'Anyone's thoughts when they're alone.'
~Ansem's thoughts/talking in Riku's head.~
Spoilers.I talk about some things involving the end of the game. Sorry this
took me so long, exams at school, I haven't had much time to write. And the
realm they're in is hard to give rules to, so I'm making them up as a I go
along, my story, I don't care if it differs from the game.
Sora saw a bright light, and Riku's face hovering above his. Then the darkness swelled around and over him, sucking him away as he called out to the one above him, no longer a shadow, but his best friend.
"Sora!" Riku yelled back and reached for him, but Sora felt himself pushed through the dark floor and for a moment he couldn't see anything, and couldn't tell up from down.
The Sora was abruptly spat out onto soft sand. Something hard was in his hand, and when Sora looked at it, it was a giant key.
"What." Looking around, Sora saw that he was again on the paopu island, and the dark storm hovered above him. Raising the key to look at it better, Sora saw that the handle he held it by was more like a sword's than a keys. Then he remembered everything that had happened in the shadowy world. Reaching up to his cheek, Sora realized that it wasn't sore. It was as if he'd never been hit. Reaching towards his side, the bite on his ribs was gone as well. As he stood up, he felt a twinge on his shoulders. Lifting up his red jumpsuit, Sora saw that the nail imprints remained on his shoulders. 'But why?'
'Keyblade. Keyblade.' Some voice whispered in Sora ear. 'Or was it in my head.' Sora felt something watching him, and spun around, wielding the key like a sword, praying that was what it was made for.
A dark puddle on the ground moved slowly to the side, before two yellow spots appeared in the middle.
"No." Sora whispered to himself as his hands began to shake, yellow eyes, like Riku's. He shook his head and took a quick step back as the darkness grew out of the ground. 'Please no, not again.' Taking a deep breath, Sora took a step forward, and two antennae popped out of the rising black head. 'Riku doesn't have antennae!' Then Sora recognized the small, bug like creatures as the ones from his dream. He had dreamed all of this, from Riku reaching out to him, to fighting these shadows. Taking a firm hold on his sword, Sora charged at the dark beings, slashing at them left and right, and to his surprise, they disappeared. He grinned as his confidence was restored and then took off towards the secret place, something drawing him towards it.
* * * * * *
"No Sora!" Riku tried to reach through the dark floor, hoping it would suck him through as it had his friend. But instead, it began to rise up beneath him and take form.
"Sora?" The darkness formed itself into a shape, and yellow eyes opened up to look at Riku once more. He growled in frustration and disgust at looking into the yellow eyes of his lover shadow. Before the dark being could touch him, Riku heard a voice. A deep, smooth voice that seemed to echo around him, everywhere, and inside his head at the same time.
"Hello?" Riku looked around for the source of the voice.
"Hello." The shadow smiled up at him, then it winked. Riku shuddered and said, "Not you. That voice, where is it coming from." Standing up, he tried to perceive anything in the blackness of this world, but there was no one there except him and the shadow Sora. The voice was like a whisper, barely audible, and Riku couldn't make out any of the words.
"So this is him." Finally the voice became louder and Riku could understand him.
"Who are you? And where are you?" Footsteps appeared behind him, and Riku spun around, crouching back defensively. He didn't like this place and he didn't trust anyone who spoke from the shadows. Another figure was walking in the dark realm, just out of Riku's sight. The shadow on the floor stood up slowly, then bowed to the figure which was slowly approaching.
"I am Ansem. And I am right here." Riku felt something tap on his head and he turned, ready for a fight. A man stood behind him, much taller than him. His orange eyes bored down at the boy, and he had an feeling of royalty about him by the way he stared down. His hair was long and white, and his entire outfit was colored in similar ways. Riku took a step back, not trusting this newcomer, and bumped into the shadow.
"Watch it will ya." Riku trailed off and ignored the problem of what to call his shadow, as he turned to the man called Ansem.
"Aww, come on Ku, you know my name is Sora." The shadow purred into Riku's ear and let his arms wrap gently around him.
"You're not Sora." Riku's eyes never left Ansem as he growled at the shadow behind him.
"Oh but I am." The shadow leaned against him and felt as warm and real as it had before, but Riku didn't want to push him away. Even after all that had happened, he felt like he could trust the shadow, at least more than this newcomer.
