WARNINGS: a little shonen-ai here. One-sided RikuxSora and...dirty!Sephiroth. Plot is really coming together here. Enjoy!
Suggested listening: Taking Back Sunday. "Slowdance on the Inside"
Suggested beverage: Sprite
"These are my mentors?" Sephiroth asked, his tone betraying his dismal outlook on the whole situation. The brunette one was chewing gum.
"Well, whadidya expect?" Sora blew a large pink bubble that snapped loudly in the air. He chewed it back into his mouth and said around the sugary mass, "We're the best in the Kingdom."
"Just because we're kids doesn't mean we're weak," Riku said, leaning against a tree and being decidedly more dignified than his shorter counterpart. "Between the two of us, we've dispatched more Heartless than anyone." He gave a little smirk. "We're good."
"You'll find their hearts are strong," Merlin assured Sephiroth, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "Their methods may be a bit, erm, unorthodox at times, but I can say in the fullest of confidence—"
Sora flung his hands in the air, causing a flowering vine growing above his head to shed pollen everywhere. "We kick ass and chew bubble gum," he shouted. "And I think this is my last piece of gum." He took the pink wad from his mouth and looked at it quizzically. "Lost its taste, too."
"You two don't even have weapons," Sephiroth pointed out. "How great can you be?"
In an instant, both boys raised their hands aloft and two blades appeared in a cloud of shimmering light. The shorter boy's sword was brightly colored and seemed to glow from its many deadly edges. The silver-haired boy had a darker looking weapon that looked like it had been forged with both angel and devil wings.
"You carry Keyblades?" Sephiroth whispered in astonishment. "Then you are both Bearers?"
"Yeah, crazy world, huh?" Sora laughed, and his Keyblade dissipated into thin air.
Riku's sword followed suit. "If you can't stand the thought of a couple of kids teaching you how to control your Darkness," he said, "then just say so, and we'll leave."
"But Riku," Sora hissed, "the King said we had to…"
"Can't teach someone who won't learn," Riku said, eyeing Sephiroth smugly. "So what do you say? Are you ready or not?"
Sephiroth glanced at Merlin, who was nodding enthusiastically under his pointy blue hat.
"I suppose…" he said carefully.
"Great!" Sora gave a rousing thumbs-up and grinned widely. "We should start practicing right away."
"We'll need to go somewhere private," Riku said. "We heard your…situation here in Radiant Garden is a little precarious."
"Hey, let's go up to Crystal Fissure," Sora suggested. "There's plenty of space and no one will bother us. Besides," he gave Sephiroth a friendly jab in the shoulder as he passed, "that's where we last fought. Man, what a battle!"
"You mean…where I died?" Sephiroth asked.
"Well, technically it's where you disappeared into the ether," Riku corrected, walking past him as well. "Otherwise, you wouldn't be here, right?"
"Come on, Seph!" Sora called over his shoulder, vanishing from view in the thick forest. "Can I call you Seph? Seems like a good nickname."
Sephiroth gave Merlin one last pleading glance, but the wizard just shooed him in the direction of the two boy heroes. He had no choice but to follow.
"…And so me and Riku come home after miraculously saving not just our home world, but the entire universe, and does anyone even notice?" Sora chatted, kicking a small pebble out of his path. Sephiroth sighed; this trek up to the Fissure sure was arduous. "Our parents didn't even believe us when we told them about all the different worlds and stuff. And they didn't remember the Heartless attacking," the boy continued. "They just said we had vivid imaginations and grounded us for running away. Can you believe it? I save all of existence, but I don't get dessert for three months." He clicked his tongue and shook his head. "But at least Riku and Kairi remember what happened, or else I would think I was going nuts." Sora let out a laugh. "I wish you could meet Kairi. You'd really like her, Seph."
Riku's slight grimace did not go unnoticed to Sephiroth's keen eye.
