Riku came back to the Mysterious Tower much earlier than he normally might. He had a lot on his mind lately. The walk back to the tower was pretty much run on autopilot as the young islanders' thoughts were elsewhere. A lot of it had to do with Aiden and what was to become of him in the future.

Yes, Riku and Rachel had succeeded in bringing the replica to their present and away from the grim fate that he had seemed destined for, but what next? Aiden wanted to be his own self, to be free of the shackles that made him feel a worthless, empty copy of Riku. Again, this was also going very well. Aiden now had a name and look (though Riku's personal opinion was the blue and gold eye looked a little freaky when looked at straight on)that he had decided on; decisions that were his and his alone. He had interests and knowledges that differed from Riku's. The gap between original and hollow reflection was growing wider by the day. And that was good.

However the next step was a lot less clear. What would eventually happen to Aiden? He couldn't spend the rest of his life at the training castle. Yet anywhere that Master Yen Sid might find out could be asking for trouble. Of course, coming clean might be better than the sorcerer piecing it together himself. But when would be a good time to spill? The longer they waited, the worse it would be. And what exactly could they say? Yep, we ripped apart the fabric of time to bring back a living puppet replica of myself from the past. His story sucked so I wanted to give him a second chance to live a better life. But don't worry, so far there have been no ill-effects to our meddling with time. Yeah, that would go over as smoothly as inviting an ant to an aardvark convention.

The only think Riku could feel once and a while was a headache if his thoughts happened to drift to the day at the manor gates. It was like watching a 2-D movie with 3-D glasses. The image didn't look right with two conflicting endings. As far as he could tell, that was the only bad thing to have happened since their meddling with time. Considering just how much more could have gone wrong, Riku was just fine with the occasional headache. Aiden didn't seem to be affected at all. For him, his timeline was like starting off running down the beach then getting pushed into a boat. The paths were now different but still going forward even if the transition was a little rough.

Riku didn't know how much thought Aiden had given to the future. He doubted Aiden would talk to him about it. He could always ask Rachel if the two of them ever talked about it. But when he did that he always felt a little nosy so he avoided it.

But thoughts about the next step were beginning to bother him. There was so much on his plate lately and it was starting to wear on him. Xehanort could strike at any time. Even if he didn't, they still needed to do all they could to get stronger or figure out how to get a step ahead. As a new Keyblade Master, the new powers Riku had access to were amazing. But that was still one more thing to add to the juggling act. He wanted to spend as much time with Rachel as he could but even that was starting to slide. Understandably he didn't want his other friends to notice anything either. That would lead to questions he really didn't want to try and answer.

Of course Aiden wasn't a factor in the original equation. Sora could never know who Aiden really was or his story. Would it be fair to bring Lea in on the secret? Riku was confident Lea would keep the secret but could he really burden a friend with the responsibility of keeping such a secret? Would it be fair to try and integrate Aiden into a "normal" life somewhere? Being able to live and make his own choices seemed like a great idea, but where? But he was also still really young so he couldn't just be left on his own. Even with Aiden's new hair and eyes, anyone who knew Riku would probably ask if Riku had a younger brother. Facially they were still a lot alike. As Aiden grew older, he would probably mature along the same lines Riku had. Oh…there was a thought. Would Aiden even age? Even if he was able to integrate somewhere…it wouldn't go unnoticed that the neighbor boy mentally and emotionally matured but didn't physically grow any older. And Riku had the suspicion claiming he was a vampire wasn't going to fly with anyone.

And it wouldn't be fair to Aiden to ask him to never call his weapon again to be "average" somewhere. Yet, at the same time, even though he could fight Heartless with Soul Eater, he couldn't be introduced as another key bearer. Sora would recognize the weapon and wonder why this new guy could wield Riku's old sword. Riku had no idea how to get Aiden a new weapon to overcome that hurdle. Yeah, as unlikely as it seemed initially, Lea had been accepted as key bearer so in theory the same might happen to Aiden. If it didn't, Riku had no explanation for how this person could carry a Heartless-fighting weapon. Then again, it was well-known that some special people throughout the worlds could in fact fight and defeat Heartless without the use of a Keyblade. Could they pass of Aiden as just one of those talented individuals they hadn't met yet?

Just thinking about it all made Riku feel drained. Aiden couldn't be made to live at the magic training castle forever. Given a normal life somewhere was a noble enough intension but had plenty of snags. Introducing him to the others as another hero of the Keyblade just seemed like knowingly stepping into a bear trap. On top of that, they would have to explain how they just happened to find someone with such skill while fully engrossed with their own training. Even if that would work, how could they get no one to notice the facial similarities between Aiden and himself? This was certainly a fine web to be caught in the middle of.

