Ch.21

Riku crouched down, watching from the clock tower. He kept his eyes on Roxas, who was with a hooded member. The two of they were walking from the sandlot, taking out any Heartless that were along the pathway.

Eventually he saw the two of them head into the underground tunnel area, a place that would be too risky for him to follow behind them. So with not much else to do in the meantime he sat down and sighed. He knew Roxas would come here eventually, he just wasn't sure exactly how long it would be. While he sat there, watching the glorious sunset, he let his thoughts surround him while he waited.

"I still can't believe it… that this had to happen…" he let out another sigh before running a hand through his hair.

Riku groaned before beginning to open his eyes. Everything in his mind and body felt disoriented and hazy. A strange sensation fell over him as he tried to sit up straight.

"Where… where am I? What happened?" Riku thought to himself as he breathed out a few times, trying to get his mind clear. "Tsuki?"

When his eyes finally adjusted, he saw where he was. He knew the land that he was near, it was familiar to him, but not in a good way. Not for right now at least.

He gasped and stumbled back to the ground. "Twilight Town?!" he shouted as he tried to understand it all.

He placed a hand over his heart, it was racing… but there was no feeling to it. No feeling of fear or panic. Just a strange and off feeling of emptiness.

"I gotta get out of here…" Riku mumbled before jumping back to his feet and running as fast as he could away from the old mansion.

He headed back into the town and looked for a place that he could hide out in. But he wasn't sure where would be best for it. After a bit of running around, he decided to head to the underground tunnel system. It was the only place that he could think to go right off the bat.

Once there, he stopped to catch his breath, running his hand shakily through his hair. It was clear his body knew how to react, but the feeling… it was still not there. Riku knew exactly what it meant. There was no other explanation for it.

"How… how am I a Nobody?"

Riku tried to search through his memories. Trying to remember everything that could have left up to that point, but the last thing he could recall was chasing after one of the seekers. The one that ran off holding on to Kairi. After that it was all fuzzy and he couldn't recall.

"Crap… this isn't good. If I am here as a Nobody… what's happening on Sora's side?" Riku wondered to himself. "What am I going to do now?"

Riku sighed, trying to think. If he could just figure out or remember how he got there, maybe it could help sort some things out. But still nothing came to his mind. Whatever happened to him wasn't something he was able to recall. Maybe that was just apart of being a Nobody, he wasn't too sure.

"But wait… If at least Sora managed to get to Hollow Bastion… does that mean…" Riku trailed off in thought. Eventually he sighed heavily. "I guess if this is how things have to go… but now… now it is just really risky what we do I guess. And I'm on my own too… hopefully for not too long at least. I can't be too sure that Tsuki will be able to find me though, none of us would have suspected this anyways…"

Riku rested his arms on his knees while he continued to stare off into the sunset. Within weeks he had been in Twilight Town his memoires did stop being so fuzzy and he was finally able to remember. He could remember up to the point that lead to him becoming a Nobody.

The other seeker, Kuri, had been possessed by Ansem. He had taken the Keybalde of Heart and attacked Riku with it, releasing his heart. He was a Nobody now and had been hiding out in Twilight Town, trying to avoid the Organization at all costs. He had needed the time to try and think of a plan, seeing as he was stuck off on his own without knowing what happened to the others.

What he settled on doing was a bit risky, but if the timeline changed enough and he was a Nobody, he saw no harm in trying to change more. All he had to do was wait a bit longer, but thankfully that wouldn't be too long. Eventually he heard footsteps coming from around the tower.

Roxas had rounded the corner, a sea salt ice cream popsicle in his right hand. When he saw Riku sitting down up on the clock tower ledge, he immediately drew his keyblade with his left hand and pointed it at Riku.

"What are you doing here!" Roxas half snarled, half shouted.

Riku moved to standing up. He held up his hands, showing he had no weapon in hand. "Wait! Just hear me out first!"

"Make it quick, and it sure as hell better be good," Roxas spoke, but didn't lower his keyblade.

"I am just trying to take a guess here, but I have a feeling you remember more than you should at this point, right?" Riku asked.