"If you refuse to call him by his real name, call him Shadow." Ansem smiled and waved his hand gently to his side. Out of the darkness, a chair rose up and Ansem took a seat on it.
"Have a seat you two. Shadow and I will explain everything." Riku jumped as a chair rose beneath him and looked at it suspiciously for a few minutes. Shadow grabbed his and turned it backwards, sitting down on it lazily, with his head on his arms. With a deep breath and another glance at his strange companions, the silver haired boy sat down in the chair.
The man across from Riku was elegant and stately. He suspected the man must be of some high society, judging by the way he was dressed in his cape and boots, and by the way he acted. The trio sat in silence, and Riku felt that they were waiting on him. He felt someone nudge his leg and looked over to Shadow.
"Ask lord Ansem a question." He whispered to him and winked.
"Lord?" Not exactly what Riku had planned to say, but it came out just the same.
"I am master in this realm. And, I was a king in my own world. Shadow is a loyal follower, he calls me lord out of habit."
"So wait, you two know each other?" Riku looked between the two, unsure of why there would be a shadow of Sora in this realm to begin with.
"Shadow doesn't always look as he does now. His form changes depending on what's happening at the time."
"So what made him pretend to be Sora?"
"I'm not pretending, I am Sora." The shadow grinned, and Riku could see why he would say that. The two were identical in mannerisms, voice, and looks. Give this one colors and there would be no difference.
"He's right Riku. Technically, he is at least part of the Sora you know."
"Whoa whoa, hold on a sec, what do you mean by part?"
The man shook his head and his long white hair swung with it. He made a sighing sound before looking back at his two young charges.
"To understand that, I shall have to explain the world we are in right now."
"Fine!" Riku yelled, his patience was wearing thin with being left out of the loop. He wanted to know everything, and he wanted to know now.
"Temper. Temper." Shadow wiggled his finger condescendingly at Riku. Then he just laughed and turned back to focus his attention on Ansem, who had cleared his throat and caught their attention.
"This place we are in, is a realm of darkness. It has no real name. No one who is in here has ever been able to get out, so a name would be pointless."
Riku just blinked.
"This is a world of darkness. Everyone has darkness in their hearts, and here the darkness controls all. All hearts are created in a world which lies within this darkness called Kingdom Hearts. If someone's heart is taken from their body, the darkness can take a hold of it, or, if they give in to the darkness and accept it. Without a heart, the body lets the darkness consume them and they are transformed into what I called Heartless. By controlling the darkness, I could reach people's hearts and control them as well by turning them to Heartless."
"Why would you want to do that." Riku was beginning to like Ansem less and less as time went on, and this world seemed confusing to him.
"In order to let the darkness take every person in all the worlds it can reach. When people let the darkness enter their hearts, they are accepting their true nature. The Heartless obey me since I control the darkness that took them, and I use them to take more hearts. I would myself, but by coming to this realm I lost my body as well. " Ansem smiled.
~That's where you come in.~ Riku jumped when he heard Ansem's voice inside of his head, and felt his presence in his mind. He jumped from his chair and leapt at Ansem. The man sat calmly as Riku grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him barely off of his chair.
"Get out of my head." Shadow stood up, worried for his master at the growl of his new friend.
"I'm not in your head Riku." Ansem's attitude was a perfect mask of calm. He reached out with his white glove and pressed his hand to Riku's chest. ~I'm right here.~
Riku cried out as he felt a burning sensation in his chest. Shadow jumped to his side, and kept him from falling in his pain. When Riku's aqua eyes reopened, Ansem was gone. And Riku's body was standing on it's own.
'What's going on?'
~You haven't caught on yet, have you?~ Riku's jaw fell open as he realized that his internal monologue had become a dialogue.
'Are you inside me?'
~Of course. I am darkness itself. And when you gave into your dark instincts with my Shadow, I became a part of your heart. My original body is a useless Heartless somewhere, but my spirit thrives here in the darkness, and now I can leave this place inside of your heart.~
"But, if I'm here, and I." Riku looked at Shadow, who was still holding onto him, concern flickering in his golden eyes, ".gave into the darkness, then I'm the same as you. Here forever, and my body is now a, what did you call them?"
