Warnings: Overuse of a certain f word, and a lot of cursing, but that's about it. :)

Chapter 1: Darkness Still Lingers

Riku couldn't sleep. He had so many worries inside of his mind that he couldn't find the joys of unconsciousness anymore. Some of those he didn't even want to think about, because they weren't even worth it. His main focus right now was college, which he had skipped a year in order to go together with his friends. His parents wanted him to attend a special military school- designed for out of line young teenagers, since they thought his disappearance two years ago was a rebelling act. They knew he wasn't like that. Otherwise he would've disappeared or escaped at the first signs of control his parents showed. He absolutely loathed control.

Many arguments had occurred in his household because of the college of his preference, which was just in town, a solid hour away from there. They complained about transportation, gas, food, materials and every other damn thing that he needed for his future. What he kept reminding them about, though, was that he had all those things planned already. He had a job since his return, and Sora's mom was capable of taking him there, since her son was attending that very same college. And another thing he liked shouting at their faces was that military school was just as pricey as all those things.

Tonight's argument was different, though. They had agreed with Riku's decision, but on one condition. He had to be in the military program that Paopu University offered. He didn't know what had changed their minds, but he sure as hell knew that it had to be something with a lot of persuasion. Even still, he stormed out of the house in a daze, saying that he had to think about it.

Currently standing at the edge of the beach he grudgingly accepted fates' decision for him. Perhaps it was some kind of cosmic punishment for his past. Even though he had promised his best friend that he would stop thinking about what he had done, he couldn't seem to do it. He had lost count of how many times his promise had been broken, his mind always treading on that territory, thinking of stuff that was better left alone. It made him feel like shit, really. One of the things he was proud of accomplishing, though, was the way he fooled his friends. Neither Sora nor Kairi had noticed something off about him. Hell, he probably should consider a Minor for Theater since his skills were very good.

He could still feel Darkness's touch on him. It was true that he still walked Twilight's path, but he sometimes felt the stirrings of his weaknesses once more. They were dark, they were cruel, but most of all they were his, and he didn't wish to acknowledge them.

On this cloudy night his powers were hard to hold on to, so he started releasing the pent-up energy he had stored inside. Creating small spheres of darkness and letting them out towards the ocean helped him just a bit, but nothing was ever going to go away from his tainted soul. When he felt relatively calm he stopped, although he still felt rather bad. He didn't think he would go through a series of unfortunate events were he would probably explode, though, so he left it at that and started to leave.

A house near the edge of the beach caught his attention. It was a one story building, small enough to fit two to three people in it. It looked rather homey, what with its small garden and white fence covering the outer edges of the place, not to mention that the house was painted a lovely beige color, to people who cared for such lovely things, anyway. The only important aspect of that house, at least for him, was the fact that it belonged to someone dear to him, someone he hadn't seen in over a year. The lights in it were on and he found it surprising that she was awake at this ungodly hour- according to his watch it was midnight. So he decided to head over there and check if things were alright.

The turning off of the lights stopped him mid-way. So did the sight of a girl standing at the porch.

Riku didn't know who she was and why she was there instead of his friend. He couldn't discern her features from where he was, so he didn't bother with them. He knew that he was being looked at too, so he didn't move from his spot. It felt rather weird to be standing in the middle of the beach scrutinizing and being scrutinized back, but he felt the need to do so. It was an urge, actually. One that I'm overindulging at the moment, Riku thought. Is it safe to get closer, I wonder? One step after the other he started to reach towards her, but she immediately went inside the house. Strange. Well, not really since technically I am a stranger to her… Seeing as there was nothing else to do, and the person he wanted to talk to was probably asleep, he walked back to his house. He would come back when he had the chance.

He was going to accept his parents' condition. He might not like it, but hey, at least he was going to be with his friends over at Paopu.

Everything was bound to be alright. It just had to.

oooOooo

He was drunk. Really drunk.

It never showed, though. The only one who could tell was Sora but since he too was also intoxicated… Well, no one else knew, period. They were walking down the street after a party Tidus had thrown, leaning on each other as they sang tunelessly a pirate song that Sora had learned from Captain Jack Sparrow. Oh Riku would never find out if that was true and he didn't even care. He was having too much fun trying to sing the lyrics with his best friend.

Fun. That word was constantly missing from his vocabulary nowadays.

No, I'm drunk and happy, and I will not think of anything right now, Riku thought, his mood realigning itself once more into the happy, oblivious state it was.

