Chapter 7: The Grid: Riku's Side

Riku noticed right off the bat that this world was very vert different from the previous ones he had been on. The dead giveaway was of course everything looking technological and futuristic, but the other aspect was that his outfit changed completely.

"What is this place?" he wondered.

He had never seen a world like this before. It almost seemed strange that a techno world would even be sleeping. But never the less, he had to have come here for a reason, so it was best to see why.

He didn't get far when he noticed a ship descent before him.

"Well, this should be interesting"

A few masked guards spilled out of the ship and approached him, using a strange disc to scan him for something. Not liking what they found, they grabbed him by the arms and started taking him towards the ship.

"Another stray. Take him for quarantine"

Riku yanked himself away from the guards but didn't run away. He really didn't know what was going on, but he knew it would have been a stupid idea to run away from the armed guards. So, with no other choice, he went towards the ship. When he boarded he was surprised to see another person on board as well.

Sam, Flynn's son looked at Riku as the ship took off.

"Are you a prisoner?" he asked.

Riku just shrugged.

"It looks that way"

Sam gave him a weak grin.

"I'm Sam"

"I'm Riku. Where are we, Sam?" Riku asked.

"We're on the Grid" was all Sam said.

Riku just started out the window of the ship as it passed through the digital city. He didn't know what was going on, but he had a feeling it was going to be anything but boring.

/

Instead of taking Riku to a prison, the guards dropped him off in the middle of a race track. Everywhere around him, programs were cheering, getting excited for what was about to unfold.

CLU and Rinzler appeared on the track and walked towards Riku. He could tell right away that whoever these two were, they were not gonna be on his side or help him out.

CLU wore a fake proud smirk as he offered Riku and strange looking stick.

"You're in luck. Only a precious few are granted Light Cycle battle privileges"

Riku gingerly took the stick from CLU and examined it.

"You gonna explain why it's so lucky?"

CLU just chuckled as he gestured behind Riku.

"I'll show you"

No sooner had he said that, a few Light Cycles zipped past them. The vehicles kept crashing into each other, hoping to knock their opponent off the track. When one of them went flying, the crowd would go wild and cheer.

Riku slowly started to realize what kind of match this was and didn't like where this was going. It seemed on this world, instead of arresting and throwing prisoners in jail, they just made them fight other prisoners to the death. How charming.

Looking at the device in his hand, he realized if he wanted to get out of here alive, he would have to fight his way out of the arena.

"This shouldn't be too hard…right?"

Activating his Light Cycle, he quickly took off and joined in the race. He focused on trying to get ahead of the other racers, so he wouldn't have to worry about getting hit. Whenever another racer tried to get close and cut him off, Sunny would appear and knocked them out of the way with her horns.

The race went on for a little while more until it was only Riku left on the track. Knowing that CLU wasn't going to let him go, he quickly took matters into his own hands.

"I think I've had enough entertainment for one day"

Driving his Light Cycle off the track, he aimed the blasters at the nearest wall and fired at it, creating a hole. With a new route, Riku drove through the opening and got as far away from the arena as he could.

/

Hiding within the city, Riku jumped off the Light Cycle and decided where he should go. If he got caught again he had a feeling CLU would make him do something worse than Light Cycle racing. He needed to figure out why he was on this world and make sure he didn't get caught at the same time.

Fortunately, he wasn't the only one who managed to escape because he found Sam.

"Riku! You managed to escape!"

He quickly ran up to him.

"Listen, I know a way off the Grid. Wanna come with?"

Riku shook head. He had a task he needed to do here for the exams, so he needed to stay put.

"No, you go on ahead" he said.

Sam shrugged and started to walk away. However, as he did so, Riku processed what Sam told him. What did he mean 'a way off'? Did he mean get off this world or something else?

"Wait, what do you mean a way out?" he said as he went after Sam.

Sam stopped and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Through the portal" he said vaguely.

"You're gonna have to be a little more specific than that. What do you mean by a portal?" Riku asked.

