after have sent Riku into the Replica´s heart, there wasn't much else they could do to help him. all they could do was to get the Heartless threat under control.
Sora wanted Riku and the replica to a safer place, for both silver haired lie in sort of comatose state, completely defenseless against the many Heartless around.
"what about the mansion?" Roxas suggested and Xion added in "I can make the bird Keeper take you there"
Sora agreed and was very happy having friends to help him. Xion helped him getting the two Riku´s up on the Harpy eagle Keepers back and she made it fly towards the mansion together with Sora and Donald and Goofy.
Lea, Roxas and Mickey chose to stay and fight the Heartless. the other Keeper: the Unicorn stayed and helped, and it would have taken all week getting rid of these pesky Heartless if not for the Keeper. it proved to be the perfect Heartless destroyer, thanks to its other ability of summon an army of light creatures, very similar to those Lea and Roxas saw in Spiritual Forest, although these light creatures looked more like the town than the forest of the other world. and even if the Unicorn Keeper wasn't under of theirs control, it did help them and it made the job easier for the wielders, but there was still many Heartless to fight, and only at the time of evening, they could call this task accomplice.
"well done" Mickey said to Roxas and Lea with smile, Roxas and Lea both gave the king a single nod. Mickey turned towards the path to the mansion "we should check if everything is alright with the others"
Roxas and Lea couldn't agree more and together they went towards the mansion, they did not have to worry about the Heartless, the Keeper and its smaller lackeys made sure that nothing of darkness got away.
inside the mansion, Riku have just awaken and told Sora that he have succeed getting rid of Xehanort inside the replica, adding with a small surprise "he actually helped me, but..." his face dropped to a sad expression "he took a heavy hit, and he was so wounded before... is he alright?" he asked his childhood friend. sadly Sora couldn't tell, they weren't inside the same room as the replica was in.
"...I don´t know" Sora admitted, glancing to the door "Naminé is with him"
Riku got on his feet, thinking briefly about the battle inside the replica. to be honest it was very similar to the battle he did inside Sora when Xehanort had forced the teen into a slumber, except it had been Xehanort he had been fighting this time and Riku have gotten an surprising ally.
the Replica did admit in the heat of the battle that he did not help Riku defeating Xehanort, but Riku was helping him becoming free. Riku did and does not really care what the reason was for the replica to fight, he was glad for the help, sadly Xehanort haven't taken that betrayal lightly and did actually strike the replica down, both with words and weapon, weaken the replicas already weaken mind and heart with words of him being nothing but a fake, a artificial creation there only has emotions thanks to the data he was created with, that he has no heart and will never get one. those words had greatly wounded the replica, enraged him enough to attack without thinking, which caused him to be struck down. it did enable Riku in defeating Xehanort, but unfortunately, he got thrown out from the Replica´s core before he could check if his replica was alright.
"Riku"
the older teen glanced to his friend, Sora was looking at him with concern "let´s go and check on him"
Riku nodded, him and Sora went outside the room. there they met up with Lea, Roxas and Mickey in the entrance hall. the small king ran over to Riku, asking worried "you alright?"
"yeah, it seems he wasn't as bad as I thought"
"guess that guy was right after all" Sora remarked with a slight frown "many of them are suffering"
"hang on" Lea stepped towards the two other teens, not sure what was going on, but intending on finding out "who told you what?"
"one of Xehanort´s vessels told us" Riku said
"and you trust his words?"
"no, I don´t" Sora admitted.
Roxas blinked, confused "so, what does that mean? are all of these Vessels possessed or something?"
"honestly... we´re unsure who chose this and who didn´t" Riku admitted and explained them about another wielder named Terra who is very good friend with Aqua and Ventus and one of the trapped Vessels by Xehanort.
"I remember hearing about him" Lea said.
Roxas nodded, remembering Ventus telling them about Terra as well, that was one, but… "who are the others?"
"they call themselves the Foretellers, me, Sora and Kairi met one of them. his name is Ursus and he helped us creating the Key of Hearts, unfortunately, Xehanort got him and I fear the next time we'll meet him. he won´t be our side"
"we have already defeated one of the Seekers" Sora added in.
Riku nodded "that´s right" his eyes narrowed "but I still can´t shake off the bad feeling that he actually wanted us to destroy him."
"if that's the case, then the question is: why?" Lea asked but no one in the room could say why in the world Xehanort wanted the good guys to destroy his Seekers of Darkness. what was his goal with this?
the three wielders of the keyblade turned around of the sound of the door open and pretty much everyone of them gasped. Naminé and Xion arrived out from the room, but it wasn't them who caused the gasp of shock. the person who did was none other than the replica of Riku. he looked weary and tired from the fights, but beside from that he seems alright. but it wasn't that there caused the shock from the wielders. the reason was that the replica have slightly changed appearance, looking like Xion did to Kairi.
