Hinyah~

Hikari here with the new chapter.

*there's a small pile of paper cut out pieces, a roll of masking tape, and a pair of scissors on her lap*

Don't mind me working on a future cosplay idea, and enjoy the new chapter.


Chapter 6

There were so many thoughts filling Riku-Ira's head that he could no longer stand. His head swirled and everything around him started to feel dizzy. He dropped down to his knees before moving back to sit down. If he thought that his thoughts and memories felt meshed and conflicted before, that was nothing compared to how he felt now.

"Are you going to be all right?" Terra asked.

Riku-Ira exhaled deeply before looking up at Terra. "How should I know? You know how strange all of this is for me? To know the man who used to be my right-hand man in the old life, is now the man who gave me the ability to even use the keyblade in this life and gave me thoughts about the outside world! And… and that is what threw everything off. When everything changed and I let myself give into darkness and…"

Riku-Ira's breathing increased dramatically. He could no longer even think to finish his sentences. His head pounded against his skull, breaking up the rest of the thoughts that he even had on the matter. But then he felt a pair of hands on his shoulders, and it somehow was enough to stop the throbbing in his mind.

"Hey, I know it's probably a lot to take in. But you can't forget to breathe."

"I know that!" Ira snapped quicker than he probably should have. "But don't you find this strange, and almost hard to believe? How closely tied we still are in this new life?"

"Well at first, I didn't know if there was anyone else but me. I've remembered for a while now, but if the others are out there too, they may not remember. I didn't know it was you of course when I first met you. Even when Ansem possessed you I didn't know. It was only until I saw your heart change that I connected the dots, but by that point I knew about the past for so long it didn't seem as shocking."

"How long have you known?" Riku-Ira asked, taking several deep breaths now that his mind felt much more clear. "How did it happen for you to remember?"

Terra smiled slightly at him before sitting down across from him. "I think a little over ten years now. Maybe close to eleven I think. Being confined within a Heartless I never really thought much of the time."

He laughed slightly, almost making it seem amusing. "But… it is a bit hard to remember the details for how it happened. I know Xehanort was involved with it since he was the one to possess me. If I remember… he did try to remove my heart or something, and it ended up with me tied away in the Heartless you saw. From that split… that is when I remembered."

"Xehanort?"

"He's the one that caused so much of this," Terra answered. "Ansem… he is really only Xehanort's Heartless… or some weird combination of you, me, and him. Not really too sure how it all worked out."

"Ah yeah, I suppose it does sound a bit confusing. But by that, he should also have a Nobody right? Wait!" A thought suddenly struck Riku's mind. "Does that mean, his Nobody would be…"

"Xemnas, yes," Terra answered soundly.

"So this really is more tied up than I realized…"

"That's what it seems like," Terra replied, though his tone remained much more serious, much more like Aced. "But tell me, on the thought of the others, if we two are tied most likely from our connections of the past, do you think it is the same for the others?"

"I'm not too sure, at first I thought Sora was either you or Gula. But what I gathered from Namine is that he isn't a forteller, but a young wielder from a union. Most likely from Ava's union based on what Namine said she saw."

"But a random wielder? Or would he be someone that had some purpose back from those times?" Aced questioned.

"I wouldn't know, unless…"

"Unless what?"

"There were those who I fought against during the keyblade war… The exactness of who I went against still reigns fuzzy in my mind, but I know I faced young wielders. Perhaps Sora could be one of them?"

"Hmm…" Aced placed a hand to his chin. "It could be possible. But without knowing too much on what Sora's memories are, we can't be too certain."

"Maybe I will ask Namine to look into it more. Discover if there are any memories of the war," Ira replied quietly. "But I still wonder for the others…"

"If they are connected, then I am sure we will see them again. But for the method of how they would remember, presuming that they are locked as ours were, it may prove to be difficult."

"I agree. Though who knows what will happen now, especially now that you're free from Ansem's… or actually Xehanort's Heartless," Ira answered before letting out a lot exhale. Many of the questions had found answered, leaving him much more relaxed than before.

"It's hard to say… I'm just a heart without a body right now. There isn't much I can do about that."

"Well, you can continue to stay here then. I owe you that much… you know as Riku at least," Riku replied.

"I mean I can't really go anywhere anyways, you know… just being a heart," Terra laughed. "But thank you."

