By: Naela
Summary: A being tied to Sora is awakening and now more than ever the Keyblade Master is needed. Only, no one seems to know where he is. How are Riku and Kairi tied into all of this and who are the Non-Existent Ones?
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters. They're all property of Squaresoft and Disney.
Chapter Eight: Wandering
Even though it'd been five years since he'd last been to Hollow Bastion, he could still remember his way to the Castle Chapel. He journeyed to the top of the fortress, ignoring the gazes that people sent him, the questions that they asked. He didn't spare a glance towards the breathtakingscenery outside nor slow down when a pair of guards held up their hands, ordering him to stop. They chased after him, and Riku easily took care of them with a few punches and kicks.
He arrived at the Castle Chapel's entrance, hesitating as he remembered the battles that had taken place in the rooms beyond. Shaking his head, he steeled himself and entered the grotesquely coloured room going up another flight of steps. He stopped as he reached the end.
"Kairi!"
Riku turned and started at the sight of Sora running towards him, running through him. Sora was quickly followed by his other two friends, though Goofy soon ran into a barrier and fell backwards. Riku turned away from the two to see his best friend running up to the still form of Kairi.
"Kairi! Kairi! Open your eyes!"
Riku sighed at the sight of himself, younger, but so full of confidence, approaching his friends. "It's no use…" His younger self said. The apparitions faded away,and Riku shook his head, running a hand over his face.
Turning to face the keyhole that Sora had sealed long ago, he brought out his Kingdom Key and bit down on his lip. He'd seen King Mickey use it once before, but that was to close a door. Enigma had used his keyblade to open rifts, but that wasn't quite the same. Riku held up the keyblade as he'd seen both Enigma and Mickey do before and paused, trying to figure out what to do next.
"Try and picture the keyhole being unlocked."
Riku nearly jumped as Sora stepped up beside him, holding a wooden sword and mimicking Riku's pose. He held his sword up and then pointed it towards the keyhole.
"Picturing it…" Riku murmured. He brought down the keyblade and stared at it, then turned to face Sora. The boy had vanished. Shaking his head, Riku closed his eyes and faced the keyhole. He brought the keyblade up and pictured what he'd seen Enigma do. Energy surged forth from his hand and into his keyblade. Riku glanced up at it and felt a triumphant grin on his face. He pointed the keyblade towards the door and saw the beam of energy shoot forward. He heard an audible click, slowly by some unseen force it began to open.
Behind the door, all he saw was darkness. Willing the Oblivion to take shape in his free hand, Riku stepped forward into the dark. The world shifted, taking shape and bending like a pebble breaking the surface of a pond. It stilled, and Riku blinked. Before him was the stretching hallway of the World In Between.
The door to Hollow Bastion slammed shut, and Riku ignored it. His mind was focused on finding a way to his destination. He could explore every door in this world, but he figured that it would take more than his lifetime and the next before he would be able to find the right place.
Lowering the keyblades, he took a hesitant step towards the door he'd just exited from. Returning to Hollow Bastion seemed more and more tempting now that he'd stopped to think about it. It was only the image of one resident of that world that kept him from returning. Aerith crying over the body of Cloud entered his mind, and he shook his head. He would return Cloud to the living, if only just for her. Her grief seemed too out of place for a woman like her. She deserved to be smiling, to be happy.
You're a real genius, Riku, the boy berated himself. He could have at least stopped along the way to get something to eat. Fighting hordes of Heartless, falling into different worlds and duelling with swordsmen beyond his league certainly took a lot out of him, and now he was going to get himself into more trouble on an empty stomach.
A normal man probably would have collapsed by now, but as Enigma had told him before, Riku wasn't normal. He was beyond being human. Riku's thoughts went to the hooded men. Bringing up an arm, he examined the leather material of the jacket he wore. He was dressed like them, but how he got like this was still a mystery to him.
One moment I'm in Kingdom Hearts,and the next… I'm in that strange city and I meet Enigma.
