Story Details: Strange dreams plague Riku, a teenager from New York. And one day the door opens… and a boy named Sora falls from the sky. Memories must be remade, but a familiar darkness is returning... Spoilers for Chain of Memories and of course, Kingdom Hearts. Ri/So/Ro/Na romances later on.
Author's Note: I'm back after a looong break from writing to deliver this story, which has been stewing in my head for a long time now. Hope you all enjoy it! I have several chapters already written, so review if ya like it… chapters come out faster that way!
For those of you who are wondering… an aphelion is the point on the orbit of a celestial body that is farthest from the sun. Yes, this is actually important to the story ?)
For the sake of all things wonderful: PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ANY REVIEWS THAT REVEAL PLOT DETAILS OF KINGDOM HEARTS II! Don't ruin my life that way. But please do review! Onwards now, to the story!
------
Aphelion
01:
Destati
Darkness, a malady of the light that turns everything the color of claws and empty space and stones.
I'm falling through the deep sea.
Falling, falling, and I have a feeling that it's not gravity pulling me down, but the calling of some foul and unseen beast. The wetness clutches at my body, sending shivers of cold and fear down my spine. I can breathe, but the air—or whatever it is—feels heavy in my throat, and reeks of carrion. Everywhere, there is darkness, cold and damp like old blood, the feeling of storm clouds and impending wrath. Something, or more than one something, is raking little nails down my neck and face, smelling like dead stars and wafers of broken feathers. I struggle to swat at them, but my hands won't move. Disgust and nausea roll up my throat and billow into a silent scream, the kind that makes you quake down to your soul. I want to throw up, to die, to kill myself if I must to break the downward spiral, but my body merely swirls down further, further, into the depths of this unending nightmare…
Don't be afraid. The smells change. Blooming from the scent of decay comes something else, like a sliver of gold, or maybe rain, or the warmth of firewood. Something shimmers in the darkness, and he appears. But, as usual, his face is hidden from me by the tempestuous shadows, which hiss and bay at him like beasts. The sinewy arms enfold us, reaching unseen hands into every orifice of my heart. My vision wavers, the shadows cackle, and I can feel the iciness spreading within me, suffocating me. He is unafraid. He reaches for me, slowly, his hand offering sanctum, even as the tentacles of darkness drag both of us down into the awaiting hell of the unknown. Don't be afraid, says the boy who smells like wind. You are the one who will open the door…
---
Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
- Anias Nin
---
The warm water cascaded down his body, stroking away the cold sweat and the shaking. The boy slid a hand through his pearly locks of hair, allowing the hot breath of the shower to displace the fear of the dream.
More like the nightmare.
Riku stepped out of the shower, and reached for the plush white towel hanging on the ornate silver rack. The bathroom had steamed up, covering the houseplants and the grey marble floor in a skirt of fog. Swiping a hand across the clouded mirror, the young man met the aquamarine gaze of his own reflection. The Riku in the mirror stared fiercely back, the fear of the night in his gem-like stare.
Nightmares can't hurt you, Riku reassured himself, as he brushed his teeth with vengeance. The reflection in the mirror looked back with eyes clouded by doubt-- the last few weeks sleep had evaded him like a clever animal, replaced by the disturbing dream of falling into an endless abyss. He yanked on a pair on dark blue denim jeans over black boxes, followed by a skintight yellow undershirt and a black pullover hoodie jacket. It was probably snowing again today, but no earthly cold bothered him, an impressive inborn trait that allowed him to stroll around in negative temperatures with little more than a shirt, a gift no doctor had yet figured the scientific meaning of, and that everyone around him had simply come to accept as one of life's odd quirks.
It was only in the landscape of his nightmares in which he felt the overwhelming cold of the darkness.
The house was bathed in the quiet of the morning. Riku liked this time of the day most, when the maids weren't up yet and his mother was not parading around the house with her posse of reporters and admirers, a bogus smile plastered over her perfectly made-up face. This is my one-of-a-kind Italian white leather couch, she'd purr, touching the ruby-studded armrests to the oohs and aahs of her followers. I got it as a present from my third husband; the rubies are a nice touch, aren't they? The boy despised his mother, from her fake giggle to her fake affection for him. To her, Riku was just another pretty piece of luggage she felt obliged to carry with her as she waltzed from mansion to mansion; he was much on the same level as the men she had used to start her fruitful modeling career and her precious couch.
The boy sneered slightly at the thought as he slid open the glass doors to one of the house's numerous balconies. School would not start for another two hours or so, but Riku did not mind being awake because he enjoyed watching the spectacle of dawn. The show was different everyday, and was always beautiful—the burnished sun awakening, stretching its glowing arms to tenderly brush the fading stars; it was a sight Riku never tired of watching. At the moment, however, the scenery was draped in the dark cloak of twilight. His mother's manor was placed in one of the chic New York neighborhoods far from school, but it was only a twenty minute drive in his car. Crisp, frigid air greeted the teen as he gazed down the immensely long driveway, which was framed by the thick, bare skeletons of oaks which would explode with emerald green leaves at the touch of spring heat.