Riku´s replica did no longer have same silver colored hair as the real Riku, instead it has changed to a darker nuance of grey, his eyes has darken as well and was more royal blue instead of the cyan blue Riku´s eyes was.
Xion went down to the others, saying softly "he has some information"
Roxas, Lea and Sora all simple stared at the replica, still quite surprised at this and not sure what to ask.
"do you know what Xehanort is planning?" Riku asked his younger and slightly different looking replica, breaking this awkward silence.
Riku Replica turned to him, no longer showing any anger or envy against him, he still looked lost of who he was, but at least he did also seems like he could relax knowing he wasn't the older boy´s shadow before him anymore.
"he wants to create something called X-blade, making us fighting you- the protectors of light"
he eyed Naminé, seemly unsure. the blond girl gave him a single encourage nod and he turned back to the group, admitting "I´m not completely sure what the X-blade actually is, all I know that Xehanort is pretty certain who his vessels is… it´s like he already know"
"just like the hooded" Riku muttered mostly to himself than to the others.
"what about that hooded guy?" Sora asked, hoping the replica could give a bit more info about him "he change his voice with magic and showed up at the Sandlot, do you know him?"
Riku Replica glanced to him "sorry, but I don´t know who half of them truly are. you know" he shrugged with a weak smile "they all have the hood up"
Sora smiled sheepish of the mistake. Riku stepped in, asking the replica "is there anything else you can tell us? Who the other vessels are perhaps?"
once again, the Riku Replica shook his head "I don´t know their names. And I only saw a few faces while I was there" he crossed his arms, thinking out loud "speaking of faces, I did notice that one looked quite familiar to you, Sora" he glanced to Sora.
the brunette pointed at himself, looking surprised at this "like… me?"
the replica nodded "yeah, I thought he was your Nobody or something at first. but that boy told me he´s actually the darker side of another boy." he glanced at Roxas "he said his "weaker" side is a blond boy, wielding a keyblade"
"it´s not me" Roxas pointed out, nodding towards Sora "I´m Sora´s Nobody"
"but there is someone else looking like you" Lea remarked to his blond friend.
"Ventus?!" Sora exclaimed shocked and turned to Roxas who happen to look like the other blond.
"hang on, he has a darker side who looks like... me?"
pretty much anyone in the room was quite startled by this, except from Naminé and Riku, they looked more disturbed by these news. Xion noticed it and asked "do you know something about this?"
Naminé turned to a drawing with a dark haired boy who looked quite like Sora, but it was Riku who answered "I saw him.. in the Dark Realm" quickly added before Sora could question "young Xehanort summoned him after he knocked you unconscious"
Sora nodded finding this answer good enough, still he needed to know more about this. "I think it´s best we seek after Ven, maybe he can tell us more about this.. other me"
Riku turned to him, giving his friend a single nod "agree, we still don´t fully know what truly happened in the past"
"I take it you´re leaving" Lea said, it wasn't a question. the two boys nodded and Sora asked the trio "what about you?"
Lea glance to Xion and Roxas, thinking about his own personal goal to save Isa. he still haven´t told them and wasn't sure if they could handle the dark truth about him. Roxas and Xion could chose staying here, this world was more or less their home after all, at least it was for Roxas.
Roxas glanced to Lea once before answering "guess we´ll visit more worlds"
Xion nodded and told Riku and Sora "I wish to see the worlds with my friends, and not having to think about the Organization for a while."
Lea simple nodded in agreement to the teens, he too thought of visiting other worlds, even though he did hope he would encounter some certain person and at least get a change saving him.
"what about you?" Riku asked his replica.
Riku Replica blinked at the question "me?"
Riku nodded and the replica admitted "I don´t know… I don´t have any memories I can call my own" his now dark blue eyes went to the window, watching the outside "I don´t even have a name" a kinda awkward silence arrived. It only got broken as the replica muttered "and yet… I have something to cling to.." he sat his hand to his chest "I remember a certain promise, something that has kept me going…" he turned to the blond girl "protect Naminé"
Naminé gasped, seemly shocked of this, she looked away from the replicas stare, having no idea how to answer. the promise was fake, made up like anything else the replica knew of.
Riku Replica couldn´t blame her "I know, it´s fake, but that promise... it´s all I got" he turned his eyes down to the floor, feeling just as empty as before, but then: two hands took one of his. Riku Replica looked surprised up to Naminé, she was smiling "you can make it real"
he blinked surprised, at first not sure how to react, then a smile appeared and he nodded "yeah" he turned to the group, all watching them "if you don´t mind, I would like to stay here. protecting Naminé and… keep her company" he shrugged, well knowing how lonely it can be without a friend around.
"I don´t mind" Sora smiled, taking his hands behind his head. he turned to Riku who simple gave his former look alike a smile.
"you´ll be good to her, alright?" Lea remarked with his teasing grin. the replica smirked back, not really faced by the teasing. this would be like Castle Oblivion, just this time, it would be for real.
and if there was something he was good at, it was swinging a blade against anyone who would harm his friend.