If he ever crossed paths with Enigma again, he'd get answers. He knew that the other warrior was hiding a lot of secrets from him that he should have been informed of.
Walking down the corridor, he glanced at the emblem on each door. The world he was looking for had a specific one with a skull engulfed in an inferno. He knew this from all those times he had cted as Maleficent's little errand boy and had had to do her bidding in other worlds. His lips twisted into a sardonic smirk. He found it amusing how his time spent with her was suddenly becoming handy.
He turned a corner, stumbling over some large metallic object on the ground. He stepped back, examining the mess. Scattered on the ground were pieces of metal. Pieces of armour, he realized, and brought his keyblades up as he spotted the seal of the Heartless stamped onto one of the larger pieces. The armour rattled,and Riku took another step back as the pieces flew into the air. The torso piece hovered, remaining still as the small pieces gathered around it. The arms and legs flew into place, and finally, as if appearing out of nowhere, the helmet landed where the neck should have been. The visor flew up, revealing the glowing eyes of a Heartless. The head swivelled from side to side and its arms flung about before finally it stilled and the Heartless settled its gaze on Riku.
The boy brought up both keyblades, and the Heartless charged, its footsteps shaking the corridor. Riku leapt from the ground and twisted his body in the narrow corridor so that his feet were now touching the wall. He stayed like that, suspended sideways, and then kicked himself off the wall and flew over the head of the Heartless. It stopped its charge, glancing from side to side, confused about the sudden disappearance of its quarry. Riku rolled his eyes, wondering why Ansem hadn't made his minions just a little smarter.
He brought the Kingdom Key up and slammed it down, slicing through the metal. He winced at the crunching of the armour as the keyblade left a large gash on the Heartless' back. It let out a high-pitched wail, jumping and smacking its head against the ceiling before landing again. The ground shook, forcing Riku to step back. The Heartless spun around, its arms whirling like a sharp edged fan before it stopped, facing him. Riku ran forward, his hand with the Oblivion raised, and jumped, bringing the black keyblade down on the helmet, knocking it off the Heartless' body. The helmet went flying down the corridor.
The rest of the Heartless became limp. Then it fell apart, the pieces clattering on the ground and disappearing in a puff of smoke. Riku watched it vanish before directing his gaze down the corridor. There was still no sign of the Unknown. He wondered what that meant. Enigma had said that they were sensitive to any foreign presences within the World in Between.
Continuing his trek, Riku searched for the specific emblem, but he saw no sign of it. He let out a frustrated sigh and stopped, feeling his feet beginning to ache. He held up a keyblade, glancing over his shoulder as he heard whispering. It was quiet and barely audible, but in the near silence of the World in Between, he could hear it clearly.
"Who's there?" he demanded.
Of course, as he'd expected, there was no answer. He wondered if it was the Unknown, but did they even talk? He couldn't recall ever hearing them say anything, save from Enigma, who was an exception. Then again, he'd never made much contact with them, not that he wanted to anyway considering how last time he had run into them they'd tried to kill him.
He resumed walking after he felt that he'd rested enough. His arms were starting to ache from having to constantly carry the keyblades and be at ready for any sort of surprise attack. He considered making the weapons disappear, but decided against it. In a battle, every little second counted, and to waste a precious few just to conjure his weapons seemed too much like a tactical error to him. Riku rounded a corner and stopped, hearing the voices again. This time it was louder, but still indiscernible. He turned around, seeing nothing, and the voices began fading.
"Okay… I have gone crazy," Riku muttered. It still surprised him how he could maintain a façade of sanity considering all of these surprise visits from talking illusions and whispering voices.
Ahead, he saw a figure jumping and waving at him. Riku smirked. "Speak of the devil," he muttered as he began jogging towards the illusionary Sora.
