Sora and his blindingly bright smile was the one guiding light Riku had to keep him sane in this godforsaken dark.

Riku didn't know what he expected the realm of darkness to be, but whatever he had been thinking was wrong. From the moment he landed on that desolate walkway, the darker than black abyss stretched out in every direction around him. Riku could feel the abyss, unsatisfied with it's seemingly impenetrable hold on everything else in existence here trying to swallow him too. As bad as it sounded, it wasn't a particularly unpleasant feeling. If he was being honest, it was just more of the same dull, almost deadening ache he had grown used to over the past year or so. However, if Riku knew anything, he knew he wasn't about to give up what little of himself he had just gotten back after so long. If this new, anxious, pitiful excuse for a person even counted. Riku needed to know that his friends were safe.

It was the moment he made that decision that Riku first heard a voice calling to him from the abyss. He was positive he had never met the owner of the voice, but apparently the voice not only knew Riku but had been trying to reach out to him for some time. Riku's first instinct was to be wary of this new voice. Over the past year, he had learned the hard way never to trust such things as faceless voices promising Riku what he wanted to hear.

Instead of giving him the answer to his question, though, the voice told Riku to figure out where his friends were himself. So Riku, figuring he had nothing to lose in listening to the voice, turned inward for the first time in years. It took him a moment, but eventually he was able to find the subdued voice of his own heart, and lo and behold, there was Sora, clear as day, running toward him with that idiotic grin. What Sora was so excited about, Riku couldn't fathom. But what mattered was that not only was Sora okay, but he was happy and (the selfish side of Riku happily noted) heading in his direction. And if Sora was happy, Kairi was okay too.

Deciding he didn't have very many other options, Riku chose to listen to the random, squeaky voice sounding around him out of the darkness. After unsuccessfully scouring each direction for a landmark that would cue him in on where to head, Riku walked in a random direction for what felt like forever.

It was during that slice of forever, between first arriving in the realm of darkness and finally meeting the owner of the voice, that Riku first felt the true power of darkness.

Up until that point, it had been everyone else who had suffered at the hands of Riku's darkness.

But that simple truth in and of itself was the biggest reason that here, where darkness of all kinds reigned supreme, Riku found himself at its mercy (or lack thereof as it were).

The heartless, although they no longer obeyed him, instead opting to tear into him at every opportunity, were of no consequence to Riku. They quickly became so unmemorable that in later years, Riku found himself unable to recall any of the specific dwellers of the darkness.

It was the never ending darkness and silence that got to Riku. The darkness suffocated him while the silence, so loud Riku's mind made imagined enemies out of the thud of his own steps and the swish of his own hair and clothes, left him shivering.

It was the breath of the heartless on his neck, materializing directly behind him, and sending him to the ground, knees giving out, before they even attacked.

It was the uniform view of nothingness that gave Riku's mind free reign to play havoc on it's owner. Allowing far too easily believable fantasy to seep into nightmarish reality.

All it took the first time he broke was to mistake one of the smaller heartless on the ground for a puppet he once knew. It was only for an instant, but it was enough to freeze him where he stood. His behaviour so odd the heartless actually stopped attacking. Whether that was due to the falter he felt within his heart or not, Riku never found out.

But it had only been later that Riku had realized the heartless had stopped.

In that moment, the near oblivion of the world around him had somehow morphed into the Grand Hall of Maleficent's castle. All the nightmares seemed to congregate there.

He had been putting off returning to the castle, following Sora into Halloween Town in hopes that he could find some sort of replacement for the puppet he had let slip through his fingers because Sora was too stubborn and ignorant to accept that sacrifices had to be made to get Kairi and her heart back. But when his search yielded nothing of use to him, Riku had begrudgingly reported back to Maleficent, empty handed.

She made sure he would never again disappoint her in such a fashion. For she was trying to give him what he wanted. How could he be so pitiful that he couldn't even handle such a simple task as collecting a bundle of wood that just so happened to have a heart?

That was why she had to teach him his lesson

That was why, with a flash of green flame, his clothes were suddenly being seared off him by the magical green fire that licked at his skin, causing it to blister and boil; charring his hair and scalding his tongue and eyes.

As the fire made it's way across Riku's entire body, he could just barely hear Maleficent's gentle murmurs over the sound of his own gasping. Her repeated mantra burying itself into Riku's heart, using the pain from the fire as a digging tool. The purposeful emphasis of certain words, trying to make sure Riku's attention never strayed.

"SORA and his friends took what we needed from you. SORA fought against you and Kairi over the heart of a pointless puppet. SORA has abandoned you."

Riku tried unsuccessfully to let his mind go blank. He didn't need or want the hag to tell him what Sora did or didn't do. She hadn't even been there to know what Sora had said. It had been his fault for being too weak. It had been his fault for staying too long and letting Sora get the better of him instead of just grabbing Pinocchio and leaving when he had the chance.

And if that weren't enough, once all the fabric was gone from his body, and he was no longer able to stand against the pain, her hands, like ice, untouched by the flame, would lay his now limp, quivering body, face up, on the ground.

