Disclaimer: Jeez, do I need one of these? You've probably read them on the fifteen thousand other KH fanfics on this site. Okay, basically the only things KH-related that I own are a copy of each of the games, this story, and my ideas.

Author's Note: Guys, please be nice. This is my first officially posted fanfic EVER, so don't kill me too dead.

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Chapter One: The Gift of Irony

Two boys sat quietly on the beach, looking out over the moonlit water. Out in the bay were strange, rocky formations that twisted and bent over themselves, some even re-entering the water. The sky glowed with stars, hundreds of them. Thousands of them in fact, spinning and burning millions upon millions of miles away. "Riku…" the brown haired boy said to the other, a tall silver-white haired boy who was slightly older than him. "Do you think one of those stars is ours?"

Riku's white hair shook. "No, no I don't think so. At least, not as we would remember it. This is the Realm of Darkness, remember?"

Sora nodded, his cerulean eyes filling with sadness. He thought back to what had just happened, only an hour ago.

It had been a hard fight against the Nobody known as Xemnas, both Riku and Sora nearly dying on several occasions. But Sora had managed to strike the final blow, destroying the first-and last-member of Organisation XIII. When Xemnas had disintegrated, so had his world, the strange grey-and-white world that he had fought Sora and Riku in. Riku, who had been severely injured in the final moments of the fight, had needed Sora's shoulder to even move. Yet there was nowhere for them to go. A flash of light, a hurried dash, and the two had ended up on this strange beach, a beach forever cloaked in darkness. They had arrived in the Realm of the Dark, a place that Sora had thought he had sealed off over a year ago.

Yet worlds have many entrances. And sure as eggs were eggs, this was most definitely the Realm of Darkness. Sora couldn't tell, but Riku knew. He'd been on this beach several times before.

--Few minutes later—

Riku had asked Sora to help him down to the water. He was sitting there now, his best friend at his side. "Sora… the world needs both Light and Dark," he had said. "So, we'll be the Dark."

Sora had looked at him for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah…"

"Riku, what will we do now? We're stuck here, right?" Sora asked the platinum-haired boy anxiously.

"Exactly what I said. We'll be the darkness, Sora. It's time for us to set aside the Light and become darkness."

Sora watched him worriedly. It had been a scant three hours since Riku had foregone the powers of darkness when DiZ's machine had exploded. Could Riku be reverting? He didn't want to see his friend claimed once more by the shadows within him. But that was what it meant to 'become the darkness', right? As if reading his mind, RIku smiled crookedly. "Sora, don't worry about me. I lived with 'that' within me for over a year, you know. I can handle it. You should worry about yourself," he warned. "You've never become like me, so there's no telling what will happen."

Sora shuddered. "Riku, I'm scared."

Riku wrapped an arm around the younger boy's shoulders. "Sora, don't worry. You got me, right?" he grinned a cheesy grin, eliciting a punch to the arm.

"Idiot," Sora mumbled.


Riku sat in the cold sand, his knees drawn up and his hands clasped around them. Sora was fast asleep next to him, muttering strange things in his dreams.

The white haired teen was honestly quite worried for his young friend. The prospect of someone as good-natured and kind as Sora becoming the darkness in the universe was, quite frankly, scary. Damned portal, opening here. Why couldn't it have opened to the Islands? Wasn't that what always happened in those movies? Seconds before the closing credits rolled, a portal opens to safety for the hero? Riku cursed himself silently for his stupidity at dragging Sora into this. Had he not mentioned it, they both would have likely spent their years trying to find a way back into the light, rather than deciding to succumb to the darkness. But still... Xemnas, you bastard. You're probably somewhere laughing your dead ass off 'cause the 'warriors of light and hope' are stuck in the Realm of Darkness. Damned Irony.

Riku didn't deal too well with irony. .Last time he had encountered irony, it was while he had become Ansem-Riku. Oh boy, Maleficent had never let him live that down. "Hah! To save the girl, you GAVE IN to the power that seeks to use her!" being her daily greeting to the then-younger and possessed Riku. But it had been true, the past two years had been a case study in irony.

But Riku had a sneaking suspicion that the portal held more evil surprises in store. Apparently Xemnas loved his jokes, as the silver-white-haired youth believed that this world, the beach that he and his friend now occupied, was in actual fact the Islands. Just the dark side of the Islands. If that's right, then there is a 'dark' version of all the lands? Riku pondered this idea, gradually feeling sleep claim him. His leg hurt like hell but he put it out of his mind, reclining back with his hands clasped behind his head, letting sleep pull him down into its depths...


"Riku! Riku! Wake up, dammit!" Sora roughly shook the sleeping boy, but to no avail. He suddenly grinned evilly. He ran down to the sea and cupped his hands, about to scoop some water up to splash his sleeping friend with. It was still dark-It probably always was-but the moon was up, a pale blue full moon. Sora bent over to scoop up some water, but the moonlight glinted off of something half-buried in the sand at the bottom of the ankle-deep water. He tugged it out and washed the sand off before examining it. 'It' was a bottle, a green bottle that had been smashed open. "Maybe it had a message in it?" Sora wondered half-excitedly, searching around for the letter. Sora stopped, smacking himself in the face. "Idiot... the letter would have melted in the water. Oh well, I can use this instead of my hands," he smirked, using the bottom half of the smashed bottle (The top half was nowhere in sight) to scoop up some salty water. He raced up the sand to where his friend was asleep and tipped the bottle over Riku. Understandably, Riku woke up pretty quickly.

The two boys walked side by side down the beach, trying to find something, anything, that could be some sort of civilisation. "Riku... you're still pissed, aren't you?"

The silvery-haired boy said nothing, only scowled at his friend. "Damn, I was afraid of that," Sora muttered. At least Riku couldn't get back at him just yet; he could barely walk without Sora to help him. He suddenly felt Riku stop, a slight pressure on his shoulders. Sora looked at his friend. "Riku? What's the matter? Is your leg-" Riku was busy staring at something, too entranced to reply. Sora followed his friend's line of sight and gaped. "Riku... That's..."

Off in the distance was a building, lights shining out of each window. The warm glow of the windows seemed to call to the two youngsters, who set off at the fastest pace allowed for by Riku's injured leg. Salvation was nigh...

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To my readers: Please, Read and Review! There's a lonely button on the bottom left of the page. The more the reviews, the faster chapter two goes up. And please, don't hesitate to tell me how I could improve.

Niccolo