"Riku… Riku!" The deep, dark voice crept into his head, sending a cold chill through his body.
"No…" He gripped his skull in pain.
"Yes… I've come back… I can see your heart. It SHALL be MINE!" Ansem appeared before him, reaching for him.
Riku tried to back away, unable to move. Ansem reached into his heart and sent his Darkness inside, filling his heart to the brim. Riku screamed in pain and felt himself change into Ansem, morphing into the all too familiar form.
"NO!" Riku battled against the Dark entity inside him, struggling to gain control. Hours passed, not a single one had given, when a small light appeared to Riku.
"Your Majesty? Please tell me it's you again!" Riku shouted, desperate for help. The little light flickered, as if it was about to extinguish, but then grew larger and enveloped them both. Someone's hand reached out and pulled Riku farther into the light, away from Ansem. He could feel the power erupt within him, and he pushed Ansem farther back, gaining control. The light faded, and Riku could still see Ansem much farther away, but his power was still inside, making Riku's appearance the same as his possessor.
Time seemed to alter, and suddenly, the new Riku/Ansem was in a computer room, which seemed oddly familiar. He realized that it was the same computer room from the memory Twilight Town on the Card in Castle Oblivion. He looked around through his hood and saw Saiyoku sitting against the wall, bored. She looked up and smiled.
"Hey there! 'Bout time you got back. Where's –?" Her voice fizzed out, like he was supposed to know what name she was trying to say. She stood up, a concerned look on her face.
"What's with the hood? You never wear it unless we're on a recon mission. C'mon, take it off already." She reached for it to slide it off his head. What will she think when she sees me as Ansem? Will she believe that I'm still me?
He backed away and tried to avoid her and get out of the room, but she blocked him from leaving, a scowl on her face.
"What's the matter? Are you hiding something from me?" She tried to see past the shadow of the hood. The shadow faltered as one of the lights in the room flickered, causing Saiyoku to gasp. She backed into the doorway.
"No… Riku… You're not Riku anymore… I can't believe it. He finally gained control…" She was shaking her head in disbelief.
Riku reached out to her, "No, Saiyoku, it's really me! I promise. I'm still Riku!" His voice was no longer his own, but the deep tone of voice that Ansem had.
Saiyoku only shook her head harder, "You're lying!" She shouted at him, shutting her eyes hard, not wanting to look at him.
"No! Please, Saiyoku! I promise it's really me! I promise!"
The room melted away, Saiyoku's figure fading into Ansem, who just laughed.
"What will you do when this happens? She'll never believe you. She's seen my power and knows what will happen to anyone who gives in to the Darkness." He grinned smugly.
Riku clenched his head in his hands, "No! No! She has to believe me! I haven't given in just yet… I'm still here! Saiyoku!"
He sat straight up in bed, breathing heavily; his clothes were plastered to his skin from sweat. He muttered to himself, "Just a dream. Only a dream…"
Riku heard the door open, "Riku? You okay?"
Saiyoku entered the room, her figure only a silhouette from the pale light coming from the windows: a fake night created by the hotel they were staying in due to the fact that it was ALWAYS sundown there.
He gave a curt reply, "Yeah. I'm fine. Go back to bed," before collapsing back on the bed, his hand on his forehead.
"I don't believe you." She muttered as she stood by his bedside.
"You don't have to. Just go to bed. It must be like, what? Two in the morning?"
"Three actually, but I can wait. Just tell me what the problem is."
"Nothing. Just a bad dream."
"Doesn't sound like nothing." She sat on the edge of the bed, making Riku feel slightly nervous.
"I promise, I'm fine." He rolled over to ignore her. She sighed and got up, "Fine. You're so stubborn… Put on your blindfold if you need to. It can't hurt," she left the room, closing the door behind her. Riku stared at the window for the longest time before grabbing the blindfold, securing it in place, pulling the covers over his head, and groaning from exhaustion and annoyance.
--
Riku sat up in bed, gripping his forehead and yawning. The fake night had disappeared and the sunset light easily crept into the room. He got up, tightened his blindfold, and pulled on his normal clothes, the organization outfit on over it. He was in the middle of pulling on the gloves when he walked into the main room in the hotel room they were staying in for the moment. Saiyoku was lounging on the couch, already in her organization clothes, taking a nap, her hands behind her head.
"Wake up, Saiyoku."
"Hm? Wha—?" She started, rubbing her eyes sleepily.
"C'mon, we need to go eat something."
