Chapter 4: Unknown Force

"Huh? What are you supposed to be?" the other guy asked upon noticing him.

He laughed.

"Surprised?" he asked with a smirk, "I guess you should be. After all, I look just like you. I'll tell you what I am. I'm an exact replica of you that Vexen made from your data."

"So you're a fake me" the other guy said slowly

"Not a 'fake'!" he replied angrily. "I don't care if you're 'real'! You're not better! We share the same body and the same talents. But there is one easy way to tell us apart, though." He pointed fiercely at the other guy, who seemed a bit taken aback, but waited for him to continue. "Unlike you, I fear nothing."

"Are you, calling me, a coward?"

"You're afraid of the dark!" he taunted. "The darkness inside you still frightens you, no matter what you say."

The other guy scowled, angry, but unsure of what to say.

"But, I'M different. I embrace the Darkness. I can make it do whatever I want." He summoned up his darkness and his weapon. "So…" he got in a fighting stance and smirked. "I can wipe the floor with you."

The battle began. They both attacked pretty much the same, though he used dark attacks quite often and attacked ruthlessly. The other guy was extremely good at avoiding him though, and when he braved up enough for an attack, his attacks HURT. It got even worse when the other guy decided to use HIS darkness.

It became impossible for him to avoid anything the other guy threw at him. Dark Firaga was the other guy's favorite attack, and he used it often. Neither of them backed off from the good old hack and slash method, though.

Their blades clashed once, and they glared at each other, both snarling.

Only slightly conscious in his dream, Riku realized who he was fighting.

He was fighting himself.

The other guy, the real guy, backed up, and then went in for the finishing blow. He was too slow to block it, and gasped.

"How can I lose to YOU?" he asked, falling to his knees. He stared at the ground, breathing heavily, just focusing on getting his energy back.

"Hey! Fake!" the real guy said, happiness just dripping off his voice. He looked up, though not extremely happy about the idea of being called a fake. "I thought I heard you say you were gonna wipe the floor with me."

"Hmph," he said. "Don't forget, I'm still new. I'll get stronger and stronger." He pushed himself to his feet. "Next time we fight; you're finished!"

"Then let's fight now!" the real guy charged and attacked, but he blocked it easily with darkness. The real guy hit the floor with a groan, and he laughed.

"It's nice having darkness on my side!" He laughed. "You are SO missing out." He watched in amusement as the real guy struggled to get up. "How can you be scared of something that can be so thrilling?"

"Enough!" the real guy gasped.

"Hmph. So now the coward is playing tough." He turned and smiled. "So long Real Thing, hope you don't miss me." And he ran off.

xxx

He opened the door and entered. The three people in the room all looked up and turned their attention to him. He walked towards them.

"So, how was the real thing?" one of them asked. He knew who this person was, but just couldn't place the name. The name didn't matter though, the only thing that did matter was that this person was important, and he'd better listen to what they had to say.

"He's spineless," he replied. "In no time at all, I'll be better than him."

"In the meantime, would you be interested in meeting another who's considered a hero?"

"You mean Sora. I hear he's somewhere in the castle. You want me to take care of him?"

"We'll see… yes… I intend to make good use of you."

"No worries," he told them confidently. "The real Riku was nothing, Sora won't be either. They're no match for me."

xxx

Riku shot awake in seconds. He thought over the dream quickly, making sure he wouldn't forget anything, especially since the dream was fleeing quickly.

"Was that… another memory?" he asked himself quietly. He took a glance out the window; it was still dark. He thought for a second about just going back to sleep, and then decided against it. He would head to his Secret Place and work out what just happened. Besides, if he went to sleep now, he might just forget what he had remembered.

If it was a memory at all, he reminded himself, and then headed off.

xxx

He spent hours in his secret place, thinking, and scratching more pictures into the wall. Eventually hunger drove him out, though. His stomach was growling too much for him to concentrate anymore, so he left.

When he got outside, the sun had already risen, and it was extremely bright. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the light and then headed for the smaller island, where Sora and Kairi were. Hopefully, they had food with them.

"There you are, Riku!" Sora said when he saw him. He and Kairi were sitting in the tree, as usual. "We wondered when you were gonna show up."

"We heard you headed down earlier this morning," Kairi added. "Where were you?"

"Uh... Places."

Sora and Kairi laughed at that, but didn't press.

"Why'd you come down so early?" Sora did ask.

"Couldn't sleep," Riku replied, leaning against the tree next to them. "Thought I might come down here and get some thinking done."

"Whatcha thinking about?" Kairi asked

"Nothing really, just trying to remember."

"Remember anything?"

Riku thought about telling them, but decided against it and shook his head. There was no reason to tell them something when he couldn't even make sense of it. "Nothing" he said.

"That's too bad," Kairi said, and turned to Sora. "I wonder if Riku's world is out there somewhere."

"What do you mean?" he asked

"Well, Riku had to come from somewhere, right? What if it was another world?"

"That's ridiculous!"

Riku closed his eyes and let the two of them argue about it. To him, it didn't matter. He sighed, listening to the sound of the waves and just letting the world move on around him. It was peaceful. Almost too peaceful.

He shuddered and opened his eyes. Something didn't feel right; there was something in the air, something that shouldn't be there.

"The calm before the storm," he muttered, and looked out towards the horizon. There were no clouds in sight, but that didn't mean anything. He tensed immediately. Sora and Kairi stopped their arguing and turned to look at him.

"Trouble," Riku said simply. "Something's coming."

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked. "What could possibly be coming?"

Just as he said it, a small black creature with glowing yellow eyes appeared.