AN: Yay! Next chapter is finally here! Wow, I'm a speed demon :P I've already made a new ficcy AND added a chapter to this one! Well, that's what I do seeing as there is nothing else to do in my currently deserted house XD
Disclaimers: Yea, you know the drill, I don't own anything, not even Mariha really, I just 'supervise' her. *thinking: for some reasons I'm hearing fait laughter...*
Truth Revealed
"What Riku?" said Mariha as Riku woke suddenly.
He began to sit up but realized that tears were in his eyes. He lay down and turned to wipe them away without Mariha seeing.
"Nothing," he lied, "It was just a dream."
"More like a nightmare," she said coming over to him from where she was watching on her blanket. Riku sat up but kept his back to her.
"Are you sure you ok?" she asked and put a hand on his shoulder. Riku looked at Mariha's hand then looked up at her face. She had a worried look but when he looked at her she smiled a bit. He looked forward, Mariha still at his back, and stood up. Her hand fell from it's resting place on his shoulder.
"I'm fine," he said firmly, "And even if I wasn't, I can handle it." He began to walk away.
"Riku..." she said but Mariha didn't get up to follow.
"I can take care of myself!"
With that, Riku broke into a run. Mariha just sat there, watching him disappear from view. Why do you run? she though.
He kept running blindly, head down, not really caring if he got lost. But, he tripped on something and fell forward. He didn't get back up. Tears came back to him. How long it had been since he last cried, so now he made up for all those unused tears.
How could he do it? He just needed to hop in and grab her, the boat was right there. He could've saved her, he new he could've. But he didn't. What if that never happened, a part of him though, What if it was really just a dream?
No, it was real. He knew it was. He could feel it. He knew that all those other dreams were real because of that feeling, and that same feeling was defiantly present during that one. He knew without a doubt, that night, he lost his best friend forever.
"Running away again?"
Riku sprang to his feet at the sudden sound of someone else's voice. He looked around him, but no one was there.
"Afraid of your problems?"
Riku looked harder. Nothing was here, but the voice seemed to come from all directions.
"Running will get you no where."
Then Riku realized it. The voice was coming from inside his head. It was his voice. He immediately knew who it was. It was the evil inside him speaking. Suddenly, as if it had sensed his understanding, a ghost-like image of him, Riku, appeared, wearing the clothing he had gotten when he joined the darkness.
"Stop running," it said, now from the figure, not inside his mind.
"You're not real," Riku said immediately.
"Am I?"
"What do you want?"
The ghost smiled, an evil mocking grin, "For you to wake up!" it said, "For you to stop holding me back and set me free."
"Never," spat Riku, "It's because of you that I'm here, that Sora and Kairi hate me."
His own words startled him but they made the evil ghost smile even wider.
"Ahh yes," it said, walking around Riku in circles, never loosing eye contact, "Kairi and Sora, I wonder what there doing right now, safe and sound together on their island."
"Stop it," whispered Riku. He didn't need to hear this.
"Yes," continued the ghost, ignoring Riku's comment, "I bet there living happily ever after, and it's all thanks to us."
"Stop it," said Riku a little louder.
"Know what?" said Riku's evil self, now glaring at him with his own sea green eyes, "It's thanks to me that you finally got off that accursed island. Thanks to me that you got Kairi. You would've won if you didn't hold me back at that last moment. You would've won Kairi and ruled all worlds!"
"I said stop it!" Riku said.
"But no," it continued, "Now, because you locked me away, were stuck in this place and Sora has Kairi. Don't deny it, I know you still love her. You should've kept me free and right now she would be with you, and you'd be back on your pathetic island. Now, join the darkness once again and we shall become all powerful! Come now, you need me."
"Stop!" yelled Riku, he'd had enough of this, "I don't need you, I've never needed you, and I never will."
The furious look on his counter parts face gave him a sense of triumph, so he continued.
"It's always the same, try to bribe the clueless with promises of power. Well I've been there done that, and I sure as hell don't want to do it again," he said as the ghosts face seemed to flush red with anger, "So you might as well climb into that dark empty hole where you sad existence came from."
