(warning: as we build towards the finale, things get, um, a bit graphic. little kiddies are not advised to proceed. O.o )
discessio -onis f. (1) [going separate ways , separation]; (2) [a going away, departure].
Act III, Scene Five: Discessio: The beginning of the end.
Three days passed with no change. Three days of heated discussions, unfounded accusations, and huge misunderstandings went by and Avarielle managed to sleep through it all.
Hopefully, her mind remained at rest.
Then, on the third night (for the sun rarely looked over such fateful decisions), Riku decided that it was time to say goodbye. Aerith said Ava was getting better. Before she awoke, he needed to be on his way.
Leon doubted that he could go on. "You two needed each other every time you passed from one world to the next. Why should this time be any different? You can't even draw your Key without her."
Riku had just shrugged, trying to hide the doubts boiling within. "She's in no state to travel as it is. I need to go."
"What are we gonna say to her when she wakes up, huh?" Yuffie asked harshly. "What, 'Riku gives his best?' Have a little heart."
"I don't want her to go with me. You said this world is sealed. You said no Heartless could come here."
"But the Heartless are the ones who knocked you off your course and into this universe," Aerith, a voice of reason, pointed out.
"There's most likely droves of them waiting for you," Leon said.
Riku adjusted his hair. "It's my decision."
"You're so cold," growled the little ninja before stalking off.
I might be cold, agreed Riku. But maybe I'm best this way. Ava only suffers because of me. I…I just want to find Sora and be done with this!
"It is somewhat unfair," Aerith said. "If you've been partners all this time."
"It's my choice." Riku stood very tall and very straight. "Just…take care of her for me." And he walked, as best he could, away from Avarielle's door down the corridor. The intuition was helping him again.
He knew where he had to go.
"It might not even work," Leon told Aerith quietly, thinking Riku couldn't hear.
The last set of stairs was the hardest to climb. Not because his legs were aching from the hundreds that came before, either. It was the thought of rising to that platform where he had almost killed his best friend.
Riku stepped to where he knew the giant Keyhole was. He could hear the gentle whirl as the energies of the world mixed continuously together. Deep in his chest, a little pain was stirring.
The heart may be weak.
Riku touched the energy. It surged, and he recoiled.
And sometimes…
Riku fell to his knees.
…it may even give in.
Riku's barren eyes fell shut, and his teeth clenched tightly together.
But…
Riku's mind raced in circles.
I've learned that, deep down…
Riku wondered how he could draw the blade by himself.
…there's a light…
Riku's thoughts stumbled upon a possible answer.
…that never goes out!
Riku knew.
Taking a deep breath, Riku reached into himself. With one swift and painful movement, his fingers dug through his flesh and soul to pull out a blade buried deep. As his hand was covered with the soaking warmth, he pushed it farther in still. Things went a bit more painfully than expected.
In fact, it was Hell.
With a loud growl he grabbed onto something metal that was quickly taking on form. He pulled it out, this act accompanied by many unpleasant ripping noises from deep inside. No matter. He pulled—wrenched, even. The blade tore at his flesh as it emerged, newly formed.
The Keyblade was now newly sharp and, unbeknownst to Riku, newly designed. It would always be razor sharp in his hand, it would always shine bright and dark with silver and obsidian. It would forever drip with his own blood.
Riku swept up his weapon and jabbed it, thrusting with all his might, toward the giant Keyhole.
His cries of agony were loud enough to drone out the weak footsteps from behind. But her call was enough to penetrate. Because she, too, held a Key. She used it now to draw his attention.
The end of the Keystaff slammed down on the floor. Its echoes resounded through the hollow chamber.
"Riku…" breathed Avarielle's weary voice as she stumbled forth.
Riku paused in his effort. He became aware of the cold wetness covering him, his hands, his blade…
At the sound of her voice, he became aware of her weakness…
"You…why…" Ava gasped.
"Because I want to go alone."
Anger invigorated her, strengthened her. "You can't! Just look at what you're doing to yourself—!"
He turned around as she spoke, and the sight of him was a horror that stopped Ava cold.
What he heard next was the sound of vomiting. He could only imagine what he looked like, what could make a woman who had lived in the city of darkness become so violently ill.
At last she finished, her insides emptied.
They stood there in the chamber where so many of Fate's games had been played out. A humid wind found it's way in from the outdoors.
It was hot and humid. It reeked of blood and vomit. It was horrible.
"You're going to bleed to death!" cried Ava as she watched Riku struggle with his self-inflicted injuries. "Riku!"
"I brought the Key out on my own," he heaved as the True Pain began to sink in. It was a violent burning pain spreading out from his heart. It was sticky and wet. It was horrible…unreal. Only he knew it wasn't a dream, or it wouldn't hurt so Damn Much.
