doors, and the magics of the Blade of Keys awoke. Deep indigo light burst forth from the tip. A crack between the doors appeared, and then the doors were flung open before him as a gigantic wave of force hurled him through the opening. The pressure against him faded away.
He found himself floating in the starry void, the abandoned and wasted monstrosity of a ship a few hundred yards away. Try as he might, he could make out nothing else. Nowhere were the doors he had come through, though he could still feel the [b]Pulses[/b], slowing in frequency now. Deeper in himself, he felt the bonds to the other worlds. He could only barely sense them now, comforted, contented. Riku felt himself drifting toward one of the bonds, and it responded with something that felt inexplicably high-pitched and warm.
Then he was touching the bond, and he felt himself stretched, his skin burning. He was very familiar with this sense of motion. With a practiced effort, Riku drew the darkness around himself like a shield, and the burning andstretching feeling disappeared, replaced with the cool indifference of the space between worlds. The bond he was riding in burbled, and Riku felt its confusion before the world approached him. He burst out of his cocoon of darkness as the bond terminated, then stepped out into the gallery of chalk-filled drawings in the hidden cave of Destiny Islands.