Author's Note: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.
Ch.10 Riku's Declaration
As Sora Donald and Goofy entered the Third Floor, Donald's expression was one of confusion and irritation. "Something's screwy. Journal pages don't just vanish!" he exclaimed. Sora heard that and stopped, his own expression pensive. "What if... it's more things?" he suggested. Donald and Goofy both stopped, looking back at him. "Huh?" they both said. Sora looked up. "Goofy was telling us about another castle that we'd been to... only, none of us really remembers it. Do you think...? Could it be that we don't remember because we're losing our memories?" he asked. Donald blinked. "Losing... our memories?" he repeated. Jiminy chose that moment to make himself heard, jumping out from Sora's hood.
"Hold on! Remember what that mystery fella said. 'In this place, to find is to lose, and to lose is to find.' It must have been our memories he was talking about losing!" he said. Sora nodded and crossed his arms. "So if we keep going, we'll losing more... Guess it really is Castle Oblivion," he said. Donald looked up at the ceiling. "So the higher we go, the more we'll forget? Does that mean everything and everybody will be forgotten?" he asked. Sora's eyes widened at that. "Riku, Kairi, and Dexal too..." he muttered. The three of them were his closest friends, even if Dexal was now gone. The mere idea of losing them was unthinkable. Donald looked at him. "Do you want to go back?" he asked. But then Goofy stepped forward, his trademark smile on his face. "Don't worry, fellahs. We might forget about where we've been or what things we've seen, but we won't forget who our friends are," he declared.
"I don't know..." Donald replied. "C'mon, Sora. When you turned into a Heartless, did you forget about me and Donald?" Goofy asked. Sora shook his head firmly. "Of course not!" he said passionately. Goofy's smile grew wider. "There you go! No matter what happens, you won't forget your friends!" he stated. Sora and Donald's eyes both widened, and Sora smiled as well. "You're right. Thank you, Goofy," he said. Donald joined in and smiled. "So if we won't forget our friends, then we have nothing to be scared of! Let's go!" he said, before turning and marching off to the door. Sora's smile changed to a smirk. "But when I turned into a Heartless, who was the one that took forever to notice and kept clobbering me?" he asked, putting his hand behind his head. Donald froze with one foot in the air, before slowly turning around.
"How come you didn't forget about THAT?" he said. Both Sora and Goofy began laughing, while Donald jumped about up and down, babbling angrily. Once they had calmed down Sora walked up to the third door and held up the card for Olympus Coliseum. The card burst apart and the door opened, light shining through as they walked in.
As they did, a young girl was sitting on a chair in another part of the castle. Her hair was blonde and she wore a white dress and sandals. She was holding a sketchbook and working on it intently. As she continued drawing, a small smile came to her face.
At that moment, with Riku...
After Riku fled the memory copy of his bedroom, he managed to make it through the Heartless until he reached the Castle Chapel. It was there that he met the first being besides Heartless in the fake Hollow Bastion. Unfortunately, that person happened to a rather familiar dark witch. Said witch smiled. "I know you'd come, Riku," she said. Riku's eyes grew huge, before narrowing in hatred. "Maleficent! How are you alive?!" he demanded. Maleficent chuckled. "You haven't been paying attention. I am merely a fragment of your memory," she explained condescendingly. Riku scoffed, saying "Of all the people I run into, it had to be you." "But of course. After all, your heart is steeped in darkness. You can only see those in that same darkness," she pointed out. Riku gasped at that, muttering "No..."
Maleficent looked down at him. "Be grateful you have someone to keep you company. Your heart is empty. Were it not for the darkness, it contains, you would be completely alone," she told him. Riku frowned. "That's sounding pretty good right about now," he admitted. Maleficent chuckled again. "Come now. You once turned to me to sate your hunger for darkness. You want me here. Who else but I can offer the darkness you desire?" she asked. Riku looked down. "There was a time when I did want you around. I surrendered my heart to the dark. But never again. You and your darkness have nothing offer," he told her, walking past her. He stopped once he was right behind her.
"All I did was lose myself... Empty myself. I done with that. If all I have to see is people like you, people of the dark..." he said, before turning around. "I'll take you out one by one!" he declared. Maleficent walked forward before turning to face Riku. "Then you mustn't forget to destroy yourself last. For like me, you are one of the dark," she told him. Riku nodded. "That's fine with me. I turned the darkness because my heart was weak. I hate that weakness. It's like I'm my own enemy! And seeing people like you embrace the dark just makes it worse!" he nearly yelled. Then he summoned his Soul Eater and moved into a fighting stance. "Enough talk, Maleficent!" he said. Maleficent laughed. "So, you hate the darkness enough to fight it. Oh, the agony you must feel. Let me end your pain, Riku- end it forever... with the wondrous power of darkness!" she called out.
