Author's Notes: Argh. It's been around a month since I posted for this fic last. I tried writing this chapter once before, but it came out bad. Writer's block has hit me hard lately. Also, I've started a new job and recently become addicted to Final Fantasy X, so that hasn't helped. I just hope this chapter turns out better this time around than the first time.
See chapter one for disclaimer and explanation.
Separate Destinies By Annie-chan Chapter Nine: Farewell GiftsIt was quiet today in the Stretch. The breeze was gentle, the weather mild. Occasionally, the call of a bird or an animal was heard.
Riku had just passed his end-of-training trial. Every ylfe youngster, when they turned fifteen, had to go through a series of physical, magical, and mental tests to see if they had taken to their training well. The standards for passing were not set at a specific mark, but calibrated to each ylfe's potential and family history. Most ylfe passed on or around their fifteenth birthday, making fifteen the standard cutoff age for the training period. If they did not pass, however, they would be retested every month until they did.
Riku had passed with flying colors, and the judges from the Court of Reason that had been present had been astounded with how he had handled the mental and magical parts. They had, of course, heard that he was a psychic, but psychics hadn't been heard of in Aerie in their lifetimes, so they hadn't known what to expect.
The physical part of the trial wasn't so easy for him, though he had still passed with little difficulty. Growing up as a human on the Destiny Islands, his speed and strength had been far above that of his peers, but in the One World, they had been average for someone of his age. He had since come further than he had once thought even possible, and he was still just a child. Adult ylfen still seemed almost supernatural to him, and his father was just beyond comprehension. Riku was a little ahead of many ylfen were at fifteen, and it was expected that he would be among the most skilled and powerful. He may even reach his father's level.
At the moment, Sephiroth was sitting down in the grass, still in the area that had been designated for Riku's trial. He, besides Riku, was the only one still around. The boy was on his back a few feet away, complete relaxed, eyes closed. He had lain there to catch his breath, and the warm sun had lulled him into a light doze. His father had settled down near him, content to just let the world pass him by for the time being. Not only was Riku through with training, so was Sephiroth. An ylfe's parents usually shared the responsibility of training their children, but Sephiroth had been Riku's sole parent and thus his sole trainer. Samara, Darius, and Cloud often lent a hand, but it was still mostly Sephiroth's duty. He didn't dislike the daily task of coaching his youngest son, but it did feel good to know that his son had accomplished what was expected of him and they were both finished. Now, Riku would hone and develop his power at his own pace, perhaps taking an outside teacher to help him specialize in something or another.
Sephiroth was proud of his boy. Neither Darius nor Samara had gotten quite so far in their ten-year training period.
"There you are," a voice said from behind him, making him turn. Cloud landed lightly a few feet away and sat down next to him. "Your kids are wondering what you're up to."
Sephiroth shrugged, not answering.
"Well, he has just one more hurdle to go," Cloud said after looking at the catnapping Riku. "All he has between him and official adulthood now is the coming-of-age rite in five years."
Sephiroth nodded. "He will have no difficulty with that, I'm sure," he said. "Since he passed his end-of-training trial as well as he did, the coming-of-age rite will not be much of an obstacle."
"Yeah," Cloud assented. "He's surprised a lot of people. I don't really think there was any malice in it, but people didn't expect him to be very remarkable. I guess they figured that, since he's half-human, he'd be below average for ylfen. Few people expected him to be above average like this."
"I guess so," Sephiroth said. "Neither he nor I took his human blood into account, though. He just kept aiming his highest, and I gave him the necessary training to help him reach his goal."
"Human willpower and determination can be very strong, indeed," Cloud said, "and he's quite the willful and determined young man. Perhaps that helped."
"Perhaps," Sephiroth agreed.
"Being psychic played some role, no doubt," Cloud continued. "He seemed to master so many things in half the time it takes most ylfen his age."