It was then that Riku's gaze happened to drift upward, and his attention was caught by one of the remaining diamond pinpricks in the night sky. The star pulsed, its radiant heartbeat waxing and waning with a strange power. The sterling-haired teen stopped, his throat suddenly feeling crackly and dry with anticipation, though what he was anticipating he did not know. Suddenly, trembling like a feverish child, it plummeted from the sky like a flaming meteor, ripping the newborn clouds asunder in its descent. The boy stared, statue still, as he felt—rather than heard—the impact.
He didn't know what was pulling him towards the light, but there was an ache that touched his heart and willed him to action. Riku's feet moved of their own volition. He raced down the marble staircase, tore open the door—surely the noise would wake up the maids—loped down the sloping lawn, vaulted the English brick fence, and stood panting softly in the empty street. The falling star had touched down merely four yards away, where it hovered above the concrete like a shimmering crimson phoenix of spiraling light. Curled inside the glowing light was the small form of a body. A person? Impossible.
"Shit," Riku exhaled. He cast a gaze around at the slumbering houses around him. Why hadn't anyone come out to investigate the gigantic fireball that was floating in the streets? Were the walls so thick and their slumber so deep that they couldn't feel the sheer power peeling off of it, the force that made his bones rattle? He approached the star, somehow unafraid of the unknown, but cautious all the same. The silver-haired boy paused directly in front of it. It breathed only slight warmth, and an almost-familiar scent that he couldn't quite decipher. Steeling himself for the worst, his hand reached to touch the quivering, pulsing sphere…
To fear the fire.
Falling, the endless sensation flowing through his body like water.
On one side the dark.
Pungent, deep shadows roaring with the power of a million black lions.
On the other side the light.
Intense, lustrous beams waltzing with the sheen of a million suns.
Do you remember?
You are the one who will open the door.
You are…
"Hey! Hey! Wake up!" Something was shaking him insistently, making his head loll back and forth uncomfortably. The vision was fading into obscurity, leaving only impressions of color and fear in the back of his mind. What time is it? Where am I? And who the hell is shaking me!
"Get off!" Riku pushed the figure back, gasping as though he had been submerged. His throat felt uncomfortably tight as he stood shakily in the middle of a familiar forest, a deep well of darkness in the early morning gloom. This particular stand of trees was behind his mother's house, and as a child he'd often played alone here, pretending he was a knight guarding the sacred forest treasure… Riku shook his head fiercely to stop the incoming migraine. The silver haired boy felt as though he had been knocked out with a club and force-fed him a gallon of poison. He looked down at the brunette boy sitting wide-eyed on the pavement, and his mind did not yet make the connection between the stranger and the star.
"Where'd it go?" Riku demanded brusquely of the kid on the floor. "Hey, kid, did you see it too?"
The boy just looked at him, utterly dumbfounded. Riku studied him for a moment. He wore a red jumper covered by a short-sleeved jacket, and enormous yellow shoes that were the exact hue of a ripe banana. Chains shaped like crowns jingled softly around his waist. His tawny hair was the color of a crisp leaf and stood up in spires around the boy's face. The pair examined each other for a second or two longer, dawn's weak light shattering on bare branches overhead and silence stretching between them. Then the brunette sprung off the forest floor and grabbed the sides of Riku's face with gloved hands, a look of inexplicable joy on his young face, eyes shimmering like round sapphires.
"Riku! It's really you…You're really…I mean, you're not…"
Something in the older boy snapped. There were simply things that were too overwhelming for his limited patience to deal with, and a meteor crash, having dreams filled with weird voices, and now being manhandled by some kid were not his idea of a good Monday morning. He slapped the boy's hands away and adjusted his rumpled clothes. The kid couldn't have looked more stunned and hurt if his own mother had set him on fire.
"I've never seen you in my life."
"But I—it's me—"
"Listen, maybe you saw me in a tabloid or something, okay? Happens all the time. I gotta get to school, so thanks for taking me out of the street." Riku stepped around the flabbergasted boy and dusted leaf litter off of himself. As he turned his back, he did not see the confusion clear out of the boy's eyes, replaced by a venom that was unsuitable for such innocent blue. He extended an open hand. Sparkling veins of light traced the air and a pearly, winged key materialized in the boy's grip.
Riku froze in mid-step, sensing the immense power condensing behind him. He vaulted away as the blade slammed into the ground where he'd been standing. The boy uprooted the Keyblade, glowering at his former friend. "It's you, isn't it…Ansem? What've you done to Riku?"