"As do you, now get back to explaining why you're here before I knock you off the tower."

Riku nodded. "Well, you already know that I am not supposed to be here, but… things have changed. The seekers… one of them was possessed by Ansem."

"Yeah, Kuri. Now actually get to the point."

"He got to me before… a surprise attack I didn't even suspect," Riku said as he placed a hand over his chest. "He… he got me before I could even react."

"So you're a Nobody now," Roxas commented, finally lowering his keyblade before dismissing it. "Still doesn't explain why you're here."

"Why wouldn't I be here? Not only is this the place that Nobodies are born, but also I came to find you. I was right that you would know about all of this considering your heart was still with Sora's when he traveled back. If things in the timeline are going to change this much, I thought I could at least talk to you and we could figure something out."

"You can figure something out. I've already got a plan, and a possible partner."

Riku raised an eyebrow. "You do? With who?"

"I wasn't alone in Sora's heart. Then again, you probably forgot."

"Forgot? I don't know what you are talking about."

"Number XIV, Xion."

As soon as the name left Roxas's lips, hazy memories flooded back into Riku's mind. Memories from the original timeline. He remembered the girl… the girl who looked very much like Kairi. A replica of Roaxs who had stolen the memories from Sora of Kairi.

"Wait… she remembers too?"

"Xion never vanished when she was destroyed. The memories that were hers remained in the replica heart that she had and was sheltered by Sora."

"Oh… I think that does sound right at least… I think when I dove to save Sora during the Mark of Mastery in the original timeline… I think I remember seeing her in Sora's heart. So she could be in on this as well? I mean helping figure out a plan."

"I already told you that I have a plan, and it doesn't involve you," Roxas said, sounding annoyed.

"Look… I know in the old timeline there was some issues between the two of us… but I need your help at least. I can't just be stuck here alone."

"And what exactly am I supposed to do? You got around just fine the last time, so why do you need my help now?" Roxas noticed that his ice cream was melting, and began to eat it before he lost any more.

"Nobodies can't really use dark corridors without the risk of the darkness eating away at them. I need a cloak… and that's one of the reasons I need your help," Riku replied.

"I don't carry around spare cloaks," Roxas deadpanned.

"But there are extras at the castle, right? Surely you can grab me one."

"If I go back now, I'd have to report to Saix and then stick around the castle until I get my next mission."

"Well how about tomorrow?" Riku asked.

"Depends on the mission, but I'll most likely be here with Xion again."

"Then I'll meet you back here tomorrow?"

Roxas shrugged, eating up more of his ice cream. "If it means I don't have to deal with you again, then sure."

"Roxas, please… if the seekers keep on trying to change the timeline, things could get a lot worse."

"I don't plan on repeating events of the past timeline."

"I'm not asking you to follow the timeline," Riku said as he shook his head. "That's already going off too much. But we are going to need to work together to stop the seekers from doing more damage."

"I may be willing to work with Sora, or even Kairi, but I have no desire to work alongside you."

Riku lowered his head. "I'm sorry, okay? Honestly."

"No, you're not. Newborn Nobodies can't feel emotions"," Roxas said before actually sitting down to finish eating his ice cream.

Riku rolled his eyes. "But they still know what it's like. Weren't you like that the first time round?"

"I had no memories to start with. I had to figure this out all on my own," Roxas replied.

"Then can't you help me? You're the only one I can talk to about this. The only one that can help me," Riku said. He then sat back down, still keeping a few inches between him and Roxas.

"You have your memories. You can base your feelings off of that."

Riku shook his head. "All right fine… I'll figure that out. But… I still think we should work together. You said you have a plan, what even is it?"

Roxas glared slightly. "Why should I tell you? Based on our history, you'll just try and stop me again."

"Things are different now… we can't say what the future holds anymore. I don't even know where Tsuki is or if Sora made it to Castle Oblivion. I'm at a loss here and all I got is hope that we can work together. If we have that, then maybe something good can come from it."

"Axel left for Castle Oblivion yesterday. If anything, Sora's already on his way there."

Riku nodded. "I hope so… but still. What's your plan going to be?"

