Wow! A chapter two days after the first one? When usually they take at last two weeks? Amazing! The power of boredom is stronger than my procrastination, it seems.
Enjoy!
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It's gone wrong, it's all gone so wrong.
Donald and Goofy left him. They left him behind. In a scary world where he can't get away and doesn't know how to go forward, with nothing but a wooden sword that can do little more than nothing to the Heartless. They left because he doesn't have the Keyblade.
Riku has it now. The Keyblade decided he was too weak and went to Riku's hand. Then Riku rubbed it in his face and threw his old, battered and chipped wooden sword at his feet. He left and took Donald and Goofy with him.
He doesn't want to cry, but there's not much else he can do now. The sword is useless, and he's terrible at doing magic without a conduit- he's- he's useless…
Grunting and stuttering footsteps come closer, then pass him. He looks up to find the Beast struggling forward and pushes his own troubles away when he falls.
"Hey, don't move! You're hurt." He climbs to his feet and rushes to the Beast's side, putting a hand on his shoulder and holding the other arm forward as though he could actually help.
"Why…" The Beast pants to him, pained and tired. "Why did you… you come here?" He looks to the castle, and Sora looks there too. "I came to fight for Belle."
He stands again and Sora backs up.
"And though I am on my own, I will fight."
Sora… Sora came here to save Kairi. To save Riku. To stop Maleficent from taking both his friends. But now, it seems all of them are gone. He's not sure he can fight like Beast can.
"I won't leave without her. That's why I'm here."
He struggles further. Sora stands there, breathing against the weight in his chest, and glances back at the wooden sword.
He refuses, he thinks, picking up the sword and holding it in the steady grip Goofy taught him. Fingers tight and in the center of the handle. He won't let that witch take his most precious people.
He comes to stand next to Beast and lifts his head high. "Me too." He declares to the world. "I'm not gonna give up now. I came here to find someone very important to me too." The words ring loud, and he uses them to make the ground beneath him feel more solid than he does.
He'll be dust before he quits. It's all he can do.
Riku doesn't glance back at his new followers. Why should he? They're Sora's friends, after all.
Not good friends though. This dumb metal rod goes to someone else and so do they? Can you be any more pathetic? Then again, they're practically perfect for him, seeing as Sora left him and Kairi in the dust too. It could almost be called ironic if it wasn't so sad.
No, don't you dare feel bad for him, Riku tells himself. You held out your hand, you gave him a chance, don't you dare feel bad that he didn't take it.
"Hey," One of the idiots behind him says. "I notice you got one of them, uh, what do you call 'em?"
"Gems." The other pipes. His voice is high pitched and grates on his ears, so Riku assumes that's the duck. The other one must be the dog, then.
"Yeah, that! I see you got one on your arm. Which one is that?" He seems genuinely curious. Riku contemplates if he should indulge them. There isn't any harm in it, he supposes. There's still a while of walking before they get to the room where they'll meet Sora again.
"Chrysocolla."
"Oh, Sora told us about that!" The dog says cheerfully.
"Didn't he say those were green and blue? Yours is black!" The duck growls at him. "Your lying."
Riku finally looks back at them, if only to send them a scowl. "I think I know what gem I was born with, thanks." He retorts sharply.
It's quiet after that, and his eyes can't help but be drawn to his gem. It is looking pretty dark. If he didn't know what colours it actually is, he'd say it's black too, but he can see the specks of green trying to shine through.
He worried when he noticed his gem becoming darker, and had even asked Maleficent about it, but she had done nothing but frown at it and say he was fine. It's part of using the Darkness, she said. It's no surprise if it changes him slightly.
He still feels uneasy about it, but lately, that worry has been going away. It isn't hurting him, and he's becoming stronger every day.
He never notices how harder it is to think about it, how it feels like he has less and less control ever his own body. He's getting closer to his goal. Soon he will… he'll…
Save Kairi.
Reach Kingdom Hearts.
It won't be much longer. He just needs to take care of Sora and these buffoons behind him.
They've made it into the castle, but that's only the first step. Sora and Beast cautiously enter through the huge doors, keeping their eyes out for Heartless. Their footsteps echo in the wide empty space, and Sora shifts anxiously, peeking over his shoulder constantly.
Beast growls next to him, "Be on your guard. They're close, I can feel it. Are you ready for them?" He looks down at Sora. Sora nods.
He moves forward, but Beast doesn't follow. He instead calls out, "Belle?" then a second later screams in rage. When Sora looks, the doors are already closing, separating them.
Sora hardly has a second to panic when he hears Riku.
"Quit while you can."
