"Stupid Ansem." Riku mused, distressed and depressed at the same time. He
could get rather childish during times like these. "Stupid Sora. Stupid
Donald and Goofy. And that stupid yellow dog.." Things hadn't gone so
well in the past 3 years, as it was obvious to infer from his ranting and
raving. Such tendencies had become second nature to the Silver-Haired ex-
slave-of-evil. He walked the beach alone, barefoot, the surf washing
playfully at his miserable toes. He didn't notice their joviality.
"This place is better than that stupid island anyway." He continued, staring about his new place with grim satisfaction. "Nice and empty. The way I like it." And nobody to stare at me when I talk to myself either. he thought, also with the same sense of satisfaction.
"Princesses of heart." He went right on with a very high-frequency tinge of disdain. "What about the Riku of Heart, huh? Who needs those -girls- when they've got Riku! Riku's the best! He's the purest of -all- hearts! And I proved that, didn't I, Sora?" He imagined his old friend the way he often imagined him now, flat on the ground and slobbering in sorrow. Riku wielded his own wingblade high over his head as if to strike. "Who's the one that resisted the darkness the most! You're nothing without that stupid key!"
But Sora's words flew through his mind's ear for the five-thousandth time. Those words he'd said at Malificent's place three years ago. He didn't remember them exactly. He didn't have to. Something about how his heart was stronger than the keyblade. And maybe the hunk of metal was weaker than Sora's heart. But his, Riku's, own heart was even stronger than that! What did the kid know? He was only 14 when he said them. Lousy fourteen. Now he was 17. Still got caught up in his own poetical thoughts on a regular basis. Only now it was all pretty thoughts about roses and purple- spotted-blue jays. And Kairi. The girl didn't know what he'd done for her. Rescued her from the black muck that swallowed Sora up and flung him away. Riku had caught her and everything! That was worth something..
And -who- had braved all Hell in Kingdom Hearts for her? Not Sora! He hadn't even been -in- Kingdom Hearts, let alone fight in it. He, Riku, and the amicable King Mickey of the Disney Kingdom world, whatever a Disney was, had cleared the place out and secured it completely. They could have been lost in there forever, but they weren't! Riku had even gotten the King back to his Disney throne! ..Maybe that was what a Disney was.. It did look like a remarkable throne. Disney..equals..remarkable, and then throne equals, well, throne. So Disney throne..
Anyway. Where was he. Ah yes, about securing Kingdom Hearts.
He'd finally found the lab where all the hearts are made. Big white place with lots of antiseptic and clear glass jars with copper tops. And he marched right up there where all the lab slaves sat toiling, and asked them what they were doing. Didn't get an answer, but that's alright, he didn't mind. It was just to exercise his ego anyway. Instead, he whipped his keyblade, which, by the way, he renamed to the more suitably descriptive wingblade. Still sliced through anything, still unlocks all sorts of doors (Some of which are better left unlocked, he'd tell you with a wise twinkle.) just better explains the funky webbing and ribbing along the edge. Sometimes he had to pretend he liked the black and red vamp-ish thing. Anyway. He got to whip around the wingblade some and watch with a manlike giggle as the beating specimen in the jars in front of him wiggled with apprehension.
"Say Mickey, whaddaya think'd happen if I tested something on these.."
he had began.
"No testing on -anything- around here!" the king had commanded in his
high-pitched and nasaly royal voice.
"Aw c'mon, spoilsport!" But he had known, even at age 16, not to mess
with a king in a live/die situation.
And so they had continued through the immaculate white hallways, glancing out the industrial-style windows with apprehension and confusion at the juxtaposition of all the black swirliness out there and all the white sparkly-cleanness inside.
At the end of the longest hallway Riku had ever trekked down, he came upon a simple box, approximately the length of his index finger and the height of his pinkie. But don't be misled, his pinkie was rather large. And nobody knew if it was really pink at all, since he'd been wearing those odd handless gloves since before anyone could remember. I mean, most people are familiar with fingerless gloves.. But handless gloves..? Anyway. This box.
It was a very ordinary box, made of some type of industrial-strength metal, and it only stood out to Riku because it was a shade of cream, whereas the walls, all of them he had seen in this Kingdom Hearts place, were crisp and almost glowing white. That, and there was a large, foreboding sign overhead that said something like, "Never -ever- play with this toy!"
Seemed like somebody hadn't respected their mommy's words very much, because the box had been played with before. There was sticky-tack and hot glue squirting out from around the sides, in hopes of securing it to the wall.
Riku didn't much respect the mommy's words either, as he was inclined to playing with toys. He was also very much bored with all this non-adventure anyway. Kingdom Hearts was just a lot of the same old bashing, and they all came back anyway. So he spent some time picking at the dried hot glue while King Mickey went off to explore some other glisteningly white and ultimately empty hallways.