Sephiroth nodded again. "He said that, though neither I nor anyone else could really instruct him in how to utilize psychic powers, it seemed to come to him quickly and naturally. He now has complete control over his empathy and telepathy, and he's pretty good at moving things telekinetically. He sometimes has visions and premonitions that scare him, but he says that Darius, Samara, and I are helpful in dealing with them."
"That's good," Cloud said with a slight smile. "I'd hate to see him suffering from something he has no control over and no one can accurately help him with."
Riku's eyes suddenly popped open, and he gasped. His entire body had stiffened, and he was staring up at the fluffy clouds like they horrified him.
"Riku?" Sephiroth asked, going over to him. He brushed Riku's hair away from his wide, green eyes. "What's wrong, Son?"
"I-I saw something…" Riku said slowly, accepting his father's help in sitting up. He was shaking slightly, and he looked spooked. "It was only a few seconds long, but…"
"What did you see?" his father asked after a few minutes, an arm around his son as support.
"Gravestones," Riku said, his thin eyebrows drawing together. "They said…they…they had Sora and Kairi's names on them!"
Sephiroth and Cloud glanced at each other briefly.
"Do you know if it's from the past or the future?" Cloud asked.
"I-I don't know," Riku replied, still shaking. He suddenly grabbed hold of his father's shirt, pulling himself more upright. "Please, take me to the Destiny Islands!"
Sephiroth sighed and nodded, tightening his hold on his son and casting the needed spell. White light and heat flared up around them, and they vanished from the Stretch.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Y'know, I've never been to the Destiny Islands before," Cloud, who had tagged along, observed aloud.
"Oh, shush," Sephiroth hissed in a near whisper. "This isn't the time for that." They were flying above the city of Fate, Riku in the lead. The youngest of the three didn't seem to care who saw him, so the other two weren't taking the usually necessary precautions, either.
Riku was in too much of a hurry to feel around for Sora and Kairi, and he was also afraid that he would find nothing. He instead made a beeline for where he used to live, the house he had given his two closest friends upon his departure for the One World. After so long, he still remembered exactly where it was.
"Sora!" he called, bursting through the front door. "Kairi!"
He stopped short. There were indeed two people in the living room, but they weren't Sora or Kairi. They were two men who looked like brothers in their thirties or forties, and they jumped up from where they sat at Riku's sudden entrance, surprised.
"Who are you?" The taller of the two men said at almost the same time Riku did. The two strangers look disconcerted at the strange appearance of the three ylfe, especially by their wings and eyes, but they did not show any kind of fear. If they were scared, they were handling it well.
"They look familiar," Cloud said from the doorway.
"That's because, if I'm not mistaken," Sephiroth said, "they're Sora and Kairi's sons. See? They resemble both the mother and the father." He was a few feet behind Riku and a little to his left.
The taller one blinked. "You're right. How do you know our parents?"
"Hoshi," the shorter one said, "look at the one in front. Except for the longer hair and the wing, he fits the description Mom and Dad gave to us perfectly."
"Are you the one called Riku?" Hoshi asked.
"Yes," Riku nodded, though he seemed very agitated.
Hoshi and his brother, whose name was Umi, glanced at each other, and the three ylfe finally noticed that the two of them looked tired and stressed.
"You're just in time, then," Umi said slowly, "to say goodbye."
"WHAT?!" Riku shouted, perhaps louder than he intended.
"They doctor said he doesn't expect them to live long," Umi continued sadly.
"B-but…" Riku stammered, trembling, "but, they're only in their…in their sixties! Th-they aren't old! They can't die!"
"They've both caught the same disease, and neither of them is expected to survive it," Hoshi said quietly.
"B-but…but…" Riku struggled for words.
"Human mortality takes a sharp upturn around the time they turn sixty," Sephiroth's quiet yet powerful voice said from behind him. "Their bodies and their immune systems are weakening, and many of them lose brain mass." Though Riku was facing the other way, Sephiroth lowered his eyelids and looked away. "I'm sorry, Son."
Cloud was silent.