The boy didn't wait for him, but began running. Riku chased after him, wondering what his mind was trying to tell him. He turned around a corner, running straight into a legion of Shadows. He tensed, his smile disappearing, and his grip on his keyblades tightened. The Shadows all turned to face him, staring at him with their large yellow eyes. Riku saw them blink in unison at him, bobbing up in down in their places. He turned, hearing the shuffling of footsteps, and saw another legion of Heartless down the corridor he'd just come from. It was a black carpet of monsters stretching from one end of the corridor to the other, all staring at him, and here he was, trapped in a corner.
A high-pitched squeal nearly made Riku bring his hands up to his ears. He winced as the squealing spread from one Heartless to the next until the entire room was exploding in a cacophony of shattering noise that made Riku drop his keyblades and press himself against the walls. The noise rose to an even higher pitch, and the boy slid to the ground, his knees touching his chest as he brought his hands up to cover his ears.
"Stop it…" His voice was lost in the screeching, and he raised his gaze to glare at the shadows. "Stop it! STOP IT! STOP IT!!!"
And they stopped.
Riku blinked and found the Heartless all staring at him.Scrambling onto his hands and knees, he reached for his keyblades and shot up. A burst of light from down the corridor caught Riku's attention. He whirled around, his heart racing as he spotted the hooded Unknown swipe at one of the shadows with its glowing blue hands, knocking it aside. The rest of the shadows surged forward like a black tidal wave. They surrounded the Unknown.
The Unknown fought as hard as it could, but one against a crowd of millions had no chance. A blazing portal opened behind it, and the hooded warrior jumped backwards, leaving the area. The Heartless, once a sea of fury, calmed and faced Riku again.
The boy realized that they were staring at him because they were expecting something, expecting orders, expecting orders from him. It came to him, and suddenly everything became clear. He glowered atthe creatures.
"I'm not him!" he snapped. The shadows only blinked in response. "Can't you see? I'm not Ansem!"
One of the Heartless went to its knees, lowering its head until its forehead touched the floor. The one beside it followed suit, as did the one next to it, and suddenly all of the Heartless were beginning to prostrate themselves.
"Why did you lead me here?" Riku apostrophized to the illusion, staring up at the ceiling.
He supposed having a sea of Shadows protecting him from the Unknown wouldn't be too bad, but the fact that they were following him because he reminded them of their former master didn't settle too well with Riku. It was too much of bad reminder of how he'd stupidly let Ansem take control of his body.
Stepping up to one of the Heartless, he stared at it. "Move," he commanded. It moved, as did the rest of the Heartless behind it, opening a new path. He stepped forward onto the path and walked away. He glanced momentarily behind him to see that the path was closing and the Heartless were beginning to follow him. Once he had cleared the path, he took off in a run, turning around one corner and running around the next. The Heartless squealed in unison and chased after him. Riku sighed and slowed, coming to a stop. The Heartless stopped as well, and he turned to face them.
The sight of so many creatures all gathered together to follow his commands was just too disturbing. His fight or flight reflex threatened to take control every time one of the shadows stepped too close to him or made any sort of sudden movements. Luckily for these creatures, they seemed wise enough to just stay where they were.
Riku bit down on his lip as he considered what to do with them. Finally he pointed at a Heartless to his right. "You," he said. It brought its head up, staring at him blankly. "I want you to lead me to where I want to go."
It squeaked and bobbed its head. Riku stared at it with narrowed eyes. "You do know where I want to go, right?"
The creature gave an affirmative squeak and began running forward, leading him down the corridor. Riku watched it run, and it stopped at the edge of the corridor, staring at him, waiting. Riku sighed and walked towards it, the rest of the Heartless following.
The corridor had been left as it was when Riku had last been in it. The scorch marks were still there, though the presence of the Unknown was gone. Enigma placed a hand against the door both he and Kairi had stepped through and took Kairi's hand with his free one. She stared at him in surprise.
"It's to shield your presence," Enigma explained. "There are a lot of… beings here, much like me, who destroy any who enter this world."
"Oh…" Kairi seemed a bit disappointed.