"Eat?" She asked, her voice slurred from sleep.
"Yes, eat. Y'know, food and stuff."
"Okay, okay, I'm not stupid, I'm just tired."
"You sure?"
"Shut up."
"Wow, great come back. You know, you wouldn't be having this problem if you had gone to bed when I told you to."
"Nah, just woke up to early."
"Ahuh… well, come on. Let's go. We have a lot on the agenda today."
"Like?"
"We're going to find DiZ today. Time to check up on Sora. Maybe they've got his memory fixed."
"Who knows? We'll soon find out." She got up stretched, and walked past him to the door, "You coming?"
"Yeah." He nodded and followed her out the door, sliding past her and leading the way down the stairs. They walked out into the sunset laden town and headed for the nearest food vendor. After eating something small, since their munny pouch was running low again, they went through the Underground Concourse and back down into the Marketplace. They pulled their hoods up over their heads and clambered through the huge crack in the wall on the other side of the Marketplace. After going through the woods they came upon the same mansion Riku had seen before. Saiyoku was awestruck.
"Whoah, now this is some house."
"You've seen the castle at Hollow Bastion."
"Yeah, but this isn't as creepy, and that castle never really stood out as a house to me." She opened the rod iron gate and peered around at the old, crumbling archway. Riku walked past her towards the door.
She kept staring at the huge windows and the forgotten archway until she accidentally hit her knee against one of the huge pieces of rock.
"OW!"
Riku spun around to see her holding her leg, but she was laughing.
"Heh, guess I didn't notice it."
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good." She put her leg back on the ground and stood up straight, taking off her hood, revealing a huge smile on her face. "See?"
Riku shook his head, pulled off his hood, and opened the door. Everything was as he remembered it. Saiyoku followed him and tried to open one of the doors to another room when Riku grabbed her by the hood, "C'mon, don't get sidetracked."
"B-but…"
"No."
She groaned but joined him again reluctantly, wanting to know what was behind the door. He led the way up the stairs and through the room on the right. They were in a huge library, with a wooden table in the middle. There was a yellow crayon drawing on it, like some little kid had decided to color on something other than paper.
Riku looked around, "Hrm… I thought this was how I got in last time…"
Saiyoku took a closer look at the drawing and saw that it was really an emblem, and that it was unfinished, "Hey, Riku, come take a look at this. What do you think it is?"
He looked over her shoulder, "Some sort of design…"
"Maybe if we finish it, it'll do something."
"Can't hurt to try."
"Well, what do you think it would be?" She looked at the other two designs and realized that one of them was the Heartless emblem. The other one she didn't know, but she had a feeling it was connected with the Darkness.
"Maybe there's some clue somewhere in the mansion."
Saiyoku ran out of the room and headed across the hallway to the room on the left; it was the first room she could reach. She was blinded immediately by the white walls, floor, ceiling, and furniture. Even the flowers on the table were white, along with the curtains. There were drawings posted all over the room on the wall. Saiyoku took a closer look at them. The first one she looked at was of a library with tall pillars of marble. Isn't that… Oh! That's the library at Hollow Bastion!
She went around and looked at all the others. There were drawings of more rooms in Hollow Bastion Castle, the Secret Place from the islands, Sora and another blonde guy from the Organization, the same blonde guy running away from something, the Keyhole in Hollow Bastion, Sora, Donald, and Goofy, the island they always played at, the blonde guy, a red head, and two other organization members, Kairi with a Paopu fruit, the room from Traverse Town, the mainland of Destiny Islands, and the entry hall of Hollow Bastion Castle.
She also noticed that there were some on the floors that consisted of Riku next to an egg-like pod, the red head next to some golden stairs that strangely resembled Twilight Town's Underground Concourse, Sora, a girl with blonde hair, and Riku in his Dark form, and lastly, Sora facing the blond girl and Riku. The only other drawing was of all four of them on the Paopu tree, and that was on the table.
"What… is all this? These are drawings of everything that's happened… and even some stuff that I don't know of, like… who's the red head, the blonde kid, and the girl?" There was a drawing pad on the table, along with some crayons. Saiyoku picked it up and lifted the pages. There was a drawing of Sora asleep, as well as a golden insignia…
"Huh? Oh, this is the same design! Riku!" She called out the door, and she soon heard the thud of his footsteps up the stairs. He found her and looked concerned, "What is it?"
"I think I found our cryptic friend's code." She handed him the drawing pad and grabbed a yellow crayon of the table. "Shall we?"