"How about you tell me what you're going to do after I give you the cloak?"

"Will you tell me your plan after that?"

"We'll see," Roxas said before he stood back up. He then proceeded to toss his ice cream stick at Riku's face before turning and leaving.

Riku flinched slightly when the stick hit his face, but other than that he didn't really care too much. He was making progress at least. "Hopefully we can work out things… hopefully…"

The night Roxas handed in his report to Saix and started to make his way back to his room. When he got there he saw that Xion was standing outside the door to his room. What surprised Roxas most was that her hood was down and she had her appearance that he remembered.

"Xion?" Roxas asked.

"Roxas… do you remember…?" Xion asked hesitantly.

"Remember what? The future?" Roxas asked in a hushed voice.

"We need to talk." Xion then proceeded to grab Roxas by his wrist and almost dragging him into his own room.

"Wait a minute," Roxas said once the door was closed. "Just what are you thinking? I mean, like you actually remember right?"

"Yes, and I know I'm asking you a huge favor, but I need you to destroy me before everything happens again."

Roxas stared for a moment before his eyes grew large. "Wait now! Hold on! You can't ask me to do that, especially when we both remember everything."

"That's why I'm asking you do this, Roxas. I was created to take from Sora, from you, the powers of the keyblade. If I don't exist, then a lot of the bad things that happened before won't happen this time."

Roxas went to grab onto Xion's shoulders, looking directly into her eyes. "Xion. No. I can't do that. I won't do it. Not again. You're my friend and this time I want to make sure that we can both make it through this."

Xion placed a hand over Roxas's, smiling softly. "I'm grateful that you're my friend Roxas, but I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't exist. Once Namine begins to take apart Sora's memories, I'll just become a problem again, a puppet for the organization to control, an enemy you'll have to strike down again."

"Stop saying you shouldn't be here. Of course you should! You have your memories this time, we both do. We can actually make something with our lives this time around now that we know what we are doing. We don't even know what will happen with Namine and Sora. If things are already like this for us, then who is to say what will happen over there?"

"Axel left for Castle Oblivion yesterday, didn't he? So Sora's most likely on his way if not already there, and Namine has little say on what she does, not with Marluxia breathing down her neck." Xion sighed. "Maybe it was wrong of me to approach you. I should have waited for Riku to show up and asked him." She whispered out.

"Riku's already here," Roxas replied quickly. "Here in Twilight Town I mean…"

"What? But why? And how do you know that? Was he in Twilight Town this early last time?" Xion started asking one question after another as quickly as she could.

"Calm down," Roxas instructed. "And no, Riku was not suppose to be here this early. But… something happened. He's… He's a Nobody now."

"He's… and Xemnas hasn't tried to recruit him yet?"

"I think he must have been hiding or something. I didn't get to ask him before. That an interesting though, I wonder how he has been able to evade Xemnas like that."

"You actually talked to Riku?"

"Yeah… not like I really wanted to," Roxas's grumbled. "He just was at the clock tower when I went for ice cream. Oh… sorry… if I had known you actually remembered already, I would have invited you to come with me today."

"I was still piecing my memories together, I honestly still am…" Xion spoke hesitantly, as if embarrassed. "But if Riku's in Twilight Town, and was waiting at the clock tower… does he remember too?"

"Yeah, don't you…" Roxas trailed off. "Well I am going to guess that you don't remember too much from being with Sora from before. I can remember what Sora did this time around, Riku is also a time traveler like the rest of us."

"Then I need to go talk to him. Ask his opinion on this," Xion spoke, as she moved to summon a corridor.

Roxas went now to grab Xion's wrist. "No! You can't just go off like that. We… I… I'm going to be seeing him after the mission tomorrow. I have to give him something anyways. You can come along if you want to talk to him that badly."

Xion sighed, letting her hand drop. "Fine… I'll wait to talk to him tomorrow."

"Okay, good. I'm sure… if we all talked, we could sort something out at least," Roxas replied.

Finally I remember to post the new chapter. Finally going over to Riku's side of things for a bit. Hope you guys like what we got!