Author's Note: This chapter is pretty much me being evil mwahahaha! Though seriously it has some quite relevant stuff if you look for it.

As to those questions, if you wish to find the answers you seek... read on Macduff! I will say though, that technically anything is possible and feel free to take that any way you like :).

Chapter Five: This is the Way the World Ends

This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but with a whimper.

-Unknown

Riku had seen no point in lying to her, at least about this anyway. Her world was doomed and she might as well know it. Riku remembered the first time he had seen the storm, those swirling clouds of Armageddon flashing with purple and blue fire. The storm had eventually consumed his world, the Moiria Islands. At the time Riku had been seeking excitement, adventure, but most of all to be free from his small enclosed world. He didn't fear the darkness that swept over his island home; it was his means for escape. Perhaps if he had been afraid, his life would have turned out differently. As he had this thought the image of a girl entered his mind, a girl with brilliant red hair and eyes as blue as the ocean...deceptive eyes. Riku retracted his earlier thought.

No, it probably wouldn't have...

Riku turned to study the small blonde girl, relieved that he had at least managed to keep her from heading back to the wedding. He didn't know exactly who she was, or what her role was to be, but there was something... a whisper of a memory.... Somewhere, deep inside of him, he knew with an absolute certainty that she must not be killed. At least not today anyway...

At that point the girl turned to him and began to shout, almost echoing his thoughts, though she meant something else entirely.

"No! Not today!"

Then unbelievably the girl pushed him and took off again. Her shove didn't do much physically, but it did give him pause. He knew she was upset and he could understand that. The man that Ash had killed was clearly a relative of some kind... but she was being stupid. Though she didn't have a reason to trust him, she could just look to the sky for her evidence. Apparently though, he should have held back with his warning. Riku was used to dealing with people who had more of a desire for self-preservation, who looked for their safety above all else. Good or evil, when faced with the darkness, they all acted in the same manner. Countless voices asking for mercy, begging not to die...

"If you go... you'll only find darkness and death."

He let his words ring out, but he was tempted just to let her go. If she refused to listen to his warnings, then why waste the effort? He sighed, knowing he couldn't do that and as he followed her movement with his eyes, he saw the light glimmering from the high embankment at the far end of the beach. She was going to try to climb up the steep embankment to get to the temple. Releasing an annoyed sigh, Riku sprinted after her. As she reached the other end of the beach, she paused for a moment, apparently looking for the path. She scrambled up unto and unstable ledge and as Riku made a dodge for her ankle, at that point the ledge began to crumble beneath their combined weight. Riku would have been fine if the girl hadn't kicked at him at just that moment, knocking him off balance to fall with the shattered pieces of rock. Uttering a curse, he fell back all the way down to the bottom of the embankment, hitting the ground with a thump, mere inches away from the beach that would have softened the impact of the fall. Still, he had endured worse. Scowling he picked himself up and started up the mountain again.

Great, just great. She's almost more trouble then she's worth...

It would help if Riku knew exactly what she was. He had some ideas, but nothing more and despite the fact that at this point he'd very much like to throttle the little blonde, but leaving her to die here was just not a viable option.

Hurrying up the hill, Riku heard the sounds of screaming and knew without a doubt that they had begun there attack. Shortly after, Riku heard the girl shriek and he began to run faster. With his keyblade drawn, he propelled himself up over the last rise, moving just in time to cut down one of the lesser wraiths as it jumped for the girl. As he sliced the creature in two, the keyblade briefly glimmered with a pure white light before fading to the normal black metal. A look of bewilderment crossed Riku's face. The keyblade had been dead for so long...

He didn't have time to think about it and he quickly moved to cut down the rest of the wraiths that threatened the girl. While he was dealing with them, he could see the girl run off out of the corner of his eyes, right towards the center of it. Hurriedly, Riku dispatched two more, before they finally shied away as he willed, far too slowly for his liking. While death and destruction was part of their nature, they could be controlled; directed to attack or to halt an attack. Riku was even able to mold the amorphous shadow creatures into the very likeness of a person, all the better to fight with. Their disregard of his effort to impose his will on them, even if it was only temporary, made him distinctly uneasy. To Riku it could mean only two things, for some reason his heart had become more susceptible, unlikely, or it was something about this world. Hopefully it was the high summoner.

Or not...

Riku ran out into the pavilion to find the wraiths wreaking havoc, but the little blonde was nowhere in sight. Only a few survivors remained, but they'd be dead soon. Hopefully, the same could not be said of the girl. Riku shook his head and ran for the temple when he heard the deep growling that marked the arrival of the Shedim, Jitt must called it forth. He paused looking over to see the large creature rise from the ground where one of the arms of the storm had been only moments before. It immediately scanned the area, sensing. The Shedim stayed in this same pose, almost seeming to sniff the wind, before focusing on the temple. Riku frowned, it should have automatically known where to go, thus the whole process of marking the woman's veil. The liquid was made of an essence of purified heart's blood. All of the Shedim were drawn to it, even in the slightest amounts, and this one should be no different. If it needed to search something or someone was screwing with it. Riku narrowed his eyes and glance around, finding no more then the dead, the dying, and the all-consuming shadows. Still, better to be sure, and Riku decided to wait until the Shedim was in the temple before going in himself, so he could run interference if there were any otherworldly intruders. After countless warnings, they never seemed to listen.