As much as he hated her for it, her ice cold hands provided relief from the devastating heat of the blaze engulfing him, leaving snowy trails of unblemished skin wherever her hands caressed him.

This was how she teased him. Her light touches, using only her fingers, sent shocks of welcomed cold across his body, but her hands never provided enough coverage to combat the sensation of being burned alive.

As much as he hated himself for it, that included when her icy touch brought his boiling skin such pleasure, her gentle strokes were enough to bring him to orgasm.

"I can heal you. I can save you. I will give you what you need." Maleficent's new mantra riding out the painful bout of overstimulation with his shuddering body.

Once satisfied with her handiwork, she waved the fire away from the rest of his body, leaving him naked, shaking, and vulnerable on the hard tile of the floor. Usually at this point, she would send him to his chambers to get dressed. This time, instead, his view of the steepled ceiling above him slowly faded into the dark abyss before him, and the floor of the castle returned to the rough, sandy rock of the walkway.

The Realm of Darkness.

Gingerly, Riku stood up, rubbing at his somehow still tender skin.

Her green flames had never left any physical evidence behind, yet somehow, Riku's skin always seemed to retain the memory of the pain and it would sometimes take weeks for his painfully sensitive skin to fully recover.

Once he dealt with the cloud of heartless that surrounded him upon standing, Riku had a moment to process what just happened. He could hear Maleficent's voice whispering through his head. His strangely sensitive skin could still recognize the points of ice where her fingers had danced across his skin. And with every passing second, it seemed his discomfort was drawing in more and more heartless. He tried calling out to the voice for help, but it, not nearly concerned enough to have just witnessed the terror he had been put through yet again, just told him to look within. So he did. And felt a new kind of relief. Somehow, he found Sora once again. Sora was with Kairi, talking. They were both safe. They were both alive. They were just standing, talking.

"No matter how deep the darkness, a light shines within." Sora was saying.

Riku knew better than to think he had any light left in him, but according to the voice, his heart had won the battle against the darkness, so maybe Sora was on to something.

Either way, it was enough for Riku. With the knowledge that Sora and Kairi were safe, he continued plodding on.

Eventually Riku finally did come across the owner of the squeaky voice of reason.

He turned out to be a small king from another world. King Mickey as he was called, had been watching both Riku and Sora in their travels from afar, unable to help them directly, but trying to contact Riku nonetheless.

Together they fought their way to the Door the King had told him about when he first heard his voice. Riku could see the darkness radiating out and upwards through the doors, but like the king warned, they wouldn't budge when he tried to close them on his own. But King Mickey did look out from their prison, gasped, and instead of telling Riku what he saw, he pushed Riku closer to the door to see what was happening for himself.

Looking through, Riku could see Sora standing above him, on some weird illusory version of Destiny Islands, listening to Ansem talk through Riku's body.

The stab of pain Riku felt while listening to his captor tell his best friend the story of his fall sent trembles down his spine, but if his new companion noticed, he didn't say anything. Though, in all likelihood, he probably didn't notice, seeing as he was jumping up and down, frown on his face, mumbling something about "Wrong Ansem", whatever that meant.

Sora was now acting strangely as well. They both looked as if something had changed about the appearance of the Riku in front of him.

"What is it? What are you gawking at?" Riku asked, focusing so hard on not letting the pain show through, that he sounded even more frustrated than he felt.

"That doesn't look like the Ansem I know. In fact I think it's an imposter!" The King squeaked in anger.

Confused, Riku looked up again, but sure enough, all he could see was his own body, now clashing with Sora within a toxic looking bubble that once resembled the heart of their island. Riku guessed 'imposter' was a good description, but he didn't get the whole 'Wrong Ansem' part.

"What do you mean? That is my body he is using to fight with Sora. Of course he wouldn't look like himself." Riku half whimpered, half snarled as he watched, as time and again, the brutish heartless attempted to squeeze the life out of his best friend, under the cold, hungry eyes of his worst nightmare.

"Do ya mean you can only see yourself in his appearance, Riku?" The small king questioned, his anger momentarily overpowered by something that would have reminded Riku of concern, if it were directed at anyone who deserved it.

"Do you mean you actually see someone else?" Riku countered, unable to keep his eyes away from the scene above him.

"Well, yeah…" The royal mouse's voice was full of wariness, before he perked up and continued with "But I guess what is important is that Sora is going to stop him!"

But then, as if just to prove him wrong, the island disappeared completely, and Sora was left falling through the abyss, down towards where Riku and the King stood.

Then the one voice that could make Riku feel like all his blood had been drained from his body, sucking his life, strength, and will to fight along with it, echoed through the darkness.

It spoke to Sora with the same poison it had spouted at Riku. About the never ending darkness and the tainted, finite existence of the heart. The words had easily snaked their way into the darker depths of his mind, resonating with his own vulnerabilities. But now Riku could see the fatal flaw in the voice's logic.

It spoke of not being able to spot a single speck of light within the dark abyss. However he was watching one of the brightest sources of light he knew of. Yet even as he watched, Sora's light began to dim. Of course Sora couldn't see his own light.