There they are, all three of his currently conscious friends. He can't bear to look at Donald and Goofy, for however uncertain they look, so he focuses on Riku.
"No. Not without Kairi." And you. But he doesn't want to make Riku angrier. The angrier he gets, the less likely it is he'll listen.
Then Riku does something none of them expected. A dark mist surrounds him, like when their Island had been destroyed, and his clothes turn into some sort of dark suit made from tendrils, almost like muscle fibres wrapped around his skin. "The darkness will destroy you." He says confidently.
Sora takes a step forward. "You're wrong, Riku." He tells him. "The darkness may destroy my body, but it won't destroy my heart." Not like it's destroying you. He can see Riku's gem, the only thing that, along with his head, isn't covered.
It looks like onyx or obsidian. It's as though someone took his gem and melted charcoal into it. Which brings up the question:
What happens to gems like us when Darkness seeps in?
Sora gulps. Riku…
"My heart will stay with my friends. It'll never die!" He continues, bringing his hand to his chest, right over his gem, and putting on his bravest face. He can't think too much now; he has a job to do.
"Really…" Riku doesn't seem impressed. He draws his arm back. "We'll just see about that!" He lunges forward, and some kind of spell launches out of his hand. Sora cries out and flinches back. It's too fast, he won't be able to dodge-!
"Sora ain't gonna go anywhere!" Sora didn't realize he'd closed his eyes until he opens them again. Goofy's in front of him now, holding out his trusty shield and blocking the spell. Sora's never felt such relief.
"You'd betray your king?" Riku taunts.
"Not on your life!" Goofy smiles back at Sora. "But I'm not gonna betray Sora either, 'cause he's become one of my best buddies, after all we've been through together." He throws Sora a thumbs up with his free hand. He then looks forward and waves at Donald.
"See ya later, Donald." He calls over. "Could ya tell the king I'm really sorry?"
"Hold on, Goofy! We'll tell him together!" Donald joins them.
"Well, you know…" he says nervously. "All for one and one for all."
"I guess you're stuck with us Sora."
"Thanks a lot… Donald, Goofy."
The hurt that's been stewing in the back of his gem settles a little. It's not perfect, and it's not gone, but Donald and Goofy are back. They aren't leaving him behind again. The thought gives him strength.
"How will you fight without a weapon?" Riku scoffs at them, looking as self-assured as ever.
"I know now I don't need a Keyblade. I've got a better weapon. My heart." Sora says. He goes to stand two feet in front of Donald and Goofy; their usual attack position. It's good to fall back into a comfortable pattern.
Riku snorts, "Your heart?" The jerk looks so amused. "What good will that weak little thing do for you?" He waves his hand dismissively.
"Although my heart may be weak, it's not alone. It's grown with each new experience, and it's found a home with all the friends I've made." Sora smiles over his shoulders at Donald and Goofy.
"I've become a part of their heart just as they've become a part of mine." His speech gains passion. "And if they think of me now and then… if they don't forget me… then our hearts will be one."
The wooden sword that he tucked into his belt when they entered is smoothly slid out, and he takes his self-taught fighting stance. "My friends are my power!"
Riku gets two seconds to laugh at him, then the Keyblade turns to light in his hand and vanishes. He looks over in shock to Sora, where it takes the place of the wooden sword. He scowls and summons his own weapon. The fight between childhood friends begins.
It's hard; Riku's earned new tricks and he fights viciously, but it's three against one. Goofy blocks his hits, Donald distracts him with spells, and Sora goes in for his openings. They soon have him cornered and panting. He jumps back to an open space, and the suit disappears. Riku must see that he's outmatched because he runs away.
Beast's heavy footsteps thump on the ground behind them.
"So your heart won this battle?" He asks rhetorically. The trio smile and nod.
After fighting their way through what was most likely the entire fricking castle- he is so tired of this place- Sora and his friends take on Maleficent. It was such a long fight, and so hard, that Sora could almost feel himself wanting to poof. But he can't now. There's still more to do.
She is so much stronger than Riku and takes much longer to wear down, but they do it in the end. As she's hobbling away, Riku steps out from a dark portal, in his weird darkness suit again.
"Do you need some help?" he asks her, voice strangely two-toned. Did he scream it out or something?
"Riku!" Sora calls out as their running comes to a halt.
Riku turns to them. Donald gasps. "Is that-!"
"Yes," Riku lifts it up for them to see better. "A Keyblade." Sora eyes it warily. It doesn't look like his Keyblade or any of the forms it takes. This one is darkly colored, sharp, and a vicious hook protrudes from its side. It looks like a can opener, but much, much more dangerous.