"Heartless." Ansem returned in front of Riku, feeling that the boy would be less confused and apprehensive if he could get used to the one he know shared a body with. He looked to the floor, and it rippled to life. A creature began to rise out of it, with a shiny pointy hat and wicked claws on its fingers. A symbol was on its chest that had a red heart with black lines crossing through it.
"This is a Heartless. Who knows what it was before, a person, an animal, it doesn't really matter though. This is what any normal body becomes when the darkness replaces where its heart originally was." Seeing that its time had passed, the soldier walked away, its armor clanking as it fading into the shadows of the realm.
"Fine, but why am I not a Heartless. I gave in." Shadow finally let go and sat down on the floor between Ansem and Riku's chair, silently watching the two discuss the very essence of his world and his existence.
"I brought you and your friend here because I needed one of your bodies, it didn't matter which."
"Why us? What's so special about me and Sora?"
"You are both Keyblade masters. Only those who can wield a keyblade, and therefore open and close keyholes, can move freely from the shadow realm to the real one. Your heart will also not be taken as easily as I thought, again because of the keyblade."
Riku just stared into the orange eyes of this man. His mind was swimming and he had no clue what most of it meant. 'Better to start out small.' Riku opened his mouth and -
"A keyblade." Ansem interrupted, knowing the question already, " is a weapon of immense power. It will only allow itself to be used by certain people. It is meant to lock and unlock two things that give the keyblade its true power. It can unlock keyholes between worlds and realms, as well as unlock people's hearts."
"So you're saying me and Sora were chosen to get this sword or whatever it is?"
"Yes. Only a few very unique people are able to touch and use the keyblade. Both you and Sora were two of those people. That is why I sent the darkness to bring you here. Then, whoever of you accepted the darkness, would unknowingly be letting me take control of their body."
Riku's hand balled up into a fist and began to shake at his side. He hung his head and repressed a snarl from his throat.
"So.everything with Sora.you did that to us just so you could take over one of our bodies?"
Shadow laid a hand on Riku's back and tried to sooth his anger. Ansem finally stood and turned to leave. Calling over his shoulder, he yelled, "Shadow, your brother's are tempted to take Riku's heart, you're in charge of protecting him, and answer any more questions he has." The man faded into the shadows and was gone to do whatever he had set off to.
"What happened to him?" Riku said softly, feeling drained with all this information. Shadow just cocked his head to the side.
"Who?" After a moment of silence, Shadow's yellow eyes widened.
"Oh, you mean what happened to the real Sora?" Riku nodded and sat back down in his chair, leaning back, his eyes half closed in thought. Shadow sighed but decided to help the boy out.
"Listen, Ansem is inside your heart now. You should be able to use some of his powers, and one of the powers he has is manipulation of the darkness." Finally the aqua eyes focused again and began to pay attention to Shadow. The being smiled at him and his yellow eyes seemed a bit happier now.
Shadow bent down and pressed his hand to the floor, which became reflective and looked like it was made of glass. Putting his hand through it, he pulled the floor up into a wall. Riku just looked on with his jaw hanging open as the darkness formed itself according to Shadow's movements.
"Don't look so surprised. You'll be able to do this too once you learn. It's not hard anyhow." Slowly, the blackness of the wall faded, and was replaced with a purple swirling sky and a pale sandy island. The world was swirling around this one little island, and debris was stuck in odd places along the sand. An enormous creature stood there, black tentacles across it's face, and a gaping heart shaped hole in it.
"What is that thing?" Riku leaned forward to look at the makeshift television closer.
"A Darkside. Dumb creatures. But they're the biggest Heartless around. Surprisingly weak for their size though." Shadow just smirked and looked condescendingly at the image.
"This image looks so familiar, what is it?" Riku looked up as the Shadow patted his head. He didn't really mind though, since Shadow really was like Sora in so many ways.
"That's your Destiny Island. Or what's left of it. The darkness is sucking it up, and soon it will be gone."
"Take this!" A voice broke through and caused both of the audience members to look at the image again. A small figure in red ran at the Darkside and slashed at it with a key shaped sword.
"Sora." Riku looked shocked and transfixed as his best friend took on this enormous enemy all alone.
"With this, you can always see what Sora is doing."