Riku didn't stick around to discuss it any longer, instead going into the hallway to where he knew the master bedroom was. Without knocking, he pushed through the door, finding another human he didn't recognize sitting by the bedside. She was Tsuki, Sora and Kairi's daughter.
"Who are you?!" Tsuki gasped, frightened by Riku's sudden appearance.
"I'm Riku," Riku answered, giving no explanation, he quickly crossed to the other side of the bed and looked down at the occupants.
His heart lurched.
Sora and Kairi looked so thin, so gray, so old. They were both very sick, their frail bodies looking like Riku could easily snap them in half. Riku had known, had always known in the back of his mind, that Sora and Kairi would age and die while he remained unchanged, forever young. But, the realization of what that meant had never really hit home until now, when he was actually seeing it. The cruel ravages of time and illness had left their mark on their faces and bodies, and he could almost see the seconds being shed from the time they had left. Whether he had meant to or not, Riku now felt the same way as all ylfen do about aging: It is a strange, foreign subject, and to see it at work is both confusing and horrifying.
"S-Sora!" Riku managed to say, lowering himself to his knees by the bedside, taking his dearest friend's hand. Sora, asleep and exhausted, made little response, his fingers tightening minutely around Riku's and his head turning slightly to the side.
"Riku…" Sephiroth began.
"Why didn't I come sooner?!" Riku suddenly burst out, tears threatening to fall.
"You couldn't," Sephiroth sighed. "You know ylfen in their training period must stay around home until their end-of-training trial. Both you and whoever brought you—most likely Cloud or me—would have gotten into a lot of trouble if we had tried to take you somewhere before you were allowed to."
"It's not fair!" Riku said in almost a whine, tears slipping down his pale cheeks.
"I know it's not," Sephiroth said quietly, knowing that he could offer little comfort. "I'm sorry, Riku."
Riku didn't reply, his eyes fixed on Sora's pale, wan face. The tears welled up in his green eyes, and he simply put his head down on the mattress and cried.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The next few days were the hardest Riku had yet faced. Sora and Kairi never fully woke, so he spoke to them through their minds, connecting the three of them, so they could all hear each other. They were both overjoyed that he was there, as both had been afraid that they would never be able to say goodbye to the man they still considered their closest friend. Riku wept bitterly, lamenting their approaching death, deep regret at coming back on their deathbed twisting his heart painfully. They tried to tell him that they did not resent him for it, that the fact that they could say one last goodbye was more than enough to make up for it. His guilt refused to leave, but he was comforted some by those words. He exposed his emotions to them, letting them feel the deep love and friendship he held for them both, and the empath in him told him that they felt the same.
I suppose that is all one can ask for from friends, he would later tell himself. Love and friendship is all you need feel for each other. Nothing else matters in the long run.
He was connected to them almost the entire time, and the whole time he was connected, he could feel their weakness, the strength draining slowly from them. He wanted to do something, anything, for them before they were gone, so he took their suffering upon himself as a last gift to them. Their discomfort from the illness all but vanished, and they were little less comfortable than if they were dying peacefully of old age. Riku, however, steeled himself and let the pain and slow wasting fall upon him, suffering as much as they had been combined. He had collapsed to the wood floor with a groan, and Tsuki, who was with him at the time, had run out in a panic. When Sephiroth and Cloud had come in, alerted by Tsuki, they had found Riku as weak as he had been when Cloud had inadvertently given him a cold soon after his arrival in the One World. Neither could convince Riku to not take on so much, so all they could do was lay him out in a makeshift bed on the floor and keep watch over him.
On the third day since their arrival, Riku gave a pained, moaning whimper and seemed to improve dramatically. About twenty minutes later, all signs of suffering vanished, and he bolted upright with a cry of dismay. When he curled up and began to cry, they knew what had happened.
Sora and Kairi had died less than half an hour apart.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Poor kid…" Cloud said, running his fingers through his surprisingly pliable hair, his eyes downcast. He and Sephiroth were sitting on either side of a palm tree on the beach, the buildings of Fate rising up not too far away. They had left Riku and come here, letting him take care of any final business he had without their interference.
