A wet tongue licking him was first sensation Riku felt as he came to. Blearily he opened his eyes to find a large dog blocking his entire field of vision. "Did Sora adopt a dog again…? ...wait." Riku gently moved the dog over, absently petting it as he did so.
In front of him was a building in a style that Riku had never seen in his home. Getting up to his feet, Riku walked out of the alleyway to find a small plaza in all warm colors. Above him, the stars shone brightly, but he couldn't see as many as before. Inwardly shrugging at that thought, it was probably all the lighting around, he moved on. "So this is another world, huh?"
A person sitting at a table in the cafe turned towards Riku as he passed. "So, did your world fall just now, then?"
Riku flinched invisibly. "Y- yeah. Does that happen a lot?"
The man took another sip of his coffee. "Happened to all of us. Those damn heartless won't leave a single soul alive if they could help it…" the man broke off into angry muttering the teen couldn't understand anymore. He wanted to know more about the 'heartless' but Riku would obviously get nowhere here. Or with anyone, if that guy was any indicator.
There were some shops up the stairs to his right, so Riku decided to start there. You could tell a lot about a place by what they sold. The first shop was for accessories he probably couldn't afford anyway, but the others were closed so he couldn't even look in them. Sighing, he went on into the accessory shop.
"Welcome, how can I...oh its a kid." the dingy-looking ended with a glower.
Riku glared back at him. "Well, that's great reception. Maybe I woulda bought something, but now I'm certain I won't, old man."
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry! And my name's Cid, not 'old man'"
"Well maybe you shouldn't have called me 'kid' then!" Riku's shoulders slumped down and he sighed. "Sorry, I'm just...on edge." Which was the understatement of the week just below, 'maybe opening that was a bad idea.'
Cid gave him a look. "I'll say. Hey, how 'bout you tell me what's got you so worked up? Love trouble?"
"No!" Riku looked at the man agast. "No, its just I... I think I may have messed something up pretty badly. And I have no idea where my friends are. Its a... bad day, I think."
Cid leaned back in his chair. "Yeah, that does sound pretty bad, kid."
Riku glared at him again.
"Right fine, I won't say that jeez." Cid took a long look at him. "Well, I'll keep a lookout for your friends, but I don't know I'll see 'em. What do they look like?"
Riku paused, not expecting this kindness. "Um, one is a boy a bit taller than me with spiky brown hair and a dumb red outfit, and the other is girl with red hair and a pink skirt."
"Right. Come back 'ere occasionally to check with me. I'll help you if I can, so don't hesitate to come back." Cid smirked at him.
Riku smirked back. "Right. My name's Riku, so next time don't call me kid."
"Yeah, yeah!" Cid yelled back at him as he walked out of the store.
Riku looked up the sky. It was just as beautiful as it was at home. 'Well, its time to find someplace to stay for tonight...maybe I'll take a quick look around first...'
Riku pushed open the doors to what was apparently the second district.
With a quick glance he saw a hotel to his left. Despite the convenience of such a thing, Riku raised an eyebrow at it, the hotel seemed really strange somehow.
Before he even got three steps, the only other person in the area, a woman Riku already knew he wanted nothing to do with, was suddenly attacked by a dark shadow in armor. The thing proceed to rip her heart out with its claws, and then ate it. This new world had far more sadistic enemies than Riku had given it credit.
Riku summoned his weapon as several more of the armored things crawled up who know's where. Riku dived at the first one, only for his attack to be blocked with a swipe of its claws. Riku followed up with a second blow, which made it through this time, knocking it into another monster. He took this chance to attack and defeat a third one, smirking when he realized the other two were dead.
With this, only three more were left. Riku swung wide to knock one back, and then stabbed it proper, for good measure. Riku turned and slipped behind the next monster, and, before it could respond, quickly slashed where he thought the joints were in the armor, killing instantly. The last armored shadow jumped and tried to slash at him, but Riku quickly blocked. Before the thing could land, Riku attacked it, guessing it couldn't block in midair. His hunch was right, and with that, the last of the mob was defeated.
