Since Riku knew the same spells as I did, more or less, it didn't really come as any surprise that the twins both persuaded him to go first. I expanded the room we were in to give more space and more time to react to each spell, then we got started.
At first I told him what spell so he'd be able to prepare – first the original three, Fire Thunder and Blizzard. Fire was the easiest to handle once he got timing down, Blizzard somewhat less so and Thunder we both quickly discovered took a great deal of finesse to get right as each of the separate bolts of lightning had to coincide. Not an easy task.
Once he'd started to get the hang of timing them right, I not only stopped telling him what magic I was casting but further resorted to silently casting the spells. It put him at a significant disadvantage, but also prepared him nicely.
Then I started throwing other spells – Fira gave him a little trouble as it's very similar to Fire, but he followed up quickly with a series of Fire to handle that. Blizzara caused a bit of a mess as the two ice spells were off-centre and reacted, spraying shards of ice about the room, and we skipped Thundara entirely after the trouble before.
At that point I paused, partly because Riku was out of magic and partly because the twins had got a fair idea of what to do by now. Since they were more evenly matched for each other, I created a second room for them to test each other in under the watchful eyes of Mickey and Jiminy, while Demyx remained with Riku and me so Jiminy would have a record of events.
I also did this because I still had one further thing to test Riku on.
"Feeling up to another round?" I asked him after a time.
"I dunno, I'm not sure I've got the magic to go toe-to-toe with you again. That was a lot of magic we threw about."
"That isn't all you have though. You've been around me long enough to know that magic and darkness are, to some degree, interchangeable."
"Kinda didn't want to do anything with that, Lee. Darkness is responsible for a lot of what I've done. It's changed me, and you can't say it didn't do the same to you."
"No, I'll concede that. I did have to make some changes to account for it, but as long as I'm careful about using it, that's no worry at all. If anything you've got less to worry about than me – at least you don't have to fight with it every time you use it. Neku calls it a Glass Cannon because of that."
"Glass cannon," he laughed. "Nice term." He sighed and stared into space for a time before he finally said, "I'm not gonna get outta this, am I?"
"No, Riku. You've got it, and you know how to use it safely. Darkness is a dangerous thing, and if you don't keep a hold on it, others can use that against you. Remember Xehanort's Heartless?"
Riku winced, "I've been trying not to."
"I know, but think about it. If you're in control of it, others can't control you with it. And you need to keep in practice if you want to keep that."
"Alright, I get the idea, don't beat me over the head with it. How do you want me to do this?"
"Same way we were magic. You can alter the magic in your spells, so you can also alter the composition. Go halves – half magic, half darkness. For our own safety I'll tell you what spell and give you fair warning – Neku's already had words with me that I'm not to force him to undo anything I do to you."
"When I go to the Realm of Sleep-" he started thoughtfully.
"Ask him, not me," I cut him off. "I'd say no on principle – I agreed to protect his book, that's why he still lets me keep it. He might decide to work around that somehow, I don't know. Now, lets give this a try."
Riku was, understandably, reluctant to go through with this. I couldn't blame him, but I wasn't going to leave him completely unprepared for anything Xehanort, in any of his incarnations, might attempt.
Naturally, since it was the first dark-enhanced spell I knew and the one I used to figure out all others, I opened with Dark Firaga. There was no need to worry about timing after the earlier volleys, seeing it easily countered with a flare of dark fire between us.
"Hey, Liam," Riku called afterwards. "Who did you practice against?"
"Me? I uh... didn't." I replied. "I sort of... learned about it. I just never did it myself."
"Really? My turn then!" he grinned broadly and threw Dark Blizzaga back at me.
That took me off guard, but I'd been paying attention to my own lessons naturally and countered it easily.
"That all you got?" I smirked back. "Let's see what else I've got then," and threw Dark Slow at him – a difficult combination to match, as Time magic becomes highly unstable with darkness. Riku countered that, then to my own surprise sent Stop back, similarly unstable. We ended up cycling through pretty much ever spell we both knew, though still carefully avoiding Thunder magic.
After a time Neku's voice warned us it was getting too risky, not exactly for either of us but it was attracting certain kinds of attention and he'd had to ask Terra to depopulate the Keyblade Graveyard of certain unexpected guests.
"Oh well," Riku remarked. "I got in some practice, and it looks like I've still got a good hold on the darkness. Should we rejoin the others?"
"No," I decided. "I think it's time for something else I have in mind for you."
"It's not a surprise test if I know about it," Riku protested.
"It is if you don't know what to expect," I replied with a wicked grin. "Demyx, you come too – I'll need Jiminy for this, so I'll have to ask you to keep an eye on the others."