Avarielle cried out something, her words soaring high, and soon he felt the warm energy of her magic flow inside of him. The pain still throbbed, but he felt his chest and realized the bleeding was slowing, almost ceasing.
Riku wanted to thank her, but didn't. It was all more than awkward. She had confessed her love to him and he had nothing to return but frigid bitterness. He had been about to leave without her, and she awoke to follow.
Perhaps she knew that he needed her by his side.
"This isn't a game, Riku," the woman mumbled. "How will you find Sora if you're dead?"
"I wasn't going to die," Riku insisted, the confidence falsified. He knew the weapon in his hand now was his Keyblade modified by the stench of Death. It could have easily brought about his own destruction.
"Come on, Riku."
"Right."
He held out his bloodied Keyblade and she held her Staff against it. Energy ripped through their bodies and they left Hollow Bastion once and for all. They left behind the land of Ansem and the land of betrayal, and for that Riku was glad…
Leon had been right about the Heartless. Swarms of black clouds polluted the pastel rainbow of the Portal of Thought, the brightness dimmed by the presence of evil.
They had been waiting.
Well, Riku had been waiting too. Mounting all his strength in front of him in his mind, he pushed through and destroyed the ruins of hearts with what remained of his own. He fought fire with fire or, rather, darkness with darkness.
Avarielle's purple light shone beside him, penetrating the shadows as her mind concentrated on the Light.
The battle between wills was intense, mentally exhausting rather than physically. There was no sword and no body, but there were the minds of two young people against the evil borne of humanity's weakness.
The enemy was defeated, at least that of it which Fate had allowed to trespass in the holy Portal of Thought. And the man and the woman were allowed to set foot in a place they had been striving for all along.
"I know this place… This is Kingdom Hearts!"
As soon as Riku's feet solidified, he set them down on the ground. He knew they were in Kingdom Hearts because Ava had told him so. He knew he was in Kingdom Hearts because his special vision was flooded with pure light.
Behold the endless abyss! Within lies the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts!If they were here…
"Riku!" whispered Avarielle in disbelief. She still sounded unsteady, uneasy. But right now her voice was filled with surprise and inquiry. "I think…"
"Who's there?" accused a new voice.
But it wasn't new at all.
No matter how it had deepened, how it had matured, Riku knew the sound of his best friend's voice when he heard it.
"Who are you?" wondered Sora, coming closer. The racing of his steps gave away that he had not grown up in manner. His pure golden light evidenced that he still held the purest sword of all.
Yet Sora, a man now but still at heart an innocent child, was, of course, still capable of disbelief. This he showed presently at the blindfolded, silver-haired man with the blood dried on his chest and dripping from his blade. Perhaps he was also intrigued by the short dark-skinned vixen, but significantly less at the moment.
Ava's shortness of breath showed she wanted to say something but didn't.
Yes, it was Riku's turn to speak, to say something Important as that radiant golden light came closer still, inspecting, wondering. Riku's mind grew desperately blank. Sora… Kairi… Happiness.
"You let me down, Sora. You promised you'd take care of Kairi." Riku's words were driven by nervous laughter, or maybe by the arrogance he had projected so many times in his puzzling youth.
"Kai—!" The golden light froze. Riku imagined his friend's face fill with recognition, with the shocking realization that this stranger was really… "Riku?"
Ava released her guiding hand just in time: Sora came rushing at the other man all at once in an ecstatic embrace. Apparently, he wasn't bothered by the wounded, naked chest, the blindfolded eyes—or any of it.
Riku ignored the pain in his chest and returned Sora's gesture happily, muscled arms reaching around Sora's grown body. The spiky hair was still there, most likely browner than ever. The clothes felt strange, smooth and slippery, but what did that matter?
It was Sora.
Riku's tears gathered beneath the folds of the material stretched over his face. Sora, who he thought he'd never be near again.
Sora let go after only a second, the friendly gesture over and done with but the feelings behind it still lingering in the air.
"I can't believe you're here!" Sora said, his usual lively self. "I just got here a few minutes ago."
"Are Goofy and Donald with you?"
Sora's pendant jingled. He was probably shaking his head no. "We got separated a while ago… I think they returned to King Mickey."
"Then he's all right?"
"I'm assuming so. He sent me a message… I was supposed to do this without Donald or Goofy… I've been journeying alone since. But…I'm so glad you're here!"
The blind man wondered if Sora had changed at all. In a way, Riku hoped he hadn't.
"Were you going to open the Door?"
"That was the plan," Sora laughed. "But…" He quickly became somber. "I couldn't get it work. You guys…you have Keys—you can tell me about them later—but maybe now we can work together to open it!"
Avarielle asked Riku quietly, "How do we know if this is the true Door to the Light?"