The ghost looked like he was going to smack Riku right in the face, but used up all it's energy to stop itself. Riku smiled triumphantly, but it faded when the corner of the ghost's mouth twitched. It began to laugh, to itself at first, but it soon turned into a howling roar.
"You foolish boy!" is cackled, "You will come back to the darkness, it is you destiny! I'm a part of you. I can see into your mind, into you fears."
"You're lying," said Riku, though his confidence had shattered. The ghost only smiled.
"Oh?" is said mockingly, "Then how would I know about Naomi?"
Riku froze. Hardly daring to breath.
"That's right, I know what you did," said the ghost, now the one brimming with triumph, "Out on the water, a storm, then a tragic loss."
The came up behind Riku who stood completely still, every muscle tensed, and whispered into his ear, "You could have saved her if I where there to help you. But now, she's dead, and it's all you fault."
Riku was completely stunned. He couldn't think straight. He couldn't move. And the worst part was, that it was true.
"You sat back and watched as she screamed in terror for you to save her. And you did nothing. You watched as the water swallowed her up. After all, don't you like watching people suffer? You killed her, and you enjoyed it."
"No..." cried Riku, his voice was all shaky, "That's not true..."
"Murderer!"
"No!" Riku fell to his knees and covered his ears with his hands. He didn't want to hear it. He couldn't stand it.
"You did! Now, come to the darkness and be forgiven."
Riku's choking sobs was the only sound made. Then, though had to tell at first, his coughing turned into laughter. "You think you can win me over by guilt? I am guilty, but I'll never join you. Keeps your weak darkness!"
The ghost gave Riku a look of pity.
"That's really too bad," it said, "Then if you won't join, she will."
Riku's evil ghost laughed loudly and mockingly, the same laugh that taunted him in his dream. The ghost disappeared but the laughter still rung through Riku's head. He tensed again.
"Mariha."
Riku darted toward the camp, hoping that he wouldn't be too late. All he could do was hope that he was going in the right direction, tear streaks still staining his face.
~*~
Simba was right. The hyenas were stronger then they looked. Sora, Simba, Donald and Goofy were trying to get past a wall of hyenas so they could go into the Elephant Graveyard. There were almost through. One more left. It's charged at Sora who had his back turned.
"Look out!"
Simba took a swipe at the last hyena with one great and powerful paw and it fell to the ground.
"Thanks," said Sora. Simba nodded, "Let's go."
The gang walked toward the cave deep in the graveyard. It had been around three days, fighting off hyenas from different places. The canyon, grazing fields; all so the game would come back. Finally, Simba guessed that the evil of the world was coming from Simba's uncle, Scar's, old lair.
"I'm ready for this," Sora said to himself as the others walked in before him.
"Hurry up Sora!" yelled Donald.
"Coming!" he called back and followed everyone in.
~*~
Mariha was stretching back at camp. Giving her stiff muscles something to do.
"One, two. One, two," she counted as she stood, feet apart, and touched her toes with the opposite hand. I wonder why Riku was so upset, she thought and stretched her arms behind, then in front of her, He'll be alright, seems like he can take care of himself, like he said.
Then, she heard something in the distance. She stopped her stretching and looked in the direction of the sound.
"Mariha!" It was Riku and he was running toward her. She waved at him.
"There you are!" she yelled to him, "I've been wondering where you -"
Suddenly, something grabbed her from behind. It was the evil ghost of Riku.
"Mariha!" yelled Riku again, getting closer.
"Riku!" Mariha held out her hand as the evil being pulled her into a wall of darkness that appeared behind them.
Riku was so close. He went to grab Mariha's hand. He was just about to grasp it when she was pulled back and vanished into the darkness. As she disappeared, he heard the faintest call for him.
"Riku..."
The black wall that looked more like a black hole disintegrated. He was too late, hey got her.
"Damn!" he yelled in fury. He fell to his knees and punched the ground with his fist. He let them take her. He couldn't save her. Just like he couldn't save Naomi.
"No," he said aloud. This time, he wouldn't give up on a friend like he had so many times before. No, he was going to find Mariha, and bring her back.
When Mariha woke her head ached.
"Oww," she said putting a hand on her head, "Feels like I got run over or something..."
