I'm BACK! Feel blessed, because I've never updated this much in three days…
I've been researching my KH: CoM. You see, I 'm Game Boy Advance-less, so I must rely on my "keen" Googling skills to inform myself…
Ah, I was reading over the last two chapters and BAM! I see that I've been using present- and past-tense! I'M SORRY! Ugh, you see, in English we have to write present-tense narratives, so my hands are all in a jumble! Bear with me, though: THIS CHAPTER WILL BE PAST-TENSE! (If you don't know what a tense is, please disregard this paragraph)
You'd be surprised.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything KH
"You're Not Reminded…"
It was a large, white, and gilded door. It stood upon the nothingness that stretched out from the end of the large path that Mickey and I had so diligently followed for the past few days. A couple of rocks were situated by it for no apparent reason and a large gazing pool sat out to its left. I imagined looking in it and being sucked off to Destiny Islands and seeing my friends again. I imagined looking in it and being sucked off to some unknown world that contained only a true love…
I really needed to stop fantasizing.
"The Twilight path ends," Mickey said as we strode towards the door, "and the path to the Dawn begins. Ah, they are both here."
I looked towards the door and saw a person similar to myself standing next to a hoodless blonde-haired Unknown. My first thought of the two was the uncanny and exact resemblances they had of Sora and I, but I knew it could not be: I was here and Sora was in the real world, battling his own enemies.
Or, as I would later find out, halfway through a memory-regenerating sleep.
"Who is the boy?" I asked Mickey.
"He is a dear friend to both of us, though you have yet to see that," the king whispered before looking up and greeting the two. "Hello, you two."
"Mickey," said the boy with a bow. "How is the training?"
"Training?" I whispered.
"His mentality has developed far more than I expected it to, so the minute we set out on the path to the Dawn, his true training will begin."
I felt the boy's eyes on my own blindfolded ones, but refused to look up into them. My hand immediately flew up to the necklace, fumbling with it, and I realized that it had grown into a habit over the journey. I had come to know its nicks and engravings like the back of my hand and often found my finger traveling over the leaves that formed a smaller heart and over to the KH that was engraved on the back.
"Don't open it," snapped a voice I recognized as the girl's when my thumb traveled over to the crack that could open it.
"I know."
I looked up and saw her expression soften when I continued to play with it. Once again, I found myself imagining. I could almost see those gold-green eyes sparkling behind the thin, black blindfold that covered them.
And I had always thought of the other silver-haired unknown as a boy. Stupid, eh?
"Ansem still lies within him," the boy commented to Mickey.
"I fear he always will."
"Does he enjoy the darkness?"
"Aros, I believe you should ask him, not me."
Aros? Who came up with that name?
"Riku, I am Aros Mesna."
"Are you a member of the Organization?"
The word struck me. I hadn't said that word since I agreed to join the pointless thing…
"Maybe I am and maybe I'm not. All I know is that we seek the same thing: Sora."
My eyes narrowed and flew up to the boy's own coblat ones. That word struck me too.
"You've grown older on your journey."
"Two days?"
"You've traveled much longer than that. You and the king have been together for nearly half a year."
"He does not need to know every detail, Aros; let him remember what he wishes too. Let us proceed to what we are here for. Give me the necklace."
"Before you begin, tell me this: what's going on in Midnight?" ordered the king.
"It's not Midnight anymore, mouse; it's Kingdom Hearts," spat the girl. "The necklace, boy."
I gingerly removed the silver chain and place it in her gloved palm. She immediately closed her long fingers over it and tucked it in her pocket. "It is not ready, so you may explain."
"They have triumphed over Castle Oblivion," Aros sighed. "They now sleep for a year. During their journey you have had your own journey. In the period between journeys much happens, Riku. Think back to when you closed the door and ventured off down the path of Twilight. What happened?"
"Someone attacked me and the next thing I knew I was in the place you called Midnight. I found myself blindfolded, yet seeing and surrounded by heartless." I paused and my eyes widened again. "You can wield two keyblades!"
A bashful smile spread across Aros's face.
"You helped me," I continued, "and I helped you…. Heartless were everywhere. Neo Heartless: the New Heartless. They're strong. Can Sora–?"
"Sora can handle anything, Riku!" he snapped. "Stop thinking of him as a younger brother and start thinking of him as what he is: the keyblade master!"
I felt the girl's and Mickey's eyes turn towards us and my own cheeks flush a deep red. "No," I spat, "I won't!"
"You must!"
"Sora has been and always will be like a younger brother to me, so don't think you can change it!"
It was clear that we wouldn't get along.
"Riku–"
"Don't say my name," I spat. "I hate it. It–"
"–reminds you. I know."
A ripple of understanding passed through me when the girl finished my sentence. Another feeling rippled through me when the boy spoke again.
"Don't run, Riku," he spat. "Look at her! It does no good."
"Yes it does, Aros. You just don't know because you've never had anything to run from."
I turned to the girl and saw her face harden again, reminding myself even more of me. Her hand flew up to the back of her blindfold and it seemed that she was going to remove it, but the king stopped her.
"Don't," he said simply.
The small distraction gave me time to sum Aros up: he was the same size as Sora, though with a little more muscle; his hair, eyes, and face were also the same, though a frown that would never grace Sora's face was plastered onto it now; he was dressed in the customary robe of the Organization, but I could clearly see a white shirt poking out from underneath.
"You'll be lucky if Sora even looks at you when you return," spat Aros at last. His eyes blazed with fury.
