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Ansem
Light washes over me.
This place is familiar, but it doesn't immediately register.
I'm taken aback. Kind of in shock. Can't help but wonder if any of this is real, or not. I've traveled across the universe only to end up back at point A.
Destiny Islands. My home. The irony of the name of this place strikes me only now, as I stand on the beach I once called my home. Looking out on the sea that swallowed me, and spit me out in another world.
You're standing out there, the incoming waves rushing over your feet. Staring out to the sea, as I do behind you. Sense of deja vu washes over me, as if I've lived this very moment a thousand times before.
I call out to you.
Riku?
You turn and face me, with that very same smile on your face that was there just before I left this place. Eyes close, as your head tilts upward. The sun kissing the horizon behind you, dim orange glow reflecting more brightly than it seems it should off the endless patch of water behind you.
Look as though you're having an orgasm. You make a noise that indicates amazing sensation before opening your eyes, and readjusting your head to make eye contact.
"You've finally made it!" You exclaim, as though happy to see me. "I've been waiting for you."
Voice is not your own. You're not Riku anymore. You're still Ansem.
What have you done to my friends? To my island?
"I've done nothing to your friends or your island, my dear boy. You've made all of this happen yourself."
You and I are going to rot like apples on the ground.
"Are we? Or, are you going to destroy yourself and take me with you?"
I'm not so sure what that means.
"You'll understand in due time."
How can I understand if I've been destroyed by my own hand? Or even yours?
You don't say anything.
You just laugh and turn away.
"Don't ever change, okay?"
"The tide's coming in," you say. "As it always has. My question to you is - do you think it will continue to do so after you are gone?"
I have nothing to say to that. For whatever reason, I feel ashamed.
Embarrassed.
Look down. Shoe kicks the dirt, digging a little groove beneath my feet. A trench for the lesser creatures to cross. Our effect on the world around us is generally lost.
Destruction. Alteration. Pain. Loss. Gain. Feelings. Emotions. We all cause much more shit than any of us are willing to admit.
"Your struggles with the world you've created on the inside, and the world you live in on the outside are cute, Sora. Cute, but futile. You'll never fully grasp things. You're feet are broken. Why do you still insist on trying to stand?"
Where's Kairi?
You're laughing again, and it's starting to fucking piss me off.
I ask again.
Where is she?
"You're friend is gone, but her shell remains. Look to the waterfall. The same place we all met."
Don't exactly know how to react to this. I don't exactly want him to catch me off guard with trickery.
It takes me a minute, but I turn to face the entrance to our secret place. There, beneath the waterfall floats the lifeless shell of what I once loved. What I held most dear.
You.
Both of you.
One, a puppet. The other a lifeless pile of meat and bones.
My heart pounding in my chest, I approach what's left of you.
Splash, as I step into the water.
Your dead body floating face first in the waters of life.
As I kneel, soaking my knees and shorts, I turn you over.
Heartbeat stops.
A swarm of black moths fly from your mouth, surrounding me.
Engulfing me.
I try to breathe, but it feels like a foreign task I'm not used to.
Standing on the beach once again, coughing up blood. Staining the sand a deep red. Turns black, and creates a hole in the earth below.
Ground starts vigorously shaking, and I'm thrown off balance.
Land rises high above the waters, and begins to crack.
You're looking right at me, smiling.
That fucking smile.
I want to tear it off your fucking face.
"Your entire existence is collapsing, Sora," you tell me, gently brushing the silver hair out of your eyes. "What will you do to save it?"
Nothing, I say. There isn't shit I can do.
"Giving in so easily? I always knew you were a coward?"
Accepting oblivion isn't cowardice. What I can do, is make these last few minutes count.
The weight of the keyblade once again pulling my hand down. Fist tightens around the handle. Bring it up, resting the dull end against my shoulder.
"And just how do you plan on making these last few remaining moments count?"
Closing the distance. Responding with actions, not words. Keyblade swings directly for his head, but he ducks at just the last second.
Head meets my stomach, knocking the wind out of me, pushing me onto my ass. Roll to recovery. His body emits black and dark purple energy, which collects out in front of him. He launches at me, and I roll again, barely missing it. The ground absorbs it, and it begins erupting outwards in dark patches all around me.
Shards of ice flying in my direction. Too many to dodge. Like frozen bullets, burying themselves into my skin. I cry out, but it does me no good.
Bleeding.
Before I can even react, he's right on top of me. Elbow meets the side of my face, and I hear a loud cracking noise from within.
His blows land faster than my body can even properly react to them. Feel as though I'm convulsing, seizing.
Fall. Spit three teeth and a pool of blood out. Wipe my face.
"You ready to give up, Sora?"
Dizzy.
The colors of the world around me begin to smear into one another, almost as if melting.
In the beginning, there was one.
Before long, there were two, and it still felt like something was missing.
You and I, Riku. That's all there were.
We were incomplete, I felt.
Though, I can't help but look back and notice now what I never noticed then. The way you looked at me. The way you smiled at me.
As far as you were concerned, I was all you needed. All you wanted. You loved me. I know that now.
And then there were three, and I felt whole.
I wanted - needed both of you. I still do.
The past, the present, the future all taking place in one instant.
Life flares out in one magical burst of light, and slowly dies away. It's a matter of how long you manage to cling desperately to it.
The glory of gain. The feeling of contentment. The pain of loss.
Happiness.
Sadness.
Pain.
Anguish.
Joy.
Laughter.
Tears.
Anger.
Hatred.
Life.
Death.
The beginning - the end.
All one in the same.
The keyblade falls from my hand, and I do nothing to retrieve it.
Struggle to stand. Legs are weak.
You smile at me in amusement, as blood drips from my forehead and into my eyes. Somehow, I see through it.
I see you.
Stagger forward, and I grab your face with both hands.
The smug smile on your face replaced with an expression of shock and confusion.
I love you, Riku, I say. I always have. I just didn't know it.
Melt me.
Destroy me.
Make me whole and erase me from existence.
Fill me up and empty me.
This is love.
Pull your face in and plant a kiss on your lips. Sucking the energy out of you, inhaling it. We become one, and when we disconnect, you are the weak one.
Your legs lose stability and you fall to your knees.
Push you over and straddle your limp form. Lean in, tongue forcing its way into your mouth. Our insides dance with each other.
Hand grinding against your crotch.
Break the kiss, and whisper in your ear.
Is this not what you always wanted?
You moan.
It's what I wanted.
Hands all over you, rubbing you, feeling you, bringing you to life.
They stop on the sides of your face, and you look as though you're about to cry.
Goodbye, Riku, I say. Goodbye, Ansem.
Force thumbs into your eye sockets, smashing and crushing your fragile windows to the world into your brain.
You scream, and it pains me, too.
Knuckles grinding against your skull.
The sky cracks open, and the light shines through.
Remove my hands from your face. Thumbs covered in blood and brain matter. Bring my stained hands to my face, and collapse on top of you.
With all that I have left in me, I break down and cry.