She rubbed her aching head. Then, she looked around her. She was in darkness. There didn't seem to be any walls, any roof, any floor just endless black darkness. She began to remember what had happened to her. She remembered seeing Riku run to her then, she blacked out. She looked around again. She didn't know where she was, but she wasn't afraid, she was never afraid.
"I hope Riku's ok," she said to herself, not knowing exactly what to do in this endless abyss.
"No you don't," said a voice causing Mariha to jump to her feet.
"Huh?" Mariha looked around but saw nothing, "Who's there?"
"You should know," the voice said and out of the darkness stepped Riku. Even though the darkness was surrounding them, Mariha could see him as plain as day. And it was Riku, she was sure of it, but he was wearing strange clothes.
"Riku?" she said, astonished and surprised.
Riku smiled. "Yes, it's me."
"Riku, where are we?" asked Mariha. Then something caught the corner of her eye. There, he was wearing the symbol of the heartless, a heart shape with a red thorny X through its blackness.
Mariha glared at Riku and he smiled slyly.
"You're not Riku!" she shouted at him, drawing her glistening sword and pointing it to his chest, "You're a heartless! What'd you do with the real Riku?"
He just laughed. "What do you mean?" he said, "I am the real Riku."
"No you're not!" shot back Mariha, "Riku would never wear the crest of the heartless."
She gripped her sword tight and raised it to point at his throat.
"Put that away," Riku said and her sword was wrenched from her hand by some invisible force. It hovered just out of her reached and she watched in horror as it shattered into a million pieces before her eyes, until it was noting but tiny sparkling shards of metal.
Riku walked up, closer to Mariha before she recovered from her surprise. He brought his face right up to hers.
"Now, look me in the eye," he said, "And then tell me that I'm not Riku."
Mariha stared into them. He was so close, she felt like she had plunged into the sea itself. But deep within them, if have her that feeling she got whenever she looked into Riku's mystifying eyes. This person was indeed Riku.
"No," she said in a shaky voice, she didn't want it to be true, "It's can't be."
Riku chuckled, "See, I'm no liar."
"Then why have you brought me here?" asked Mariha, trying to keep her voice steady.
Riku leaned closer to her and she could move away. It was as if her feet had been glued to the unseen floor.
"To show you what I really am," he whispered into her ear.
Mariha pushed him away.
"What do you mean?" she demanded, "Why couldn't you have just told me at the camp? No one else is trapped like us if you hadn't noticed."
"Because," replied Riku, "He would try and stop me."
"Who?"
"The other me," answered Riku, "The one that you have become friends with."
"Why would he try and stop you?" Mariha asked with a puzzled expression.
"Because he's trying to confuse you," Riku explained, "He's trying to earn your trust, then he'll turn on you."
"Come on! Riku wouldn't do that."
"How do you know," said Riku, "How would you know if he'd been tricking you all this time?"
"I don't believe you," replied Mariha simply.
There was a pause then Riku jumped at her and grabbed her shoulders.
"You will believe, once I've shown you what he's done," he said, eyes burning, "Once you understand how much evil really is in him."
Mariha kept a straight face, "You're mad. And how do I know that you're not the one lying?"
"You won't," replied Riku, "Until you ask him yourself."
Suddenly, the darkness and Riku vanished. Mariha found herself standing on an island in the middle of the night.
"Where am I?" she said.
"Just watch," came the voice of Riku, though he was nowhere to be seen, "I'm giving you a vision of what happened before you met him."
Then Mariha saw a boy run across a wooden bridge. Shocked, Mariha saw that the boy was running toward Riku.
"Riku!" he called.
"The door has opened..." Riku said quietly, his back to the boy.
"What?"
"The door has opened Sora!" said Riku louder, "Now we can go to other worlds. Once we step through, we may not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. But we can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!" He turned to face the boy.
"What are you talking about!" cried the other boy, "We have to find Kairi!"
"Kairi's coming with us!" snapped Riku. Then, he held out his hand for the boy to take, but he hesitated.
"Riku..." he said. But darkness began to swallow up Riku. The boy went for his hand but saw his feet being engulfed as well. He reached, but Riku disappeared into the dark before he could catch his hand.
