-T h e F r a g m e n t e d T a l e

Part 4-Breaking Eight

Chapter 2 - The Path to the Light

Nighttime had fallen over the Palace, and not a person walked the halls, not a single being moved through the building. Lilka found the silence both strange and oddly comforting; she felt safe here, secure in so many ways. This feeling kept her on edge, however; her mind had been trained over the past two years to keep alert at all times, even in sleep. Envect had been a dangerous place for both her and Riku. The silver-haired young man had told her not to worry, that this was the safest place he could think of.

Still, she lay awake, in thought.

She spent a few moments listening to Riku breathe, curling in closer to him. The bed was extraordinarily comfortable; plenty of soft pillows and a mattress that could only have been made out of a cloud. It was one of the best rooms in the palace, and the two had been grateful for it. The room itself was not as disorienting as the rest of the palace; it was nice and round, and its bookcases didn't curve, and the bed within it wasn't seventeen feet tall, and other such small details which lent to its being easier on the eyes.

She kept her eyes closed, snuggling in closer to the one she loved. He was laying on his back, head on a pillow, blanket pulled over the lower half of his body, one arm beneath Lilka's neck and curling back around her shoulder. His breath came evenly, peacefully; he was in a deep sleep. The sound of his slumber wasn't quite enough to ease her mind, however.

Lilka's thoughts drifted to the black-robed man that had come with them into the Kingdom. Mazeura. He was of the Thirteenth Order, one of the lesser figures but still radically powerful nonetheless. She knew as well as Riku did what he was planning to do, but how was he going to do it? He had already gotten a head-start, as well. Where was he now? Was he going to bring down the palace? Take Caejan's place?

At the thought of Caejan, her thoughts shifted toward him. He was a victim of circumstance, certainly, and had lost every ounce of his self when he had taken up the Genesis and the Termina… was the control of the mother and father of all keyblades what Mazeura was seeking? And if he got it…

She sighed. She knew what Riku was planning as well. They would bring Sora back, and then get Asher back, and once they had both of them, they would have the leverage to stop the Order, somehow…

"Asher…"

Lilka formed the words quietly, saying the name as if she didn't quite believe he was real. She had learned a great deal about him in Envect, almost all of it being centered around his relationship with Sora. The Keyblade Master had been split into three parts when he had freed Kairi from within himself; his counterparts, Dyne and Asher, were the result of the split; at least, the split had been the trigger that pulled Asher into the role of Sora's shadow. But…

But wasn't Asher Sora's shadow long before that? She wasn't sure. Nobody really was, even within the Order. Asher's existence, and the fact the Sora was the Keyblade Master, was a fluke, pure and simple. Riku should have been the Keyblade Master. What had changed it? Where was the root of it all?

The questions buzzed through her mind before, within moments, they all droned together into the background of her mind. She felt her focus draining, felt clarity slip, and let herself go.

Lilka slept.

Riku watched the others silently, not entirely sure why he found them to be more interesting than the heaps of delicious food on his plate. The fork was rolled around, back and forth, in his ungloved right hand. He had his left forearm on the corner of the massive wooden table, and periodically glanced at his food to ensure he wasn't caught.

There were ten seats for the table at which they sat. The table itself was intricately carved, made of mahogany, and it was also circular, allowing each person sitting at the table a good view of one another. Riku sat with Lilka at his right and Mickey at the left, and beside Mickey was Minnie. Going further around, there was Donald and Goofy, followed by two empty seats, Kairi, and Dyne.

The two empty seats and places had been set for the two people of this small 'family' that had been unable to join them. Kairi wondered for a moment why Leon, Aerith, Cloud, Yuffie, and Cid hadn't been invited, because she had wanted to visit with each of them. She had been told that Leon had not been brought back like the others, that Yuffie was busy with matters in Traverse Town, Cloud and Aerith were off honeymooning somewhere, and that Cid was tied up with handling the upcoming flight.

Each person at the table was having a difficult time not glancing at the chair where Sora should have been sitting. Dyne was having very little trouble with ignoring the other seat entirely. He had been furious when Mickey had suggested the two seats, and the argument had been fierce.

"You can't be serious! You mean you're really going to keep a seat there in memory of a traitor!" he had cried before the meal even began.

"Dyne, Asher saved all of us in Memoria. When Caejan came, Asher saved us. If it hadn't been for him pulling us all out of the Fortress of Mirrors, again, we'd never have made it," Riku had replied.

"I don't care! He did that just so he could try to kill me and Sora in the end, and he would have taken both you and Lilka apart!"