"It's this gate that opened up when I came here" Sam explained.

"Once I'm back in the real world I can delete CLU. And then…then my dad will be able to come home"

"Your dad?" Riku asked. It seemed instead of getting more answers, Sam was just giving him more things to question and ponder over.

"He vanished twenty years ago when he came here to the Grid" Sam explained.

"But because he needed to protect his disc from CLU, he went into hiding. He's been trapped here ever since. But I'm gonna change that"

"I see…" Riku said.

It seemed the more he was on this world, the more confusing it was. People being trapped within a world, making them fight to the death as punishment, learning there was a possibility of a way to get out of this world while it was sleeping? There had to be more that was going on.

Knowing he just couldn't walk away from this, Riku decided he needed to get to the bottom of this.

"You mind if I go with you after all? I wanna see what this portal is"

Sam shrugged, showing he didn't mind.

"Sure. I'll take what help I can get. But first, there's somebody I need to meet. He's in the city"

With that the two of them headed deeper into the city, hoping to find out just what was going on with this world and why it acted so strangely.

/

When they made it further into the city, Sam looked at Riku.

"Kill some time till I get back"

He left, leaving Riku to himself. He really didn't care though. This was the perfect chance to process his thoughts about the exam and what had happened since it started.

Obviously, he knew something was off. It was a no brainer that this exam was going to be hard, but the fact that this Mysterious Figure and Ansem had showed up raised some red flags. Why were they here? Or better yet, how did they get here? These worlds were supposed to be trapped within the sleeping realm so how were they able to get here?

Not only that but this world seemed to have a way of getting out to the outside world. Sleeping worlds shouldn't be able to do that, right? If they could then they wouldn't be sleeping.

'Unless…this world isn't really trapped within a dream' Riku thought.

He didn't have time to break apart this world's logic since he heard a commotion up ahead.

Knowing that was where Sam ran off to he quickly headed towards that direction, hoping that CLU or the Nightmares hadn't gotten to him.

/

He was relieved to see Sam was ok, but he was puzzled as well to see two other individuals with him. Sam was holding an unconscious Quorra while Flynn tried to see what was wrong with her.

"Sam, what's going on?" Riku said.

Flynn looked confused when he saw him.

"Who's this?"

"I'm Riku. Sam and I were on our way to the portal"

Flynn seemed weary of adding a stranger to their group, but he knew there wasn't time to argue about it.

"Very well, come with us"

"Were exactly are we going anyway?" Sam asked.

"The Portal" Flynn said. "But we need a Solar Sailer. There's one in the underground docks"

They quickly rushed to the docks knowing that time wasn't on their side.

/

They were able to make it to the docks without being seen and quickly got on one of the Sailers. When they took off, Flynn went about trying to fix Quorra while Same watched.

Riku only heard bits and pieces of their conversation about Quorra and CLU. It seemed in his foolish attempt to make something perfect, Flynn created CLU whose only purpose was to find perfection and destroy anything that wasn't.

As he looked at Sam and Flynn he couldn't help but see Taiyouko and Diz. Like Flynn and Sam, they shared a very strained parent/child relationship. Diz was focused on finding the purpose of the heart and its mysteries, only to push his daughter aside feeling that her presence didn't contribute to his goal. And much like Flynn, Diz would have his own version of CLU-an apprentice named Xehanort. And similar to CLU's nature, Xehanort would destroy anything that didn't relate to his quest for finding the secrets of the heart or restoring Kingdom Hearts.

It hurt to think that if either Flynn or Diz would have been more accepting of their children and not focused on their goals, then none of this would have happened.

'If Diz had just been more accepting of Taiyouko, then maybe Xehanort wouldn't have tricked her into loving him and used her as his puppet' he thought.

'But then…if none of that happened…I probably wouldn't have met Hikari…my future might have been very different'

Despite their easy start, their ride was about to take an ugly turn. CLU's ship managed to catch up to them and was on their tail. The ship jolted as CLU's ship connected to theirs.