"Thank you." Riku whispered under his breath as he focused intently on Sora's image. Shadow smiled and curled up against Riku's legs, and the two stayed that way watching the battle rage on.
Sora saw a bright light, and Riku's face hovering above his. Then the darkness swelled around and over him, sucking him away as he called out to the one above him, no longer a shadow, but his best friend.
"Sora!" Riku yelled back and reached for him, but Sora felt himself pushed through the dark floor and for a moment he couldn't see anything, and couldn't tell up from down.
The Sora was abruptly spat out onto soft sand. Something hard was in his hand, and when Sora looked at it, it was a giant key.
"What." Looking around, Sora saw that he was again on the paopu island, and the dark storm hovered above him. Raising the key to look at it better, Sora saw that the handle he held it by was more like a sword's than a keys. Then he remembered everything that had happened in the shadowy world. Reaching up to his cheek, Sora realized that it wasn't sore. It was as if he'd never been hit. Reaching towards his side, the bite on his ribs was gone as well. As he stood up, he felt a twinge on his shoulders. Lifting up his red jumpsuit, Sora saw that the nail imprints remained on his shoulders. 'But why?'
'Keyblade. Keyblade.' Some voice whispered in Sora ear. 'Or was it in my head.' Sora felt something watching him, and spun around, wielding the key like a sword, praying that was what it was made for.
A dark puddle on the ground moved slowly to the side, before two yellow spots appeared in the middle.
"No." Sora whispered to himself as his hands began to shake, yellow eyes, like Riku's. He shook his head and took a quick step back as the darkness grew out of the ground. 'Please no, not again.' Taking a deep breath, Sora took a step forward, and two antennae popped out of the rising black head. 'Riku doesn't have antennae!' Then Sora recognized the small, bug like creatures as the ones from his dream. He had dreamed all of this, from Riku reaching out to him, to fighting these shadows. Taking a firm hold on his sword, Sora charged at the dark beings, slashing at them left and right, and to his surprise, they disappeared. He grinned as his confidence was restored and then took off towards the secret place, something drawing him towards it.
* * * * * *
"No Sora!" Riku tried to reach through the dark floor, hoping it would suck him through as it had his friend. But instead, it began to rise up beneath him and take form.
"Sora?" The darkness formed itself into a shape, and yellow eyes opened up to look at Riku once more. He growled in frustration and disgust at looking into the yellow eyes of his lover shadow. Before the dark being could touch him, Riku heard a voice. A deep, smooth voice that seemed to echo around him, everywhere, and inside his head at the same time.
"Hello?" Riku looked around for the source of the voice.
"Hello." The shadow smiled up at him, then it winked. Riku shuddered and said, "Not you. That voice, where is it coming from." Standing up, he tried to perceive anything in the blackness of this world, but there was no one there except him and the shadow Sora. The voice was like a whisper, barely audible, and Riku couldn't make out any of the words.
"So this is him." Finally the voice became louder and Riku could understand him.
"Who are you? And where are you?" Footsteps appeared behind him, and Riku spun around, crouching back defensively. He didn't like this place and he didn't trust anyone who spoke from the shadows. Another figure was walking in the dark realm, just out of Riku's sight. The shadow on the floor stood up slowly, then bowed to the figure which was slowly approaching.
"I am Ansem. And I am right here." Riku felt something tap on his head and he turned, ready for a fight. A man stood behind him, much taller than him. His orange eyes bored down at the boy, and he had an feeling of royalty about him by the way he stared down. His hair was long and white, and his entire outfit was colored in similar ways. Riku took a step back, not trusting this newcomer, and bumped into the shadow.
"Watch it will ya." Riku trailed off and ignored the problem of what to call his shadow, as he turned to the man called Ansem.
"Aww, come on Ku, you know my name is Sora." The shadow purred into Riku's ear and let his arms wrap gently around him.
"You're not Sora." Riku's eyes never left Ansem as he growled at the shadow behind him.
"Oh but I am." The shadow leaned against him and felt as warm and real as it had before, but Riku didn't want to push him away. Even after all that had happened, he felt like he could trust the shadow, at least more than this newcomer.
"If you refuse to call him by his real name, call him Shadow." Ansem smiled and waved his hand gently to his side. Out of the darkness, a chair rose up and Ansem took a seat on it.