"You speak as if your quest hasn't been over very long," Sephiroth said, his brow furrowed. "But I was told two years have passed since my…disappearance."
"Time moves differently in different worlds," Riku spoke up. He was far ahead the other two on the path, his silver hair shining in the sunlight. "Very little time had passed for those on Destiny Islands. And yet, when we returned looking older, no one seemed to notice." He turned his head to warn, "The mind is easily tricked."
"Yes," Sephiroth said quietly. "I'm aware."
"Here we are," Sora announced, leading Sephiroth through one last icy corridor. A flat plateau opened up before them, offering an unobstructed view of the city below. "Kind of pretty, isn't it?"
"It's breathtaking," Sephiroth said, walking to the edge of the cliff and looking at the sight below. His muscles twitched and his mind felt like something was itching at the back of his memories… "This is where I stood?" he asked.
"Yeah, watching Cloud, day in, day out." Sora snorted. "Your eyesight was something else. You could've picked out a moth on another world if you wanted."
"Sephiroth may not want to be reminded of the past, Sora," Riku said softly.
"No, please, it's fine." Sephiroth turned to the young man with silvery hair at his side. He had a swallow a gasp when he looked into the boy's eyes. They were deep, swirling pools of aqua, much like his own had appeared in old photographs. They were eyes that had seen Darkness. "You…" Sephiroth reached forward and gently lifted a jagged lock of long silver hair from where it lay on the boy's brow. "You look like you could be my brother."
"We share a common thread," Riku said firmly. "But I promise you, we're not related by blood."
Sephiroth gave a sigh of relief. "The events of today have been traumatic enough without the appearance of long-lost kin," he said.
"Agreed," the young man said in his gravelly voice. "Shall we begin with your training?"
Sephiroth's hand instinctively went to his belt. "I have no weapon," he said, patting the empty space there in realization. "And I doubt I could wield one of your Keyblades."
"Yeah, it'd pop right out of your hand the second you touched it." Sora nodded.
"I want to start with mental training anyway. Sora," Riku said to the other boy, "would you mind going to Leon's and finding three strips of cloth? And get Sephiroth's sword while you're there."
"Are you kidding?" The spiky-headed kid's jaw dropped. "After I walked all that way?"
"It'll take you ten minutes," his friend argued. "Maybe less."
"That a challenge?" Sora asked, smiling brightly.
Riku merely held up his wrist to glance at his watch. "Starting now."
The young Keyblade Bearer was off with a shout, running at top speed back down the dusty path. Sephiroth watched him go, wondering at his boundless energy.
"He's certainly a cheerful young man," Sephiroth commented.
Riku turned around to stare out over the city, his hands clasped behind his back. "He's the love of my life," he said in a monotone. Sephiroth whirled around to frown at the other boy. Riku dipped his head down, his long silver locks moving like metallic feathers against the back of his neck. "And though I love him more than anything, his heart doesn't belong to me. It belongs to someone else."
"Why are you telling me this?" Sephiroth whispered.
Riku sighed and closed his eyes. "You're not the only one who can't have what you want. It happens to thousands of people all around the universe." The boy opened his eerie blue eyes and gazed at Sephiroth. "So what? Are you going to hand your heart over to the Darkness because you're hurting? Cry me a river."
Sephiroth's hands fisted at his sides, shaking with rage. "You insolent little…" He took a deep breath before continuing, "You think your little teenage romance compares to my feelings for Cloud? You have no idea what it feels like for your heart to cry out for someone that hates everything you are, everything you've done."
Riku's hands fell from the pockets of his baggy pants, and his Way of Dawn Keyblade appeared in his left hand. "You think I'm insolent?" He slashed his Keyblade through the air as if casually testing its weight. "When you've been used as a tool to hurt those you love, when you've wandered the Darkness alone, searching for your Light, when you've fought and bled alongside your love at the end of the world, when you've done all these things and kept yourself sane," he scoffed, "then you can call me insolent. But until then, you can listen. And learn."
