And here's chapter 02!
The chapter took a while to write, but that is because the start of both this chapter and last are based on the final levels of KH 3D. So again, SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE YET TO HAVE PLAYED KINGDOM HEARTS DREAM DROP DISTANCE! Even though I don't think many of my readers have yet to do so.
Anyway, this chapter is about how Riku saw all that happened to Sora in the last chapter. It's a part of what actually happened in the game and partly what happened in my story, so those of you who have played the game will probably be able to see what part of this is cannon and what is my own work.
Also, before I forget, DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT KIRI KAITOU CLOVER! Her amazing talent and work helped me write this and while it was supposed to be a oneshot, did she help me grow it to what it is today. SO DON'T FORGET TO VISIT HER ACCOUNT AND STORIES AFTER YOU READ THIS!
Okay, enjoy,
Venquine1990
Co-Author: Kiri Kaitou Clover
Riku's POV
I travelled the entire World that Never Was, fought at least four to five dozen Heartless among the way, went from one story to the next and trained along with my own Dream Eaters, just to have arrived here. Here on this circular courtyard, made out of pure metal and only accessible through a large metal pipe on which I used Flowmotion.
Having walked into the courtyard, I was confused when I saw something familiar and had asked: "Is that … Sora?" And it had been him, sleeping in a large bowl of energy with large, thick, disgusting tendrils of darkness flowing around the bowl, obviously there to give him nightmares and trap him inside their spell.
I had run at the bowl, while shouting his name and arriving just outside the bowl, I had seen images of Sora's nightmare, one of them showing Pluto running on pavement, the other showing me and Kairi walking away from him. I had been shocked and abhorred and had tried pulling the boy out of his nightmare, shouting:
"Sora! Don't! You've gotta wake up!" But while trying to pull him out of his nightmare, had the tendrils left the bowl slowly, only to take the shape of something monstrous behind me; a black and purple cloaked creature with his hood covering his face and his eyes glowing like rubies under the darkness of the hood.
I had released Sora's hand to draw my Keyblade and had asked it: "Are you what's trapping him in that nightmare? 'Cause if you are … I'm what Nightmares fear!" And that had resulted in a battle for Sora's conscious, one I had been able to win, even if the Nightmare himself had used all kinds of attacks to completely weaken me.
Luckily I had my own Dream Eaters to help me out and together with the magic I have learned on this journey and in the many journeys before was I able to beat the Nightmare, causing for the red eyes to die out in light and for the entire creature to disappear in fading shadows, something I took no notice of as I ran for Sora.
Having seen him with his eyes closed, I had hoped that defeating the Nightmare would have woken him up and I had tried helping him by softly saying: "Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from." But my words had been for nothing as Sora's vision had vanished.
Then suddenly do I see entire area around me change from the courtyard to the plaza with the hotel where, only a few years ago, I fought Roxas to get him back with Sora and I feel shocked and confused, not understanding how Sora can still be dreaming when the creature controlling his dreams has been defeated.
Looking around the hotel and plaza, do I ask: "What? what's going on in Sora's world?" I then look around angry, wanting my friend to wake up already because I just know that without me by his side and with these nightmares leading him, he'll end up in a form of trouble, I fear I won't be able to save him from.
Getting angry because of my worries, do I ask my ever changing surroundings: "Why won't he open his eyes? Is he still in the Nightmare?" And then my worries are confirmed as a voice that has been hunting me since my first journey began sounds and says: "That is right." Trying not to show my shock, I shout:
"Ansem!" Only for the voice to be sounding as if it again surrounds me from all sides, something I haven't felt since I allowed Ansem to join his soul with my body – at the very end of my first journey, after I had lost the Keyblade to Sora and had been defeated by him, having run away because I wanted not to face him that weak.
Then the voice continues and says: "Sora can no longer wake up. No matter how many nightmares you consume, you cannot wake someone who has fallen into the chasm of dreams." And while I hate for the man to sound so persuasive and smooth, do I use my anger to resist the fear that grows in my heart at hearing his voice and ask:
"What?" And apparently does it work as Ansem simply continues explaining, his voice still sounding from every angle around me and sounding as if he's growing in power as he says: "Dreams hold our memories. Sleep holds our dreams. And Darkness – it holds our sleep. Sora's heart belongs to the Darkness now."
A shiver of fear runs over my spine as I hear him speak of the Darkness so lovingly, but when Ansem talks of Sora's heart, do I feel anger coursing through me as I knew since Symphony of Sorcery that Ansem, Xehanort and whoever else they worked with that catching either me or Sora into the Darkness was their plan.
"Sora would never give into the Darkness!" Do I shout at the voice surrounding me and while I somehow feel something stirring inside me at shouting this, do I also feel a strange thing burning on my back, as if there is something on my clothes that proves me wrong. Deciding not to think of it, do I hear Ansem talk:
"But you feel it, don't you? This world, the nightmare, the abyss. Why haven't you returned to the reality whence you came?" And then it hits me like a ton of bricks, the reason Sora and I have been apart this entire time, the reason I can't find him no matter where I go, the reason I constantly seem to arrive after him.
"No. This is a …." And Ansem seems yet again able to read my thoughts as he continues my speech and says: "Dream of a Dream. A twofold Nightmare. This whole journey, you have been inside Sora's dreams. And now Darkness within Darkness awaits you." And at the end of his tale, do I feel something terrifyingly familiar.
My feet slinking into the floor, I look down and see the same pit of swirling darkness as the one I opened so long ago on Destiny Island, when I tried taking Sora with me to the other worlds, only for me to fall unconscious and for Sora to actually gain the Keyblade, keeping him from the Darkness and on the vanishing Islands.
