Hey shadows, welcome to my new story - Dark Recollections. This is not in correlation to Days of a Heartless. This is completely a standard alone story of short stories in Riku's POV. This is hugely inspired by KH Melody of Memory. There are a few spoilers for KH3, Re:Mind, and MoM, so you have been warned!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Kingdom Hearts manga by Shiro Amano and games by Square Enix and Disney. Any additional characters or scenes are completely of my own creation.

Without further ado, please enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 1 - Road to Dawn

Ever since we first left Destiny Islands, I couldn't stop thinking about you two. We'd been friends since we were little. Sora and I knew each other thanks to our parents. We played together every day, laughed together, and competed any chance we had. We were always playing with wooden swords or racing each other, and while I won every time, we still had fun.

Then, Kairi appeared on the beach one day, leading Sora to help her, while I went to get our parents. She'd just come here. No memories of who she was other than her name. Soon she was adopted and came to the play island with us. Sora, Kairi, and I slowly became a good trio of friends. Anything Sora and I did, Kairi was right there with us, watching or playing with us. Thanks to her, my dream to journey to the outside world grew stronger every year since Kairi had surely come from another world. The same as the blue-haired woman and brown-haired man we'd met years prior.

But when that day came to departed from Destiny Islands -

I never felt more alone.

When the islands fell to darkness, overtaken by Heartless, we were broken apart, set adrift to other worlds. My dream had come true, but at a greater loss. I lost both my friends, while ending up at Hollow Bastion thanks to a robed figure. There I was picked up like a stray and welcomed into Maleficent's horde. I didn't desire anything they were after, I just wanted to find my friends.

I just wanted to see them again.

When I met up with Sora in Traverse Town, I felt replaced. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were a trio of friends traveling together, just like I had dreamed of doing with Sora and Kairi. From then on, Sora wasn't worth my time, as I set out to find Kairi. Though I played games with him each time we crossed paths, deep down I was sad that my childhood friend could easily have someone fulfill my role.

When I found Kairi, I was overjoyed, but once I found that her heart was gone and she was motionless, I only felt lonelier and more determined to bring back her heart! Sora was determined to save Kairi and so was I. Once I jumped ship, taking Kairi with me, I found myself on the clock tower. Even with Kairi there, I felt lonelier than ever. I wanted to save her, but my jealousy and hatred towards Sora clouded my vision.

The keyblade.

"There can only be one keyblade master." That's what I thought then.

I took the Kingdom Key from Sora and stole his new friends. I knew I'd hurt Sora that day, yet I was hurting more than he could ever think. When he took the keyblade back, I gave into all my fears and pain, falling into the darkness.

Darkness took me away from my friends forever just like it had taken my world.

After shutting the door to Kingdom Hearts, I drifted away from Mickey and found myself alone again. Sleep. I wanted to sleep. I wanted everything to be just a nightmare. One I'd wake up from.

I woke up, but it wasn't a dream.

Going into Castle Oblivion, I found myself going up the castle coming face to face with Maleficent's horde, Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, and various members of men in black coats. Then, coming face to face with a fake me, Rikuplica.

Everyone pushed me to the darkness. And I lost sight of the light. Luckily, Mickey was able to guide me and save me from falling deeper into the depths of darkness. Slowly, in the void of blackness I began to see small lights glowing around me. Sora and Kairi, while they weren't with me, I could still feel them calling me. No amount of darkness could cause their light to fade away from my sight.

In Twilight Town, DiZ revealed himself to me. He wanted me to choose between light and darkness. As I made my way to Namine, I wondered what my decision would be the best for me. Deep down, I wanted to go home. I wanted to see Sora and Kairi again.

Once I met Namine, I was reminded of Kairi, both smelled similar. And it was Namine in the shape of Kairi who had helped me see through Zexion's illusions. She had tampered with Sora's memories making him forget and replacing them with false memories. I hated that she did that to Sora. I hated that she'd been used by Marluxia to make Sora into their puppet. Like a mirror, Namine reflected my past. And, in that way, I understood her pain of being lonely and used by others.

When I found her, I also found out Sora didn't go home. He'd gotten to Castle Oblivion before me and fought his way to the 13th floor along with saving Namine from Marluxia's control. But, to bring back his memories, he had to go to sleep and have his chain of memories fixed. It would take a long time, but one year later Sora would wake up.

Namine asked if I'd want to seal the darkness away. I decided not to do it and face darkness head on. But I didn't want to stay in darkness forever. I wanted to find the light again. But first I needed to face the one who'd sent me to Hollow Bastion to begin with.

Across my journey I realized that the darkness was nothing to fear and I had to accept it. But Ansem, Seeker of Darkness was someone I couldn't accept. After I defeated him, Mickey came to my aid. He didn't have to, but he did. Mickey and I were friends. And friends help each other out. Maybe, I'd been wrong to think Sora was replacing me. Maybe, instead he was just making new friends and I was wrong.

The feelings I had feeling lonely slowly began to fade away.

Where three paths met, one path to light and the other darkness, I walked down the middle path with Mickey right by my side. It wasn't light nor was it darkness. It was the road to dawn.

= Chapter End =

Like Kairi telling the series in her POV in Melody of Memory, Riku is telling about his past through his perspective. I wanted this chapter to be kind of like a prologue explaining Riku's mindset and feelings leading up to Days.

Fun fact: Rikuplica is a small nod to Charriii5. I loved his Everything Wrong with KH COM, and the nickname for Replica Riku always made me laugh.

I hope you guys enjoyed it! Have a great day/night! Later!