It had been a wild party, to say the least, and Riku and Sora had enjoyed it very, very much. Kairi had been invited, of course, seeing as it was an after graduation spectacular, but she had said no, which had Sora pouting for almost half of the entire night. Riku had noticed and proceeded to do what a best friend would do when a crush was absent from a very nice party: get the other drunk.

What he hadn't counted on was that Sora would be an extreme lightweight. He'd said once that he had already had alcohol but apparently it wasn't the strong type, like rum for example. A drunken confession from Sora himself confirmed it.

They kept walking down the street and in a matter of minutes (or was it hours?) they reached Sora's home. To their utter surprise, someone was still waiting for them.

"Fu-uck," whispered a very tipsy Sora. "Wutif it's- whut if tis' mom?"

"Pft, well we could say that our punch had alcohol and we didn't notice."

"She won't buy it. Side's, you soun' all normal and stuff."

"Yeah, but that's because I'm me, and you're you," chuckled Riku. "Let's just go inside and see what awaits us, oh mighty pirate."

"Argh me maiiiteee," was all Sora could say before he bent over and threw up. Sighing, Riku tried his best not to feel disgusted and helped his friend. Once Sora made sure he had nothing else to spew forth they clambered up the stairs, only to find an angry red-headed girl.

"Of all the things I assumed you were doing in that party, getting pissed drunk was the least of them all. Really, drinking? I'm gonna get Tidus for this."

"Kai, come on, we were just having fun. Sure, we might've had just a tad few more than normal, but hey, we fucking deserve it!"

Kairi sighed and ran an exasperated hand through her hair. She then said, "Riku, I don't really care if you deserve it or not. In fact, I really am not up to hear your excuses. Just … just help Sora up to his house and get him settled down before his mother wakes up."

Riku did just that, preparing himself for the tirade that would surely come from her. Kairi had never enjoyed drinking, much less when her friends did it. She tolerated it from him because he could very well hold his liquor up. But when it came to Sora she got feisty all over. He'd insisted once that her crush for Sora was making her very overprotective of him. Just because he drank didn't mean he was about to go fall on a rock and die all of a sudden. He'd earned himself a slap and a few curse words from the normally tranquil red-hair.

After putting Sora on his bed, removing his shoes and trying as hard as he could to keep himself awake, he turned around to face Kairi. She looked worried and tired, sure, but she also looked scared. This fact made Riku alert instantly because Kairi almost never got scared.

"Kai, what is it?"

"Let's head downstairs first. I don't want to wake him up."

Nodding his head in assent he followed her out the door, to the first floor and into the kitchen. Getting a glass of water for himself, he plopped down in a chair and waited for her to start. He realized that when she did, he wanted her to shut up after all.

"Are you able to grasp things of utter importance right now? Or should I wait until tomorrow?"

"You already started and have me off edge, so get on with it."

Biting her lip, she took out of her pocket what looked like a note. Well, make that a letter. She unfolded it and handed it to Riku, who immediately took it with a semblance of apprehension. Reading its contents the feeling got worse, and as he read the last sentence he growled. The King might be his friend, a trusted adult, but he had no right to take their lives away like that. College had yet to even start! Sure, he had once wanted to avoid being normal like that. But after their past events, normalcy was what he desperately wanted. And the king wanted them to give it all away on a whim, on a suspicion? Oh fuck no!

"Riku? Riku. Riku!"

Snapping out of his thoughts he realized Kairi was shouting his name, and with reason. In his drunken state he had little to no control over his magic, but because he had no worries when he got drunk he was relatively safe, until now. Dark foils of magic swirled around him in lazy patterns, apparently after having destroyed a flower vase in a corner and the unoccupied chair. How he was going to explain that was a mystery. He stared at Kairi to see if she was injured, but she looked fine. Heaving a sigh of relief he immediately apologized. "Sorry."

"It's okay, I guess."

Things remained silent for a while. Then questions started popping from Riku's mouth. "Where did you find this? Are you sure it's from the King?"

"Duh! Are you not looking at the seal right on the bottom?" That earned her a glare from him, which made her look sheepish. "Sorry, I'm just on edge. Anyway, I found it inside a crystal bottle over on Paopu Island, where we were supposed to spend a quiet afternoon together before that stupid party." It was Riku's turn to look contrite. "Tidus is gonna get it, big time."

"So this is why you were uncharacteristically angry when we arrived?"

"Yes and no, among other things. Riku listen. There have been things going on, things only I know about."

"Is this because of your status as a Princess of Light?"

