A/N: I think I may turn this into a crossover type story... that is what it will start sounding like in about ten paragraphs, anyway. But that's alright! don't worry... he WILL find Sora. It won't be very long now...
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Riku stood in the empty driveway. Waiting. The gray sunlight filtering through the winter-like clouds revealed much to the eye. As the day's on Crossing were shorter and the nights much longer, he expected sunset in another hour or two, when it only just rose two hours before.
"Sora," he breathed softly, watching the shadows turn themselves in accordance with the motion of this tiny, frozen little world. "Please... Sora..."
The world spun. As the light grew dimmer, and the world lost its brief daylight colors, his eyes grew accustomed. And then he saw something that made his eyes burn. The light burned his eyes, the moment he saw the air seem to split like a cut in the very fabric of reality. Color and bright energy bled through, spilling to the ground and making it appear, contrasting to the darkness, as though it were in broad daylight.
"What the hell is that?" said a voice behind him. Riku shaded his eyes, stepping back like a man afflicted with an unseen pain. And it did seem to hurt, down to his bones. He glanced over his shoulder, seeing Roland in his bomber jacket and Terry, dressed in somewhat normal clothes for once.
"What the hell are you two doing here?" Riku snarled, but he recieved no answer. The trio were stunned by the sudden flash of even brighter light. Riku felt it, like a knife, slipping in between the cells of his flesh and penetrating his heart. The pain rang like a low, deep bell, vibrating chords of pain. Resonating in his... his soul...
Sora!!
"I've been having... these weird thoughts lately...Like, is any of this for real... or not?"
"Sora... it's very real... I'm so sad it must be real... please, if you hate anything, hate me... don't hate yourself. Or love me. Love me that I should stay faithful to you... that I'd still be your friend, if nothing else."
"Riku, what's going on?"
He was stepping toward the light. He didn't look back at Terry and Roland. They stood, amazed. Or revolted. Neither of them made a move. Good. Riku let the light take him, much as it rang in his ears with the sound of a million voices, a thousand waterfalls.
Sora stood in the rift. He stood tall and battered like an innocent boy-warrior, the light behind him casting a bright halo around his spikey, impossible hair. He was waiting for him, the keyblade glittering into keychain form as he raised his hands to his mouth and shouted. His voice came to his ears, twisted and distorted, indistinct but somehow very loud.
Riku ran forward, staggering, hand flailing to keep his balance as he rushed toward the boy. "Sora!! Wait for me! W-Wait!!"
He let the holy brilliance embrace him like a mother would a babe, a blanket of warm radiance that filled his soul wherever the darkness did not lurk. It made him think of Sora. When he couldn't see anymore and shut his eyes, he saw Sora's face. It was Sora's voice he heard that night... Sora's voice as he lay on the warm, sunkissed earth beneath the paopu tree, the waves lapping against the shore, a beach that blushed at the golden crescent's intimate farewell as it sunk beyond the edge of the world.
* * * * *
The candle beside his mattress burned down slowly. An hour ago, it was perhaps a quarter of an inch taller than it was now. A bead of sweaty wax dribbled down the white side, leaving a frozen trail in its wake.
It took a long time for him to wonder where he really was. The walls did not look like the shack walls. Instead of smelling the ocean, his nose twitched at the odor of flowers. He knew what a rose was... what it smelled like. Maybe he only imagined it... his senses blurred. His eyes were telling him that it was cold and his skin burned with the light.
He turned his head, his eyes widening slightly to see. Nope. Fog. He squinted. That didn't work either. He resolved to roll his head back toward the wall, feeling pain in his every joint and muscle.
"You're alright now," said a soft female's voice. "You'll be fine. Just got a bit of a bump on the head and a few scrapes."
"What happened?" Riku demanded in his thin, raspy little voice. He sounded pathetic.
"Fell. Took a mighty big fall, too, from the meteor cliff," the lady's voice replied, with tough love. It wasn't entirely lovely, but it wasn't awful. It was the voice of a tough lady, a lady who had seen things.
One could judge many people by their voice, not always by their eyes.
"Why can't I see?" He reached up to touch his face, encountering a bandage.
"Because you've got gauze over your eyes, idiot." Someone reached over, tucking the bandage up more rather roughly, making his head throb painfully.
He strained his eyes anyway. In the candle's light, he made out the woman's face. She had amber-colored eyes, ringed with dark brown, and a kindly face. What a surprise. Her hair was long and chocolate brown, drifting down across her shoulders over breasts that seemed either too large or the rest of her was simply too thin.
She wore a plain snug black shirt, coupled with dark tan shorts. "What's your name, kid?" she asked. "Or can't you remember?"
He wanted to tell a lie. For some reason, he felt that lying to her would somehow save him from bearing the shame of his own identity. But how would she know the name Riku? There was no harm in telling the truth. He was being stupid anyway. "Riku," he answered quietly, until his head pounded again and he closed his eyes again for another long sleep.
* * * * *
"I need to find Sora," he said the moment he opened his eyes again. The pain came from deeper inside. The rest of his body was perfectly fine. And he arched his back, before rolling over, struggling out of the sheets. A dull throb in his head, but overall he was fine.
The woman overcame him at once. She leapt from the chair beside the bed and seized him by the shoulders, sitting him down. "You and your dreams," she chided. "Calm down, kid."