"He was doing what he felt it necessary to do," was Lilka's retort. "I don't know if you noticed, but Asher was trying to stop Sora from sacrificing himself in vain. He saw what was happening, but nobody listened!"

At this, Dyne had thrown his arms in the air and groaned his frustration. Both the seats had been placed there, and that's how it had gone.

Riku watched as Kairi and the King chatted about mundane things, such as Kairi's life on the Destiny Islands, her school, her friends, the King's social life, what either liked to do in their spare time. Lilka was busy ignoring Dyne, who had continued to grumble about Asher's seat, and Goofy and Donald were immersed in a conversation about their upcoming adventure, and whether or not they would find Sora. Minnie and Riku sat in quiet reserve, observing the others.

"I'm glad you still have a good home on Destiny Islands," Mickey said. "Just remember if you need anything, just-"

Mickey glanced toward Goofy and Donald, who were still in conversation about what they were supposed to do when the time came, what their jobs would be on the ship, and so on. The King frowned, and addressed them.

"I thought I said I wanted no talk of that at this table. It's just supposed to be friends having breakfast, without worrying about what's gonna happen."

Dog and duck, thus chastised, spoke their apologies. Dyne watched them, frowning slightly. He appeared, to Riku, as though there was something he wanted to say, but had kept silent.

When they had all finished with their meals, the table had been cleared quickly and the group dispersed. Cid had prepared the Highwind X for takeoff, and all was prepared. Riku's thoughts turned to the task ahead of them; he knew that bringing Sora back would not be easy, and all the preparations in the world couldn't guarantee the success he had promised to the Council of Worlds. The question wasn't whether or not they were going to meet resistance from the Order or not.

The question was whether or not they would break under the Order's might.

Kairi looked out the window into the starless emptiness. It wasn't the abyssal darkness of the Dark Realm; it was a quiet stillness, a sky with no stars left because they had all been bound into one great star. Her twin indigo oculars traveled across the face of the pangaea that Sora had created with his sacrifice. The ship was still close enough to the surface that she was still able to make out the divisions between 'worlds'; she could see Agrabah and the surrounding desert here, and Traverse Town nestled in the edge of the pangaea over there.

There were only two satellites floating in the sky above the pangaea. One was a dark sphere surrounded by massive asteroids that moved on a path that would not carry it into collision with the second satellite; the vortex of this sphere was called 'The Etranank Rift', and none of the gummi ship pilots had attempted trying to pass through it. Nobody knew what lay on the other side if the pilot even managed to make it through the energy fields and asteroids.

The other was the sun that revolved around it, lighting each day and bringing this warmth. What many had not realized yet was that this sun was not a giant flaming ball of gas.

It was the Light. It was her destination.

The Light, which had been released by Sora, was still a realm in and of itself, but had manifested itself as the sphere that provided sunshine to the inhabitants of Pangaea. The Etranank Rift acted as a sort of moon, giving off a dark glow in the evening time when the Light wasn't overhead.

The young woman felt Riku come near. She turned and smiled at him, shaking her head.

"It's so beautiful, Riku… everything connected, like it was in the beginning… like Grandma said," she spoke to him, looking at the young man. He had grown a great deal since she last saw him… he appeared so much more mature, so much stronger. And there was the calculating, adult look in his eye; her heart panged for a moment, and she hoped Lilka knew how lucky she was.

"Things won't ever be the same as they were, but… we can't really ask for much more, can we?" he said, stepping up beside her. The both of them gazed out at the shrinking pangaea. "I wanted to thank you, Kairi. For agreeing to help us… I know you want Sora back, very badly, and you really don't need much more reason than that to come, but…"

"Don't mention it!" said the girl, lightly. She was smiling for a moment, before the happiness faded for a moment. "But… getting Sora back is just the start, isn't it? There's more."

Riku was silent for a long moment. He took a breath, shaking his head and lowering it to look at the carpeted floor of the gummi ship.

"Yes, there's more. I… I didn't really want to get you involved, I don't want you in danger, but we don't have a choice. Without Sora… something much worse than just the Darkness could happen."

"What do you mean, Riku?"

"Remember when I told the Council about that man, Caejan?"

"Uh-huh."

"His only reason for existing is to create something called the 'Eight'; I'm sure it's derived from 'Figure 8'. He wants to create a pattern that will keep the universe in a constant loop, never changing in its pattern. A Keyblade master rises, sacrifices himself to save the world from Darkness, and it happens all over again."