Then the scene changed. Mariha was now on a boat of some sort, no, it was a pirate ship! Riku and a tall woman robed in black were standing in the Captain's cabin. The woman was holding a staff with a green orb on the top. It was no doubt that she was a witch.
"Now my boy," she said in a high crackling voice, "I have you a great gift. The gift to control the heartless!"
A green essence flowed around Riku.
No! Mariha screamed in her head, No, how could you! She was frozen with shock but somehow managed to follow them outside onto the deck.
There, surrounded by pirates was the boy Riku had called Sora.
"Riku, don't be a fool!" he yelled, "The darkness will eat away at your heart!"
"Silence!" commanded Riku. He was wearing those clothes with the crest of the heartless upon them, "My heart is too strong. But I've learned some new tricks since we last met."
Mariha didn't want to watch. How could he, Riku, how could he have come to join the darkness and even have control over the accursed heartless she resented so. But her eyes were kept open; he was making her watch. Riku raised his hand in the air and up popped a shadow heartless, only that this one looked exactly like Sora only it was completely black and had to glowing yellow eyes.
Finally, Mariha found herself back with Riku in the darkness.
That -that couldn't have happened," she said though she didn't believe the words herself.
"You know it did."
"Who was that boy Sora anyway?" she asked, hoping that it was all just a misunderstanding.
"That was Riku's best friend, from Destiny Islands."
"No! I can't be..." said Mariha now clutching her throbbing head. This was too much for her to take in all at once. She couldn't stand it.
"You still don't believe? Then maybe you haven't seen enough."
Mariha had seen enough. She had seen too much. She didn't want to see anything else but before she could stop him, she was in another vision.
She was in a great hall. On a platform, she could see Riku and Sora in front of a giant symbol of the heartless, minus the X, that had swirls of multi-colours shifting within it. It was almost hypnotizing but her attention was forced onto the to boys, no doubt by Riku again.
Riku was holding a big Key thing, much like the on Sora was carrying, only this one was black and blood red with a dangerously sharp needle point on the end. Riku pointed it to Sora and something flashed on his chest. He fell to his knees and grunted in pain.
"Don't you see?" said Riku, coming closer to him, "The princesses heart is responding."
"Kairi... Kairi's inside of me?" Sora panted clutching his chest.
"I need that heart to open the door to darkness, so I may rule all worlds!" Riku's words stung Mariha's ears and she covered them, trying to block it out. But they were already etched into her mind.
Mariha watched in horror again as Riku brought up his dark weapon and brought it down onto Sora. But before Mariha could see the outcome, she was back in the darkness. She was on her knees, hands still clutched to her head and she was shaking all over. Her face was sweaty and pale, her eyes blank.
"I'm sorry," Riku said to break the uncomfortable silence, waking Mariha up into awareness again, "But you need to know the truth."
She didn't know what to do. The only person she had ever become friends with was a crazed darkness loving heartless controller. It was so hard to believe when she thought she knew him so well.
"I -I can't b-believe that's true," she said weakly, still shaking, "How can it be?"
"Well," started Riku casually, "Have you ever noticed that your so called 'friend' failed to tell this all to you? There's a reason for that of course, that he didn't want to lose you trust."
Mariha closed her eyes. He was right. Riku never did tell her these things. So was it all just a lie? Was everything he said a lie?
"What should I do?" she said, to no one really but Riku answered her anyway.
"Come with me," he said and smiled, "I'll help you."
He stood over Mariha, holding out his hand for her to take. She hesitated for a moment, then anger arose toward the Riku she had though she hand known. She took his hand.
"Mariha!" he called, "Mariha where are you?"
Riku ran through that forest where Mariha went everyday. He knew she wasn't there but some instinct told him to call out anyway.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Huh? What's going on, thought Riku. Then he saw it. A big castle had lifted from its foundation and was now floating through the black sky. But where had it come from? Surly he would have noticed it before. But it didn't matter right now.
"I'll bet Mariha's in there," he said and ran toward it.
What's with the evil villains always having a big castle to hide out in anyway? He though.
AN: Aww! I'm so evil! Heh heh, but now we're finally getting into some sort of plot... no not really but don't fret! I've already got this all written down in my note book and I just need to type it all out. It's gets better, I promise =^.^= R&R!