"Maybe or maybe not." She sat on the kitchen counter to avoid the mess on the floor and kept on with her story. "Maybe I just know because I'm the only one paying attention to stuff like this, who knows?" That could be true, Riku thought. He and Sora had apparently wanted to escape to a less demanding reality, and had silently agreed to ignore all of it. "I'll tell you about it once Sora wakes up. But for now know this: nothing will ever be the same anymore. "

"Gee Kairi, thanks for making so much sense," he stood and started pacing the almost cramped room. Thanks to his body growth, he was now up to almost six feet.

"I know it doesn't make a lick of sense, but that's because you don't know-" she cut herself short.

"I don't know what?" When no answer came he repeated his question, albeit more forcefully. "I don't know what?"

"There's someone in this town that has a powerful heart filled with white magic, the type the heartless go after," she blurted.

Riku just stood there, confused. "Come again?"

"Ugh, see?! This is why I wanted to explain later!" She scooted closer to the edge of the counter just to point a finger in his direction. "You better listen, and you better understand! Hopefully you're not that drunk anymore."

He snorted. "Trust me, after that letter I sobered up, quickly."

After sighing a bit, she continued. "There's this person in town, a girl who carries her magic cloaked tightly around her. It's like she's trying very hard to keep it a secret. I mean, no one in this island will know about it except for us, so why hide? Maybe it is as you said, and because I'm a Princess of Light I sensed her right away. I really don't know why you and Sora can't though, so don't ask.

"I followed her one day, up to one of the houses at the edge of the beach. I overheard her speaking to someone on a cellphone and all I can remember were worried tones, because as soon as she turned around I saw the most awful thing ever. She has a scar, a deep one trailing from eye to cheek in a straight pattern. It was… it was very disturbing.

"The weird part, though, was when she saw me. It's like she knew I was different from the rest, yet she didn't know why. It freaked me out. Why would such a powerful person not know what I was, what I wield? It struck me as odd, so I kept following her during a couple of days. I only found out that she works over at a shop of some sort, don't know which one, and her mom is very, very sick. Other than that, nothing special was done or said. So, I can only assume one thing: she has the magic, but she doesn't know about it."

Riku didn't know what to say. He knew that these things were weird- and why in the world couldn't he sense this powerful white magic?- but he still remained speechless. That is, until he remembered the king's letter. "And what has this got to do with what King Mickey wrote?"

"I don't know! I just thought it was just as unnerving as that letter and decided to blurt it out!"

"Easy Kai, you're stressing over there."

Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, she apologized. "It's just… I don't really want to do this again. I hated being away last time, but mostly, I just hated the thought of losing you both. I can't deal with that, not really."

Her forlorn look made him want to drink himself to a stupor all over again. He knew how she felt because he had been apart from them as well, even though he'd had an almost constant watch over Sora. It wasn't fair for them, but when had life ever been fair? Well, they just had to wait for Sora. The letter was addressed to him after all, and it was his call to make. And because he would probably say yes, they had no other choice but to go with him. They were not staying behind, or apart. Not this time.

Standing up, he reached for Kairi and, not knowing what else to do, hugged her. She responded in kind, letting small gasps escape her little mouth every now and then. Kissing her in the forehead, Riku whispered, "We'll get through this somehow. You'll see."

"Thanks," she whispered.

After a few minutes of hugging and reassuring each other, they cleaned the mess Riku had made and went upstairs.

"Are you staying over, Kai?"

"Yes, I already spoke with Sor's mom and she said it was okay."

"I'll let you go then. Sweet dreams."

"You too. Oh and give a kiss to Sora for me, will you?"

Riku snorted. "Hell no, you little scoundrel!"

Chuckling and obviously feeling a bit better, Kairi went to the spare room while he locked himself up with his drunken buddy. He might not feel drunk anymore, but his body still definitely felt the effects. So while he made a makeshift bed out of quilts and wrestled an extra pillow out of Sora's hands, he thought.

Of all the things the King could want, it had to be this. Come to think of it, it's the only thing he'll ever need assistance with. I mean, I'm glad I can be of any help, but does it have to be now, when our lives are about to start? Normal lives, at that. I want Sora to say yes, but at the same time I want him to say NO. We've dealt with so many things before, things we don't want to go through again. Tcht, I hate being indecisive.

Man, Sora snores too loud when he's drunk! Maybe if I turn him around… There we go.

Now, where was I? Ah yes, decisions. Well, those will fall on Sora's hand, I know that. I wonder what our place in this is. I guess we'll have to wait for the King to answer that. But wait… There was a document attached to that letter. Why did Kairi not show it to me? No use in wondering now, she's probably sleeping already.