"I thought I told you my name," he growled, staring her in the face. Anyone who kept him from Sora was his enemy. A threat to his existence. His deadened heart burned with coals of anger that had lain dormant for an age.
"Riku. I know. Just calm down. I don't know what Sora you're talking about, but he or she ain't here."
The silver-haired boy curled his lip. "Of course not. That's why I have to find him."
The amber eyes blazed. "Snotty little shit, aren't you?"
"I try, I really do." Riku stood up again, and this time the woman didn't try to stop him. He found his jacket on the chair and pulled it on. He stepped into his sneakers after locating them, then turned to stare at her. "You never told me your name."
The woman's kind face softened. She sighed, seeming to melt away her meanness and become once more the sad nurse. "Marion," she replied almost in a whisper. "But my name, the one I don't carry anymore, is Tifa."
"What do you mean? Why can't your name be Tifa?"
"Because," she said in a slightly louder, sterner tone. "It's a dangerous name. If anyone knew I was Tifa, I'd be killed. I don't think you'd want to be me, either. Especially after everything that's happened."
"What's happened?"
"A couple of months ago, after the worlds were sealed away, there was a huge outbreak. It was some kind of disease. We didn't know what it was, or how to treat it, but a lot of people complained of chest pain. Then they just...died. It was horrifying. When we got the last surviving world leaders together, we all got the same feedback. Either people's hearts were dying, or they were being stolen."
"Is it contagious...?" Riku eyed her, shying away an inch.
Marion - Tifa - laughed. "No," she chided as though he should have known that. "It isn't. Apparently, children aren't affected."
"They aren't?" Then maybe Sora was safe. Of course, if he was even here. But it was possible. Riku felt it, pounding in his chest. Like the dream about light... the dream...
"I'm leaving," he said, heading toward the door. The walls were made of soft-hued wood, that didn't gleam with the lamplight. In due time, he'd come back. But before he left, he turned and smiled uncertainly. "Um... thank you... for taking care of me.... I know I'm an ass."
"No, you're not," she smiled. "You're just like your father."
"My father?"
Marion stiffened and moved forward, suddenly pushing him. "You'd better hurry! Your friend is waiting, whoever he is. He should be. I hope you find him, Riku. You seem to care about him a lot."
"...I do," Riku whispered. "I do." His smile was easier now. With one final nod, he bent his head, shrugging his shoulders to adjust his jacket, and stepped out into the warm spring air.
He walked, noticing that his heart pounded. He thought about the strange affliction. People were dying?
Sora felt close... Riku himself was unarmed, but the atmosphere also felt safe and empty, without a soul nor Heartless to stir the air. He began to feel bad for Mation - or Tifa. Was she just staying there alone? He walked on, stopping once, then turned back to face Tifa's house. He stood with his hands jammed down into his jacket pockets, watching the house.
A peculiar deja vu came over him. He had done this before. Was it a dream he had? He remembered Roland and Terry... that dream, in Crossing. He watched Tifa come to the door and he swallowed, his throat thick. Something felt....
...wrong.
The air became stifling. It closed around him like a suffocating blanket. His head swam. Tifa opened the door, spying him standing there. She cried his name in alarm and ran down the porch, throwing her arms around him and holding him up.
"Damn it! You're sick.... J-Just...hold on! I'll get you inside! I told you not to leave..." she fussed, hissing through her teeth as she picked him up over her shoulder - she was strong, a bit muscly, so it was no big chore.
The boy sagged against the same blankets again, but this time he didn't have the strength to yell at her for holding him back. Sick? How could he be sick? He couldn't BE sick! There was Sora to find!
"Stop thinking... just sit tight, alright?" she crooned, before jumping on the phone beside the bed. She dialed a number on it, and carried the cordless out into the hallway.
"Cloud," she breathed as the phone's tone buzzed in her ear. She tucked her arm across her chest and her hand under her arm as she waited. "Cloud--Cloud? Yes!"
"What's going on?" His soft voice was husky now with worry. He sounded like he'd just woken up. "What happened?"
"There's a boy who came from the sky. I don't have time to explain. It's important. But he's fallen ill with the sickness and he can't die."
"What do you want me to do about it, then? From the sky? Tifa..." He was agitated, she knew, but slightly intrigued. "I'm a thousand miles away and you want me to do something about some alien little boy from the sky?"
"That's not it, Cloud."
"Then what is it?"
"He looks like Sephiroth." Tifa chewed her lip and glanced back inside the room. "His name is Riku. I don't know what to do. I just... have this feeling that if you found Sephiroth, maybe he could save him. If you told him..."
Cloud snapped back into the phone, his voice hard and coarse like granite. "That's a load of bullshit and you know it. Find Sephiroth? What the hell are you talking about, anyway? I'm not digging up that bastard's rotting spirit self just so you can feel better about one little boy!"
Tifa grimaced. She pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache leaking like poison through her forehead. She replied softly, "What if... he could cure the sickness...? What if he stopped it...?"
The blonde man didn't speak. Maybe he was thinking. Tifa waited, holding her breath and shivering at the same time. If Sephiroth came to her house...
"I'll think about it," he said at last. "Just let me know how the kid is doing. Nanaki and I will figure out a way to get Sephiroth to listen... or else it'll be death for just about everyone."