Sora must have noticed the woman for the first time then. "Hello. I'm Sora—Riku's friend."
"I…I know," she replied, unsure. "My name is Avarielle. I'm, er, Riku's partner."
"That's great. Is that staff you've got a Key?"
"Yes… When I took one of Riku's Keyblades, it turned into this."
"Let's get going," Riku broke in. Explanations could come later, couldn't they? "Let's open the Door and go home."
Avarielle slowly took Riku's hand into hers and they walked toward where the white light was at its whitest, its purest. Sora's golden light almost outshone that of the Door—at the very least, they were on the same level of brightness.
Riku readjusted his grip on the Keyblade. The trio finally stopped, just paces in front of destiny.
Riku felt like smirking, and did. Take that, Fate.
All the loneliness…all the trials…and the suffering that he had been through. It would all be worth it. It would all end here, having climaxed at this very point. The worlds in the other universe that had been dissolved by darkness would be washed clean. Caelestis, the city of darkness, would either be destroyed or sealed forever. The worlds that had been fractured by the Heartless would return to normal. The people afflicted would return home.
Riku, Sora, and Kairi could be home together on Destiny Islands, talking and playing games under the tropical sun.
Everything would be as it should have been long ago. Everything would be perfect.
All they had to do was open the Door to the Light.
Riku took a deep breath, just as he heard Sora and Avarielle doing on either side of him.
They held up their Keys, touching at the very center of the Door. They closed their eyes and prayed.
Together, we can do it!
The ground disappeared beneath their feet. It was just the three of them, drifting in space as they pressed their energies forth toward the Door. Pressing harder and harder, their Keys nearly melding..
I know now, without a doubt. Kingdom Hearts...is light!The Door opened.
It was such energy, such power he couldn't begin to comprehend. It threw Riku, sent him tumbling backwards into the air, spinning wildly. He looked with his battle sight, and in that he was nearly blind too. The True Light spread out in wide, pure arrows, bound for all worlds touched by the Heartless.
The Light kept pouring out as Riku struggled to regain his composure.
"YES!" cried Sora from somewhere close by.
"The light…it's so warm…" Avarielle whispered from the other side.
No matter how deep the darkness, a light shines within…
And as the light finished spilling out into the universes, finished granting the wishes of all those oppressed by the darkness, Riku saw something that made him wonder. Could darkness also survive within light?
The ground reappeared and the three drifted back down. The Door was wide open now, the Door to the Light.
But the Door to the Light could also be the Door from the Darkness.
There was darkness swirling on the other side, existing in its proper position: parallel to the light.
"Now we will return to where we're meant to be," Sora said, his grin practically audible. He was oblivious to what was worrying Riku. Perhaps he could not see with his ordinary eyes the morbid colors spinning beyond the Door.
"We've done it," breathed Avarielle. "It's over."
She spoke too soon.
Immediately, tendrils of darkness jutted out from the Door and tangled muscular fibers around her neck. The clouds of gray and black began churning just beyond the Door. They would not spill out into what was now Light, but instead teased the two horrified men left barely outside their border.
Avarielle's purple light was thrown high and dropped low as her shrill screams of dismay cut through the air. She was being pulled back…
"Caelestis!"
"No…no…" Riku tried to step forward, but Sora's Keyblade connected with his chest, blocking him from thoughtlessly proceeding.
"Riku…"
"No, I can't be going back there!" Avarielle cried out.
A voice began to resound through Kingdom Hearts. It boomed, somber and commanding.
"The Door to the Light has been opened. The worlds of men are bathed in Light. The City of Darkness must still thrive to balance the power. If there are to be many worlds of light, there must be a place in the deepest depths of evil. A world without hearts will preserve worlds of happiness."
"Your majesty! But why—?" Sora called out, recognizing the King's voice immediately.
"It is time for everyone to return to his proper place. The girl belongs to Caelestis."
"Riku…"
He ran for Avarielle's voice. He reached out and took her hand as she fought for that final moment with the man she loved.
"I understand now, Riku." She had become impossibly calm.
"Understand what?" he pleaded.
"Caelestis… Maybe it is my home…"
"No! That can't be! You belong to the light!"
"Perhaps there is even hope for a city shrouded in darkness…"
Riku was sweating, shaking, and maybe even crying. He had been ready to leave Ava behind at Hollow Bastion, but he wouldn't let her be taken away from him. He hadn't even told her yet.
"Hey, you're my partner, aren't you?"
"Oh, Riku…"
"Ava—I need you!"
Riku had never planned on telling her, but it seemed now or never. He wouldn't let her give up. Avarielle was…
She began to cry softly, her tears falling to land on their clasped hands as the darkness pulled her farther into its lair. "It's time for you to go home, Riku."
With that, she was gone.