AnimeFan: Oh my gosh! It took longer then normal to get this out! I had writers block! I knew what I wanted to happen, I just didn't know how to get to that point. Anyone ever done that with their stories before? Come on, I know some of you have...er...Right, Wow!! Lot's of positive reviews! ^-^ Between this story and my Yugioh story, Dragon's Love, it's safe to say I'm really on a roll! (Gets off the roll and spreads some butter on it before eating it.) Mmmmmm. ^-^ I like rolls, Happy Thanksgiving weekend everyone!! Ok, so now we're all either completely confused, giggling from the fluffiness, or like some holding flame throwers and threatening to kill me for stopping where I did in the last chapter. Lol. Huge cliffhanger!!! ^-^ Thanks everyone for your offers to help me with Maleficant the dragon boss battle! I haven't beaten her yet but with all your suggested strategies one of them should work for me, right? Eeee, everything happens to me. -___-' Do you people realize that I only got one flame in my whole career as a writer before I started writing in the Kingdom Hearts section? That's just plain weirdo...lol. Ok, I'm sure you all want to get back to the story so you can see what's going to happen so I'll stop yapping. Hm, Sora and everyone's off to fight the Heartless, Maleficant just learned a valuable secret about Riku, Riku is all alone, and his mother, supposedly, is running around in the back alleys of Transverse Town. What am I up to? ^-^
P.S. to you all: I haven't really beaten the game. How I know about the secret ending and what Riku's clothes look like is by searching around the internet. I mean, people have the actual ending scene available to watch on the net, screen pictures of it, and others telling you what they think the secret ending means...so how could I not know about it! I do hope there will be a Kingdom Hearts 2 game...with Riku as the main character and all. Just why is he wearing that blind fold...hmmmmm....
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Chapter 11 -- Embrace the Light
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I swore that they wouldn't get you or him...I'm sorry for failing...
Embrace the light Riku...and your heart will heal all...
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Mother! Wait, is it really you!
Riku cried out towards the figure that quickly disappeared in through the door. Gritting his teeth in frustration, Riku leapt over the side of the balcony and onto the ground of the alley. There, he sprinted towards and through the door into the second district. He stopped and looked around a while before spotting his mother heading into the doors of the Gizmo Shop. Things were starting to get really strange here. Riku started towards the shop but was stopped as Heartless Soldiers came out of the ground and surrounded him. Gasping, he looked from his left to right, not sure what to do. He couldn't fight the Heartless! He'd thrown away his sword Maleficant had given him before he had come back to Sora!
As the Soldiers closed in on him, a dark vortex appeared below him. Riku cried out as he was sucked into the block hole, unable to free himself. The last thought that came to his mind before his conscious slipped away was Sora, what of Sora...
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Riku cried out as he was roughly thrown onto the floor of the Grand Hall of Maleficant's castle. "Ow...geez..." Pulling himself to his feet, the young warrior rubbed his neck and looked around at his surroundings. This was a room he hadn't been in before. Staring around curiously, he noticed before him a huge Heartless design on the wall. Looking to the right wall, three crystal coffins stood within it, each one containing a girl. His aqua-colored eyes traveled over each one of them, studying them, trying to remember them. One looked like Snow White, another like Cinderella, all from his mother's stories!! And the third girl, she looked like...wait! "Jasmine!!"
Riku jogged over to Jasmine's casket and peered in at the ebony haired girl he remembered running into only a few days ago. He knocked on the crystal and called to her, but she remained asleep. She seemed so stiff, like a doll almost. How did she get here? Had the Heartless taken her heart away? Wait...
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Maleficant nodded then turned to Sephiroth, Let us go now. Riku blinked and looked at the two in surprise, What!! You're going...where to? Aren't you going to stay and make sure everything works out!? The two adults stopped and turned to look back at them. Maleficant smiled in her sickly sweet way and placed a hand on his head, I trust the two of you will take care of everything, but there is something...or rather someone...we must get.
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"DAMNIT!!!" Riku slammed his fist against the crystal one more time. He couldn't believe this, so that was what Maleficant had meant! Oh, how could anyone be so damn naive!! Idiot, idiot!! Riku played with the idea of banging his head against the crystal, but decided best not to. His forehead still hurt a little from the last time he had done that. With a saddened expression he turned to inspect the wall on the left. Three more caskets lined it, each one with a girl inside, or at least he was sure they all contained girls. The third and last one he couldn't tell because a very familiar figure stood in front of it with his back turned to the boy.
"Seph? Sephiroth, is that you!?" Riku walked cautiously over to the silver-haired warrior and reached out carefully. He still wasn't all that sure if he could truly trust Sephiroth. "So, I see Maleficant wasn't going to stand by and let you escape little prince, eh? Tell me...did everything with you and Sora work out all right?" Riku nodded and smiled as the older man turned around to face him, his intense green eyes expressing content. "That's good. I knew they would all forgive you." He sighed inwardly, relieved to see that Sephiroth wasn't going to attack him or anything. But, why'd he call him prince?
"What are you looking at, Seph? What's in that casket there that's so interesting?" Riku leaned sideways in an attempt to see what was in the casket, but Sephiroth was firmly planted on the spot and in his way. Riku scowled in frustration and opened his mouth to interrogate Sephiroth some more but stopped as the sound of footsteps filled the room. Turning, he narrowed his eyes as the black robed woman walked over to the middle of the room and stopped. Maleficant smiled cruelly at the two of them, focusing her cold eyes on Riku, "Welcome, my prince. I see that you're enjoying yourself." Riku mocked her words in disgust and started towards her, only stopping when Sephiroth's strong hand held him back.