The boy walked away from the edge of the plateau and sat languidly in the red dirt, his blade shimmering out of sight.
"Everyone has Darkness within them," he continued quietly. "It's just a matter of whether or not you can live with it."
"Perhaps I shouldn't live with it," Sephiroth sighed, still looking down at the rooftops below. "Perhaps I shouldn't live at all."
"No!" Riku shouted, grabbing his arm faster than Sephiroth could blink. With inhuman strength, the boy thrust him back onto the solid ground. Sephiroth stumbled and fell, blinking up at Riku as he lay there on his back in the dust. "You cannot sacrifice your life!" the boy snarled in his face. "You think your pain is so great? Have you even considered what your death would mean?"
Sephiroth thought about Aerith, the kind healer that had taken him under her wing like a sister, like a mother. How she would cry…
"I suppose a few people in this world would miss me," Sephiroth conceded.
"I'm not talking about that," Riku said with an exasperated sigh. He bent over Sephiroth, aqua eyes glaring into green. "I'm talking about what the Darkness would do with your Nobody."
Sephiroth shook his head. "What?"
"Look, no one's really sure how you reappeared in Radiant Garden," Riku said. "There's a possibility that the Light wanted to give you a second chance, like what happened with a girl named Aerith many years ago. But it could be that the Darkness wants to drive you off the edge so that your Nobody, which will be nearly invincible, can rise up and take over the Dark Forces." The boy stood up straight, stuffing his hands in his pockets once more. "If that happens, we're all dead. The balance is destroyed, and Darkness wins at last. Is that what you want?"
Sephiroth glared up at him, but stayed silent.
"Hey guys," Sora called cautiously, approaching them with his hands full of the items he was sent to find. "Is everything okay? I was only gone for a few minutes."
"Just explaining some things to our student here," Riku replied, keeping an eye on the man in question. "Did you get the cloth?"
"Yeah, Yuffie had some scraps." Sora held up the three strips of soft black cloth. "These good enough?"
The silver-haired boy took one piece from his friend's hand and knelt beside Sephiroth. "I'm going to blindfold you," he explained as if talking to a child. "It will help you focus."
"Absolutely not," Sephiroth protested, batting away the piece of fabric that Riku tried to raise to his face. "I can just close my eyes and concentrate."
Riku sighed. "Trust me. This is going to be more effective." He gestured to Sora standing behind him. "We'll both be blindfolded too. It'll be better for confronting some of your memories."
Sephiroth looked up at the young Keyblade Bearer with the spiky hair that reminded him of Cloud, and Sora smiled at him reassuringly. "We're here to help," he promised.
Sephiroth sighed and submitted to Riku's ministrations. The boy folded the dark cloth over his eyes and tied it securely behind his head. Not a stray bit of light could be seen through the blindfold. Nervous, Sephiroth lifted the edge between his thumb and forefinger and watched the two boys put on their own blindfolds.
"No peeking," Sora admonished, and he let the cloth fall back in place. He could hear Riku and Sora sit on the ground on either side of him in a small circle.
"Take off your gloves, Sora," Riku said. The rustling sounds of two pairs of gloves falling to the dirt echoed in Sephiroth's ears. "Skin to skin is going to be best."
"Skin?" Sephiroth said in alarm. Then he felt the young boys' hands slipping into his own. Sora's smaller, callused hand slipped into his right and Riku's long, tapered fingers grasped onto his left.
"We're going to lend you some of our strength," Sora whispered, his voice more serious than it'd been all day.
"Don't be afraid," Riku said. "If you find the Darkness in your memories, we'll help you fight it."
"What should I do?" Sephiroth asked, feeling the two boys squeeze his hands reassuringly.