Then of course there was Rachel and her new egg. She would have to juggling her time too. The training of a Keyblade Master was never truly completely finished. She wanted to be a sorceress and there was still so much to learn and master with magic. Soon (they hoped) the egg would hatch and Rachel would also have to devote time and energy to raising it. Kairi especially would love to help out with the new baby whenever Rachel needed a break. Girls and baby animals and all that.

Before Riku knew it, he was approaching one of the Tower's main halls. But only a fraction of his mind registered this in order to dictate where he was going. Too bad too. What happened next could have been avoided if he'd been paying a little more attention.

This hallway connected at a T to one of the main hallways. Three steps connected the two pathways. Just a few feet away from the steps, crazy rapid footsteps could be heard barreling down the hallway. Only Riku was too deep in his thoughts to have heard it. Then, like a Houdini reappearing act, Sora came charging around the corner. By the time the friends saw each other and registered what was about to happen, it was well beyond the point of no return. Sora had no time to stop. Riku barely had time to flinch. They crashed.

Sora, with the momentum and height advantage from atop the steps, completely flattened Riku. Riku didn't have a lot of time to try and break his fall either. Dang that hurt! Riku held one hand over his face and the other on the back of his head. Stone floors…not fun. His head hurt. He gasped for breath, winded by the sudden impact followed by a fall. And his face really hurt. Sora had cracked him in the nose with his forehead as they went down.

"RIKU! Riku, I'm sorry! I am so sorry! Are you okay? I'm sorry! What's hurt?"

One hand still over his nose, Riku held up his other hand with the 'silence' gesture. Only this gesture was a lot more violent than the typical hold-up-one-finger-to-silently-ask-someone-to-be-quiet usually is. Sora wasn't sure the best course of action. He needed to properly express how bad he felt about the collision.

"I'm really sorry. I am so very sorry. Are you okay? I-I was just coming to find you." Yeah, right. Like an explanation would make it better. "Something really big has happened and Master Yen Sid wants everyone back in his study ASAP! I am so sorry about this. What can I can do to help?" Sora spoke very fast.

"Get off!"

"Oh! Yeah! Sorry!"

Sora scrambled off his pancaked friend. He eagerly offered a hand to help Riku get up but it was refused. Riku got to his feet with an annoyed and sore grunt. He still had a hand over his face. Still visibly irritated, Riku knocked once hard on the wall with his free fist. Immediately the color of the wall changed and lines appeared. The wall opened up into a door with a little room inside. It was like the Towers version of an elevator. It could appear absolutely anywhere it was needed and take you to any floor in just about any place. It was a little slower than a typical elevator but still faster than walking up the floors yourself. Up to the study? Fine.

Riku stepped inside. When he turned around Riku made a sharp, commanding gesture for Sora to stand beside him. Timidly, Sora complied. The doors closed and they felt the 'elevator' move up. Obviously Riku wasn't in the best of moods even though it was an honest accident. Sora wasn't sure what to do or say. He still felt he needed to stress how sorry he was for the crash. But also knew over-apologizing got annoying fast. So he awkwardly focused looking straight ahead at the door.

"Sora,"

"Hmm?" Sora tensed like he was expecting to get hit.

"Hate the sight of blood?"

"Huh?" Sensing he might regret it Sora half-turned to Riku.

"Too bad," Riku held his hand away from his face to present a very nasty nosebleed. His hand was terribly bloodied and looked like he'd just ripped someone's heart out with it.

"Oh boy!" Sora made a whimpering like wheeze, horrified by what he had done. "Oh boy, Riku, I am sorry! I didn't mean-!"

"Handkerchief."

"What?"

"Tissue?"

"Um, no?

"Take your jacket off."

"Wha-?" Sora was silenced by Riku's do-not-make-me-say-it-again glare. He scrambled to get his jacket off and handed it to him; not sure what he planned on doing with it.

Riku snatched the jacket, bundled it up and staunched the bleeding with the hood. "Whadeber you needed to say beh'er be imbordant." Great. He was starting to sound strange. That was hands-down the worse part about nose-related injuries.

Sora winced when Riku held his coat to his nose. There's no reason magic couldn't get out a bloodstain, right? And it was his fault so he didn't have a lot of room to object.

"It's not broken, is it?"

"For your sake I hobe not. Now wha's going on das so imbordant?"

"Um, maybe now isn't the best time. This is pretty big and don't want you to hear it while upset. Just a bit of healing magic should fix it up. Want me to do it?"

"I'm fine. Now spill behfore I ged irridated."

"This is really big and really special," Sora promised.

"And?"

"Master Yen Sid says I'm ready to retake the Mark of Mastery."