He didn't answer, still writing a few details down on his pad before he came with us.
The others were still throwing around magic next door, though they'd decided to involve Keyblades as well to add another element to it. A neat stack of Elixirs nearby suggested Neku had decided to give them a hand so they didn't have to stop when they ran out of magic.
"Jiminy, I need to borrow you for a bit. Demyx can cover for you."
"Just give me a moment," Jiminy replied, also writing quickly. "Can you guys take a break for just a moment?" he called to the twins, who paused to oblige, breathing hard.
"Oh, hi Lee," Sora said after a moment. "Didn't see you there."
"Don't do that again!" Xion said.
"Am I missing something?" I asked.
"Sora 'accidentally' almost hit Xion with a spell and said something similar right after," Kairi chuckled. "Xion didn't take it too well."
"You wouldn't either if you'd just had a fireball shoot past your ear!" Xion exclaimed.
"Not my fault I was facing away from you when I cast the spell," Sora said innocently.
"All done," Jiminy said, handing his notepad to Demyx, then taking his off him. The two re-sized to more convenient sizes for each of them. "Try to keep them out of trouble, won't you Kairi?" he asked plaintively.
The twins both managed to fake looks of purest innocence at that. Jiminy sighed, climbing into my hand, then Riku and I left them to play.
"Hold still," I told Riku, then lifted Jiminy to Riku's shoulder. "And you hold on tight," I added to Jiminy.
"Now there's a novelty," Riku remarked. "Aside from Mickey once, I don't think I ever had a companion on any of my adventures, certainly not one logging everything I did."
"Just convenient in this case. I'm not going to be present – at least not that you'll be able to see – once this begins, so I need someone to write it down, don't I? This door, I think," I said absently, poking my head in to check. It was among the rooms I'd prepared in advance, mimicking Radiant Garden at the time I had visited with Ventus. There were no Unversed to be found here though, at least not unless I wanted there to be, so in their place I'd added normal townsfolk going about their business. That was important for what I had in mind.
I led Riku through the door, which seemed to vanish with a hissing sound afterwards.
"Uh... Liam?" Riku asked, looking back to it.
"Quite normal," I replied without concern, continuing on. It had put us exactly where I wanted to be, which was the central square, with paths leading off in all four directions. The route I had in mind would take us up to the familiar street on which Merlin's house resided.
"Are we... really here? Or is it just an illusion?"
"You don't expect me to tell you, do you Riku?" I replied. "Your test started the moment you walked through that door. I'll show you to where you'll actually be tested and tell you what you need to know, then it's entirely up to you. The door will reappear only when the test is over, regardless of whether you pass or not."
We weaved through the crowds – I might have overdone it and added a few too many people to the setting, but I did need him to notice when something was up shortly – to finally emerge at Merlin's house, and to a bench I'd created outside.
From the throng there came a series of "Excuse me – coming through here," and similar comments as Riku tried to catch up.
"I'm sure there's not this many people living here," he remarked when he caught up.
"Maybe. Your test – the actual test itself, that is – begins shortly. Just wait right here."
And then, to him, I disappeared. It was another illusion, leaving me nearby, but to him I'd simply vanished.
"That's it? That's all I needed to know?" he demanded. Several people among the crowd gave him odd looks, and he settled slightly, taking a seat on the bench still looking slightly irritated.
"This must be your surprise test, Riku," Jiminy told him. "Maybe you gotta figure out what the test is as well as how to deal with it."
"How am I suppose to know? I can't even tell if this is the real Radiant Garden or not. I think it's an illusion, but his illusions are too good to tell."
"Maybe you should look about then?" he suggested
"Lee said I had to wait here," Riku disagreed, watching people pass while tapping one foot absently. I started to nudge the illusory people, having less and less of them appear. As the position of the sun here in this Radiant Garden indicated it was about high noon, he should notice this.
He didn't disappoint, starting to look concerned.
"Think something might have happened?" Jiminy suggested, looking no less bothered.
"Could be... I don't know. He didn't exactly give us time to look around. Maybe there's an event or something they've all gone to."
"Surely you'd still see someone around though."
"I guess, but the test... unless this is the test..." he agonised over it for a few moments. "Oh, to hell with it. Lets go find out what's going on."
Which was exactly what I'd wanted him to do. Now I started to nudge a few other actions about the town into taking place. He'd run across them depending on where he went.
Riku headed back to where we'd arrived, and where the door still was, though until he was done it would not even feel like it was there even if he walked right through it.
The central square of course was also by now deserted. As Riku walked through, looking about with grave concern on his face, one of the events triggered. An image of a girl appeared, running in clear terror from something. Something that turned out to be a shadow on the ground, a low pool of darkness.