Glancing down the corridor, he saw it empty and wondered how long it'd take before the Unknown would come back to repair the damages that'd been done. Stepping away from the door, he pulled Kairi along. He felt her jump as the door slammed shut.
After calming herself, the girl glanced up at him. "Where should we start first?"
"There," Enigma answered, pointing at the door directly opposite from them. "This was where I'd made my mistake and ended up on Destiny Islands. I'd tracked Riku this far and surmised that he could have taken the door we just came through or that door."
Kairi stared at the unfamiliar emblem on the door and stepped forward, tugging Enigma along with her. She crouched, tracing her finger along the glowing carving. "Where would we go?"
Enigma shrugged. "I don't have a clue," he replied.
Grinning at him, Kairi reached forward, opening the door. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
She was ready to dash forward when Enigma's grip on her hand tightened. "Wait," he told her. She stopped at the doorframe.
"What?"
"It's going to be a very long drop," Enigma told her. He gestured at the door behind them. "Remember how you found me? When you saw me dropping from the sky?"
Kairi nodded, her eyes squinting as the memory replayed in her mind. "Yeah… you were dropping pretty fast…"
Enigma nodded. "Yes well, if it weren't for the fact that there was an ocean to stop my fall, then I'd probably have crashed and broken quite a few bones." He paused, recalling the person they were looking for. "Which makes me worry about Riku's condition… but still, I don't think even if I used an aeroga spell that you would be able to handle the speed and the fall."
Pursing her lips, Kairi raised an eyebrow at him. "Then what do we do now?"
"This," Enigma replied, holding out a hand. The Kingdom Key formed in it. Bringing the key up, it flashed with energy, and Enigma swiped the air. There was a sound of a fragile object being torn apart, and Kairi jumped back at the tear that'd just appeared. She reached forward, placing her hand into it and watching her fingers up to her wrist disappear inside it.
"Whoa…" she murmured as she pulled her hand out.
Enigma smiled at her and threw the Kingdom Key into the air, watching it disappear before turning to face her. "Yeah, I guess it looks amazing," he admitted. "I had the same reaction when I first saw it."
"What is it?" Kairi asked.
"A rift," Enigma said. "I just ripped a tear into the barriers of this world and created a short cut into the next world. A crude form of travelling, but it still works."
Holding a hand towards the tear, Kairi stared up at him. "Shall we go?" she asked, mocking his formal tone. Enigma smirked and nodded.
"Indeed we shall," he replied, grabbing Kairi by the shoulders and shoving her forward. She yelped, her grip on his hand tightening as she dragged him forward.
They passed through momentary darkness before the world became bright again. Both Kairi and Enigma glanced around them, seeing the floating rock platforms and the clear surface beneath them. Kairi tapped her foot on the "ground" and jumped back. She looked a bit disappointed when she didn't fall through the surface.
"Enchanted water?" she asked.
Enigma slid one foot against the ground. "Worlds work in strange ways."
There were waterfalls all around them. Kairi enjoyed the serenity of the place and smiled as she clasped her hands together. "I wonder where we are."
"I guess if we move to higher ground, we'll find out," Enigma suggested, pointing towards one of the rock platforms.
Kairi stared up and frowned. "How in the world are we going to get up ther--" She screamed as she felt Enigma wrap his arms around her, scooping her into his arms. Bending his knees, he jumped, shooting from the ground and into the air. Kairi screamed even louder as they went higher and higher, the air suddenly becoming much cooler, and she thought she could almost reach out and touch the clouds.
A bird soared past them, and Kairi stopped her screaming to watch it with interest, and…
…they fell.
They went down faster than they'd climbed up, and Kairi held onto Enigma as if it were the end of the world, which it would be for her if they didn't slow down sometime soon. She squeezed her eyes shut, letting out a loud yelp.
Kairi felt herself being bounced into the air and glanced down, seeing Enigma slow, floating a few feet above the ground before he slowly descended. Around them a shield of dust whirled, forming a protective bubble. She realized that Enigma had cast an aeroga spell right at the last minute. He bent over, letting her steady herself on her own two feet. She placed a hand on her forehead, waiting for the dizziness to pass before whirling about and smacking a hand on Enigma's chest.