"Also…" Riku started to say, looking back at Terra. "Why in this life did you give me the keyblade? It couldn't just be of the ties we didn't even know we had at the time, could it?"

Tera shrugged. "Could be a hidden part of it. But why I choose to bequeath it to you was because I saw how you reminded me of myself, wanting to protect your friends. And…" Terra paused for a moment, seeming to think over his words carefully. "I sensed… the light within you and I could tell that you were someone I could trust to pass the keyblade on it."

"The light…" Ira scoffed. "We can see what happened to that."

"I wouldn't dismiss it so easily Ira," Terra said, speaking in a tone that belonged more to Aced. "You don't need to cling to your past opinions so vastly. Both of us in this life did let the darkness get to us, but you now are doing something I wish I could have done. You're trying to find a balance between the two."

"Is that really the right choice though? Everything we were taught back then…"

"There is a lot that we thought we knew that no longer holds. We thought our end was to come at the keyblade war, but here we are in a new life with new events that we have gone through. With our new lives we have been given chances to try new things and take different choices than we did before. And there is still a lot we could learn from all of this."

"I guess you're right. I'm still having a lot of doubts on this, but I'll keep trying," Ira replied. "Thanks."

Terra smiled. "You're welcome."

Riku finally stood up and stretched slightly. "I probably should get back, just in case Namine needs anything. Oh, and to ask her about the thing with Sora's past memories."

Terra nodded in understanding. "I'll be here if you ever need to talk about anything else."

Riku thanked him once more before leaving the platform that represented his heart. When he opened his eyes he was back in his room again. Standing up he checked the clock on the wall to see how much time had passed, as sometimes there could be an imbalance of time between the heart and the real world. But it only seemed that a few hours had passed from the looks of it.

With feeling a little bit hungry, Riku started to make his way out of the room and down the hall. On his way he let the thoughts of what transpire replay in his head. It was still rather strange to think that all this time he had someone else's heart resting within his own. On top of that it was someone that he once closer knew.

"Fate sure seems to have a funny way of reuniting people," Riku thought to himself as he continued to walk.

'All the more reason we may be right about the others being closely connected to us. If fate has deemed it that way, then I think we should keep that in mind,' Terra's voice echoing in Riku's head.

Riku came to an abrupt stop and his eyes widened. He blinked a few times, not sure if what he had heard was real or not. A moment later he heard Terra's laughter.

'Sorry if I startled you. With my heart being freed from that Heartless, I have a bit more free range within your heart. Hope you don't mind, but it has been over 10 years since I've been able to talk to anyone.'

"Ahh…makes sense at least," Riku muttered aloud, thankfully no one else was in the hallway at the time. Plus with the new information giving, using his thoughts to speak didn't come to him right away. Only after did he speak verbally did he realize he could keep the conversation in his thoughts to avoid any suspicion.

"This is just going to be a bit weird to get used to," Riku replied back, this time through his thoughts.

'Better to start sooner than later for that,' Terra replied, still having laughter in his tone.

Riku smiled back and finally continued to walk down the rest of the hallway. "I've got a question then. How much do you resemble your old self?"

'We already know that my stature much different than before, though by appearance there are similarities. Similar shade of the hair and partial resemblance of the facial structure but not by much. It is interesting you bring this up though. I never thought about the fact that none of us saw one another without the mask. And I can assume the same for you?'

"Yeah, for the most part at least like you said. Not exactly the same, but I can point out things I remember that look similar to my old self."

'Well we know for one thing that your height is far from the same,' Terra replied before laughing.

"Hey!" Riku replied back as he let out a verbal huff of air.

'Sorry, sorry. Don't feel too bad, you still have time to grow." The tone Terra spoken in almost sounded teasing now.

"Yeah yeah," Riku muttered in his thoughts. "I feel this could get annoying real fast."

'Aw come now, I think this could be fun. Or at least quite the insightful start of something.'


*Hikari now has a paper hat shaped like an eggshell atop on her head like a hat, with tiny scraps of both paper and tape scattered around. The pile on her lap is only slightly smaller*

Hope you enjoyed the chapter/story so far.

Please follow/favorite/review if you haven't already and like where this is going.

Riku and I like seeing feedback on or work.

Until next time, にゃ~ (Nya~)