Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and all characters belong to their respective owners. Astaroth does not think that the owners are flat enough though --Pulls out Grand Maul...--

Astaroth belongs to Namco, not me.

Thanks to Rablagon, for faithfully reviewing. And thanks to no one else, for not reviewing. As always, thanks to Beta for kicking my butt when needed. (in this case not in a literary necessity)

Running on Empty

"Protect her." Riku said, as the giant doors closed, "And bring me breakfast."

"No I didn't." Riku thought, then suddenly, he found himself awake in his room in Mickey's castle. He felt extremely weak, similar to when he had spent all his magic, but even worse, as if all his physical strength had left as well.

"I was in the library reading, and then... How did I get here?" Riku thought to himself. The sunlight was strong today, and the brightness hurt his eyes. He tried raising himself to sit up, but for some reason his arms just didn't seem strong enough.

"This is bad."

It was then that Riku felt the pain. It felt as if his stomach was trying to wrap itself around every organ in him, strangling him with the pain. It made Riku's vision blur for a brief period of time.

Riku sat there in agony, waiting for the pain to end, for what seemed like hours. Finally, a black mouse wearing a white apron entered the room, carrying a long flexible tube of some kind, a funnel and a very large cup of something. She moved into the room, not seeming to notice Riku, and put the funnel and cup on the side of his bed, then approached his head with the tube. She then looked at him and saw him staring back at her; she gasped, dropping the tube on the floor.

"Food." Riku tried to say, though it came out more as "Fuuuu."

"Hold on, I'll get the doctor." She said, before running out of the room. The smell of whatever was in the cup caught his attention, and he reached his hand out to the handle of the cup. Grasping it, he slowly dragged it back towards him. Peering inside, he found that there was some sort of grey-yellow mush in the cup. His eyes told him that it was disgusting, but his stomach demanded that he eat all of it. Riku tested his grip, to make sure the cup wouldn't slip out in his weakness, and then slowly, painfully lifted the cup to his mouth. The taste was...exquisite. He drank more and more of the the mush, trying to get as much into his stomach as he could. Finally Riku was full, though it seemed to him that he had only taken a few droughts of the stuff. When he looked down, he realized that he really only had taken a few gulps of the mush, judging by how much was left still in the cup. Riku set the cup on his bedside dresser, then leaned back and fell promptly asleep, only to be woken by gentle hands on his shoulder, shaking him awake.

"Riku, Riku wake up. Do you know where you are?" The face attached to the voice was none other than an old duck, her white feathers frayed and her grip weak.

"I'm in the room that the queen has given me." Riku replied. It was not his room. He had no room, and his home was denied to him.

"Good, we were so worried about you. You went missing for a few days, and then one of the servants found you in the library, passed out on the floor. We rushed you to your bed, and have been feeding you now for the past week. We were afraid you would never wake up."

"How long until I have my strength back?"

"A week, maybe two, it will depend on how much..."

"Now leave me." Riku cut the doctor off.

She left without another word, leaving Riku alone with the sun in his eyes, and a bowl of soup on the counter. He slowly, painfully removed the covers, and found himself clothed in a thin white robe. This was the first time that he had worn any clothes other than his black outfit in almost two years. The white robe rubbed against his skin, and Riku felt each fiber trying to tear a piece of his skin out. He stumbled towards the dresser, and pried the doors apart, his muscles nearly failing him. Inside, he found his boots, which had been cleaned and shined; the rest of his outfit was gone.

"Where is it?" Riku tried to ask, but the sound refused to come.

Stumbling over to the soup bowl, Riku took a few drinks of the lukewarm liquid. It moistened his throat enough for him to call out, "Maid!"

"You called my lord?" The maid, another, much younger and prettier duck said, opening the door a few seconds after Riku had called.

"Where are my clothes?" Riku asked, his voice straining, his anger barely contained.

"We, we took them to be washed my lord. They were in need of much mending and repair. They will be ready by tomorrow my lord." She said, a quiver to her voice.

"Get out." Riku said.

"What my lord, I didn't hear you." The maid said, stepping closer, as Riku's voice had cut out.

"Get out!" Riku yelled, backhanding her across the face.

The maid fell back. Then, with tears streaming down her face, ran out the door, slamming it behind her.

Now that he was alone, Riku removed the offensive cloth. How dare they take his clothes. If they needed mending he would do it, not them. He took another couple of spoonfuls of soup, and examined his hair. Someone had taken the liberty of brushing it, returning it to the same state as it was when he was at Kingdom Hearts, so many years ago. He hated them for it. It was his hair, and his to do with as he pleased. Pride surged within him, and with it, came anger. Riku quashed those emotions, forcing them back, and after a couple more spoonfuls of soup, went to sleep.