Disclaimers: Yea, you know the drill, I don't own anything, not even Mariha really, I just 'supervise' her. *thinking: for some reasons I'm hearing fait laughter...*
Truth Revealed
"What Riku?" said Mariha as Riku woke suddenly.
He began to sit up but realized that tears were in his eyes. He lay down and turned to wipe them away without Mariha seeing.
"Nothing," he lied, "It was just a dream."
"More like a nightmare," she said coming over to him from where she was watching on her blanket. Riku sat up but kept his back to her.
"Are you sure you ok?" she asked and put a hand on his shoulder. Riku looked at Mariha's hand then looked up at her face. She had a worried look but when he looked at her she smiled a bit. He looked forward, Mariha still at his back, and stood up. Her hand fell from it's resting place on his shoulder.
"I'm fine," he said firmly, "And even if I wasn't, I can handle it." He began to walk away.
"Riku..." she said but Mariha didn't get up to follow.
"I can take care of myself!"
With that, Riku broke into a run. Mariha just sat there, watching him disappear from view. Why do you run? she though.
He kept running blindly, head down, not really caring if he got lost. But, he tripped on something and fell forward. He didn't get back up. Tears came back to him. How long it had been since he last cried, so now he made up for all those unused tears.
How could he do it? He just needed to hop in and grab her, the boat was right there. He could've saved her, he new he could've. But he didn't. What if that never happened, a part of him though, What if it was really just a dream?
No, it was real. He knew it was. He could feel it. He knew that all those other dreams were real because of that feeling, and that same feeling was defiantly present during that one. He knew without a doubt, that night, he lost his best friend forever.
"Running away again?"
Riku sprang to his feet at the sudden sound of someone else's voice. He looked around him, but no one was there.
"Afraid of your problems?"
Riku looked harder. Nothing was here, but the voice seemed to come from all directions.
"Running will get you no where."
Then Riku realized it. The voice was coming from inside his head. It was his voice. He immediately knew who it was. It was the evil inside him speaking. Suddenly, as if it had sensed his understanding, a ghost-like image of him, Riku, appeared, wearing the clothing he had gotten when he joined the darkness.
"Stop running," it said, now from the figure, not inside his mind.
"You're not real," Riku said immediately.
"Am I?"
"What do you want?"
The ghost smiled, an evil mocking grin, "For you to wake up!" it said, "For you to stop holding me back and set me free."
"Never," spat Riku, "It's because of you that I'm here, that Sora and Kairi hate me."
His own words startled him but they made the evil ghost smile even wider.
"Ahh yes," it said, walking around Riku in circles, never loosing eye contact, "Kairi and Sora, I wonder what there doing right now, safe and sound together on their island."
"Stop it," whispered Riku. He didn't need to hear this.
"Yes," continued the ghost, ignoring Riku's comment, "I bet there living happily ever after, and it's all thanks to us."
"Stop it," said Riku a little louder.
"Know what?" said Riku's evil self, now glaring at him with his own sea green eyes, "It's thanks to me that you finally got off that accursed island. Thanks to me that you got Kairi. You would've won if you didn't hold me back at that last moment. You would've won Kairi and ruled all worlds!"
"I said stop it!" Riku said.
"But no," it continued, "Now, because you locked me away, were stuck in this place and Sora has Kairi. Don't deny it, I know you still love her. You should've kept me free and right now she would be with you, and you'd be back on your pathetic island. Now, join the darkness once again and we shall become all powerful! Come now, you need me."
"Stop!" yelled Riku, he'd had enough of this, "I don't need you, I've never needed you, and I never will."
The furious look on his counter parts face gave him a sense of triumph, so he continued.
"It's always the same, try to bribe the clueless with promises of power. Well I've been there done that, and I sure as hell don't want to do it again," he said as the ghosts face seemed to flush red with anger, "So you might as well climb into that dark empty hole where you sad existence came from."
The ghost looked like he was going to smack Riku right in the face, but used up all it's energy to stop itself. Riku smiled triumphantly, but it faded when the corner of the ghost's mouth twitched. It began to laugh, to itself at first, but it soon turned into a howling roar.