Trying my hardest to release my legs, I suddenly – barely – notice how the ever swirling environment around me seems to shift differently and just when the Darkness Pit has sucked me into my knees and I shout: "No! I can't get loose." Does it seem as if the entire area around me has stilled, as if time itself has stopped.
Feeling that my legs are still trapped, but that the pit is no longer sucking me in, I look around, wondering what could have happened, when right before me a new vision appears. A long road, made completely of broken down towers and skyscrapers and standing on them – are a confident Sora and a shocked youth.
The youth is the same man I saw in Traverse Town and that seems to have been following me and Sora around the entire time, making me know he was part of this the entire time as I had met him and Ansem for the first time in La Cite des Cloches, right on top of the Notre Dame itself before I had fought a powerful nightmare.
"How?" The youth whispers, his hand against his chest and his eyes wide with clear shock and this alone makes me smile as it's obvious that Sora has broken his trap, meaning that he's at least awake inside his own dreams. Then Sora speaks and to hear that melodious voice again fills my heart with light as Sora says:
"Riku." This word alone shocks me and I think: "Did he actually hear me?" But then Sora says: "He's been helping and protecting me this entire time and even when he's not around me or beside me?" And Sora slaps the silver X I only now notice pasted onto his black shirt as he says: "He's still here, inside me."
This makes me smile, glad that our hearts are indeed strong enough for Sora to have heard me in a completely other world and then the amazing young man goes on and says: "My feelings for him make me stronger than any Darkness you think you can use to trick me and you made one very fatal mistake in your planning."
This makes me raise an eyebrow and I wonder what Sora could be on about, while I suddenly see the area around me disappearing, as if the courtyard was never there and the more I look at it, the more I realize that this world is fading back into Sora's. This makes me smile as I know it's because of our united hearts and then Sora says:
"You allowed Riku – to enter my Dream." This shocks both the youth and myself and confuses me at the same time as I wonder what Sora could be on about, but then remember what I told Mickey in Symphony of Sorcery. "Sora can find the brightest part of anything, and pull of miracles like there's nothing to it."
Then Sora seems to answer the shock of the youth as he asks: "You don't see the flaw, do you? By allowing Riku to do so, you basically allowed me to create worlds within the worlds you sent me to when you showed me all the Keyholes. How else could Riku have constantly been at the same time and place as me?"
Amazed that Sora has realized this by himself, do I not even notice the pit still surrounding my legs as I suddenly feel something beating along side my heart and I whisper: "Sora! You did it!" And I allow for my happiness to make my heart beat faster, wanting Sora to know just how happy I am with our returned connection of hearts.
Then I again look at the young man that has done so much for me and I think: "You really are the Light within my Darkness, Sora. The reason I will always be there to fight the Darkness again and again. Because I don't ever want anyone destroying the Light you create when you bond with other people, especially not with me."
And with that do I again accept for myself that, when I saw Sora sleeping in that pod, deep inside Castle Oblivion, where Naminé and DiZ had been waiting for me and where Naminé had offered to lock the Darkness in my heart as well, I have fallen head over heels for that brown-haired, dark blue eyed young man in front of me.
Then Sora goes on and says: "Don't allow your prey any ammunition, unless you have proof they can't make use of it." And while I can't help but laugh at his witty comment, do I smile in excited pride when I see him summoning the Keyblade, only for that darned youth there with him to laugh and say:
"You think you can fight me? I may be young, but I hold all the abilities of my future self." And with that do I finally realize who I am looking at and I whisper: "No, it can't be him. He can't be with Sora." But when I look at my angel of Light, do I see that his smirk is still in place and do I hear him speak as he says: "I don't just use the Keyblade to fight my enemies, you know?" And while he twirls his blade does he say:
"It can be used for much more than that. Not that you will ever understand –." And when he aims his Keyblade up, do I realize that he plans on using our repaired connection. Summoning my own blade, I don't even bother trying to get out of the pit anymore and just twirl it myself a few times before aiming it up above me.
Then I focus back on the vision before me, while only the pit is still left of this side of the world and hear him say: "The true abilities created hearts that are forever linked. Keyblade seal! Open the door and return the Darkness to the Light." And with that do I nod and whisper: "Yes Sora, I am your Darkness."
Then I see a Keyhole appear above me and I aim my own Keyblade straight at it, the force of the Keyhole pulling me out of the pit and into its depths, before the other end suddenly appears below me and, preparing for a long fall, do I pull in on myself, make several summersaults and land right next to the love of my life.
Standing next to him, I smile, while knowing that Young Xehanort will probably attack us both and while I try to let him know how I feel with just my eyes and smile, do I softly say: "Glad I got to you in time, Sora." And Sora's confident radiance that shines at me from his smile is a Light I never want to let go off again.
Okay, that took WAY longer than expected!
In truth, did I want to stop the Cannon part at where Riku shouts about Sora and the Darkness, but the whole pit thing just called to me and I knew I could really make an amazing story and bring out the changes of the two worlds much better if I started there, so I just had to let Riku realize about the Dream inside the Dream.
Anyway, sorry if this chapter sounded so repetitive from last, but it had to happen as this was Riku's Point of View on how Sora experienced last chapter. It had to happen, but it won't happen anymore. Furthermore will there be no more cannon from this part so those of you wanting to see Y!Xehanort fight Riku, SORRY!
More stuff next chapter,
Venquine1990
Co-Author: Kiri Kaitou Clover