"Just relax. Try to clear your mind." Riku's voice seemed to grow distant even though Sephiroth still held the youth's hand in his. In the blackness that swarmed in front of his eyes, Sephiroth imagined he could feel himself in two places: one part of him sat in the dirt on Crystal Fissure, and the other part was in a very dark place, a maze of unlit hallways. Sephiroth's breathing quickened; was he in his memories?
Shivering in that cold corridor of his mind, Sephiroth felt two familiar hands on his back, gently urging him forward.
"Don't be afraid," Riku repeated.
"We're right here with you," Sora said.
"What will I see in this place?" Sephiroth asked, his voice echoing against the black walls.
"Let's find out together." Riku's strong hand propelled him further into the dark hall. "Just remember, none of it is real. It's all in your head."
Sephiroth stepped forward, taking the twisting halls one step at a time. He could feel the warm presence of the two Keyblade Bearers at his back, offering silent support. Trying to keep his bearings, Sephiroth stuck to the left wall and followed it until…he became irretrievably lost.
"Is this how all minds are organized?" he sighed in frustration. "I can't see anything in this pitch black."
"Riku's mind is more of a grey color," Sora offered.
"And Sora's looks more like a candy store than a working brain," Riku said dryly.
In the overwhelming blackness, Sephiroth felt more than saw Sora give Riku a light whap to the back of his head. "You've explored each other's minds?" he asked.
Riku seemed to shift uncomfortably while Sora gushed, "Yeah, when we returned home we started doing it to remind ourselves that our memories were real. Riku was good at leading me through all this mental stuff. It's pretty cool."
"Look up there," Riku interrupted. Sephiroth squinted in the dark, seeing a tiny pinpoint of light ahead. He strode towards it, feeling more confident now. After walking for a few minutes, he finally reached the small speck.
"A keyhole," Sephiroth murmured, bending down to inspect the waist-high light. "This must be a door."
"Doors are meant to be opened," Sora stated with surety. "Go for it."
Sephiroth's hand scrambled in the darkness, finally finding a doorknob. He took a deep breath and turned it, pushing the creaky door open.
He blinked. After wandering the dark halls for a small eternity, this bright room hurt his eyes. He held up a hand to shield himself from the blinding light.
"Hey Seph," a gentle voice called to him from within the room. "You finally made it."
Sephiroth lowered his hand, squinting at the dark shape leaning against the wall of his memory. "Zack…?" he gasped, recognizing the wild black hair.
The uniformed man gave him a little salute. "Good to see you again, buddy," he said with a smile. "I've been waiting for you."
Sephiroth turned to look behind his shoulder at Riku and Sora, but he couldn't see anything in that impenetrable gloom. "He's not real?" he asked into the blackness.
"This is your memory of him," Riku's voice answered. "He's here to guide you."
"Don't be afraid," Zack said, clapping a hand over Sephiroth's shoulder.
"Why does everyone keep saying that?" he wondered aloud. "What's here to be afraid of?"
"Me."
The voice came from behind Sephiroth, where Riku and Sora should have been. But instead when he turned around, a tall, black-clad figure came striding through the doorway, long silver hair swinging back and forth.
Sephiroth's eyes widened. It was himself, from the past. The General…
"Riku?" he called, looking around the room. "Sora? What is this? Where are you?"
"Concentrate," Zack whispered into his ear. "You have to be strong against Him."
A black gloved hand snaked out and grabbed hold of Sephiroth's chin, forcing him to look into Mako green eyes. His Dark self chuckled.
"You're so weak now," it muttered, threading long fingers through shorter silver locks and wrenching them painfully. "Look what you've done to yourself."
"This isn't real," Sephiroth whispered. "This can't hurt me."
"That's it, Seph," Zack encouraged, his voice sounding far away now. "Don't let him scare you."
"Yes, don't let me scare you," the Other Sephiroth mocked, shoving him backward. Sephiroth fell to the floor, though he couldn't see a floor in the bright white room. The General towered over him, a monster in black leather. "I'm just a dream. I couldn't possibly harm anything," he continued to scoff.