"And we're going to try to stop him, right?"

"That's right," Riku said, nodding. "He's very, very powerful, and very devious. But myself and three others have been working to foil his plans ever since we learned."

"Three others…? Sora, Dyne, and… King Mickey?"

Riku shook his head, looking back out the window, his memories carrying him back to a moment he had shared with the others.

"No… after Sora closed Kingdom Hearts and Mickey and I got free, we learned about Caejan and we thought that he was the real enemy, the one controlling the Darkness. I sort of played a double agent, allying myself with Caejan to learn more about him. He had four others under his power at the time."

"Oh…"

"I learned about what Caejan was truly planning, and I also learned a little about my other four 'companions'. I learned their names. Dyne, Kydran, Knives, and… Ansem."

"Ansem! No!"

Riku nodded slowly.

"Yes, Ansem, but not the Ansem you know. He shed his body to enter the Darkness, and his body lived on as a creature without a heart… a 'Nobody'. Just like I did."

Kydran and Knives, though… they were different, he thought. They were something else…

"Ansem was fully loyal to Caejan," Riku continued. "Caejan had Ansem's heart until his control, and promised the Nobody-Ansem to reunite him with his heart when the time came. Dyne, Kydran, Knives and I… we had other plans. Kydran and Knives had both been lured by Caejan's promises of power, and… I don't know. They hated him."

Kairi was silent, though her expression was concerned. Had Riku told these things to anybody before this? Lilka, certainly, but… Kairi had never had any idea that the danger had run this deep and she never knew.

"And so we made an oath, that no matter what, we wouldn't stop until we had stopped Caejan."

Riku still remembered that night, remembered their words as though they had just been said, remembered the weight of each word like chains in his heart.

'Because everyone deserves to control their own fate.'

'Because their sacrifices must be worth something.'

'Because I have to make up for what I've done.'

'Because this may be our only chance.'

Kairi glanced at him, and then back out the window.

"So, then… what are you gonna do, Riku?" she asked, with not a little worry evident in her voice. Riku closed his eyes, savoring the words, realizing that to seeing Kairi again, and to see Sora again… it was be meaningful to him. "Are you just going to use Sora to stop Caejan?"

The young man was silent once again. He hadn't thought of it like that; 'using' Sora to do what it was that needed to be done.

"It's… his choice, I guess, really," Riku said, finally. "In the end. The most important thing is making sure that Caejan doesn't get control of you, or him."

And we can't let the Order get their hands on anybody, he mused. He was hesitant to bring up the topic of the Order with Kairi, because that would do little but make her even more uneasy that she was now.

"Why would he want control of me?" she asked, and Riku sensed steel in her tone. He couldn't help but smile. Despite how fragile she appeared, she would fight until the end in any way she could.

"Because if he controls you, he controls Sora. Right now, you're one of the only people who can bring him back, and Sora would do anything to get you back and make sure you're safe; and once he had control of Sora, he could do whatever he wanted."

The girl remained quiet. Riku hadn't really intended to worry her, but he knew he had to tell her sooner or later, to let her know just what he had involved her in, as much as he regretted having to do so. Riku reached an arm out and wrapped it around her, pulling her close.

"I won't let anything happen. Dyne won't let anything happen, and neither will Lilka, and Donald and Goofy will be beside you," he said, though it was mostly to reassure himself. He was risking her life, risking everything by taking her, but… did he really have a choice?

"Don't worry about me. Let's focus on what we have to do… we're going to get Sora back, and we're going to stop Caejan, too, and everything will be fine," she said, punctuating her statement with a firm nod.

"You're right, Kairi," he said, releasing her and stepping back, away from the window. "And when we're done…"

"…we'll all be together again," Kairi murmured, looking out at the approaching sphere of Light. "It's a promise."

Dyne stood in the bridge with folded arms, blue eyes focused ahead. The great globe of Light neared, growing larger with each passing moment. Already, Dyne could see the broken pieces of Memoria orbiting it, having nearly formed a perfect ring about it.

"Chip, report," he spoke, using his command voice. Here in the bridge, he felt important, and, in fact, he was. He was the captain of this expedition, and it was his first priority to ensure they all got there safely. When they arrived, he would help fulfill his oath. But the task at hand needed his focus.

Cid, Donald and Goofy stood not far behind him, watching the events unfold. They watched as the blonde-haired kid gave out his commands, ensuring their safety, getting them as close as possible to the sphere of Light.