Sephiroth nodded without saying a word.
"I wonder about Aerith," Cloud said after a long pause. "Sure, she and I were never more serious than a date now and then, but she was probably the closest friend I've had among humans."
"Did you kiss her?" Sephiroth asked.
"Why?" Cloud blinked, a little surprised.
Sephiroth shrugged. "Just curious."
"Well…yeah," Cloud nodded. "Her and Tifa."
"Tifa?"
"Another girlfriend."
"I see."
"I was second place to both of them, I think. Aerith had eyes for this swordsman named Zack, and Tifa was always hanging out with three guys she was a neighbor to growing up."
"Do you regret being 'second place'?"
"Nah. I was more friends with both of them, anyway."
"Hm."
There was another pause.
"I also wonder about Squall and Yuffie and Cid," Cloud continued. "Everyone I knew on Hollow Bastion when I left, except maybe the kids, are old or dead now." He was quieter than he normally was.
"I advise you not to make anymore human friends, if you want to avoid that in the future," Sephiroth said.
Cloud nodded slowly. "I've gone through it plenty of times before."
"I know," Sephiroth said. "Here comes Riku."
They stood up as the young man landed. He was clutching a rectangular wooden box with no markings on the outside. A small lock hung at the clasp, and two keys were tied to the lock with a string.
"What's that?" Cloud asked.
"I don't know yet," Riku said, his voice hoarse from the emotions he'd been recently going through. "I asked their kids what it was, and they didn't know, either. It's something Sora and Kairi left me in their will."
"Are you going to open it now or wait until you get home?" the blond asked.
"When I get home," Riku replied, his voice beginning to tremble. "I-I want to go…I don't want to be here anymore!" Tears fell from his already red eyes.
"Riku…" Sephiroth said softly. Stepping forward, he put his arms around his son, holding him gently, letting him grieve. Riku cried brokenly against his shoulder, mourning the loss of the first two people to show him real caring and concern. As he wept, his father took them out of that dimension and set them down in Riku's bedroom, carefully maneuvering his youngest to lie on the bed. He took the box from Riku—it was heavy—and set it down on the desk.
"Sleep, Riku," Sephiroth whispered, pulling the covers up and over his child. "I'll watch over you, Son."
Curling up, Riku muttered his thanks, then dropped down into deep, mercifully emotionless slumber.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The box contained sixteen keychains. A note from Sora was inside, telling how the Keyblade itself had disappeared after sealing Kingdom Hearts, but the keychains had remained. Since Riku was the true Keyblade Master, he was the one who should rightfully have the keychains, but Sora never thought to give them to him until he was gone. He hoped Riku could forgive him that mistake, and that he found it a fitting last gift.
The keychains were all mounted in what looked like custom-fitted foam. Sora had gone to a lot of trouble to have them made up for a proper presentation to the rightful owner. Each keychain had a label under it with the name and the rank printed in neat, black letters. Riku recognized it as Kairi's handwriting. It looked like the box hadn't been opened since the display had been completed, since the keychains all looked newly polished and undisturbed.
Tears had stung Riku's eyes as he had read the note. This was the perfect thing to remember Sora and Kairi by. Yes, they symbolized a time of hardship for the three of them, but that time had ultimately brought them closer together.
Riku had never before gotten a close look at any of them, and he examined them carefully, as if he were an archaeologist cataloging an important find. There was a silver shape that looked like a silhouette of King Mickey's head labeled "Kingdom Key", a spellbook labeled "Spellbinder", a blue butterfly labeled "Jungle King", a yellow star labeled "Wishing Star", a gold oil lamp labeled "Three Wishes", a blue seashell labeled "Crabclaw", a jack-o-lantern labeled "Pumpkinhead", a red feather labeled "Fairy Harp", an Ace of Hearts labeled "Lady Luck", a round yellow lightning emblem labeled "Olympia", a white star—Riku was surprised to recognize it as Kairi's lucky charm—labeled "Oathkeeper", a yellow bird labeled "Metal Chocobo", a silver lion head labeled "Lionheart", a red rosebud labeled "Divine Rose", a black crown labeled "Oblivion", and a white crystal heart with gold embellishments labeled "Ultima Weapon". Cloud had exclaimed over the Metal Chocobo and Lionheart. He said that he himself had given the Metal Chocobo to Sora in the Coliseum, and that Lionheart—which he pointed out had "Griever" etched into the smooth back—had been worn by Squall as a pendant on a silver chain.
