A year's worth of collaboration, editing, and hair-pulling will eventually produce something. That something is before you now; a small section of the epic history of Radiant Garden. These chapters will aim their attention on a certain Arjuna clan, and more directly on a very few specific members of that clan. This fic is a collaborative effort between myself (Sadako Tetsuwan) and my co-author, Lans.
This story is very much an AU. You've been warned.
Further warnings: Mild to strong language, violence, yaoi, implied yuri, het-it's The Aristocrats in here. Oh, and politics. Biggest warning of all. Though with the success of Game of Thrones, this kind of politics will probably be appreciated by you kind readers.
Kingdom Hearts and all Disney work associated with this story is the property of Square-Enix and/or Disney. No money is being made from the writing of this story.
Riku remembered the day well. He had been down on the docks with Sora and Kairi, fishing and listening to the radio that Sora had built from the kit he'd received for his birthday. It looked a little slapdash, sure, but it worked fine.
A breaking news broadcast cut into their favorite afternoon radio comedy program, announcing that after eleven long years, the war was over. The reporters described the jubilant crowds in faraway lands, welcoming back armies and armadas with parades and rare appearances by kings and princes and emperors in celebration. Riku and Sora climbed onto the piles and crates on the docks, trading increasingly ridiculous 'kingly speeches' of victory, peppering their speech with plenty of 'thys' and 'thous' and 'arts'; surely the way kings and emperors must speak. As boats returned from their days on the ocean, each crew would offer their own shouts of joy at the news to the teens on the dock. The mayor of the islands quickly arranged a fireworks display for that evening, and dozens of families ate picnic dinners on the lawn of City Hall under the red and green flares.
Riku had never seen his mother so happy.
A few weeks later, Riku came home from school to find his mother sitting on the kitchen floor, crying.
"Mom? What is it? What's wrong?" Riku asked, crouching at her side. A small chuckle left her, and as his mother turned to face him, he saw she was smiling.
"It's from our king," she said, her accent coming out thicker than normal under the weight of her emotions. "Our King," she repeated, holding out a letter for Riku to see. It was written on some sort of parchment in a language he couldn't read, but what drew Riku's eye was the large wax seal at the bottom. The wax was purple, and set in the center of the seal was a gold medallion with some sort of coat of arms surrounded by lions and roses. He let his gaze drift away from the seal to take in more details. The page was embossed with gold leaf, and the borders were decorated with scrolling artwork in jewel-tone colors. As beautiful as the entire page was, though, Riku's eye continued to be caught by the wax seal and the medallion it held.
"What is it?" Riku asked again, looking up at his mother.
"The King has reclaimed us," she smiled, another tear rolling down her cheek, "We are no longer traitors...we are no longer banished."
"Traitors? Who were we traitors to?" Riku asked, looking slightly alarmed. "Does this have something to do with...the king?" he asked. Destiny Islands had no king; she must have been talking about her homeland.
"We were banished and named traitors at the outset of the war...to return to the motherland would have been punished with death," she began, rising from her place on the floor and moving toward the table, where the day's mail sat. She reached for the largest envelope, made of a similar parchment as the letter from the king, and pulled out several torn up pieces of paper. "But now...look!" she laughed, though it came out rather choked. "Look! It's void, it's all void. And here," she continued, grabbing another sheet of paper and holding it out to Riku, "You've been adopted back into the family. You're an Arjuna in name and title now, just as you should be," she smiled.
All Riku could do was stare as his mother held out sheet after sheet of parchment covered in that mysterious loopy language. "I still don't...we were banished for being traitors?" Riku asked again.
"My grandfather felt that if I had betrayed him, that was as good as betraying the King, the puffed up old ashwa," she muttered darkly, turning back to the table for a moment. "He threw his weight around and had us declared traitors when the war started, all because I married your father—an Outcaste from another land. He had already disowned me, so there was little else he could do to proclaim his hatred for me." Riku's eyes widened slightly as his mother spoke. He'd never known much about his mother's family, other than his uncle, whom she adored. Apparently, circumstances were more complicated than Riku had ever imagined. "But now...now it's over. It's all over...your uncle wants to see us again," she added, dabbing at her eyes to prevent any more damage to her make-up.
"Uncle Sephiroth? Really?" Riku asked, his expression lighting up.
"Yes, darling...he wants you to see our home...Radiant Garden."