"You foolish boy!" is cackled, "You will come back to the darkness, it is you destiny! I'm a part of you. I can see into your mind, into you fears."
"You're lying," said Riku, though his confidence had shattered. The ghost only smiled.
"Oh?" is said mockingly, "Then how would I know about Naomi?"
Riku froze. Hardly daring to breath.
"That's right, I know what you did," said the ghost, now the one brimming with triumph, "Out on the water, a storm, then a tragic loss."
The came up behind Riku who stood completely still, every muscle tensed, and whispered into his ear, "You could have saved her if I where there to help you. But now, she's dead, and it's all you fault."
Riku was completely stunned. He couldn't think straight. He couldn't move. And the worst part was, that it was true.
"You sat back and watched as she screamed in terror for you to save her. And you did nothing. You watched as the water swallowed her up. After all, don't you like watching people suffer? You killed her, and you enjoyed it."
"No..." cried Riku, his voice was all shaky, "That's not true..."
"Murderer!"
"No!" Riku fell to his knees and covered his ears with his hands. He didn't want to hear it. He couldn't stand it.
"You did! Now, come to the darkness and be forgiven."
Riku's choking sobs was the only sound made. Then, though had to tell at first, his coughing turned into laughter. "You think you can win me over by guilt? I am guilty, but I'll never join you. Keeps your weak darkness!"
The ghost gave Riku a look of pity.
"That's really too bad," it said, "Then if you won't join, she will."
Riku's evil ghost laughed loudly and mockingly, the same laugh that taunted him in his dream. The ghost disappeared but the laughter still rung through Riku's head. He tensed again.
"Mariha."
Riku darted toward the camp, hoping that he wouldn't be too late. All he could do was hope that he was going in the right direction, tear streaks still staining his face.
~*~
Simba was right. The hyenas were stronger then they looked. Sora, Simba, Donald and Goofy were trying to get past a wall of hyenas so they could go into the Elephant Graveyard. There were almost through. One more left. It's charged at Sora who had his back turned.
"Look out!"
Simba took a swipe at the last hyena with one great and powerful paw and it fell to the ground.
"Thanks," said Sora. Simba nodded, "Let's go."
The gang walked toward the cave deep in the graveyard. It had been around three days, fighting off hyenas from different places. The canyon, grazing fields; all so the game would come back. Finally, Simba guessed that the evil of the world was coming from Simba's uncle, Scar's, old lair.
"I'm ready for this," Sora said to himself as the others walked in before him.
"Hurry up Sora!" yelled Donald.
"Coming!" he called back and followed everyone in.
~*~
Mariha was stretching back at camp. Giving her stiff muscles something to do.
"One, two. One, two," she counted as she stood, feet apart, and touched her toes with the opposite hand. I wonder why Riku was so upset, she thought and stretched her arms behind, then in front of her, He'll be alright, seems like he can take care of himself, like he said.
Then, she heard something in the distance. She stopped her stretching and looked in the direction of the sound.
"Mariha!" It was Riku and he was running toward her. She waved at him.
"There you are!" she yelled to him, "I've been wondering where you -"
Suddenly, something grabbed her from behind. It was the evil ghost of Riku.
"Mariha!" yelled Riku again, getting closer.
"Riku!" Mariha held out her hand as the evil being pulled her into a wall of darkness that appeared behind them.
Riku was so close. He went to grab Mariha's hand. He was just about to grasp it when she was pulled back and vanished into the darkness. As she disappeared, he heard the faintest call for him.
"Riku..."
The black wall that looked more like a black hole disintegrated. He was too late, hey got her.
"Damn!" he yelled in fury. He fell to his knees and punched the ground with his fist. He let them take her. He couldn't save her. Just like he couldn't save Naomi.
"No," he said aloud. This time, he wouldn't give up on a friend like he had so many times before. No, he was going to find Mariha, and bring her back.
When Mariha woke her head ached.
"Oww," she said putting a hand on her head, "Feels like I got run over or something..."