The glue came off rather easily, and the sticky-tack was fun to play with for a time, but then he got bored and stuck it to his wingblade for later, because the metal box was still on his mind. What kind of toy..shouldn't you play with..? And so he focused on the box again, picking at an unruly strand of glue, before he just lost his short-fused temper and whacked at it solidly with the blunt of his wingblade. The thing unceremoniously clanged to the ground.
"Excellent!" he had hollered, and his call had echoed through the
vacant hallways. The King, bored to tears (which is sad for such a
happy character) with tracing the grooves in the tiles of a hallway
several measures from the metal box, appeared shortly thereafter.
"What have you found, Sir Riku?" (He had knighted him a few days ago
after a valiant slaying of a rather large behemoth. The thing had had
10 HP bars!)
"It's a button!" the elated Riku had called.
"A button?" the King implored, reading the sign above said button with
mounting apprehension. "We better leave it alone.."
"Oh simpleton, it's just a button! It looks fun. Wanna push it?"
"No!"
"Then I will." He poised for button pushing and extended his index
finger. "Ready?"
"No!" the King readily whacked the poor Riku in the bum with his
miniature keyblade.
"Aw, c'mon, Kingy, just once.."
But the monarch refused. Something about caution and not jumping the
gun.
"Well I'll push it anyway. You can't stop me."
"But I'm the king!"
"Not my king." And thus, he pushed the minute, square-ish purple
button.
Nothing happened for a fraction of a second. In this short amount of time, Riku managed to stare at the king for a bit in confusion. And then a lot happened.
Just as night turns to day, dark and swirly turned to light and pretty. A deafening boom shook everything inside Kingdom Hearts, and Riku and the King were knocked off their over-large feet and heaved into the wall. A great gust of rose-smelling wind gushed through the hallways and shattered every one of the countless windows. It procured a lovely tinkling sound, and the silver, glittering shards filled the air with white glitter.
"Riku!" the King gasped in an awed voice, staring very distinctly at the purple button. The thing had changed, morphing from a sickly purple to a radiating hot pink. And in the center was a very minute, though well defined keyhole.
"The keyhole!" Riku shouted, elated with his find. He presently resorted to skipping gleefully about the King. Very un-Riku-like, though alltogether rather acceptable.
"It makes perfect sense!" the King continued. "One keyhole to rule them all!" And the two stared, enchanted, for some time.
"So do we lock it?" Riku finally implored. The King, shaken from his deep staring, nodded solemnly.
The task was simple. They very slowly raised their key weapons and turned to face the hot pink button. A very small beam of bright blue light erupted from each of the blades, twining around eachother and shooting towards the keyhole with growing force and speed. They hit the wall and passed through the hole in unison, shaking the whole place for the second time, launching the two blade bearers against the same trembling wall. Very quickly, darkness overtook them. The generic sound of a bolt sliding into its chamber rattled in their minds, and then all was silent.
"This place is better than that stupid island anyway." He continued, staring about his new place with grim satisfaction. "Nice and empty. The way I like it." And nobody to stare at me when I talk to myself either. he thought, also with the same sense of satisfaction.
"Princesses of heart." He went right on with a very high-frequency tinge of disdain. "What about the Riku of Heart, huh? Who needs those -girls- when they've got Riku! Riku's the best! He's the purest of -all- hearts! And I proved that, didn't I, Sora?" He imagined his old friend the way he often imagined him now, flat on the ground and slobbering in sorrow. Riku wielded his own wingblade high over his head as if to strike. "Who's the one that resisted the darkness the most! You're nothing without that stupid key!"
But Sora's words flew through his mind's ear for the five-thousandth time. Those words he'd said at Malificent's place three years ago. He didn't remember them exactly. He didn't have to. Something about how his heart was stronger than the keyblade. And maybe the hunk of metal was weaker than Sora's heart. But his, Riku's, own heart was even stronger than that! What did the kid know? He was only 14 when he said them. Lousy fourteen. Now he was 17. Still got caught up in his own poetical thoughts on a regular basis. Only now it was all pretty thoughts about roses and purple- spotted-blue jays. And Kairi. The girl didn't know what he'd done for her. Rescued her from the black muck that swallowed Sora up and flung him away. Riku had caught her and everything! That was worth something..
And -who- had braved all Hell in Kingdom Hearts for her? Not Sora! He hadn't even been -in- Kingdom Hearts, let alone fight in it. He, Riku, and the amicable King Mickey of the Disney Kingdom world, whatever a Disney was, had cleared the place out and secured it completely. They could have been lost in there forever, but they weren't! Riku had even gotten the King back to his Disney throne! ..Maybe that was what a Disney was.. It did look like a remarkable throne. Disney..equals..remarkable, and then throne equals, well, throne. So Disney throne..
Anyway. Where was he. Ah yes, about securing Kingdom Hearts.
