A/N: Just so you know, I had a lot of fun with this chapter. XD I guess it's mostly just fluff or whatever, but I like it anyway and it's kind of interesting to read. You get to learn a little more about Mizu and marvel at the OOCness of Riku. Enjoy, and review, please!
Riku lay flat on his back, one arm thrown over his eyes in an attempt to block out what little light there was in the room and get some sleep. He was having problems with this, however, as he was feeling slightly sick to his stomach with some intense emotion he couldn't name. He took several deep breaths, but they didn't help any. After a while, though, he realised that the emotion was worry, even though he had nothing to be concerned about at the moment. He knew where Kairi was, he would go to her in just a few short hours. Sora and Kage were alright, as well, so he had no reason to worry about them.
Why did the name Kage sound wrong? He had always called her that, ever since Tidus and Wakka had given her that name while he was helping her regain the strength to walk. He had given her the nickname "Mizu," but that should have been the name that struck him as off-key, not the one he knew her best as. However, something about the name Mizu just seemed right when applied to her, like it was actually her name or something.
"This is rediculous," he muttered, rolling over and burrying his face in his pillow. "She doesn't even remember her name," he continued, though the words were muffled by the pillow. But that simple statement seemed wrong as well. He lifted his head up slightly and let it fall back down, landing with a soft thump on the pillow, and he groaned. "What's happening to me?"
Riku propped himself up on one hand and repeatedly punched the bed in frustration. After the faint depression his fist left behind became somewhat permanent, he let himself fall back on his stomach with a resigned groan.
"This can not be happening," he insisted into his pillow, but he couldn't explain why he kept talking out loud. "Am I going insane? First those visions, now this... What's going on?"
"Problem, koishii?" asked a voice that was painfully familiar, and even more painfully missed. Riku rolled over onto his back and sat up, staring incredulously at the girl sitting on the edge of his bed, one hand laying gently on his arm.
"Mizu!" he exclaimed, and moved to hug her, but to his dismay, he passed right through her. "What...? What's going on?"
"I'm not really here," Mizu explained. "I guess my heart was calling out to you while I was sleeping. Cloud or Serenity must have slipped something into my drink tonight. I haven't been able to sleep in days. Riku, why did you go back to them?"
"You didn't want me to come with," Riku explained, completelly perplexed by the question. Mizu raised an eyebrow and cocked her head curiously to one side. "Back in Traverse Town," Riku elaborated, "you told me you'd rather go with Cloud to find Kairi than go with me."
"Riku," Mizu said patiently, though her eyes betrayed her distress, "all I said was that I didn't trust Maleficent. But what does what we said in Traverse Town have to do with anything? Were you thinking of that the whole time you were with Cloud and me?"
"What?" Riku asked, stunned. "I didn't go with you and Cloud! You went with him and I met up with Maleficent."
"No, Riku, you came with us," Mizu said, urgency and fear making her voice reach a higher note than it usually did. "Oh, no..." A look of stunned disbelief crossed her face, and she stood up and began pacing, apparently lost in thought. "I was afraid this might happen. But I never expected that witch to stoop so low... Crap, I don't know what to do in situations like this!"
"Mizu, what--?"
"She altered your memories!" Mizu said, turning around almost angrilly. "I can't believe her! I knew she was spiteful and vindictive, but I never thought she'd pull a stunt like this!" Mizu sat heavily on the bed next to Riku and placed her corporeal hands over his. "Riku, whatever memories you have of what happened in Traverse Town are fabrications. They're not real, Riku! I'll admit I said I didn't trust Maleficent, and you argued that you didn't trust Cloud, but Cloud came looking for me--he was ready to leave so we could look for you and Kairi--and I convinced you to meet him. So you did, you glared daggers at each other, but you both agreed to give each other a chance to prove your trustworthiness, and we left! Cloud and I together showed you outer space, taught you some of the fundamentals of piloting a Gummi ship, and we landed on another world together! There, I tought you how to track in a forest, even move through it silently and easily, and within a day we got to a town about a mile into the forest, where we met with a friend of Cloud's, Serenity. We were asking around in the market if anyone had seen or heard of Kairi, and ran into Hades. When we'd sent him packing, we went back to the inn and went to bed. The next day, I went out on my own to see what I couldn't learn from the thieves and beggars, and when I came back, you were gone! There was a Heartless in our room, and I know it was Hades who took you."
"I don't remember any of this," Riku protested.
"That's because Maleficent altered your memories! Don't you get it?" Mizu's eyes were wet with tears she was doing a valiant job of holding back, but her voice began to tremble and Riku could sense the desperation and pain behind her words. And worse, he felt the fear as well. "She toyed with your mind so you'd believe I'd abandoned you or something, so you'd believe that she was the only way to get Kairi back!"