He blinked at her. "Ow." He rubbed a hand against the spot she'd hit. "What was that for?"
"I nearly died up there!" she exclaimed. "How about next time you do something like that you give me some warning?"
Smirking at her, Enigma held up his hands in mock surrender. "My apologies, Princess."
Folding her arms over her chest, Kairi shook her head and raised an eyebrow. "Very well, Engima, I forgive you." She stuck out her tongue at him.
Enigma snorted and came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She tensed slightly, and Enigma leaned forward, his mouth near her ear. She closed her eyes, smiling at the closeness. It was like being with Sora again, back in Hollow Bastion, when they'd hugged for the first time.
"I'm here," Engima said softly. His hold around her waist tightened. "Trust me."
Sora… Kairi placed her hands over his. "I trust you."
With that, Enigma launched the two up again.
Awww... that's so sweet, a little bit of romance for ya guys. Of course things are just gonna start going downhill for Kairi when and if Sora shows up. Heh, I guess Me-chan's influence is getting to me. ::shakes fist at her beta reader:: Seriously though I hope you guys are reading her fic, Reverse Side of Darkness. A REALLY good fic.
Notes on the chapter itself? Well it's shorter than what I usually come up with, but I guess because this really is a bit of a filler before we get into the good stuff. Oh, and I suppose I should address the issue about the Final Fantasy characters...
I don't think I explained it very well in the previous chapter, obviously because the last A/N was written at 2 am in the morning and tagged on at the last minute, just as this one is going under the same process... but unlike last time I'm gonna be a little more careful. Anyway, the Final Fantasy characters here are obviously different from the FF characters that we're used to in the FF series... one big factor... Aerith's not dead! Whoops... I suppose I spoiled the biggest yet well known spoiler of FFVII for ya guys. Anyway, Aerith, Cloud, Squall, Rinoa et all have a different background and history... just as they did in Kingdom Hearts. The thing I've noticed in most KH stories is that most people like to believe that they ARE the same characters... and maybe they are, who knows, but for the sake of a plot bunny... that's not the case here.
Now on with the usual stuff such as...
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Chibigenius: Sorry about the little assumption, I guess if you really are confused about something FF-ish, you could always just email me about it, but ah well. And I'm sorta disappointed, I expected flames. And sheesh... you pick up on everything. Yes, I didn't like how Cloud and Aerith's room was described too but left the paragraph there for the sake of having a crappy intro.
Koorino Megumi: Oooh yay! I made a cinematic battle. ^_^ Aerith's pregnancy... well I always thought she'd make a good mommy and Cloud would have been such a cute dad... too... ::sobs... then glares at Sephiroth::
Victorious Light: I didn't think this was really a big cliff hanger... but I suppose with how I left things off, yeah... heh... my apologies, but at least it has you on the edge of your seat.
Zelphie: Er... well in the past week I've noticed you going to almost EVERY fic in the KH fandom and making the same request. Chances are that you're probably not even going to be reading this, but I'm not really impressed at how you're advertising someone else's fic in my review section. I'm really not impressed at how you've been spamming like this. ::shakes head
Refugee: Cloud, Sephiroth and Aerith's story will be explained ten chapters from now with the way things are going, O_O but this IS a KH fic after all, so Riku and Kairi and the others really take priority of the FF characters, but coming up with the little plot for the said trio makes this fic all the more enjoyable to write.
Water Goddess: LOL!! Well I'm glad Cloud's sacrifice made somewhat of an impact on someone. *GRINS*
Cynthia Chen: Ah! Sorry!! LOL!! Sephiroth was just begging me to kill off Aerith, but Cloud... well you read the chapter. Lemme tell ya one thing though, no one else is impressed with Sephy's actions either and whether or not he'll be paying for it... well... we'll see. Heh.