"Oh, no you don't!" Riku muttered, pulling out his Keyblade. "Come here," he called to the girl. "I'll protect you!"
She turned quickly to join him, but more shadows appeared now. One even climbed up out of the ground to form the familiar Shadow Heartless. Riku made a gesture with his free hand and I felt his darkness reach out to my illusion Heartless, trying to force them to show themselves. I let them react as he wanted, not wanting to confirm this was all illusions just yet.
The nearest of them were quickly destroyed as he made his way to the girl, taking to one corner and shielding her himself as he cut down any Heartless that got too close, using Thunder magic to reach the further off ones.
Once the tide of Heartless had subsided he turned to the girl.
"What happened?" he asked gently.
"An evil woman in black appeared," she answered. "She did something and those things came out of everyone's shadows. Some people even turned into them as well! I was scared, so I just ran."
"Evil woman? Black robes, horns and a staff?"
"Do you know her?"
"Maleficent," he almost growled the name. "She's a very bad person. Where did you see her?"
"Up in the gardens outside the castle," she said, pointing to the illusion of the place Ansem the Wise once lived and worked. "But don't leave me on my own! I don't want to get turned into one of them!"
"We oughta find somewhere safe," Jiminy suggested. "We can't leave her behind, but I don't think we dare go near Maleficent with her."
"Merlin's house should be safe," he decided after a moment. "The old wizard will surely know what to do."
Except the 'old wizard', much like the other known residents of Radiant Garden at the time, were not here. The events I had taking place probably happened differently in reality, but they were based on what I knew – by this point in my make-believe version, Cid had already taken Merlin, Leon and the gang to Traverse Town.
The girl held tightly onto his hand as he led the way, clearly on alert now as he warily kept watch – even behind him periodically, remembering what I'd said earlier.
"I know that house," she said as they approached Merlin's house. "I saw the man with the fluffy beard leaving with the bad tempered one."
"Leaving? Just my luck," he muttered, dismissing the Keyblade to tug on the door. "Locked, of course," he sighed. "Well, I'll just have to apologise to him later."
He recalled it again to unlock it, leading her inside. I'd arranged it to show signs of a hurried departure, with many of Merlin's belongings missing – taken with him, of course.
"Hey, mister," the girl called to him, having let go of him and gone to one shelf. Another event I wanted to happen. "What're these?"
Riku joined her at the shelf she'd gone to – a shelf laden with spells, though all in trap-form. Deliberately so.
"That's magic," he told her. "Don't touch them or they'll do something to you, and I don't know what."
"Could you use them to keep this place safe against the bad things?"
"Not me – if I try, they'll affect me instead."
"Hey, Riku, look!" Jiminy said, pointing toward the door. "The Heartless can't seem to get in here!"
Don't ask me if that really applies. I was playing with creative license there, but as it looked to them, there were Heartless at the door, but held back by some unseen barrier.
"So it's safe here," Riku said. "That's good to know, unless I have to leave again. I don't ever remember Merlin keeping spells around like this though..."
"He's never done it when I've been around, that's for sure," Jiminy agreed.
"Look at this one, mister Riku," the girl said, prompted by another nudge from me. "There's something inside it!"
Riku cautiously looked closer. Within the spell orb was an image of himself. "Odd," he murmured. "Magic of me?" Then he started to look at the others, identifying them as he went along. "A lion's head... a snake... some kind of bird... and a fish? Wait a moment..." he looked at each thoughtfully. "Maybe these aren't traps. Well, they are," he admitted. "But they're not supposed to be used that way."
"What are you thinking?" Jiminy asked.
"I wonder if they're something I'm supposed to use," he answered, then pointed to the one that contained him. "This one looks like it's some kind of reset spell, as if it undoes anything the others do."
"And you think the others might be able to help you in some way?" Jiminy wondered. "But you should be careful. If they change your form, you might not be able to change back so easily."
"Right. And I can't carry them around, if I touch them they'll trigger."
"What about this?" it was the girl again, now holding up a rucksack.
"Perfect," Riku said, taking it off her. "Thanks. Now if I can just roll these into it without touching them..."
"Make sure you can reach them," Jiminy warned. "No good carrying them around if you can't use them."
"I'll figure something out," Riku replied absently, collecting the four of them. "You'll be safe here," he told the girl. "And if I find anyone else, I'll send them this way, so you're in charge of making sure they're alright, okay?"
"But what about those black things?"
"Leave them to me," he replied, retrieving his Keyblade. The Shadows at the door barely formed any resistance for him. "Next stop, the castle," he added after they were gone.