Riku gave the rest of the area a glance. He probably wouldn't make it through the next attack as easily. The monsters made him momentarily worry about his friends, but he shook that worry away. They could take care of themselves, and if they did need help, he wasn't in the best shape to give it right now.
Riku turned around. Cid did say he would help him, and it was probably safer there than here. This whole area seemed to have been abandoned by people, and there was likely a reason for it.
"A reason," Riku muttered as he opened the huge doors once more, "I'd rather not meet."
"They'll come at you out of nowhere."Riku blinked and looked warily at the source, a man wearing a leather coat with a scar on his face.
Riku backed away a single step. "Who are you?"
"And they'll keep on coming at you, as long as you continue to
wield the Keyblade." Riku continued to give the man in the biker gang outfit a wary stare while he processed this information. That key was a called a keyblade? Which was pretty uncreative actually but... "But why? Why would it choose a kid like you?"
Riku chose this moment to run off. Those sounded like the words of a disillusioned cult member. And if he held the sacred object of some cult, he wanted nothing to do with them. The door to Cid's shop was just around the corner, and hey, Cid would probably take him in.
He was almost there when a loud crack echoed. He briefly wondered what if was as his vision wavered, and realised, oh, that was my head.
As he hit the ground, Riku heard an unfamiliar voice, but sleep took him to quickly to tell what they were saying.
o-o-o-o-o
Sora woke up slowly, too slowly. It was actually the slow speed of awakening that really jolted him awake. The moments before he was awake were always too brief for his liking, but no matter what, someone was around to take that feeling away. And if no one did that… Sora was alone.
Sora gulped, and opened his eyes slowly to ice blue rock. He sat up and around him were floating islands, and waterfalls that went up? This was another world alright. "Where exactly...am I?"
Sora jolted as he heard footsteps behind him. "In front of my castle, I would suppose. Unless something has gone horribly wrong, that seems to be where you are." Swiveling quickly to face the voice, Sora found an old lady in a long black dress towering above him.
"W- When did you get here? When I woke up I was alone…"
The woman smiled gently, although that combo seemed off for some reason he couldn't understand. "I saw you appear from my castle. If left alone, the heartless could attack you, and you are injured as it is, aren't you?"
It was true that he was injured, but one thing in that sentence rung out above all else. "You have a castle?"
Her grin grew wider with her pride. "Yes, my castle. It is up that slope."
Sora stood, and looked in the direction the woman waved one spindly hand towards. Up there was a huge castle covered in towers with magical looking smoke coming from most of them. The castle itself had a large or emblem on it that Sora had no clue of the meaning for. All in all, it was pretty dang impressive. "That... That's yours? Are you rich?"
"No, no." She turned, her black dress billowing out behind her. "No one else lives in this land."
"Oh..." Sora froze. If no-one else lived and his friends had landed here too, they could starve to death, or freeze to death or something. And worst of all, no-one would ever find them! He had to find Riku and Kairi before that! "I'm sorry but I really have to find my friends then! So, I'm gonna have to refuse that offer!"
"Then how about I search for them for you?" The smile on the womans face grew the slightest bit (more) prideful. "I happen to be able to find out quite a bit if I need to, and you would have free lodging. You are injured, as I said..."
Sora clenched his fist and took a step towards her. "Thanks, my name's Sora."
The lady stretched out a hand regally. "My name is Maleficent. Let's go together..."
o-o-o-o-o
AN: I finally managed to get this chapter up... There were a lot of obstacles... Writer's block, birthdays, lack of internet, Bravely Default...it twas harsh. Chapter 4 is probably going to be hard too, but... I'll try my best to get past Riku's stubbornness.
And FlightfootKeyseeker, I'm sorry but... Although, its probably less evil and more inevitable angst?
Also MegaFlameHedge, the headcanon that inspired all this that the 'newborn' heart that saved Ventus was literally newborn. Add that to a mention that if anyone else connected then Vanitus would have their face instead... We get younger, not musclely Riku