She rubbed her aching head. Then, she looked around her. She was in darkness. There didn't seem to be any walls, any roof, any floor just endless black darkness. She began to remember what had happened to her. She remembered seeing Riku run to her then, she blacked out. She looked around again. She didn't know where she was, but she wasn't afraid, she was never afraid.
"I hope Riku's ok," she said to herself, not knowing exactly what to do in this endless abyss.
"No you don't," said a voice causing Mariha to jump to her feet.
"Huh?" Mariha looked around but saw nothing, "Who's there?"
"You should know," the voice said and out of the darkness stepped Riku. Even though the darkness was surrounding them, Mariha could see him as plain as day. And it was Riku, she was sure of it, but he was wearing strange clothes.
"Riku?" she said, astonished and surprised.
Riku smiled. "Yes, it's me."
"Riku, where are we?" asked Mariha. Then something caught the corner of her eye. There, he was wearing the symbol of the heartless, a heart shape with a red thorny X through its blackness.
Mariha glared at Riku and he smiled slyly.
"You're not Riku!" she shouted at him, drawing her glistening sword and pointing it to his chest, "You're a heartless! What'd you do with the real Riku?"
He just laughed. "What do you mean?" he said, "I am the real Riku."
"No you're not!" shot back Mariha, "Riku would never wear the crest of the heartless."
She gripped her sword tight and raised it to point at his throat.
"Put that away," Riku said and her sword was wrenched from her hand by some invisible force. It hovered just out of her reached and she watched in horror as it shattered into a million pieces before her eyes, until it was noting but tiny sparkling shards of metal.
Riku walked up, closer to Mariha before she recovered from her surprise. He brought his face right up to hers.
"Now, look me in the eye," he said, "And then tell me that I'm not Riku."
Mariha stared into them. He was so close, she felt like she had plunged into the sea itself. But deep within them, if have her that feeling she got whenever she looked into Riku's mystifying eyes. This person was indeed Riku.
"No," she said in a shaky voice, she didn't want it to be true, "It's can't be."
Riku chuckled, "See, I'm no liar."
"Then why have you brought me here?" asked Mariha, trying to keep her voice steady.
Riku leaned closer to her and she could move away. It was as if her feet had been glued to the unseen floor.
"To show you what I really am," he whispered into her ear.
Mariha pushed him away.
"What do you mean?" she demanded, "Why couldn't you have just told me at the camp? No one else is trapped like us if you hadn't noticed."
"Because," replied Riku, "He would try and stop me."
"Who?"
"The other me," answered Riku, "The one that you have become friends with."
"Why would he try and stop you?" Mariha asked with a puzzled expression.
"Because he's trying to confuse you," Riku explained, "He's trying to earn your trust, then he'll turn on you."
"Come on! Riku wouldn't do that."
"How do you know," said Riku, "How would you know if he'd been tricking you all this time?"
"I don't believe you," replied Mariha simply.
There was a pause then Riku jumped at her and grabbed her shoulders.
"You will believe, once I've shown you what he's done," he said, eyes burning, "Once you understand how much evil really is in him."
Mariha kept a straight face, "You're mad. And how do I know that you're not the one lying?"
"You won't," replied Riku, "Until you ask him yourself."
Suddenly, the darkness and Riku vanished. Mariha found herself standing on an island in the middle of the night.
"Where am I?" she said.
"Just watch," came the voice of Riku, though he was nowhere to be seen, "I'm giving you a vision of what happened before you met him."
Then Mariha saw a boy run across a wooden bridge. Shocked, Mariha saw that the boy was running toward Riku.
"Riku!" he called.
"The door has opened..." Riku said quietly, his back to the boy.
"What?"
"The door has opened Sora!" said Riku louder, "Now we can go to other worlds. Once we step through, we may not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. But we can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!" He turned to face the boy.
"What are you talking about!" cried the other boy, "We have to find Kairi!"
"Kairi's coming with us!" snapped Riku. Then, he held out his hand for the boy to take, but he hesitated.
"Riku..." he said. But darkness began to swallow up Riku. The boy went for his hand but saw his feet being engulfed as well. He reached, but Riku disappeared into the dark before he could catch his hand.