Watching as Sora began to fall faster, as he began to lose the fight with the suffocating abyss around him, Riku heard himself call out to his best friend.

"Giving up already? Come on, Sora. I thought YOU were stronger than that!" Riku heard himself shout the familiar call to arms. He wasn't even sure if Sora could hear him. Afterall, it wasn't like Riku had any physical voice to speak of anymore.

Yet sure enough, at his words, Sora seemed to kick into gear. Suddenly Sora was no longer falling, but flying within the abyss, leveling with the monstrosity that had once been Riku.

Sora fought against the monster like a champ. In fact, it wasn't until it was too late that Riku even realized Sora was losing.

It just happened so quickly. One minute, Sora looked like he was about to finish things for good. The next found Riku with barely enough time to register the maniacal chuckle, before watching as Sora's light was extinguished. The mouth of the monster swallowing the light like a druggie swallowing a pill.

And just like that, Sora was gone. Sora was dead, and with him the hope of the darkness ever being controlled again. Riku had even helped. Calling him to the battle that ended all hope.

The world started spinning as a sea of heartless launched from behind him, through the door and off to swallow what remained of the realm Riku had once called home.

Riku shut his entire being against the cacophony of it lost all sense of direction, Riku felt himself jostled, scratched, and beaten from every angle as he curled in on himself. But try as he might he couldn't block out the never ending laughter. The victory cry that spelled the end of all worlds.

Riku didn't even notice when the laughter morphed into his own strangled cries. Nor when he first felt solid ground against his side once again.

Slowly, Riku was able to regain control of his cracked and aching voice, willing it to silence. But when his ears were no longer filled by his own sobs, he found, instead of the sounds of the end times he was expecting, he only heard the familiar, deafening silence of the Realm of Darkness.

Riku tried to sit up and open his eyes, but, when doing both together brought on a headache, he took things one step at a time. Eventually he was sitting up, legs stretched out before him, arms behind him, still shaky, but strong enough to support his upper body.

Looking around, he concluded that he was, indeed, back in the depths of the Realm of Darkness. No royalty, no doors, no anything in sight.

Everything was the way it should be. Riku was alone in the darkness. Sora had won the battle. In fact, he had gotten to watch as Sora unknowingly called forth the light of Kingdom Hearts itself, powerful enough to not only destroy the Seeker of Darkness for good, but destroy all heartless in it's path. Of course, it had taken almost no time for the heartless to return, but it had sure been an impressive sight.

Even Riku himself hadn't escaped the sting of such a blinding light. It had winded him so badly, he'd had to take a moment to regain his footing before he could help Sora shut the door dividing their respective realms. Looking at Sora then, Riku had found the first moment of peace he could remember having since leaving the islands. His friends were safe. As long as Sora and Kairi were together, everything would be okay. The brightest light and the purest light Riku knew of, each looking out for and loving each other.

It had been after they closed the door that Riku had opted to travel on his own. King Mickey had wasted no time in talking about finding the Door to the Light. Riku had no interest in finding his way back to the Realm of Light, now. He was a creature of darkness afteral, and with his friends safe, they had no need for him.

Instead he had done his best to decline the King's suggestions in as polite and respectful a way possible, while never revealing his intent to just fade into darkness.

Eventually he had worn the King into accepting his propositions of separating. The problem then became trying to figure out just how one faded into darkness. Letting darkness consume you was easy. But that meant allowing the darkness to use his newly reaquired body as its vessel, and there was no way Riku was risking it again.

Eventually, Riku had begun to notice the lines of reality blurring around him. What semblance of time there was in the realm of darkness would seemingly stall one moment before skipping the next. And, as before, memories would creep up on him like the heartless he fought off, more out of habit and boredom than anything else. As time hobbled on, however, what was true memory and what was nightmare began to merge and shift.

Riku had avoided looking for Sora's light inside himself. It was fear of strengthening his attachment to his friends anymore than was already there and making it harder to fade away that usually stopped him.

But this time, he found himself doing so before he could stop. It took a little more time for him to find Sora this time. It was almost as if Sora was no longer really anywhere. But find him, he did. And when he did, Sora was having an uncharacteristically deep conversation with a stranger in a black cloak.

"People I miss..." Sora was saying, his face all confused for a split second before exploding with excitement.

"Riku! You mean Riku's here?!"

No. Riku wasn't wherever Sora was. Riku was deep within the Realm of Darkness, having lost so much strength, he couldn't even begin to stand.

But now Sora was looking for him. Not just running towards him, not talking with Kairi, but looking for him.

That changed everything.

Knowing Sora, he wouldn't give up searching until he found Riku. And there was no way Riku was going to risk either of his friends setting foot in this place if he could help it.

Of course now was the moment Riku finally felt himself let go. His exhaustion was pulling at his consciousness, and his heart had relaxed the moment he laid eyes on his best friend. Riku still held onto his light, however, and he found, as he left the waking realm altogether, that the darkness couldn't reach him. It had been a long while since Riku had banished his own internal light. There was no doubt about that. But through Sora, he had the brightest of lights within reach. His best friend was coming towards him, glowing with his light, looking for Riku.