"We've been put on a new course" Flynn said bitterly.

There was nothing they could do as their ship was being forced to a nearby dock.

/

They all hid as CLU's guards searched the ship. The program knew Flynn was on the move and he was not going to let the User get to the portal before he did.

"What are we going to do? We can't leave without being seen and if we fight them, its gonna alert CLU that we're here" Riku said.

Quorra was quiet as she thought of something before she didn't something crazy. Removing her disc, she gave it to Flynn before running off, alerting the guards.

"She's removing herself from the equation" Flynn realized.

Sam watched sadly as he saw the guards take Quorra away.

"We can't just let her go"

He went to go after her, but Flynn held him back.

"Wait, Sam. What about getting you to the portal? You have to shut them down from outside"

"But Quorra comes first!" Sam insisted.

"And we still have to get back your disc"

Flynn just shook his head.

"Sam, if you chase two rabbits, you won't catch either"

Riku stood awkwardly as he watched the two bickered.

'Yeah they certainly remind me of Taiyouko and Diz'

Feeling that he was the only reasonable person here, he decided to speak up.

"If this is a father-son thing, I won't butt in, but we should probably get back that disc before CLU uses it. Just saying"

Knowing Riku had a point, Sam reluctantly agreed.

"You're right."

He looked at his dad.

"Meet us on the flight deck. We'll get the disc back"

Both he and Riku then headed off.

"Riku, I gotta save Quorra too" Sam pleaded.

"I know. We'll find her, don't worry" Riku said.

"Now where would CLU keep your dad's disc?"

"It should be somewhere on CLU's ship. I saw it dock here earlier"

They headed for CLU's ship, hoping that the disc was still there.

/

After much sneaking around and avoiding the guards, the two of them made it into CLU's quarters of the ship.

Sure, enough Sam spotted his father's disc near the center of the room and went for it. However, CLU wasn't programmed to be an idiot. The moment Sam removed the disc an alarm went off, signaling the guards they were there.

The guards that had captured Quorra appeared. The young program looked worried that her companions were caught.

"Sam! Riku! Go!"

"Not without you, we're not" Sam said.

Riku tried to figure out how to get them out of this situation. If they tried to attack, then the guards would harm Quorra, but if they stalled it would alert CLU that they were here.

He noticed the door leading out of the room was still open. If he could knock the guards out without them noticing, they might have a chance of getting out of here. Summoning Sunny and Hika, he had the two Dream Eaters appear outside the door-right behind the guard's backs. Giving off a shrill whistle, he let his companions know where he was and hoped they would know what he wanted them to do. Sure, enough the Dream Eaters spotted him and bolted towards him. They slammed into the guards, knocking them out of the way and freeing Quorra in the process.

Quorra made quick work of knocking the guards out before turning to her friends.

"What are you doing here?"

"No time to explain. We gotta make it to the fight deck" Sam said.

"But CLU will be here any minute. We'll never make it" Quorra said.

Hika nudged Riku's arm to get his attention. The Pegaslick motioned towards the window at the front of the ship, which showed the hanger bay that they were in.

Riku caught on to what his Dream Eater was showing and quickly jumped on her back.

"Get on, I have an idea"

Sam and Quorra didn't know what Riku was planning but they felt it was better than standing around waiting for CLU to show up. Jumping on Hika's back, they watched as Riku aimed his Keyblade at the windows and shattered it with his magic. Hikari jumped through the opening and flew towards the flight deck where Flynn was waiting for them.

/

Flynn had a ship waiting for them when they arrived. Wasting no time, they hoped on and flew off towards the portal.

"We only have an hour left before the portal closes up on us, so we need to hurry" Flynn said.

They pushed the ship to go as fast as it could to get to the portal before time ran out.

With time against them, they finally managed to make it to the portal. They quickly ran up the steps, hoping they were finally home free, however when they made it to the last step, all their hope washed away.

Standing between them and the portal was CLU and he was anything but happy. Quorra went to go attack him, but Flynn held an arm up to stop her.