"Everything is still in the green, Captain," replied the chipmunk, checking the gauges. "Very strange… there is air surrounding the globe, Captain. It's breathable."

Dyne frowned.

"Are you sure?" he asked. It hadn't been long since Chip had transferred from the engineering department into the actual flying of the machines he helped to build, and he was still prone to mistakes every now and then.

"Very sure!"

"Alright. Terra, set us down there," Dyne said, pointing toward one of the largest of the chunks. Dyne recognized it as one of the large pads that had been rope-bridged to many others, leading to the gate of Memoria. It would have to serve.

"Aye, Captain," the woman responded, and there was a sudden shift as the Highwind X slowed. The blonde-haired kid braced himself, and righted, glancing back at the others.

"I'm going to go get ready to hit ground. Cid, take care of the rest for me," he said, moving past the old man, who began barking orders, and with Donald and Goofy in tow, left the bridge. "Stay on your toes, everyone. I'm expecting resistance."

The ship, clamped to the chunk of floating rock by a giant pair of hydraulic pincers, opened out at the bottom and a ramp extended from it, connecting to the rock. The group began to move out of the ship and onto the pad.

Riku was the first to emerge. The young man was still wearing his Envectian clothing, as was Lilka, who was shortly behind him. All of them but Kairi had brought weaponry; beneath Riku's cloak, the Nail Bat was tucked away. Lilka carried a long umbrella in hand. Donald and Goofy had brought their weapons.

Dyne was carrying a weapon that he had had custom-made. Because the Keyblades had disappeared from the Kingdom, Dyne had been left with no weaponry, so he had had the moogles create the Keyblade X for him. The weapon resembled a keyblade in both feel and balance, but it possessed a sharp, crystalline blade, and it could be split into a pair of duplicates for easy dual-wielding, as Dyne was accustomed to.

Kairi was in the center of the formation, with all of her 'guardians' surrounding her. She looked a little lost, but her eyes were focused, her mind brought to bear on what she would have to do. Riku had yet to instruct her.

The chunk of rock on which they stood was dwarfed beside the massive sphere of Light around which it spun. They had used the ship's boosters to keep the rock still, but the chunk was still floating along with the other rubble, all that was left of the realm of Memoria. The glow of the sphere itself was close to blinding, but it was also strangely comfortable to look into.

"Don't look directly into the sphere," Riku announced suddenly, realizing quickly what would occur. "There is an infinite amount of memories in it, and you could become lost in it very quickly. Just focus on Kairi."

The group neared the edge closest to the sphere itself. Riku stopped at the edge, turning his back on the Light and looking out past the ship. The pangaea was a small sphere in the distance, and the Etranank Rift was nowhere to be seen, probably eclipsed by the pangaea itself.

"Alright, Kairi… let's get Sora back," the silver-haired young man said. Lilka accompanied the girl over to the edge where Riku stood. Kairi moved with caution, careful not to look directly into the Light. The young man spoke to her. "Alright… now, I want you to begin to think about Sora, if you haven't already. Remember him in as much detail as you possibly can; everything from that mop of hair on his head to the oversized shoes."

Kairi laughed, seeing the grin that Riku had failed to hide. It wouldn't be hard for her to remember; the girl had kept him in mind for two years. Now, she was going to have him back. With a determined nod, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, though the Light still broke through her eyelids. The girl lifted her hands to her breast, folding them as though praying.

"Just focus on him… remembering him, and only him. Don't lose focus."

They stood and waited while she focused. The troupe was completely silent, letting the girl to her work. Suddenly, a beam burst forth from the globe of Light, shooting directly into Kairi's chest, blowing her arms out to the side and lifting her into the air.

"Kairi!" Dyne cried, reaching out a hand and realizing what was happening as the Light spread from her levitating form to the pad itself, engulfing everything in a surreal glow. Riku extended a hand, calling for them to stop, to not worry; this was how it was supposed to happen.

And then the black form solidified into his view.

The Light began to dim, receding from its initial pulse. While Kairi yet remained levitating at the edge of the rock behind him, to Riku's front stood the robed form of Mazeura.

The group immediately encircled the man of the Order, who remained calm. Mazeura stood upright, intimidating despite his stockiness. The silver-haired young man and the Crest Sorceress were once more reminded of the feeling of solidity he put out.

Over his shoulder he slung what appeared to be a large axe, with a huge blade and a thick handle around which his gloved fingers were wrapped. Mazeura called out to Riku, though he spoke very loudly, strong enough for everyone to hear what he wanted very clearly.

"Give me the girl."