Okay now, welcome to ch3! Thank you everyone so far who have read this story! Hope you all enjoy this next chapter!
Ch.3
They all stood at the edge of the castle. The door loomed out in the void in front of them while they all stared. Finally Sora took in a deep breath and spoke. "Let's end this."
"Then let's get that door open," Mickey added.
Sora, Riku and Mickey all summoned their keyblades and pointed them near each other. Riku hoped at least that he was doing that, seeing as his sensing ability was still a slight bit weaken. After they all raised their keyblades in the area, a moment passed before the large door unlocked and slowly started to open.
"Get ready, Xemnas! It all ends here!" Sora exclaimed aloud.
The group then started heading to the transparent pathway that lead up to the door. Riku though stopped at the edge of the castle and froze up. Though he knew there had to be some kind of path leading to the door, in his mind the logic was telling him that he was about to walk right off the top of the building. Even though he could tell that the others were already walking on the path, his mind still conflicted against him that there was actually something there.
"Riku?" Sora asked as he turned around to see Riku still standing on the castle.
Riku breathed in deeply as he tried to take a step forward, but he still couldn't do it. He kept trying to tell his mind that it would be all right, but he still couldn't get himself to move an inch. There was the still the innate fear that he was going to fall. And it was more fueled by the fact he couldn't actually truly see anymore. Before had he gotten use to it when just wearing the blindfold, but now it was something completely different. Now he was completely in the dark.
Riku almost wanted to feel disappointed in himself. This felt like it was a simple task, yet he was too afraid to move. He had jumped off a building before when wearing his blindfold and landed perfectly fine. He had done so much before when he was just blindfolded… so why couldn't he do any of it now? It was still basically the same thing except for the part where he wasn't able to just take off a piece of fabric to see his surroundings. Riku furrowed his brows as he lowered his head slightly.
"Why?... Why can't I do this? I don't understand…" Riku thought to himself.
"Riku?" Sora voice came in, breaking his concentration. "What's wrong?" Riku could hear that Sora's voice was drawing closer.
Riku breathed in slowly, but did not raise his head back up. There wasn't much point to doing that anyways. He wanted to tell Sora the reason… but he felt afraid to say it… or maybe it was embarrassment. Embarrassment that he couldn't do something that was so easily and simple to the rest.
Riku flinched slightly as he felt Sora's hand on his arm. He hadn't even been paying attention to notice that Sora was standing right next to him. "Riku, is something wrong?"
"I just…" Riku started slowly. He remembered that Sora would listen to him. Sora wouldn't judge him or look down on him. He was there for him and would understand. "I can't sense the pathway you guys are walking on. It's making it hard for me to try and walk on it. My mind is thinking I'll just walk right off the building."
"Well that isn't going to happen. Just stay next to me and we'll head to the door together," Sora said as he wrapped his arm around Riku's. "I'm right here for you, so we can move together."
Riku nodded slowly. "Thanks Sora,"
"Okay then, just take a step with me. There is a path there, you'll see… ah I mean… feel I guess?" Sora said quickly, not knowing how sensitive Riku felt towards certain wording.
"Yeah," Riku replied quietly.
As soon as Sora moved slightly and told Riku he was moving, Riku picked up his foot and placed it down in front of him, right where his mind told him there was nothing. But underneath his foot, he could feel some type of surface. He breathed a sigh of relief, though his heart was still racing with the fact he could fall off any moment.
The two of them walked slowly as they made it up to the door. Once they reached it, the sound of the large door was heard opening up. When they doors stopped Sora gasped as he stared inside. Riku tried to think what he was seeing, but it was a bit of a jumble to him. He could tell there was a lot of objects or maybe buildings in the area beyond the door, but there was too much to really get a good clear idea. Then there was the far away presence of Xemnas. He was definitely within this pocket of a world and awaiting them there.
They all walked together past the doors into this strange other world. Thankfully Riku could still sense the area around him as well as everyone else. He still was able to manage on his own. But the fears of what could happen still stayed within him. This battle was going to be tough. Harder than just attacking a few Heartless or Nobodies. He almost didn't want to admit it… but he was afraid he wasn't going to be able to do it.
"So...it seems your hearts have led you to obliteration. Perhaps it doesn't pay to be too loyal to one's heart. I will have to be sure and remember that," Xemnas said, his voice echoing all around them.
The ground started to shake as things began to move all around them. Riku tried to concentrate, but everything was happening to quickly. His powers to sense things were still not as strong as before, and that meant it did sometimes take him a bit more time to get a grip of what was happening. But before he could truly process what Xemnas was doing, he felt Sora grab his arm and pulled him back.
"What?" Riku asked quickly.
"There's a large building being thrown at us!" Sora commented quick before pulled him down to the ground.
The building collided into the ground, shaking the area around them violently. Riku felt the world shaking around him as for a brief moment everything blurred from his senses. Though the next thing he knew, was that he could hear the large doors slowly closing.
Riku took in a deep breath as he concentrated as hard as he could. He gasped as he noticed that Kairi and Mickey were now on the other side of large closing doors. Donald. Goofy, and Sora were still all on the other side with him, just scattered to the ground for the moment.
"Kairi! Mickey!" Sora called out as he stood up to run to the doors, but just before he got to them the doors slammed shut. "Ah no!"
Riku pushed himself up to his feet. "Sora, there's no time to worry. We have to get to Xemnas."
Sora sighed before he nodded. He turned to face the area in front of them as he readidy his keyblade. "Right! We can take him on! Let's go!"
Riku summoned his keyblade as he kept close to Sora and the other two. They started to trek through the world when the ground behind them shook and large chunks of buildings shot up from behind. Riku barely had enough time to even realize what was happening and he was knocked back a bit. He regained himself quickly though and ran back to catch up with Sora, who was hopping along top the buildings.
"Of course… this will be harder. But… I can't give up. I have to at least try," Riku thought to himself in hopes he could reassure himself. But there was still so many wavering thoughts. Still so many fears and doubts he had building in him. He shook his head though as he pressed them down. They were not what he needed to focus on right now. What did matter right now was getting to Xemnas and defeating him.
Hmm I'm trying my best here to build up as much as I can. Next chapter we will get a bit of angst spilling out... well more I mean XD Don't you guys worry! Thanks for reading!