"I'll handle this" he said.

He walked towards CLU, hoping to keep him distracted from going near the portal.

"Had a feeling you'd be here" he said with a weak smile.

CLU shook with anger and jabbed a finger at his direction.

"You! You promised that we would change the world…together!" he cried.

"You broke your promise! I took the system to its maximum potential. And now, you see the applications at my disposal!"

He snapped his fingers and summoned the Commantis from earlier. It stood in front of the portal, making sure that if any of them tried to reach for it, the Nightmare would keep them away.

"Impossible" Flynn breathed.

Riku stepped forward, summoning his Keyblade. Now that he wasn't on a Light Cycle, he had a better chance of defeating the Commantis.

"You can leave this one to me"

He wasted no time in attacking. He knew they were running out of time and that if he didn't get rid of this Nightmare the portal would be closed for good and CLU would cause more havoc to the Grid. He made sure to lure the Commantis away from the portal, so it wouldn't get damaged while they fought.

Riku wished that he had better knowledge of how programming worked otherwise he could have fried the Commantis. But he did know that anything computer based had a very simple but very powerful weakness: water. If he was able to drench the Commantis, the Nightmare would destroy itself on its own.

Jumping on Hika he flew around the Nightmare and lured it further away from the portal, so it wouldn't get damaged with what Riku was about to do next.

"Waterga!"

The Commantis was completely drenched as water poured out of Riku's Keyblade. Sure enough, the Nightmare short-circuited and disintegrated into particles.

With the Commantis gone, CLU was left alone with Flynn, Sam, Quorra and Riku against him.

"I created the perfect system!" he insisted.

Flynn shook his head sadly.

"The thing about perfection is that it's unknowable. It's impossible, but it's also…."

He looked at his son.

"Right in front of us, all the time. You wouldn't know that because I didn't when I created you. I'm sorry, CLU. I'm sorry"

CLU yelled out in anger and kicked Flynn out of the way. He ran for the portal hoping to get to it before it closed but Sam, Quorra and Riku stood in his way, keeping him back.

"CLU! Remember what you came for" Flynn called out.

He held up his disc showing he had it. CLU ran back to Flynn, never realizing that was what Flynn wanted. As CLU was running towards him, Flynn deactivated the bridge that connected to the portal, making sure CLU wouldn't be able to reach it again. CLU snatched the disc from Flynn and activated it but was horrified to see that it wasn't Flynn's disc, but rather Quorra's.

When he saw the disc that was attached to the program, he realized that Flynn switched the disc on purpose.

"No…"

He looked at Flynn desperately.

"No…why?"

Flynn just smiled weakly.

"He's my son" was all he said.

CLU punched Flynn in the face then ran for the portal.

"Dad!" Sam cried.

Flynn groaned as he rubbed his face.

"Sam! Its time!"

Sam shook his head desperately. Flynn was on the other side of the bridge. At this rate there wouldn't be any time for him to reach them on the other side by the portal.

"No, not without you!"

"Sam, it's what he wants" Quorra said softly.

Sam tried to run back towards the other end of the bridge but Quorra held him back.

"I'm not leaving you!"

Flynn smiled weakly.

"Take her, Sam. It's the only way to fix this"

Quorra took out Flynn's disc and handed it to Sam. Biting his lip, Sam reluctantly took it and brought it towards the portal to activate it.

A tear slid down Flynn's cheek as he watched his son step on the portal.

"Good-bye, kiddo" he said quietly.

CLU was able to get to the other end of the bridge and ran for the portal before Sam and Quorra could escape.

Riku jumped in front of him and aimed his Keyblade at him, keeping him away from Sam and Quorra.

"Don't even think about it!"

Using the last of his powers in this world, Flynn summoned CLU back towards him. As the program connected with him, both disappeared. Thanks to Flynn's noble sacrifice, Sam and Quorra were able to escape into the portal before it closed for good.

/

With the threat finally gone, Riku slowly approached the deactivated portal.