They could ruin everything.

As the Shedim approached, Riku lifted the keyblade and placed it across his chest, not out of any deference to the creature, but rather as a warning. Forming a mental connection with the creature, a disgusting job, Riku reinforced the target as well as adding the further proviso that once done with her, under no circumstances was he to go after the blonde. A slow smile spread on the face of the stygian creature and it headed towards the door of the temple, lifting its arms to blow them open with a powerful gust of wind. Riku scanned the area one more time then followed it in, waiting in the shadows as he watched the scene unfold. He was seriously displeased to find Ash still locked in combat with the groom, but his annoyance quickly disappeared when he saw Tidus fight. Of course, it took hold once again when he saw that Ash was fighting with his left hand. Ash was right handed.

Some day those stupid games of his are going to kill him, if I don't get there first...

Of course this didn't reflect on Tidus, very few could hold their own against Ash. The man was good and it was a shame such talent would go to waste. Still, it had to happen. Riku kept close watch on the Shedim for this was the moment of truth, they moment they all found out whether the search would ever end. Emotionlessly, he watched as the Shedim killed the summoner, pulling out the crystallized heart. Riku, Ash, and Jitt all knew very well that it was the darkness in a person's heart that made it vulnerable, that gave the heartless the power to take it. As the Shedim lifted the heart high, they saw that the summoner woman was just as tainted as the rest of them. If she really had been the one, her heart would not have been taken so easily. The heart they sought had to be given, not taken. Riku swore under his breath, barely hearing Tidus's scream, but the other jerked him out of his thoughts. He still had to deal with the girl and as the Shedim started to move towards her, he realized that once again someone was running interference. He ignored Ash and Jitt's conversation as he stepped out of the shadows, making his way quietly over to the girl.

"Riku, where've you been?"

Riku didn't answer and instead kept his eyes on the blonde who was working herself into a rage. What was she going to do? Riku stared at Ash meaningfully, willing him to say nothing else as he finally got within a few feet of her. She began to shout in her bizarre language again and as she began to step forward, Riku used her distraction to knock her over the head. He had learned from his mistakes and if she were unconscious it would make things a whole lot easier especially with the Shedim around. Riku caught her as she began to fall and set her on the floor, before looking over at Ash and Jitt.

"I had some things to attend to." Riku's voice booked no room for further questioning on the matter so of course Ash asked anyway.

"What's with the girl?"

Riku had no intention of telling either of them about what he suspected so he deliberately misinterpreted the question. .

"Angry I would guess."

He smirked at Ash's raised eyebrow and shrugged, giving a motive Ash would understand.

"Too pretty to just kill, might as well let her go quietly along with the rest of the world. Speaking of which..."

Riku walked over to the Shedim and plucked the heart from its hands. Eyes flashing it moved to strike Riku. Tossing the heart over to Jitt, he moved to one side and pulled out the keyblade again. In a smooth gesture, he did a half turn, bringing the blade around to the Shedim's head, knocking it off with the force of the blow. For the second time that night, the blade began to glow. If Ash or Jitt noticed, it would mean trouble so he followed through with the movement letting the keyblade sweep down so he could sheathe it again.

"Get to the gate and deliver the heart. There are still a few things that I have to do on this world. You can say that I will be along shortly."

Ash gave Riku a disturbingly knowing smile and Jitt looked as if he wanted to say something, but both of the men were nervous about the amount of time left. The door they came in was not the only one, they were located all over this world and the dark storm flooded in through each. The shadowy forces were only concentrated on this island, the ultimate goal was not the people, except for the summoner, but the world itself, it's power, it's heart. There was no final blaze of glory, no fight, but a terrible slip into darkness, a star fading out of the nighttime sky. They'd be watching for it. Riku walked over to Tidus as the men walked out, after all the orders had been to kill him; it would be conceivable that he was carrying out some other objective that concerned the man. Once Jitt and Ash had left however, Riku went back to the blonde who was still out cold.

Gently picking her up, he carried her outside and set her down again. He had no intention of using the portal. It would take far too long. Instead he raised his hand up into the air and began to concentrate. A moment later a glyph appeared, the same as the tattoo he had on the back of his neck, the same one that Ash had and Jitt, the curving down M, which was not an M at all. It represented an incomplete heart, the dark heart. The glyph wavered and a portal opened, not to the murky pathways that led between the worlds, but a dirty alley darkened city of another world. Turning Riku picked up the girl again and walked through the portal just a few minutes before the storm thickened and Spira was consumed...