Chapter 9: Twilight Town.
Travelling through the Lanes Between the Keybladers didn't talk, the bi-polar effect that last world had had was disturbing, so, like most teens their age they kept it all bottled up.
In the distance familiar worlds appeared. "Sora?" Xion asked timidly.
Sora grinned and looked at Xion before answering in his usual manner. "Yeah, Xion?"
"Can we visit Twilight Town?"
"You know Xion, you don't need to ask, after all we're all equal here."
"Right, then, we are going to Twilight Town." Xion replied in an authoritative voice.
"That's more like it!" Sora laughed leaning his head back before putting on extra speed and headed towards the world in front of them closely followed by the rest of the party.
Scene change.
When the gang arrived at Twilight Town they landed outside the train station where they were immediately attacked… not really (I'm so evil! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!). However they did bump into something. The Object was slightly taller than Sora; its clothing was mainly white and blue and had silver hair. The object turned out to be (drum roll)… Riku!
"Riku, whatcha doing here?" Sora asked too far into shock to do anything.
"Well Sora, I am actually here to deal with the Heartless problem because you weren't to be here." Riku explained to the younger Master.
"Well then lead the way Master Riku." Roxas said grinning at the man after all Riku turned 18 tomorrow.
Riku looked ready to retort as he looked at the assembled group. Looking at both Roxas and Ventus gave Riku a slight headache. "Ugh, I must be sick, I'm seeing double!"
"No you're noooot." Ventus and Roxas replied in unison in a ghost-like voice. "You are peeerfectly fiiine." Ventus and Roxas looked at each other grinning like long lost twins.
"And I thought one Sora was bad enough." Riku muttered under his breath so that nobody could hear him.
"Anyway Riku." Aqua interrupted sharply. "Don't you recognise me?" Aqua looked Riku dead-set in the eye
"I-t's you!" Riku stammered out.
"Correct it is me. However I am slightly disappointed in you. When you were younger I told you to look after Sora, imagine my shock when I saw you walking through the Realm of Darkness. (Sigh) Riku, the only thing that the darkness is, is empty and full of horrors. I know, I've been there."
"I know, I was too naïve to believe otherwise, I thought that if I gave into darkness I would have the strength to protect what matters in this case its Sora and Kairi but I went too far! I ended up allowing Xehanort into my heart. I stole the Keyblade from Sora and soon after we actually fought each other. It was the worst year of my life. Only a week later I managed to balance the darkness and light inside my heart, I faced a choice afterwards. The road of Light, or the road of Darkness. I chose the Road to Dawn. Coming out of the darkness and back to the light, however I will always have darkness in my heart, and recently in my last adventure I finally banished the darkness." Riku explained. He was tired at the end of his rant; he never knew he had kept so much inside that it all came out at the slightest touch.
Aqua and Xion smiled at the man and said in unison. "You are forgiven Riku." I must point out at this point that Aqua and Xion weren't looking at each other. So you can imagine the shock everybody got when they said it, however as proven in high emotional states coincidences are more likely to happen. (Sorry about the rant)
~Meanwhile~
At Maleficent's newly recovered castle Maleficent and Pete were having an evil conversation. "How did that girl come out of her darkness? It's impossible, nobody save one person has ever done that and that was only because he could wield the Keyblade." Maleficent ranted to herself
Pete, in a rare point of intelligence replied. "Perhaps that girl's sister had something to do with it."
"Perhaps."
~Twilight Town~
"Really, you forgive me?" Riku asked the two girls with tears in his eyes.
At this point Xion had reached Riku. So, placing a hand on Riku's shoulder she whispered. "You helped me before Riku, of course I forgive you." At Riku's blank face of misunderstanding she continues. "You won't remember me yet because when I disappeared all memory of me vanished, now they're slowly returning."
Riku smiled at the younger girl. "Thank you, Xion." Before gasping at his realisation of the girls' name. Suddenly, as if a dam had been broken memories of Xion came back to him.
~Riku's memories~
Riku picked up Xion's Keyblade. "This Keyblade, it's a sham: worthless."
Xion was furious and yelled at the imposter. "My Keyblade is not a sham. WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO SAY THAT?!" Before rushing at Riku with Keyblade in hand and when she went to hit him Riku ducked underneath the swing and delivered a blow to her lower back knocking her out and causing her Keyblade to disappear into the light.
"Find a new crowd." Riku advised. "Trust me, those guys are bad news."
~Change scene~
Riku and Xion meeting on the Destiny Islands where they had a heartfelt conversation.
~Scene Change~
"Xion, it's time." Riku told the young girl whose face looked like Sora's when her looked at it.
"I know, my face is like Sora to you now, a boy named Ventus to Xigbar and even Roxas sees me with red hair." Xion explained.
"Good luck Xion."
"Goodbye Riku."
~End memories~
In the real world Riku was clutching his head in pain as the memories flooded back to him. When he stood up he smiled and said. "Welcome back Xion."
Suddenly all around the gang countless nobodies appeared and created a shockwave which knocked everyone except Riku and Sora out of the fighting area.
Sora and Riku vs. a bunch of nobodies
Sora and Riku quickly escaped from shock and started attacking the nobodies. The nobodies themselves weren't hard one on one, however a large fight like this required a special move.
Sora and Riku used the reaction Command Session to continuously attack the nobodies every now and then switching between dark fires and attacks. Their next move differed between double attacks and thirteen blades spinning around them. At the end they shouted "I'M NOT GONNA LOSE AT ALL!" Before pulling all of the nobodies in and causing them to all disappear in a massive explosion of light from Sora's Keyblade and Darkness from Riku's.
End fight.
"Wow." Everyone gasped in near-unison as they were able to finally reach Sora and Riku. "How did you do that?" Aqua asked wide eyed at the show of power she had just seen.
"Rather easily actually." Riku said with no modestly at all.
This earned him a slap upside the head from Sora. "It actually takes years of friendly rivalry, I'm sure you knew you friends for some time, all of you. However it takes strong friendship and over a decade of fighting to finally reach the point where you and your friend understand each other perfectly and are able to move in such a way." Sora explained to the others.
"Uh huh." Ven and Roxas replied intelligently.
"Why did you want to come here Xion?" Phillipa asked the younger girl.
"To relax." Xion replied. "Have some Sea-Salt Ice Cream, you know heave a break from all of the fighting and enjoy the sun set."
Roxas, who was grinning by this time yelled. "Great idea, Xion." Before pulling her up and twirling her around. Roxas, after he had put Xion said to the others. "To get to where we're going. Go into the station, go through a door on your left, go straight to the top, go through the door in front of you, turn right and you should come out at the top of the station."
The assembled group nodded and headed inside, and following Roxas's directions soon found themselves at the top of the tower, however it didn't really sit well with Mark's fear of heights so he sat against the wall instead of the edge. A few minutes later Roxas and Xion brought back the Ice Creams. After giving out the Ice Creams the rest of the gang paid 50 munny each for the Ice Creams. After all it's only fair.
The gang sat in peaceful silence as they ate their Ice Creams and watched the sun set it was a perfect way to relax.
When they had finished and Riku had learnt how to use a glider they were off again.
Behind them, but still on the ground a red-headed figure in a black coat looked at them and said to himself. "We'll be like that again guys." With that Lea teleported back to Yen Sid's Tower.
End Chapter.
A nice relaxing one if I do say so myself. At least now I have two reviews. Come on guys!
Current party: Sora, Riku, Roxas, Xion, Mark, Phiilipa, Aqua and Ventus.
Join us next time in... Olympus Coliseum!