"But she is," Riku protested again. "Well, maybe she's not the only way, but she already has Kairi. I'm going with Captain Hook to get her tomorrow. I know where she is, I'll get her and bring her back, and we can all go home safe and sound! It's alright--"
"It's not alright!" Mizu exclaimed, jumping to her feet again. Her tears finally broke free and spilled down her cheeks. "Don't you get it? She's toying with you, she's making you believe things that aren't true! Maybe she had found Kairi, maybe she will help you get her back, but at what price? What does she want you to do in return for helping you?"
"She's looking for the Princesses of Heart," Riku said noncomitally, shrugging. "She wouldn't tell me why, but--"
"She's WHAT?" Riku winced at her volume and subconciously began rubbing his ringing ears. "That complete, imbicilic, self-centered, egotistical, ignorant, arrogant little BITCH! And you're helping her with this?"
"What?" Riku asked, honestly perplexed. "I don't see what harm it could do. I mean, yeah, it is a little odd getting seven girls together in one place, but it's not like it's my problem what she does with them."
"Oh, it had damn well better be your problem!" Mizu said, now quite obviously enraged. "She's going to open the Door To Darkness. That bitch, she wants Kingdom Hearts!" Mizu moved as if to storm through the door and hunt down Maleficent, but stopped and sighed in exasperation. "And I can't do shit about it like this!"
"Settle down," Riku said, trying to sound soothing but coming across as more annoyed than anything.
"I will not settle down!" Mizu almost screamed. "You have no idea what this means, do you?"
"Door To Darkness?" Riku asked. "It sounds harmless enough. What's so scary about a door?"
"It's not just any door, it's the Door To Darkness. She's going to unleash darkness on the worlds and use it to conquer them so she can be supreme ruler. She's been planning that for who knows how long! This is so not good..."
"What?" Riku asked, still not understanding what she was so upset about. He could feel how scared she was, and he frankly had to wonder why she wasn't huddling in a corner screaming. Mizu sat down and put her face in her hands, and took a deep breath, managing to calm down a little, though she was still almost quaking with fear.
"Maleficent is using the Heartless to conquer worlds," Mizu explained, her voice shaking as much as her body should have been. "The Heartless feed on the darkness in people's hearts, eventually making a person into another Heartless. Maleficent can, to an extent, control the Heartless, but she wants total control, of everyone and everything in all of the worlds. She uses the Heartless to subdue the inhabitants of each world, and sometimes, she even allows the Heartless to kill by stealing people's hearts. If she opens the Door To Darkness, she will be able to completelly control the Heartless, and easily gain control of the worlds, exactly like she wants. She wants darkness to reign supreme, without even a speck of light." Mizu lifted her head from her hands, and folded those beneath her chin, staring off at the room, but not really seeing it, and tears openly pouring down her face as the only sign of her fear she would let show.
"I lost my home to that cause," Mizu whispered after a while. "And I thought I'd lost my family. She attacked my home nine years ago, and now she's using it as her stronghold, apparently. This room used to be mine. Cloud and I used to watch the sunsets in the Library, and Aerith would read me books sometimes if I couldn't read them for myself. Yuffie and I would explore from room to room, trying to find hidden niches and other rooms that we'd never seen before. And Squall and I used to spar in the courtyard, or he'd take me into town to see what new stuff was in the market. And Cid would tell me all about outer space, showing me the constelations at night and how to read the stars. When we weren't spending time with each other, we were helping Ansem with his research. I had the neatest handwriting of all of them, so Ansem had me organize his notes so they could actually be read. This place holds so many good memories for me. You have no idea how much it hurts, seeing this place in her hands. I almost don't recognize it..."
"I think I have some idea," Riku said softly, moving to put his arm around her shoulders, but he remembered that he couldn't touch her, and so put his arm back down. "I don't know why, but I can feel everything that you do. It's just a little fainter than what I'm feeling."
Mizu's hand moved up to touch her shoulder, where Riku's hand would have been had he managed to put his arm around her, and she appeared startled when she touched her own arm.
"I can feel you, too," she whispered. "Like a second heart, beating in my chest in perfect harmony with mine. It's almost enough, but... I want to be with you again. I want to be able to touch you, hold your hand in mine, feel your arms around me and not be able to pull away. Without you there beside me, it's almost like I'm empty inside. I know I have my duties, I know I have to stop Maleficent and whatever it is she's planning, but it all seems so pointless to me now. What matters most to me is that you're safe, or at least with me if you absolutelly have to be in danger."
She looked over to the window, and slowly got to her feet, then turned around and smiled sadly at Riku.
"I should probably go. You need to get some rest, and I'm just keeping you up." She bent down and placed her hands on either side of Riku's face, closed her eyes, and kissed him on the lips. He couldn't feel the kiss physically, but he still felt it in his heart, where it mattered most.
"Sleep well, my love."
With that, Mizu faded away, leaving Riku with nothing more than the faint impression that she had been there, and the lingering feel of her lips on his as proof that she had been there at all. And, amazingly enough, he did manage to get some sleep. However, in the morning, neither would even remember what had happened that night.