She walked out of the room, grabbing the drawing pad from Riku's hands. She went right to the small little table with the lone candelabra. She opened the page to the insignia and began to draw as close to the picture as she could. Immediately, the table began to glow and then the whole floor, save for the edge nearer to the door. The floor shone with a bright light and disappeared, the table going with it. Saiyoku fell right through and landed hard on the metal floor. Riku came running into the room and saw Saiyoku laying there in a daze.
"What'd you do to yourself this time?" Riku asked with a laugh, and Saiyoku just glared up at him.
"It's another stupid house of pranks like the Castle!"
Riku jumped down into the pit instead of taking the stairs and helped her up. They entered the only room they could, since the other one was blocked by fallen pipes and debris. It was a computer room, with several screens producing a monstrous amount of data all over the place. Riku looked around.
"Hello? DiZ? Naminè?" He called out, but there wasn't anybody at the computer or anywhere else.
"Maybe they're in there." Saiyoku pointed to another sliding metal doorway, and he shrugged his shoulders. They entered, but it was only another huge empty room, but another door lead somewhere else. They continued on and ended up in a long hallway with smaller, thinner pods. They passed by, but Saiyoku stopped at two of them down the hallway.
"Isn't that…" She focused on the two heads that were clearly visible through the pod. Inside the one on the left was Donald, and in the other was Goofy.
"Yeah," Riku nodded, "Donald and Goofy. Sora's companions."
"Don't tell me you're still jealous."
"Hmph." Riku just turned around opened the door to the Pod Room, where Sora was sleeping. Saiyoku followed him in, and sure enough, DiZ and Naminè were conversing with each other in front of Sora's pod. They both turned around when they heard the door close behind Saiyoku.
"Well, well. Look who decided to return."
"I see Sora's memories haven't returned yet." Riku said coldly. Saiyoku just sighed and tugged on his sleeve, "Don't give them a hard time."
"Saiyoku. I see you decided to stick with Riku."
"I intend to. You must be Naminè… you were the girl in those pictures upstairs, weren't you?" She looked at the blonde, who looked kindly back.
"Yes. It's nice to meet you, Saiyoku."
"Ahuh."
"Riku. Unfortunately, it appears that Sora's memories are not going to be easy to return to him. There's a bit of… a setback, if you will." DiZ explained.
"And that is?"
"Sora's memories have fallen into someone else… a boy in the Organization. He has some sort of connection to Sora, and seeing that he's part of the Organization—."
"This guy is Sora's Nobody, isn't he?" Saiyoku interrupted him, piecing together the information.
"Yes."
"Sora's Nobody… why would someone like Sora's Nobody be part of the Organization?" Riku asked, not quite sure about this information.
"It seems the leader of the Organization, Xemnas, has already recruited him. He was staying in Twilight Town for a very short time when the Organization found him."
"But why?" Saiyoku asked.
"Well, what do you think? This boy is Sora's Nobody, and Sora is the Keyblade Master, which means he will have great power compared to the other members of the Organization."
"What do you need us to do?" Saiyoku asked, obviously wanting to help Sora out as best as she can.
"We need to gather more information on this boy first. Then, we'll have to bring him away from the Organization. He'll need to rejoin with Sora after that. Then he'll gain the memories that were placed inside his Nobody."
"So, we'll be the ones gathering information… right?"
DiZ nodded, "Find out what the Organization is doing, and if you are able, stop their missions. We cannot let them fulfill their plan."
"Got it. You're going to help to, aren't you, Riku?" Saiyoku looked up at him, but he was staring at the pod.
"How is he, Naminè?"
She looked up at Sora, and then back to Riku, "He's growing, that's for sure. He has very little of his memories back though, since most of them have fallen to his Nobody."
"Does he even remember us?"
"He remembered you and Saiyoku, but…"
"He didn't remember Kairi… huh…" Riku shook his head, "Well, I guess we'll have to help. Sora needs to wake up. He's the Keyblade Master AND I told him to take care of Kairi. He's not getting off that easily," Riku turned to Saiyoku, "C'mon. Let's go."
"And where is it we are going?"
"To the Organization's stronghold: Castle Oblivion."
"Actually, Riku, the Organization's stronghold is in The World That Never Was. The huge castle is theirs. That's where you'll want to go." DiZ interrupted them.
"Alright then, we'll go there." Riku opened up a Dark portal and stepped through, Saiyoku looking behind her.
"Bye! We'll see you later!"
"Let us know of any information you find out."
"Got it!"