"Have a seat you two. Shadow and I will explain everything." Riku jumped as a chair rose beneath him and looked at it suspiciously for a few minutes. Shadow grabbed his and turned it backwards, sitting down on it lazily, with his head on his arms. With a deep breath and another glance at his strange companions, the silver haired boy sat down in the chair.
The man across from Riku was elegant and stately. He suspected the man must be of some high society, judging by the way he was dressed in his cape and boots, and by the way he acted. The trio sat in silence, and Riku felt that they were waiting on him. He felt someone nudge his leg and looked over to Shadow.
"Ask lord Ansem a question." He whispered to him and winked.
"Lord?" Not exactly what Riku had planned to say, but it came out just the same.
"I am master in this realm. And, I was a king in my own world. Shadow is a loyal follower, he calls me lord out of habit."
"So wait, you two know each other?" Riku looked between the two, unsure of why there would be a shadow of Sora in this realm to begin with.
"Shadow doesn't always look as he does now. His form changes depending on what's happening at the time."
"So what made him pretend to be Sora?"
"I'm not pretending, I am Sora." The shadow grinned, and Riku could see why he would say that. The two were identical in mannerisms, voice, and looks. Give this one colors and there would be no difference.
"He's right Riku. Technically, he is at least part of the Sora you know."
"Whoa whoa, hold on a sec, what do you mean by part?"
The man shook his head and his long white hair swung with it. He made a sighing sound before looking back at his two young charges.
"To understand that, I shall have to explain the world we are in right now."
"Fine!" Riku yelled, his patience was wearing thin with being left out of the loop. He wanted to know everything, and he wanted to know now.
"Temper. Temper." Shadow wiggled his finger condescendingly at Riku. Then he just laughed and turned back to focus his attention on Ansem, who had cleared his throat and caught their attention.
"This place we are in, is a realm of darkness. It has no real name. No one who is in here has ever been able to get out, so a name would be pointless."
Riku just blinked.
"This is a world of darkness. Everyone has darkness in their hearts, and here the darkness controls all. All hearts are created in a world which lies within this darkness called Kingdom Hearts. If someone's heart is taken from their body, the darkness can take a hold of it, or, if they give in to the darkness and accept it. Without a heart, the body lets the darkness consume them and they are transformed into what I called Heartless. By controlling the darkness, I could reach people's hearts and control them as well by turning them to Heartless."
"Why would you want to do that." Riku was beginning to like Ansem less and less as time went on, and this world seemed confusing to him.
"In order to let the darkness take every person in all the worlds it can reach. When people let the darkness enter their hearts, they are accepting their true nature. The Heartless obey me since I control the darkness that took them, and I use them to take more hearts. I would myself, but by coming to this realm I lost my body as well. " Ansem smiled.
~That's where you come in.~ Riku jumped when he heard Ansem's voice inside of his head, and felt his presence in his mind. He jumped from his chair and leapt at Ansem. The man sat calmly as Riku grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him barely off of his chair.
"Get out of my head." Shadow stood up, worried for his master at the growl of his new friend.
"I'm not in your head Riku." Ansem's attitude was a perfect mask of calm. He reached out with his white glove and pressed his hand to Riku's chest. ~I'm right here.~
Riku cried out as he felt a burning sensation in his chest. Shadow jumped to his side, and kept him from falling in his pain. When Riku's aqua eyes reopened, Ansem was gone. And Riku's body was standing on it's own.
'What's going on?'
~You haven't caught on yet, have you?~ Riku's jaw fell open as he realized that his internal monologue had become a dialogue.
'Are you inside me?'
~Of course. I am darkness itself. And when you gave into your dark instincts with my Shadow, I became a part of your heart. My original body is a useless Heartless somewhere, but my spirit thrives here in the darkness, and now I can leave this place inside of your heart.~
"But, if I'm here, and I." Riku looked at Shadow, who was still holding onto him, concern flickering in his golden eyes, ".gave into the darkness, then I'm the same as you. Here forever, and my body is now a, what did you call them?"