"Looks like the portal is gone" he said.

It was sad that Flynn couldn't escape with Sam, but he did what any good father would have done and made sure his child was able to get away safe. He hoped that Sam was able to fix things on the other side for his father's sake.

"These gates that connect worlds-maybe when we pass through them, we're challenged and changed" he thought.

"And it's not over. There are more trials ahead I have to overcome. But I'll be ready for them"

He thought back to what Flynn said to CLU before he disappeared.

"Perfection is impossible…but it's also right in front of us"

He had wished that Diz could have heard these words. If only he realized that you couldn't study how a heart works but rather could only feel it, then maybe he would have had a better relationship with Taiyouko. If only he had loved his daughter more, then he would have found the answers that he was looking for.

And maybe through that, Xehanort would have found what he was looking for too.

He smiled sadly knowing he couldn't change the past but simply learn from it.

"I hope I'll never be like that with our kids" he said to himself.

He clutched Hikari's necklace and gave it a small squeeze.

"But then again, I have a feeling you would make sure that would never happen…right Hikari?"

/

Back on Radiant Garden, Lea re-entered Ansem's study after scouting the area for Isa and the others.

"Where are they? I've turned this castle upside down" he said to himself.

He saw Ienzo and Aeleus tidying up the study, trying to get it back in order and searching for clues.

"Hey, are the other two still out cold?"

Aeleus nodded as he scanned the bookshelves.

"Dilan and Even are conscious again, but still unstable…they're resting inside"

Lea nodded in understanding.

"Gotcha. Well, I guess I'll give the castle grounds a sweep"

"Don't" Ienzo said.

"If they were back, we would have found them by now. And we don't need the unwanted attention of the town residents at this moment"

"In translation: you don't want your nephew, Leon to know that you're back which would result in your sister knowing and you're not ready to face her after everything that's happened, am I correct?" Lea clarified.

When Ienzo didn't say anything he knew he hit the nail on the head.

Sighing, he walked around the study, trying to find a clue of some sort that would lead him to finding their companions as well as Tsukiko and Ankoku.

"So do ya think they were blasted off to some other world, or what?"

"I highly doubt it" Ienzo said.

"When someone who's lost their heart is recompleted, they should return to the place where it happned. And if that world is unavalible for whatever reason, a refuge is made for them in the realm between-a world called Traverse Town. They would be sent there, or perhaps-"

Lea quickly cut him off, not wanting a long explination.

"No, look, okay-the fact is- we're here. We've been recompleted, right? So they should be here too-plain and simple"

"I agree, it is strange" Ienzo agreed.

Lea sighed in frustration as he looked at the wall containing Ansem's formula for the world of darkness.

"What a drag. Could they have not been recompleted?"

Ienzo shrugged as he thought of a theory.

"Well, you see-"

"Ah! Forget it" Lea said as he studied the formula more. An idea came to him mind as he read the inscription for 'Door to Darkness'. He was starting to piece together where Isa and Braig were.

"You know what? I'll bring them back myself"

Ienzo looked at him skeptically, wondering if he had lost his mind.

"How exactly?"

Lea paid him no mind as he wore his usual smirk.

"I always get stuck with the icky jobs"

He spun on his heel and walked out of the lab with purpose.

He knew where to find Isa and Briag now, but there was one other person that was more important now that he needed to find.

"Hang on, Tsukiko. I'm coming for you"

/

A/N: Awwww, Riku is already thinking about having kids with Hikari. Wonder what else he's thinking about.

Sorry if this chapter was a little on the sloppy side. Like I said before this was my least favorite world from the game and since I didn't see the movie it was super tricky to think it out.

Seems like Taiyouko and Ansem the Wise aren't the only ones with a rocky parent-child relationship. If only Ansem had been a better parent to his daughter, then his family wouldn't have been dragged into this mess with Xehanort.

And it seems Lea is off to find Tsukiko! Gah, I can't wait to write their reunion out!

Please review and tell me what you think!

Take care!