He'd finally found the lab where all the hearts are made. Big white place with lots of antiseptic and clear glass jars with copper tops. And he marched right up there where all the lab slaves sat toiling, and asked them what they were doing. Didn't get an answer, but that's alright, he didn't mind. It was just to exercise his ego anyway. Instead, he whipped his keyblade, which, by the way, he renamed to the more suitably descriptive wingblade. Still sliced through anything, still unlocks all sorts of doors (Some of which are better left unlocked, he'd tell you with a wise twinkle.) just better explains the funky webbing and ribbing along the edge. Sometimes he had to pretend he liked the black and red vamp-ish thing. Anyway. He got to whip around the wingblade some and watch with a manlike giggle as the beating specimen in the jars in front of him wiggled with apprehension.
"Say Mickey, whaddaya think'd happen if I tested something on these.."
he had began.
"No testing on -anything- around here!" the king had commanded in his
high-pitched and nasaly royal voice.
"Aw c'mon, spoilsport!" But he had known, even at age 16, not to mess
with a king in a live/die situation.
And so they had continued through the immaculate white hallways, glancing out the industrial-style windows with apprehension and confusion at the juxtaposition of all the black swirliness out there and all the white sparkly-cleanness inside.
At the end of the longest hallway Riku had ever trekked down, he came upon a simple box, approximately the length of his index finger and the height of his pinkie. But don't be misled, his pinkie was rather large. And nobody knew if it was really pink at all, since he'd been wearing those odd handless gloves since before anyone could remember. I mean, most people are familiar with fingerless gloves.. But handless gloves..? Anyway. This box.
It was a very ordinary box, made of some type of industrial-strength metal, and it only stood out to Riku because it was a shade of cream, whereas the walls, all of them he had seen in this Kingdom Hearts place, were crisp and almost glowing white. That, and there was a large, foreboding sign overhead that said something like, "Never -ever- play with this toy!"
Seemed like somebody hadn't respected their mommy's words very much, because the box had been played with before. There was sticky-tack and hot glue squirting out from around the sides, in hopes of securing it to the wall.
Riku didn't much respect the mommy's words either, as he was inclined to playing with toys. He was also very much bored with all this non-adventure anyway. Kingdom Hearts was just a lot of the same old bashing, and they all came back anyway. So he spent some time picking at the dried hot glue while King Mickey went off to explore some other glisteningly white and ultimately empty hallways.
The glue came off rather easily, and the sticky-tack was fun to play with for a time, but then he got bored and stuck it to his wingblade for later, because the metal box was still on his mind. What kind of toy..shouldn't you play with..? And so he focused on the box again, picking at an unruly strand of glue, before he just lost his short-fused temper and whacked at it solidly with the blunt of his wingblade. The thing unceremoniously clanged to the ground.
"Excellent!" he had hollered, and his call had echoed through the
vacant hallways. The King, bored to tears (which is sad for such a
happy character) with tracing the grooves in the tiles of a hallway
several measures from the metal box, appeared shortly thereafter.
"What have you found, Sir Riku?" (He had knighted him a few days ago
after a valiant slaying of a rather large behemoth. The thing had had
10 HP bars!)
"It's a button!" the elated Riku had called.
"A button?" the King implored, reading the sign above said button with
mounting apprehension. "We better leave it alone.."
"Oh simpleton, it's just a button! It looks fun. Wanna push it?"
"No!"
"Then I will." He poised for button pushing and extended his index
finger. "Ready?"
"No!" the King readily whacked the poor Riku in the bum with his
miniature keyblade.
"Aw, c'mon, Kingy, just once.."
But the monarch refused. Something about caution and not jumping the
gun.
"Well I'll push it anyway. You can't stop me."
"But I'm the king!"
"Not my king." And thus, he pushed the minute, square-ish purple
button.
Nothing happened for a fraction of a second. In this short amount of time, Riku managed to stare at the king for a bit in confusion. And then a lot happened.
Just as night turns to day, dark and swirly turned to light and pretty. A deafening boom shook everything inside Kingdom Hearts, and Riku and the King were knocked off their over-large feet and heaved into the wall. A great gust of rose-smelling wind gushed through the hallways and shattered every one of the countless windows. It procured a lovely tinkling sound, and the silver, glittering shards filled the air with white glitter.
"Riku!" the King gasped in an awed voice, staring very distinctly at the purple button. The thing had changed, morphing from a sickly purple to a radiating hot pink. And in the center was a very minute, though well defined keyhole.
"The keyhole!" Riku shouted, elated with his find. He presently resorted to skipping gleefully about the King. Very un-Riku-like, though alltogether rather acceptable.
"It makes perfect sense!" the King continued. "One keyhole to rule them all!" And the two stared, enchanted, for some time.
"So do we lock it?" Riku finally implored. The King, shaken from his deep staring, nodded solemnly.
The task was simple. They very slowly raised their key weapons and turned to face the hot pink button. A very small beam of bright blue light erupted from each of the blades, twining around eachother and shooting towards the keyhole with growing force and speed. They hit the wall and passed through the hole in unison, shaking the whole place for the second time, launching the two blade bearers against the same trembling wall. Very quickly, darkness overtook them. The generic sound of a bolt sliding into its chamber rattled in their minds, and then all was silent.