"Heartless." Ansem returned in front of Riku, feeling that the boy would be less confused and apprehensive if he could get used to the one he know shared a body with. He looked to the floor, and it rippled to life. A creature began to rise out of it, with a shiny pointy hat and wicked claws on its fingers. A symbol was on its chest that had a red heart with black lines crossing through it.
"This is a Heartless. Who knows what it was before, a person, an animal, it doesn't really matter though. This is what any normal body becomes when the darkness replaces where its heart originally was." Seeing that its time had passed, the soldier walked away, its armor clanking as it fading into the shadows of the realm.
"Fine, but why am I not a Heartless. I gave in." Shadow finally let go and sat down on the floor between Ansem and Riku's chair, silently watching the two discuss the very essence of his world and his existence.
"I brought you and your friend here because I needed one of your bodies, it didn't matter which."
"Why us? What's so special about me and Sora?"
"You are both Keyblade masters. Only those who can wield a keyblade, and therefore open and close keyholes, can move freely from the shadow realm to the real one. Your heart will also not be taken as easily as I thought, again because of the keyblade."
Riku just stared into the orange eyes of this man. His mind was swimming and he had no clue what most of it meant. 'Better to start out small.' Riku opened his mouth and -
"A keyblade." Ansem interrupted, knowing the question already, " is a weapon of immense power. It will only allow itself to be used by certain people. It is meant to lock and unlock two things that give the keyblade its true power. It can unlock keyholes between worlds and realms, as well as unlock people's hearts."
"So you're saying me and Sora were chosen to get this sword or whatever it is?"
"Yes. Only a few very unique people are able to touch and use the keyblade. Both you and Sora were two of those people. That is why I sent the darkness to bring you here. Then, whoever of you accepted the darkness, would unknowingly be letting me take control of their body."
Riku's hand balled up into a fist and began to shake at his side. He hung his head and repressed a snarl from his throat.
"So.everything with Sora.you did that to us just so you could take over one of our bodies?"
Shadow laid a hand on Riku's back and tried to sooth his anger. Ansem finally stood and turned to leave. Calling over his shoulder, he yelled, "Shadow, your brother's are tempted to take Riku's heart, you're in charge of protecting him, and answer any more questions he has." The man faded into the shadows and was gone to do whatever he had set off to.
"What happened to him?" Riku said softly, feeling drained with all this information. Shadow just cocked his head to the side.
"Who?" After a moment of silence, Shadow's yellow eyes widened.
"Oh, you mean what happened to the real Sora?" Riku nodded and sat back down in his chair, leaning back, his eyes half closed in thought. Shadow sighed but decided to help the boy out.
"Listen, Ansem is inside your heart now. You should be able to use some of his powers, and one of the powers he has is manipulation of the darkness." Finally the aqua eyes focused again and began to pay attention to Shadow. The being smiled at him and his yellow eyes seemed a bit happier now.
Shadow bent down and pressed his hand to the floor, which became reflective and looked like it was made of glass. Putting his hand through it, he pulled the floor up into a wall. Riku just looked on with his jaw hanging open as the darkness formed itself according to Shadow's movements.
"Don't look so surprised. You'll be able to do this too once you learn. It's not hard anyhow." Slowly, the blackness of the wall faded, and was replaced with a purple swirling sky and a pale sandy island. The world was swirling around this one little island, and debris was stuck in odd places along the sand. An enormous creature stood there, black tentacles across it's face, and a gaping heart shaped hole in it.
"What is that thing?" Riku leaned forward to look at the makeshift television closer.
"A Darkside. Dumb creatures. But they're the biggest Heartless around. Surprisingly weak for their size though." Shadow just smirked and looked condescendingly at the image.
"This image looks so familiar, what is it?" Riku looked up as the Shadow patted his head. He didn't really mind though, since Shadow really was like Sora in so many ways.
"That's your Destiny Island. Or what's left of it. The darkness is sucking it up, and soon it will be gone."
"Take this!" A voice broke through and caused both of the audience members to look at the image again. A small figure in red ran at the Darkside and slashed at it with a key shaped sword.
"Sora." Riku looked shocked and transfixed as his best friend took on this enormous enemy all alone.
"With this, you can always see what Sora is doing."
"Thank you." Riku whispered under his breath as he focused intently on Sora's image. Shadow smiled and curled up against Riku's legs, and the two stayed that way watching the battle rage on.