All the while, he changed into more comfortable clothes, turned off the light and went to the bathroom. He needed to use the toilet, and fast!

Ah, relief! Flush, wash hands, brush teeth… Yep, that's about it.

Hmm… Kai said something about the weird girl living in one of the houses near the beach. Maybe that's the girl I saw? Pft, impossible! The only people who live there are the Morrison's and they never said anything about a girl living with them. Just in case, I'll go there tomorrow. I do want to see her, after all.

Man, I'm getting a headache. I'm just gonna pass out, like right about… now.

Ahh…

It took extraordinary talent to be drunk and perceptive at the same time. But even with talent, one's bound to forget something, especially when you fell asleep.

It was why Riku probably forgot to tell Kairi that Selphie had said not so long ago that she had a new friend who, even with her strangeness, was a very good soul.

oooOooo

He barely noticed the whispers. He rarely did. But every time he dreamt, they were always there. They spoke of untold fights, of untold conquests of Darkness against Light. They wanted him to listen, since he was a part of their realm, but his heart denied them entrance, forever barring secrets from entering his mind, from tainting his soul. He was, after all, a part of Light's realm too.

Upon a rock he sat, staring at the stars that hung above in the darkened sky, contemplating the waves that crashed against the shore. Light never shined here. It was Darkness's territory, and so dark it remained.

He was certain he'd been here once, with someone by his side. But who? And why?

'Forget about that, forget about him. Listen to us instead, let us take you to a place you've never been before. Let us grant that which you desire. Come on, let us in!'

Oblivious to the whispers, he kept thinking of a time where he'd had to give up so much for a certain soul. Was it his friend's, or was it his? Mulling over his thoughts, he didn't notice a light that appeared behind him. It wasn't hard to notice it, because how did Light touch this place? But he wasn't paying attention to trivial stuff like that so he let it go. At least, until a voice started speaking to him, a voice he was certain he should've ignored, just like the whispers.

"You have their blood within you."

He tried to turn around, to see who had broken his barrier and spoken to him, but couldn't. "Who are you?"

"My name is of no importance. It is your soul that is suffering and must be healed."

"Healed? There's nothing to heal. I did that back when I saved him."

"You mean your friend? You must realize that saving another soul does not heal yours. It is still tainted, calling madly for more."

"I really don't know why that is then. Maybe my path has lied to me all along? If that's it, then man I've been blind!"

"Twilight does not lie. You just simply blocked from your mind that the path you now walk on is full of thorns."

He futilely tried to turn around again. The voice, the one that clearly sounded like a woman's, was really pissing him off. "Then what the hell am I doing wrong? I've stayed away from those thorns, and have not dared to open myself up to anything at all! Should I just touch them, give in and fuck everything and everyone, just to heal myself?"

"You still lack maturity, and the strength to carry on, I see. But it is not your fault."

"Then whose fault is it?! I can't certainly blame anyone else, now can I?"

"It's the blood's fault."

What in the world was she going on about? Blood? His?

"No, not yours. Theirs."

He then saw an arm, her arm, pointing straight at the waves as they crashed against the sand. And when he looked, he froze.

What he saw there weren't normal things, at least for his normalcy standards. They looked like heartless, they really did, but oh how they chilled his body to the core, something not even the most strongest of the heartless had done. What made them even worse was the fact that they didn't walk, or run, or fly. They fucking crawled, as if they were spawns of demons somewhere. It took him just a second to notice that their movements were fast, too. Their lithe bodies moved towards him, claws digging in the sand, their spiked tales catching the eerie dark light of the place. But the thing that freaked him out the most was their eyes.

They were a deep, deep violet that contrasted heavily with their dark bodies.

"What… ARE those things?" he whispered.

"Your own spawns."

And this conversation was getting WAY out of hand. He stood and tried to wake up- PLEASE let me wake the FUCK UP- but something stopped him from achieving his goal. Actually, make that a someone. Her hand was on his shoulder, stopping his retreat entirely. It felt warm, though, so he didn't comment about that.

"Why… Who… What's going on?"

"You have so much to learn, just as I do. I'll never remember this, though, but I'm sure you will. Hopefully you will. So please, listen well to what I'm about to say."

He had no choice in the matter, what with her trying to keep him there, so he nodded.

"I am near, yet I am far. You are near, yet you are far.

We dance together, you and I, while our lords float up in the sky.

Darkness bounds you, while Light is mine, together facing each other's crimes.

You must learn to heal, I must learn to smile, in order to make our lives worthwhile.

If we fail, we'll no longer be part of our world's destiny,

becoming part of another tragedy.