Then the scene changed. Mariha was now on a boat of some sort, no, it was a pirate ship! Riku and a tall woman robed in black were standing in the Captain's cabin. The woman was holding a staff with a green orb on the top. It was no doubt that she was a witch.
"Now my boy," she said in a high crackling voice, "I have you a great gift. The gift to control the heartless!"
A green essence flowed around Riku.
No! Mariha screamed in her head, No, how could you! She was frozen with shock but somehow managed to follow them outside onto the deck.
There, surrounded by pirates was the boy Riku had called Sora.
"Riku, don't be a fool!" he yelled, "The darkness will eat away at your heart!"
"Silence!" commanded Riku. He was wearing those clothes with the crest of the heartless upon them, "My heart is too strong. But I've learned some new tricks since we last met."
Mariha didn't want to watch. How could he, Riku, how could he have come to join the darkness and even have control over the accursed heartless she resented so. But her eyes were kept open; he was making her watch. Riku raised his hand in the air and up popped a shadow heartless, only that this one looked exactly like Sora only it was completely black and had to glowing yellow eyes.
Finally, Mariha found herself back with Riku in the darkness.
That -that couldn't have happened," she said though she didn't believe the words herself.
"You know it did."
"Who was that boy Sora anyway?" she asked, hoping that it was all just a misunderstanding.
"That was Riku's best friend, from Destiny Islands."
"No! I can't be..." said Mariha now clutching her throbbing head. This was too much for her to take in all at once. She couldn't stand it.
"You still don't believe? Then maybe you haven't seen enough."
Mariha had seen enough. She had seen too much. She didn't want to see anything else but before she could stop him, she was in another vision.
She was in a great hall. On a platform, she could see Riku and Sora in front of a giant symbol of the heartless, minus the X, that had swirls of multi-colours shifting within it. It was almost hypnotizing but her attention was forced onto the to boys, no doubt by Riku again.
Riku was holding a big Key thing, much like the on Sora was carrying, only this one was black and blood red with a dangerously sharp needle point on the end. Riku pointed it to Sora and something flashed on his chest. He fell to his knees and grunted in pain.
"Don't you see?" said Riku, coming closer to him, "The princesses heart is responding."
"Kairi... Kairi's inside of me?" Sora panted clutching his chest.
"I need that heart to open the door to darkness, so I may rule all worlds!" Riku's words stung Mariha's ears and she covered them, trying to block it out. But they were already etched into her mind.
Mariha watched in horror again as Riku brought up his dark weapon and brought it down onto Sora. But before Mariha could see the outcome, she was back in the darkness. She was on her knees, hands still clutched to her head and she was shaking all over. Her face was sweaty and pale, her eyes blank.
"I'm sorry," Riku said to break the uncomfortable silence, waking Mariha up into awareness again, "But you need to know the truth."
She didn't know what to do. The only person she had ever become friends with was a crazed darkness loving heartless controller. It was so hard to believe when she thought she knew him so well.
"I -I can't b-believe that's true," she said weakly, still shaking, "How can it be?"
"Well," started Riku casually, "Have you ever noticed that your so called 'friend' failed to tell this all to you? There's a reason for that of course, that he didn't want to lose you trust."
Mariha closed her eyes. He was right. Riku never did tell her these things. So was it all just a lie? Was everything he said a lie?
"What should I do?" she said, to no one really but Riku answered her anyway.
"Come with me," he said and smiled, "I'll help you."
He stood over Mariha, holding out his hand for her to take. She hesitated for a moment, then anger arose toward the Riku she had though she hand known. She took his hand.
"Mariha!" he called, "Mariha where are you?"
Riku ran through that forest where Mariha went everyday. He knew she wasn't there but some instinct told him to call out anyway.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Huh? What's going on, thought Riku. Then he saw it. A big castle had lifted from its foundation and was now floating through the black sky. But where had it come from? Surly he would have noticed it before. But it didn't matter right now.
"I'll bet Mariha's in there," he said and ran toward it.
What's with the evil villains always having a big castle to hide out in anyway? He though.
AN: Aww! I'm so evil! Heh heh, but now we're finally getting into some sort of plot... no not really but don't fret! I've already got this all written down in my note book and I just need to type it all out. It's gets better, I promise =^.^= R&R!