Maleficent began gathering her power and raised her arms over her heart until her entire body burst into a pillar of green, black and yellow flames. Smoke billowed and covered the area, blinding Riku. Once it faded it showed that the area had changed to become the dome-like area where the real Maleficent have been defeated, with vines of thorns covering the walls. The witch herself had transformed into a dark dragon, and roared at Riku with green flames leaking from the sides of her mouth. Riku glared at her and tightened his grip on Soul Eater. The massive dragon roared and snapped its fangs, forcing Riku to roll to the side to avoid the attack. The move was followed up by a swipe from its claws, but Riku blocked the attack.
However, the force of the blow sent him skidding back across the ground, and the Maleficent took that chance to swing at him with her tail. Rather than roll away Riku stuck his blade out and let the tail hit it, stabbing itself. When the dragon roared and tried to pull its tail back he held on, going along for the ride. Maleficent roared and tried to swing Riku around and hopefully dislodge him, but the moment Riku was above her back her yanked Soul Eater back out and dived down, landing on her back. Before the witch-turned-dragon could do anything he spun and held Soul Eater in both hands, slashing at her left wing with a shout. Due to the added power of using both hands, the blade tore through the flesh and hallow bones, severing the wing.
Maleficent roared her loudest yet and rose up and her hind legs, forcing Riku to jump off. With that done she spun around and took a deep breath before unleashing a torrent of green flames. Riku's eyes shot wide and he quickly rolled forward, away from the heat. Already he could fell the air temperature begin rising, and that was shot from a small bit of the flames. But Maleficent kept breathing out more and more, enraged over her injury. Riku tried to avoid them but the dragon back up, not allowing to him escape but running under her. He rolled forward and tried again, this time succeeding. Before Maleficent could remove his cover he lashed out and slashed the ankle of her right foreleg. This issued another roar of agony, and Maleficent reared up again in an attempt to crush him.
However, Riku ran away before she could do that. While this ensured that he wasn't turned into a human pancake, it left him wholly unprepared for the shockwave from the attack, which hit him smack in the chest and sent him flying. Riku landed on his back and groaned, feeling like an Invisible Heartless had just smashed into his chest with the blunt end of its sword. Maleficent saw that he was down and grinned, drawing in another breath to unleash more flames and fry him. However, Riku saw it and managed to rise to his feet, grabbing Soul Eater and rolling to the side to avoid it. Not a second too late, as the merest bit of the flames did catch him on his left arm. Now Riku was the one crying out in pain, holding his hand to his burns and trying to ignore the pain.
Maleficent grinned again and took another breath. Riku saw it coming and instead of moving away he charged, leaping right on front of Maleficent's face just as she was about to exhale. "Take this!" he called, and slashed vertically downward. The move cut her along her nose, lips and chin, making the dragon cry out in pain and completely forget about her planned attack. Riku dropped back to the ground and stabbed into her other foreleg, before running underneath her and repeating the process with her two hind legs. Maleficent snarled as she was barely able to stand now, and swung her tail again at Riku. He simply ducked underneath and ran for the base of her tail. Riku swung and cut through to the bone, but didn't have enough raw strength to sever the appendage. Nonetheless, Maleficent swung around and snapped her fangs at him, catching Riku on the leg.
He cried out and the dragon hoisted him into the air, where Riku tried to pull out a Defender card to help mitigate the damage. No such luck. Maleficent shook him from side to side and bit harder, threatening to tear off his leg. But then Riku look at her and smirked, causing the dragon-witch to pause. She currently had the boy in her jaws, easily able to inflict fatal injury. The fight was next to over… so why was he smiling? That was, until she saw the glint of metal, and had just enough time to widen her eyes before Riku stabbed one of them, quickly doing the same to the other. The now blind dragon reflexively roared, which allow Riku to pull himself free and drop to the ground.
Almost immediately he dropped to one knee, gritting his teeth from the pain. As much as he hated to admit it, fighting without darkness was harder than he remembered. At least then, he had the dark energy to help heal him, or at least dull the pain. But he would not use the darkness again. Not now, not ever. Doing his best to work through the pain, he stood back up and dodged the wild stream of fire Maleficent shot in his general direction. Without being able to see her opponent, the witch tried to simply cover the largest area possible in flames. This worked to Riku's advantage though, as the crackling of the fire would cover the sounds of his panting and running.
With that in mind, he ran forward and ducked underneath its head, aiming for the dragon's heart. With a shut he stabbed it through and twisted the blade before ripping it back out. Maleficent froze and slowly looked down at Riku, who smirked. She tried to do something- roar, snarl, slash at him, anything- but then her eyes rolled back into her head and the witch slumped forward. Riku backed away as her body burst into green flames and began fading away. Once the fake Maleficent's body was completely gone, all that was left in its place was a card of her dragon form, which Riku pocketed. The thorn-filled room itself also began fading away, showing a regular room in Hollow Bastion with a single open door and a save point. Riku stepped into the point and sighed as it healing power fixed up his injuries.
Once it was done Riku turned and faced the door, walking through and exiting Hollow Bastion.
And that puts an end to Riku's first world in Castle Oblivion. What will happen now that he has made his declaration? And what will Sora and the others encounter in Olympus Coliseum? Stay tuned to find out!
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