It whistles as he swings it down. "But unlike yours, this Keyblade holds the power to unlock people's hearts." His free hand is held out conversationally. "Allow me to demonstrate… Behold."
Although they had all been tensing for a fight, Riku unexpectedly swings around and drives the end of that Keyblade deep into Maleficent's chest. She screams, and hunches over it, forcing it deeper. They all look on in horror as a dark miasma forms around the stab.
"Now, open your heart, surrender it to the darkness," Riku demands.
"Become darkness itself!"
Kairi lies on the floor, unmoving and unresponsive. Riku isn't him anymore, something else is controlling his body. And Sora falls to the floor, taking strangled breaths and clutching his gem. It felt like it just cracked.
"Don't you see yet? The Princess's heart is responding." The imposter tells him. "It has been there all along. Kairi's heart rests within you!"
"Kairi… Kairi's inside me?" Sora gasps. Another pang goes through him, like something trying to claw its way out. No way…
The pink gem? Is that her heart?
"I know all that there is to know." The imposter declares, stalking towards him.
"Tell me. Who are you?" Sora asks desperately. Who stole his friend? Who's taken Riku and now wants him and Kairi?
The imposter seems all too happy to answer. "It is I, Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness." He responds grandly. Ansem is almost on them now. Donald tries to stop him, but he's slapped away with an absent backhand and blocked by a barrier like Goofy.
Ansem now stands above him, and Sora gasps desperately for oxygen. The closer Ansem became, the sharper the pain felt, and he knows when that blade hits him, he'll be shattered.
"So, I shall release you now, Princess. Complete the keyhole with your power." Ansem lifts the blade high into the air, preparing for the killing blow.
"Open the door, lead me into everlasting darkness!"
Sora!
He summons his Keyblade to block before he can register it, and strength pours back into his weak limbs. He looks the imposter straight in the eye. Nothing that is Riku is there anymore.
"Forget it! There's no way you're taking Kairi's heart!" Sora pushes back, and the battle begins anew.
"Maybe we gotta go wake Kairi up."
Right. She needs to be awake again. She needs to have her heart again. That's why they're here in the first place. All this action has made Sora's head scrambled, and he needs to get himself back together.
"I think you're right." He tells Goofy, putting a considering hand on his chin. "If we can free her heart… But…"
He looks around for some kind of answer. "But how?"
His gem pangs again. He swallows back the pain and grits his teeth. His gaze is drawn to the floor.
"A Keyblade that unlocks people's hearts…" He mutters. "I wonder."
He starts stumbling towards it. Everything hurts, he feels as bruised as a fruit that had a fight with a rock. His senses are becoming fuzzy around the edges.
"Sora?" Goofy asks cautiously. Both him and Donald are watching Sora with concern.
Sora kneels down and picks the Keyblade up. He doesn't bother with the hilt.
Donald and Goofy suddenly get what he's doing.
"Sora, hold on!" Goofy yells.
"No, wait!" Donald screams.
He grins at them in a way he hopes is reassuring, and with trembling hands turns the blade on himself. He plunges it deep into his gem before they can so much as move. It goes in much easier, smoother than he had thought it would.
His last hope before he blacks out is that his friends escape safely.
Donald and Goofy watch their friend, this child they nearly abandoned, cause his own death. They are frozen as his body shines and cracks like blue glass, and pink light shoots from his chest. They pay no heed to the Keyblade doing the same.
It flies swiftly to Kairi, and she awakens in time to see Sora start falling. All three of them scramble to catch him, but she gets there first. She screams his name and circles her arms around him, and he…
Shatters.
Sparkles of light, like fireflies, shoot off around her and disappear like embers. Her ears are deaf to Donald and Goofy's cries.
"…Sora?"
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So It's been brought to my attention that I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with the gems. Like their powers and abilities are half the fun, but I don't have anything in mind. If you would like to make a suggestion for me to add and build off of, then I'll accept them with much appreciation. Please and Thank you!
I sat there for like an entire half hour waiting for the next scene to come up, wondering if they go through the entire castle. Then I realized I should go the episode titled, "Maleficent & Ansem Boss Fight." Ah, the pleasures of writing late.
Can you tell I'm not too interested in writing fight scenes? I just feel like it draws the chapter out too much, you know? I'm much more interested in the interaction between characters.
Here's a little snippet of my notes I couldn't fit in:
Idea: When Ansem takes over Riku he says something like, "he didn't realize how far he had fallen. And how convenient these gems are, a little rock where the darkness can pool and take one over from the inside out. Almost like hearts."
Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment on your way out, and for the love of pies please wash your hands and stay at least a one meter (3 feet 3,37 inches, google tells me) away from other people! Until next time!