"The legend," I said impatiently, resisting the urge to tackle the boy that stood across from me.
"It is in place. Open the locket and gaze upon it."
I caught the silver object that was tossed to me and flipped open the heart. Inside was nothing but an old picture and a drop of water. A year ago I would have glanced at this and tossed it aside, but now I lowered my head and actually looked at it.
"Training" had gotten to me.
The picture was a picture of Sora and I at the beach.
The drop of water was a drop of the spring water on Destiny Islands.
One word raced through my mind, a word that was as far away as the entrance to this damned place: Home.
"What is the legend?"
"It is in there."
I took a moment to think.
See? It got to me…
It can't be…can it?
"Are we the legend?" I proposed meekly.
A smile spread across the girl's face. "Yes. You and Sora are the legend of Kingdom Hearts. Sora holds the legend of the light and you the legend of the dark. You are the main characters of each, but the draft is shared between good and evil, light and dark; Fate merely sits and watches."
This information seemed to anger the boy, for he spun around to face the girl and glared at her. "Why have you not told me this?" he yelled. "How can you have kept this from me?"
"This information was not for you to here!" she spat back. Her voice was cool and deadly.
"Who do you think I am?"
"I think you are Aros Mesna: arrogant, cocky, self-righteous, and extremely protective of everyone you know."
"Zori…Xanthe, tell me this: why do you think I am here?" he screamed back.
Zori…
"I think you are here because you care for your friends and your hometown and you are waiting for the signal so you can do anything and everything to protect them."
The golden dawn…
"The real reason, Xanthe!"
"Don't call me that!" she yelled, her voice sending prickles down my back.
"I will call you that because as of now it is what you deserve to be called! Now tell me the real reason!"
"You are a balance, Aros, just as your name is. You are the other side of Sora's heart. As he fights his way to the light you must help him! When he awakens you must search for him and fight alongside with him! You mourn over the day that you were whisked away to this place and you await the day you are able to go back to Twilight Town in peace. You, Aros, are Sora in every way except one."
"Tell me," the blonde snarled.
"You cannot see what makes this boy so important to Sora. You cannot get past the fact he joined the darkness. You cannot see why he did what he did."
"Then you tell me what I cannot see."
"You must find them on your own."
Dawn.
"How?" he demanded.
"Look in front of you, Aros! Look at the resources that have been so carefully laid out before you. Look."
The blonde turned around and looked at me, his eyes burning with hate, anger, and agitation. I resisted the urge to pull off my blindfold and reveal my own burning eyes, hoping that sooner or later he'd back down.
"You will tell me on our journey," he spat. "Riku."
The edge of my blindfold was suddenly wet.
Why am I crying?
"Do not cry, boy!" ordered Aros. "The Kingdom has no sympathy, so there is no reason to cry!"
"Sympathy isn't the only thing to cry for, Aros," Zori whispered. "Do I really have to explain everything? Are you not reminded of anything?" She tuned on her heel and pushed Aros out of the way on her way towards me. "Why are you crying?"
It was a mute cry that washed upon me like the waves that crashed upon the sands of Destiny Beach. My blindfold was soon a soggy mass of black fabric that stuck to my skin unrelentingly.
"Mickey, may I–?" I heard Zori ask.
"Yes."
"But–!" I heard Aros protest, but before he could finish the wet fabric had been lifted from my face and everything became ten times brighter. I was tempted to shut my eyes due to the sudden pain the light brought, but resisted; I was eager to see what everything really looked like.
It was beautiful.
"You've beautiful eyes, dream," Zori commented, making me realize that she had been looking at me the entire time.
Dream…
I stared unblinkingly at her blindfolded eyes.
"It's okay to look at me, dream," she said softly. "My eyes can't hut you."
Dream…
Her hand flew up to her blindfold and untied it with one swift motion. A blurry mass of fabric fell into her outstretched hand, revealing two green-gold eyes that seemed to burn with a hidden fire.
As soon as it was there it was gone.
"You can look later," she whispered into my ear. "You can also blink."
"I didn't want to miss anything."
"No one does, dream."
Dream…
"Do you dream?" she asked tenderly, her hands still working on my blindfold. I felt my hair lift up and fall into place as she got it out of the way.
"Not anymore," I heard myself answer. A swift tug told me she was done tying and was now busying herself with smoothing my hair. Butterflies crowded my stomach.
"You need something, Riku," she told me. "Something I don't think anyone can give you right now." She then added in a whisper barely loud enough for me to hear, "Especially not me."
Her hands drifted away from my hair, brushed my cheeks, and landed on my shoulders with a thud.
Is this what home is supposed to feel like?
"Mickey, the first thing this boy needs to do is train. Then he needs to find his father."
"What about Sora?" Aros demanded with a snarl.
"There is such a thing as multi-tasking."
"Anything else?" asked the king.
"Aros needs to learn the true meaning of the word emotion, as do I. We leave whenever you tell us to, your majesty."
"We will let everyone cool down first."
I turned around and looked Aros in the face.
"You can't be a member of the Organization," I told him quietly.
"Why not?
"You're not reminded."
------
As I am writing this, I myself am reminded. I am reminded of why I write: to whisk myself off to another world, away from the tragic loneliness of our own. I write for only one person and that is myself. I am reminded…
Reminded.
I do not wish to be; yet I am.
I, like Riku and Zori, try not to be reminded.
I do not see it as a weakness.
I see it as moving on.
Staying and mourning is a weakness.
Are you reminded?
Review, please.
X3 Silver