She smiled at them, turning her attention to Sephiroth, "A little protective of him...aren't we. Step aside so he can look at her in her coffin of roses." Riku stared up curiously and watched as the older man scowled at the witch before letting go of him and walking over to lean against the far wall. Now that Seph was out of the way, he could see into the sixth coffin easily. What he saw, though, sent his mind into a whirl of confusion and fear. It was his mother, Aurora!! He touched the crystal glass tenderly, staring at her still form among crystal-ruby roses. She looked more beautiful then he had ever seen her before, but there was an ugly emptiness to her...like she was hollow inside. Her heart...still missing.
"Now, now, Riku. Don't cry over a little spilt milk. Your mother can be restored to you...if you do as I say." Riku balled his hands into fists, rounding on the witch with more animosity in him then ever before, "You! You were the one, weren't you!! You took my mother's heart!!!" Maleficant smiled at him as if he'd just complemented her. Turning she walked over to rest a hand on Jasmine's coffin, speaking without looking at him, "Beautiful aren't they? My wonderful collection of gems, each one a part of the key that would unlock ultimate knowledge and power. But, in order to do so I must have all seven of them and they all still must have their hearts. As you can see, I have only six of the princesses and one does not have her heart. So, I'm two short... in a way." He scowled, before relieving the tension and slumping in defeat, "What is it you want me to do..."
Maleficant smiled victoriously and turned her gaze on him, "Step in front of the symbol of the Heartless on that wall...and use your mother's locket to open the door." Riku stared dumbly from her, to the wall, to his locket he'd pulled out of his shirt. How was he supposed to do that!? With a defeated sigh, Riku walked over to stand in front of the symbol obediently and then...then what? How could his mother's locket open the door...and what door? Sephiroth walked up to join him, "Are you sure you want to save your mother this way, Riku?" He looked up at him and frowned, turning to look at the locket again, "I can't see any other way out of this, Seph."
The older man closed his eyes painfully, opening them once again to stare down at the boy, "Embrace the light, Riku. When your mother said that...she meant it. Close your eyes and search inside your heart for your light. When you find your light, everything else will fall into place." Riku stared up at him once more, searching those green eyes for some clue or answer to the question in his own self. How did Sephiroth know all these things? How did he know what his mother had said before her death...what she had meant? He should suspect Sephiroth for helping Maleficant take his mother's heart, but something inside him told him that Seph had nothing to do with that and only meant good.
Fine, look inside his heart...right. Riku put his trust in the man to not stab him with his eyes closed and did what he said. Ok, look for my light...let's see...nope, that was last nights dinner. Um, nope not that either...that was last night itself. Riku blushed from the memory and shook his head, diving further down inside him. He needed to look in his heart, not his stomach or mind. How do you do that!? You just have to hate it when people tell you to do this sort of stuff when you've never done it before. Ok...ummmmmm....er.....wait! Was that it? He relaxed as an image, almost like a photograph, appeared before his closed eyes. It was of him, his mother, Sora, Kairi, and pretty much everyone he loved and cared for. Even his father was in it, though he couldn't see the man clearly because of the damn glare from the light surrounding the image.
The light around the image intensified until everything went red and Riku opened his eyes quickly. Squinting, he realized this didn't help one bit. The light was outside of his mind, coming from the locket in his hands. Ok...well...he found his heart's light. The locket glowed brighter, stretching and growing until it was at least half his height in length. When the light finally died down, Riku was holding a strange blade in his hands. With a heart shaped handle and a sharp silver blade, it was definitely no longer a locket. Maleficant cried out happily at the sight of it, "The Heartblade!! So it does exist!" Riku steadied the blade in his grip, testing its weight and structure. It was a good weapon, the perfect size, weight, and dexterity for someone like him. He smiled to himself as a sudden idea hit him. He had a weapon finally, if he played his cards right he could get his mother's heart back and defeat Maleficant once and for all. But he would have to be careful.
"What are you waiting for! Open the final keyhole!!!" Riku steadied the blade in his hand and gave Maleficant a weak and harmlessly, timid smile. He had to look like she was in sure control of him. Looking to the wall, he knew exactly what he was to do. Grasping tightly to the sword, he thrust it into the solid rock and watched as white waves washed over the stone before the whole symbol began to glow. When the glowing went away, the wall was no longer there. Instead, a dark portal had opened into oblivion. Suddenly overcome with exhaustion, Riku wobbled on his feet and finally collapsed into unconsciousness.
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Sephiroth caught the falling boy in his arms and gently rested him against the wall. Opening the door had drained all of Riku's energy and strength it seemed. The Heartblade had returned to being a locket, resting around the young warrior's neck with a soft glow. "Kill him, Sephiroth." He scowled up at Maleficant, watching her walk into the portal to the End of the World. Looking back down at Riku. Sephiroth unsheathed his sword. He placed it next to Riku, taking the boy's hand and wrapping it around the handle, "I won't kill you, but I know you'll follow. I hope my sword will help you until the time your Heartblade is needed again. Stay safe..."
Running his hand through the boy's silvery-white hair, he bent down and kissed Riku's forehead gently. Checking to make sure he was comfortable, Sephiroth stood up and headed towards the portal to follow Maleficant. Taking one last chance to look back on the younger warrior. Sora was in the castle at this moment, hopefully they would come after him and Maleficant together. Good luck, Riku.
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AnimeFan: Yeah people! Sorry again for taking so long. I love this! Um, unfortunately, since I haven't beat the game and I don't want to spoil it, in the next chapter we'll take a big leap into the future to where they battle Maleficant and close the door. Yes, she's the ultimate evil in this fic, the other person who's supposed to be the final battle won't be because I don't want to spoil things for those of you who don't know whom I'm talking about and because I haven't gotten that far either. Yep. So bar with me in the next final chapters of Key to Your Heart!!! ^-^