"..."


Riku awoke the next morning to find his clothes neatly hung in the dresser, along with another outfit that seemed to be a perfect copy. He tried on the copy, and it fit him perfectly, as well as the color being a perfect match. It even had the socket in the middle to fit the stone required for his spell. Looking back at the original, the stone was still there, though it seemed to list to one side on the hanger. Examining it, Riku found Rose's Dragoon stone in one of the pockets. Riku turned it over, examining it. It still was dead in his hand, and no spark rested within it. It was pure darkness. How dare they take it from him.

"Perfect" Riku thought, and with a little alteration, put the stone into the socket on his new clothes. Riku then headed straight back into the library, to continue his research, Rose's stone resting against his chest. There were tears in his eyes, though he did not notice them.

Riku again scanned the books, looking for something of interest. All of the books had no title, but each set had a unique color. He went through bookcase after bookcase. It reminded him of the library in Hollow Bastion in its size. Tucked back in one corner, he found an entire bookcase of books, all jet black. The top row all had a single white line running down the spine, while 2/3rds of the next shelf had a single line that waved back and forth. The rest of the shelf, plus half of the next shelf, had two parallel lines running down each book. Down and down the bookcase, each set different from each other. At the bottom of the bookcase, there was a completely empty shelf. Grabbing the last book in the last series, Riku flipped to the end of the book.

"And so, I abandon the counsel of the Voice, and go to meet my beloved Marian in Nottingham."

Riku furrowed his brow in confusion. He didn't know what to expect, but this was not at all what he had thought of. He put the book back, and grabbed the beginning book in the set, the first of three, which bore the design of two opposing quarter-arcs in an oval along the spine:

"My name is Kerba, self-named Deathlord, traveler of worlds, damned and cursed, and alone. I was born in a world that no longer exists, to parents that abandoned me in my crib. I betrayed my friends, betrayed my allies, abandoned them, and found myself damned and cursed with a destiny I neither asked for, nor am equipped to perform. And yet, I will continue to persevere, and do my best to fulfill what destiny has given me. I will chronicle my journeys here, as my predecessors have done before me. I will succeed where they have failed."

"My first world, after my release from prison, was to a strange world, even compared to the many that I had come to in my previous travels. The whole world seemed encircled by one river, that constantly flowed round and round, without end. And the people and things of this world had been completely drained of color. There was only black, white, and shades between. It was here that first I broke the only rule of world travel, 'Though Shalt not meddle in the affairs of other worlds.' My Tenure requires me to remain there for a year, and so I was forced to meddle, at the very least to talk with them to eat food. I surprised them, they thought of me as some sort of demon. They left food out at night, hoping that the demon would accept their offering and leave them. And so I did. The food they offered was bland, though edible, despite its lack of color. I found myself given an opportunity, to punish those who were evil in this world, and to protect those who were good. The mayor gave less food than the poorest beggar, and I found him, after some study, to be an evil, greedy man. When next he offered food, I took the bowl of food, and, after removing the giblets from his cavity, stuffed th bowl, with its contents untouched, into him. The people at first did not understand my message, instead offering more food. I then targeted the prostitute, she who caused unnatural lust in the husbands of good women. Her offering I shoved into her hole of iniquity, and placed her head in the bowl, and finally, the people understood. The people feared me, and in their fear they worked with each other, and became good to each other. Theft ended overnight, and to every husband there was but his wife. The world was clean, and so it remained, until after my year, I sealed it, preventing the Hungries from taking the world's heart."


The book fell from Riku's hands. They were shaking uncontrollably, and his vision was blurring, and fading in some places. He had the sense to sit down, before darkness completely engulfed him, and he passed out.

"What was it that I found?" Riku asked himself, standing in the middle of a endless plain, with grey ground, and grey sky. As if in answer, 3 vaguely human shapes rose up out of the ground, 2 white and pasty, 1 black and glossy.

"Who are you?" Riku demanded of the shapes, they all stood there, slowly swaying, not uttering a sound.

"I demand you answer me! Who are you?"

They forms swayed.

"If you will not answer me, then leave." Riku ordered. The forms slowly slid back into the ground.

"What were those?"

"And what did I find?"


A/N: Sorry for the ultra long delay, but you know, life plays funny tricks on you. Like stealing what remains of your life. I also apologize for the brevity, I think I'm going back to the smaller size chapters. More opportunities for cliffhangers, and more likely to get them done "on time".