This fic is a response to a fic challenge by The White Raven013. I'm going to list all the fanfic parameters first, so y'all know what I'm working with. If you want to read the fic, just skip down to the line break. ;)

Have a fic that can include the following elements (you are not limited to this):

1. Something that twists the plot of the original KH games to the writer's liking (for example, what MegaFlameHedge did with their fic 'Dual Destinies').
2. What about KH3? You would think with all the hubbub about the new games, there would be something about the new characters and stuff.
3. A story with a bittersweet or tragic ending-- I'm getting really bored with all of the happy endings.
4. A story with the element of mystery in it-- something in the story has to be solved by means of logic, science, et cetera.
5. A story that starts out with an almost innocent air about it but gradually becomes darker as it goes along (this one I would really like).
6. Something with adventure in it maybe? Though, if you do this, I prefer if you don't use Sora, Riku, Donald or Goofy.
7. Multi-chaptered would be cool, but it's not a must.
8. Maybe do a fic that spins off of a Shakespeare play-- just not Romeo and Juliet please (I love it, though, it's overused).

The fic, however, cannot include these elements:

1. The words Zexion and emo mentioned in the same fic (you should get what I mean here).
2. Yaoi (I will admit some of this stuff in the KH section is all right, but it's all you find these days-- I want something different).
3. Axel being a sexual deviant.
4. Roxas and angst being best friends (again, you should get what I mean).
5. Demyx being a complete neanderthal.
6. Any character being perfect.
7. Sora being a klutz.
8. Riku being either a sexual deviant or a pile of angst.
9. Kairi being a harlot, happy-go-lucky, or a generally not liked character for poor reasons.
10. Set in the world of education.
11. Smut in general.
12. An overabundance of cliches.

So. No smut, no yaoi. Dark. Suspenseful. Tragic ending. LET'S START THE PARTY! :D

Many thanks to my betas, my IRL life friend Steph, and LiteraryMirage. Thanks guys!

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Riku who lived on a cluster of beautiful islands directly in the center of a crystal clear ocean, which were exactly as idyllic as described. He had the best friend anyone could ask for, parents who loved him, and he was the very best at absolutely everything he tried. His life was, as far as a young boy could be concerned, absolutely perfect.

Then, something happened. A girl showed up on the island. She fell from the sky during a star shower, and landed with a sploosh in the cool tide. And suddenly, someone had something that Riku didn't.

Riku had never been to the sky.

The girl revealed that her name was Kairi, and was promptly adopted by the mayor of Destiny Islands. Very soon, Kairi was the star of their tiny little world. Everyone wanted to know where she'd come from, who she was, will you be my friend? Riku seethed with envy. Who cared about the stupid sky, anyway? He was still the best at blitzball and school and sword-fighting and everything else. That was when Riku began to turn himself inward, and in hindsight, most likely when the darkness began to take root.

A few years later, when Riku was 12 or 13 or so, he began to notice something very odd, indeed. He'd always hated Kairi for stealing his spotlight, and as such he'd always noticed her a little bit more than the other girls on the islands. But now, he was completely obsessed. He watched her every move, teased her at every opportunity, hung out with her friends, spent hours day-dreaming about her pretty red hair. Wait, pretty? And so, poor Riku tumbled unwittingly into his very first crush.

Unfortunately, Kairi liked his best friend Sora better. And to make matters worse, the idiot didn't even notice. Hardened by heartbreak, Riku turned in on himself once again. At least, he thought he was hardened. In reality, he was becoming weaker, more vulnerable.

At around this time, Riku started caring about the sky again. He hated his life, now- Kairi had destroyed everything dear to him, but despite his best efforts to let go, he was still hopelessly in love with her. (At least, he thought he was, in his silly pre-adolescent way.) Fueled by pre-teenage angst, Riku began plotting escape from his miserable islands. He read adventure novels, he learned survival techniques, he practiced striking fire with flint and tinder, he drifted away from his parents, all in preparation for the day he would leave.

Over the years, Sora and Kairi, his two best friends in all worlds, began to notice what was going on. Instead of trying to stop him, they decided to go with him. Kairi wanted to find out where she was from, after all, and Sora went wherever Riku went. From one perspective, their decision was a mark of true friendship. To Riku, however, they were only trying to hold him back. He humored them though, and let them help him build a raft, but the night before they were set to leave, he rowed out to their play island with the full intention of leaving by himself.

On his way towards the cove where they'd stowed their getaway craft, Riku was stopped by a shadowy figure. No one but him and his friends ever came to this island; it was completely uninhabited, and adults couldn't be bothered to make the trip. In short, Riku was quite surprised to see an adult here, of all places, at this time.

"Who are you?" he'd asked bluntly. Everyone on the islands knew who he was; he was Riku, Golden Boy. He had no reason to be afraid.