We are near, yet we are far, our doors left opened just ajar."

As her little piece of poetry ended she turned him around. And he saw the most beautiful, yet horrifying, sight ever.

Beautiful brown eyes- shaped like acorns- stared back at him, a color he hadn't seen in quite a long time. They were full of an emotion he was quite well familiar with. Self-hate was a constant with him, apparently. A perky nose greeted him, leading downwards to a set of lips that were contradicting in their sizes, the bottom one being the fullest. Her cheeks looked soft, and her cheekbones were high, softly blushing red in his scrutiny. Her pale complexion was accented by her overly curly brown hair, which was tied behind her neck in a long ponytail, which then let him notice her ears. They were shaped like elves', sort of like Santa's helping little friends.

What shocked him to the core, what made him feel truly horrified, was the scar.

The scar. The scar that traveled from eye to cheek in a straight line.

This is her, this is the girl my friend mentioned.

"Now you see, and now you know."

Her melodic voice started fading away, into the Light that had carried her here. He reached out, grasped the hand that was falling from his shoulder, and found that what had been flesh had now turned into mist. "Wait, I've got to ask you something!"

She gave a saddened smile. "Don't worry, we'll meet. Then you shall ask." Her last words as she completely faded were not what he'd expected to hear. "Until next time, Stalker."

"Wait! Don't leave me like this! I've a lot to ask, dammit!" Instead of hearing the sweet tone of her voice he heard, for the first time in a long time, the whispers in his dreams.

'Let us in. You know you want to. What are so you scared of? With us, you could be powerful. With us, you could be fearless. With us, you could be extraordinary.'

"NO!" he screamed. "I won't let you control me anymore! My path is Twilight's path, and I'll be damned if I stray from it. Now get LOST!"

The whispers laughed, mocking every word that escaped his lips. They kept on talking, tempting him with sweet words like never before. He did not want to be here. He didn't want to fall, not again. "Please! Let me out, let me OUT!" He begged and begged to no one in particular, to every existing god out there, but no one answered, nothing helped him. So he did the only thing he could: he ran.

Ran as far away as possible from the shore, ran as far away from those things, and ran away from the whispers that still followed him everywhere he went. Was there no end to this? Was he cursed to live with this for the rest of his life? Was he ever going to be separated from his Darkness, or was he to remain its slave forever? He didn't want this, he didn't need this, not when he needed to remain calm and strong.

Not noticing where he was going he tripped on a rock and fell. Of all the times I could fall down, it had to be now! Wanting to get a close look at his surroundings he looked up, and stared directly into one of the things eyes.

He screamed. And as he did so, more of those things surrounded him.

This is a nightmare, it just has to be!

He kept screaming, and kept on screaming, and kept on screaming…

…Until someone slapped him, hard.

"RIKU! Wake the hell up!"

He did, gasping for breath and feeling sweaty all over. To top it all off, he had the mother of all headaches and the sun was just shining through the windows, right at his eyes. He groaned. "Sor what the hell, man? Please, close the damn curtains!"

He did as asked and he was grateful, just until Sora started screaming at him. "What in the world is up with you? You woke me up screaming and moaning like a little girl!"

Riku tried to cover his ears, but Sora's voice still sounded like a dying hyena to him. "I do not scream like a little girl, and please lower your voice. It's splitting my head in two."

"Well that's what you get for being a total asshole and making my head feel worse with all of your damn noises."

Riku fell back on the makeshift bed and covered his face with his hands while his friend sat on his own bed. He heard Sora asking him questions, about whether if he'd had a nightmare or if it was something else. He really didn't want to answer, because then he had to reveal that Darkness still affected him. And if Sora found out that he'd broken his promise, he'd feel bad, very bad. So he told Sora a half-truth.

"It was a nightmare, yes."

"Of…?"

Sighing, Riku said, "Ansem. Please, let's leave it at that. We'll talk later, alright?"

"Whatever you say Riku, but just as long as we actually talk about it-"

"Yes, don't worry, we will."

"Okay."

Quiet ensued. Then Sora broke the tranquil mood by blurting, "Did we see Kairi last night?! Tell me it was her ghost or something!"

Riku couldn't help it. Even though he still felt like crap, he laughed. Trust Sora to enlighten the mood whether he knew what he was doing or not.

~Chapter End~

A/N: I finally got the first couple chapters written, guys! I know it's been a long time, but I just had to make everything better. Hopefully the new story captivates you more than the old one.

And how did I do? Please let me know! I want to get better, and for that I need your help. :)

Feedback is greatly appreciated!