This chapter will be told in… RIKU'S PERSPECTIVE DUN DUN DUN. Enjoy the chapter! From now on I will try to update every Saturday if possible. I got a puppy for Christmas and he tends to take up a large part of my time, plus I start college courses again Tuesday.
Hopefully I won't make Riku hyper like I was a few minutes, or seconds ago… Riku and hyper just don't mix. Well not in this story anyway…. Read on! and leave a Review please, they seriously inspire me to update more often XD did I say I was hyper a few minutes ago? Well it's back not even a minute later… yeah this will take me a while to type… let's see I officially started working on this chapter…. at around 9 pm on Friday, January 13, 2012.
Emptiness, space, absolutely nothing. That's where I found myself when I woke up. Floating in the middle of nowhere. All I could see was lots and lots of gray all around me. Not very exciting. "Where am I..." I asked, not expecting any reply.
"Stay asleep." I heard a voice call out from nowhere.
"Who's there?" I immediately asked, alarmed. I thought I was the only one here.
"You should remain asleep. Here, between light and dark." The voice replied in the same volume and tone as before.
"Between...what?" I thought for a minute on what the voice told me, but then I remembered. The king! Where'd King Mickey go? "The king! Where's the king? Together we closed the door to darkness. After that-"
"You came drifting here by yourself. You did not have the strength to overcome the darkness. Or...maybe you were close to it."
"Hmph. As if I'm some kind of demon."
"Hmm. Turn from the light. Shut your eyes. Here blanketed by the darkness, sleep is safety. Sleep is eternal. But..."
Then it got really bright, I closed my eyes and before me, a card appeared. It was light blue with a crown shown on both sides in white. But why in the world do I need a card? Maybe the strange voice can tell me… "What's this?"
"It is a door to the truth. Take it and your sleep ends, as you take the first step toward the truth. But know this: the truth will bring you pain. Will you still go? There is no return to the security of sleep."
I thought about it, but it's no good staying here, wherever here is. If I ever wanna find my friends, I need to get out of here. I grabbed hold of the card and immediately it showed me a picture of Hollow Bastion. "This seemed like a boring place to take a nap anyway." I commented.
"That was very well said, Riku." The voice said, before the card glowed and I disappeared.
I found myself in this strange white room with a door in front of me above some steps. I looked around, not seeing much, but it was better than before. I looked at the card the voice had given me before I got here. "A door to the truth, huh..." I held the card up to the door and entered the next place. "This is Hollow Bastion!" but how did I get here? Wasn't I just in a white room a moment ago?
"What you see is not real. It's the world of your memory." Oh great, the strange voice is back. But why does it start to sound familiar? Where have I heard it before?
"My memory?" I asked.
"The things you remember from your time at Maleficent's castle became a card, and that card made this world. You've seen everything here before, haven't you?"
"Yeah... So what now? Am I going to learn something? Maybe meet someone?"
"You would meet the people in your memories. Ordinarily."
"What does that mean?" The one time I needed a reply, and the voice was gone. "Hey! I'm asking you a question!" and still, nothing. "Fine. But it had better be you I run across next, Voice."
I entered the next room to find my old bedroom, the only Maleficent had seen it besides me. I never let Hikari in there, but she wasn't interested in it anyway. "Everything IS just how I remember it. Even this room..." The only thing missing was Hikari.
"It must be nice being back in your old bedroom. Think of all the memories..." the voice returned.
"You again. Sorry, but these memories I could do without. Maleficent gave me this room." It wasn't exactly something I was proud of.
"So she did. And you lived here, tempted by the darkness she offered. You cast away your home, your friends, everything... But at least they gave you a nice room. And a possible friend…"
"Stop talking!" I yelled before running out of the bedroom. I walked around some more, beating a few heartless every now and then since I couldn't, or wouldn't try, to control them. I headed up to the up the staircase of the entrance hall, but I still felt like was being watched. Maybe it was Voice following me around. "No one here, either... There's nothing but Heartless in this castle." I jumped down from the top of the staircase, yelling, "Voice! I know you're watching-so explain this! Where are the people from my memories?"
"Do you want to see them?"
"Of course I do." I missed my friends, Sora, Kairi, even Hikari though the time I knew her she wasn't exactly herself thanks to Maleficent, but still…
"But you cast them aside." The voice said, interrupting my thoughts.
"What?"
"You dreamt of the outside world, and you passed through the door to darkness. Behind you, you left family, friends, home-everything-all in pursuit of darkness."
"But I cast that aside, too!" not once was I tempted to use any dark powers ever since Ansem had taken over my body,
And what do you have to show for it? First your home, then the dark. Your heart only knows how to cast away. It's empty-like that room. Like your memories. That's why you don't meet anyone. Your heart is hollow-except for the residual darkness."
"You're wrong! I rejected the darkness! And I did meet someone!"
"Ha ha ha... Did you really, now?" the Voice mocked. I ran out the room, frustrated.
A few minutes later and I met the once thing I never wanted to run into here. Well besides Ansem anyway. "I knew you would return, Riku." Maleficent said, showing herself.
"Maleficent! You're alive?" I said, shocked. I thought Sora beat the witch…
"You haven't been paying attention. I am but a figment of your memory." Maleficent said. But she still is just as annoying as the real deal…
"Of all the people I could run into, it had to be you." I sighed.
"But of course. After all, your heart is steeped in darkness. You can only see those who exist in that same darkness..."
"No..."
"Be grateful you have someone to keep you company. You heart is empty. Were it not for the darkness it contains, you would be completely alone."
"That's sounding pretty good right about now." it wasn't like I had a lot of options available as far as company goes.
"Come, now. You once turned to me to sate your hunger for darkness. You want me here. Who but I can grant you the darkness you long for?"
"There was a time I did want you around. I surrendered my heart to the dark. But never again. You and your darkness have nothing to offer. All I did was lose myself... Empty myself! I'm finished with all that. If I'm stuck seeing people like you, people of the dark... I'll take you out one by one." I summoned my Soul Eater blade, getting ready to take her down myself, even if she was a memory.
"Then you mustn't forget to destroy yourself last. For, like me, you are one of the dark."
"That's fine with me. I turned to darkness because my heart was weak. I hate that weakness. And because of that weakness I let others control me. It's like I'm my own enemy. And seeing people like you embrace the darkness just makes it worse! Enough talk, Maleficent."
"So you hate the darkness enough to fight it. Oh, the agony you must feel! Then let me end your pain, Riku-end it forever...with the wondrous power of darkness!" She turned into a big dragon, but minutes later she was nothing but a pile of dust. I quickly left, finding myself back in the same place as I was earlier, the white room, but I didn't care. As long as I was out of Hollow Bastion and away from Maleficent, I was happy.
I find myself listening to more fall out boy and linkin park when writing from Riku's pov. So how'd you like it? Finished about forty or forty five minutes later.