Sephiroth froze as he felt the Dark memory crawl on top of him. Long pale fingers, just like his own, were searching under his shirt, nails biting into his flesh. He was pressed down under the Other's weight, immobile. Helpless.
"I couldn't possibly harm Cloud," the General sneered.
"Leave him alone," Sephiroth whispered shakily. "Don't you dare touch him."
The Dark one tilted his head, spilling long silver hair over Sephiroth's face. "Look who's giving orders now," it mused. The slotted eyes glowed fiercely, and Sephiroth felt a harsh mouth pressing against his own.
Zack! Riku! Sora! His mind screamed for help against this unstoppable force. Tears tracked down his temples from the corners of his tightly shut eyes. Sephiroth tried to turn his head to get away from the kiss, but hands covered in leather held his face steady. A tongue that tasted of dried blood forced its way past his lips, making him whimper. Help me!
"Get the hell away from him!" Riku roared, swinging his Keyblade at the attacker. The Dark Sephiroth, jolted by the blow, snarled at the boy.
"It's okay, we've got him," Sora said, readying his own weapon and boxing the enemy in. The General merely smirked and, with a gesture, disappeared into thin air.
Sephiroth looked around the room blearily, spitting on the ground to get the iron taste out of his mouth. He felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Time to get out of here, Seph," Zack said. "I'm sorry I couldn't help more."
Everything went away.
Sephiroth tore the blindfold from his eyes, gasping for air. He was back in Crystal Fissure, sitting on solid ground. "What happened in there?" he choked.
The two Keyblade Bearers removed their own blindfolds, revealing troubled eyes.
"Your other side was very strong," Riku said. "It took awhile for us to get past his barriers to help you."
"Sorry," Sora apologized. "Are you okay?"
Sephiroth glanced over his body as if trying to decide whether he was really there or not. "I'm not hurt," he said slowly, still panting for breath. "I just feel…" He hung his head. "He's all-powerful. I couldn't even lift a hand to try and stop him. How do I defeat something like that?"
"This was only our first time trying," Sora said. "Next time we'll be more prepared for it. It might take awhile, but we'll find a way."
Riku cast a glance towards the katana on the ground that Sora had fetched. "Don't suppose you feel up for a little physical training?" he asked.
Sephiroth shook his head.
"Don't worry," the brunette youth assured. "We have time."
An expression of doubt passed over Riku's face, but he only said, "Yes, let's get some rest."
They returned to the brownstone with Sephiroth dragging his feet the whole way. He was not looking forward to confronting the crew; he hadn't spoken to them since the incident in the garden with Cloud. And he was not excited to tell them what Riku and Sora had dug out of his memories.
He opened the front door slowly, like an errant child sneaking in after curfew. The common room looked empty, and he sighed in relief. He led Sora and Riku into the house, and then heard a noise from the kitchen. He turned to see Aerith wiping her hands on a dishtowel. She was crying.
"Oh, Seph," she said, flinging herself at the taller man. Sephiroth stood shocked at her warm embrace. "I thought maybe you weren't ever coming home."
"I…" He wrapped his arms carefully around her.
"I'm so sorry!" Aerith cried suddenly, hugging him tighter. "If I hadn't made you dress up like your old self, maybe these memories wouldn't have surfaced. Maybe…"
"No, don't cry," Sephiroth whispered gently. "It was my idea. And something was bound to trigger my memories sooner or later. Don't blame yourself."
"Still." Aerith sniffed, wiping her face with her hand. "I can't stand the thought of you being tormented like this."
"Don't worry. Sora and Riku are here to help." Sephiroth gestured to the two boys standing awkwardly in the doorway. "Everything's under control," he lied.
Sora gave her a little wave and a watery grin. Riku didn't even make eye contact, shuffling his feet against the carpet. Sephiroth sighed; this was going to be a long journey.