"Who are you?" the mysterious shadowy figure asked right back at him. Riku frowned. He really wasn't into silly questions and soul-searching. As such, he refused to dignify the inquiry with a response. After a long pause, the man (for the voice definitely belonged to a man) spoke again. "You want to leave this world." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes. I'm leaving now, on that raft right over there. Don't try to stop me," Riku said haughtily. His hand drifted towards the knife on his belt. He didn't want to hurt anyone, but he was more than willing to fight anyone who tried to take him home, tooth and nail if necessary.

"I wasn't going to stop you. I want to help you." Riku blinked in surprise, taken aback. This person was going to help him run away from home? "If you use that contraption, you'll surely die. There is an easier way. Follow me." The man turned and walked away slowly, disappearing among the vines at the entrance to Riku and Sora's secret hiding spot. The spot they'd both sworn never to show anyone else, that is, until Sora had gone behind his back and shown Kairi. Riku's resolve steeled, and he crouched down and entered.

At the back of the secret spot was a door, a door that most definitely had not been there the day before while they were gathering supplies. Maybe it was an old storehouse or something, and the entrance had been covered up? Riku looked on in wonder. His new acquaintance was standing directly beside it.

"This door leads to another world," he explained softly. "But you are the only one who can open it."

"Why me?" As a child, Riku wouldn't have bothered to question. Of course he was the only one who could open the door. But now, he was laced with uncertainty. The change was not lost on Riku the teenager.

"Because you have been chosen." Riku raised an eyebrow.

"Chosen for what?"

"Why don't you open the door and find out?" Riku eyed the imposing entryway uncertainly. He took a quick glance over his shoulder. This was it. If he left, truly left, his parents and Sora and Kairi, there would be no turning back. He'd never had to make a decision this weighty, not in his entire short life. Stand still, or move forward? He looked to the shadowy man for help.

"Go, Riku," the man urged. "Your destiny is not here." That was all the encouragement Riku needed. A few short steps moved him across the hiding place to the door- why had the cave seemed so much bigger when he was small? He rested his hand on the smooth, polished wood.

"There's no door knob," he said stupidly.

"You don't need one," the man chuckled, a vaguely sinister sound. Now they were standing next to each other. The man gently rested a hand on Riku's shoulder, and Riku's blood ran cold. Well, it was too late to turn back now.

He pushed.

Riku didn't find out what had happened to his islands that night until much later, when Maleficent told him. In a moment of weakness, he'd begged to go home, and she'd coldly explained that he had no home left to go to, by no one's fault but his own. His parents would be gone, she'd said, but there was a chance that some children may have survived. At that point, Riku had refocused his energy on begging her to help him find his friends. She graciously agreed.

By the time they found Kairi, she had already lost her heart. That was when Riku lost his, as well.

"Ah! Stop it." Riku shook his head violently to clear it of the awful memories. Normally, he was a very cool-headed boy. He was the responsible one, the one the parents trusted when he and Sora and Kairi went to the islands by themselves. A born leader. So, naturally, he was reluctant to admit that he was lost. Well, is it even possible to be lost when there's only one way to go?

Riku had appeared in Kingdom Hearts, with hazy memories of what he'd done. The King was there, too, King Mickey. Then Sora had arrived, and the King and Riku helped him close the door. He remembered saying goodbye to Sora, asking him to take care of Kairi. Then the door was closed, and Riku was lost to the darkness forever, or so he'd assumed. He'd taken for granted that he was a completely lost cause. The light would never take him back.

But now he was in a castle. A very bright castle, everything white, yet weirdly dull as well. Somehow, he had gotten from Kingdom Hearts to a castle. Or maybe this castle was Kingdom Hearts? He couldn't remember anything in between. And now that he was in the castle, the only way to go was up, up and up, higher and higher. He felt like a rat in a maze- if only he could figure out how to climb out and over the walls!

Each floor had a memory, and a different battle to fight. The memories were bad, but hey, he'd been there once, he could go there again. Riku wasn't even that concerned with the 'Organization' that showed up to chat with him all the time. They, and the bastard Replica they'd created, were by far the least of his problems.

No, his most pressing concern was that this place most definitely wasn't right. Everything was , his insides were squirming back out. The darkness he had worked so hard to fight down into himself was coughing itself up again, climbing out and manifesting.

Inside this castle, Ansem was real.

He had his own body. He could talk and touch and trick Riku into letting him come out and kill people. Riku glanced back at the empty space where the hulking Lexaeus had been standing barely a moment before. He hadn't meant to kill him! But Lexaeus had certainly meant to kill Riku- he'd been about to, even, before Riku had stopped him. Maybe that power hadn't been Ansem at all? Maybe Riku's darkness had just activated in self-preservation?

Riku once again shook his head sharply. He didn't have time for this crap. He had to get out of this castle. And the only way to do that was to keep going up. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that the castle itself was leading him somewhere, like the walls were closing in and funneling him towards a specific destination, or like some unseen force had looped a ring through his nose and was leading him to drink.

Riku stared down at the card in his hand, perfectly still though the rest of him was trembling. Only one more to go, but these were the memories he'd been dreading the most. The memories of his islands.

The islands he'd destroyed.

Next chapter: Zexion.

Review plz? :)