Right now, the box was sitting closed, but unlocked, back on Riku's desk. He had been sitting on his bed with his back to the wall for several hours, speaking none and moving little. Deep in thought, he was not really seeing what his eyes were looking at.
"Riku, are you doing all right?" he heard his father ask, breaking him out of his reverie.
Riku nodded as Sephiroth sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Do you want to talk about anything?"
For a long time, Riku didn't answer, but he finally opened his mouth and spoke for the first time in more than a day. "Father…I've been thinking…"
"Oh?" Sephiroth tilted his head. "About what?"
"My human blood," Riku said softly. "I…I don't want it anymore."
"What?" Sephiroth said slowly. "Why?"
"There is nothing there for me anymore," Riku said thinly, looking at the box. "All my friends from childhood are dead or will die soon. I don't want to go back, because I don't ever want to go through this again. I-I…I want to leave that part of my past behind."
Sephiroth gazed steadily at his son. His eyes were gentle, yet still piercing. "What about your memories?" he finally asked. "Will you let those go as well? Will you remember Sora and Kairi only as the people who gave those keychains to you? Will you cast them aside, too?"
"No!" Riku cried, looking aghast. "No, I'll never to that!" He came away from the wall, kneeling only a few inches from his father. "Father, please do this!"
"Why?" Sephiroth asked. "Why else but to cut all ties with your human side? You may as well throw those keychains into the ocean." He sighed, avoiding the horrified look in his son's vibrant eyes. "I am skilled in healing magic, so I believe I could purge the human blood from your veins and leave you pure ylfe, but I will not. You are still reeling from their loss, and you are not asking me with a sound mind. If you asked me while you were not being tried like this emotionally, I might—I might—consider it, but I believe I'd still refuse."
"Father…" Riku murmured.
Sephiroth placed a tender hand on Riku's shoulder. "You are mourning, Riku, and you are desperate for comfort. You think this will give it to you—perhaps you believe it will distance you from the source of your pain—but it will not. It would be irreversible, and I will not do something you may regret later unless you've thought a very long time about it. Please, think about this long and hard. I have a feeling you'll change your mind." His hand slid up Riku's neck to his hair, and he leaned forward so their foreheads were touching. It was a common sign of love between people, be they lovers, family members, soulmates, or friends. "I know you lost your respect for your mother," he said softly, "but you must be proud of your human heritage. Ylfen think them weak, but I know they are very powerful, in their way. They have the strongest fighting spirits and willpower that I've ever seen. Don't throw away half of your history in a fit of grief like this."
Tears were rolling down Riku's cheeks, and he nodded slowly. "I…I will. I will be proud, Father."
Sephiroth smiled and nodded, standing up. "Come on, Son. You should get back out into the world. Live again."
Riku took a deep breath and obeyed. I'll get through this, he told himself. I'll get through this…
To be continued…Author's Notes: Yay! I think I'm out of my writer's block! Sorry about my first chapter in a month being so sad. I also hope Sora fans and Kairi fans aren't too upset. Just bear in mind that they had to die sometime, and I couldn't deal with it by just never mentioning them again. I don't have much to say, save that I hope the names I gave Sora and Kairi's kids didn't seem too generic. The three main characters of Kingdom Hearts have Japanese nouns for names, so I decided to give Hoshi, Umi, and Tsuki the same kind of names. I also hope that the next chapter is written and posted soon. Let me know what you think in a review or an email to mangareader@hotmail.com, onegai shimasu!