With a jerk of his foot, Riku flipped a dead oak branch into his waiting hand. Sliding into a fencing stance, he gave the brunette an arrogant smile. "Dunno who you are, but if it's a fight you want, then you've got it."
"Get out of his body," the other growled.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Then there won't be any second chances for you!" The winged blade sliced the air, singing with its master's rage. Riku flipped back and sidestepped the next two blows, positioning himself behind a tree. Agility would not save him for long, however. The teen's fist glowed crimson, and he hurled the Keyblade. The first strike split the tree in half, and Riku was forced to duck or be decapitated. Shards of bark littered the ground. He hardly had a chance to look up before he saw the brunette outlined against the sky, the honed tip soaring downward like a claw for a killing blow… Riku rolled and jumped to his feet, barely dodging impalement. The boy pulled the key close to his body, and lunged toward him in a blaze of light. Riku raised the branch to parry, fully aware that a stick wasn't going to stop the explosively powerful weapon, but there was no time to move…
Images of darkness and light, day and night. The flutter of a raven's wing, tempered by a dove.
You are the one who will open…
You are the one…
The boy was only feet away—he could see those ocean blue eyes—
You are…
The door…
Don't you remember?
You've gained the power to fight.
Soul Eater.
His hand quivered; the oak branch was incinerated by dark flame; a curiously chilly, tingling sensation raced down his arm; and in his hand materialized a curved, black sword in the shape of a wing, with a single monsterish eye. It happened within a second, as if he had willed it to. Riku grabbed the hilt with the other hand and held it steady. Keyblade and winged sword clashed tremendously in midair, each biting into the steel of the other and casting sparks and waves of light. The brunette grunted in surprise and heaved Soul Eater aside as he stepped back. Both fighters raised their weapons, ready to duel—
"Riku! What the hell are you doing out here at six in the morning, making such a damn ruckus that you wake me up!" Surprised and caught off guard, the silver-haired boy looked over the head of his opponent to see his mother, dressed impeccably in a cashmere coat, striding towards them through the trees. Both weapons shimmered out of existence. The woman paused at the sight of the two boys who stood so close that their outreached hands could touch.
"I'm not doing anything, Mother," he asserted as he strode away from the bewildered chocolate-haired boy. Riku snatched the front of the boy's jacket and half-dragged him down the path that led out of the trees. His mother flipped her pale blonde hair over her shoulder and sent her son her son a frigid look as he passed her.
"Listen, I don't care if you want to screw around in your spare time, but don't you dare go about it so loudly that you wake everyone up. What if the neighbors had seen you?"
"Mind your business," he snarled without a backwards glance. He did not stop walking until he had gone through the front door, weaved through the house's many ornate and modern pieces of furniture, and past the amazed stares of the maids. Riku shoved the boy into his room and stepped in after him, slamming the door shut. The brunette sprawled on the carpet, which formed a snow-hued tundra in the immense room. The winter sun was framed in the large French windows, and the light brightened the whites and pale blues of the large, sparse room. They looked at each other in silence, Riku half-seething at the boy who had ruined his day entirely and half filled with unquenchable curiosity. He was surprised by the sudden, disarming smile of the boy, who seemed unexpectedly cozy as he crossed his legs and placed his hands behind his head.
"What's your deal?" Riku muttered as he crossed the room to sit on the bed. The boy's playful expression and soft eyes made him vaguely uncomfortable. He was unused to friendliness, especially from strangers.
"You haven't changed at all." The boy went on smiling, teasing. "I guess you aren't Ansem after all, 'cause you aren't spewing any junk at me about 'opening my heart to the darkness' or anything. You don't really feel like him, at least now you don't, anyways. Are you gonna start remembering who I am now? We haven't been apart long enough for you to forget my name, have we?"
"Listen, kid, I told you I've never seen you before in my life. Anyways, you have a lot to explain to me, and I—" The boy had rolled to his feet, and the blink of an eye he stood in front of Riku, all traces of amusement gone from his expression. He was studying Riku's face as if it were a math problem, his deep sea eyes filled with worry, disappointment, and confusion. Riku stared back, not wanting to back down but at the same time wishing that the boy would give him some breathing room.
"Hey...you're not kidding, are you?" The boy put a gloved hand on Riku's head, touching the soft silver gently. "You…really don't remember me, do you, Riku?"
He pulled away, his discomfort magnified by a hundred times over by the boy's proximity and by the feeling in his eyes. "No, I really don't know you. Care to fill me in? You came out of nowhere. You thought you knew me, which is pretty damn impossible because I don't know you, and then you decided I was possessed by somebody else and tried to toast me with a gigantic key. Let's start there, kid." He folded his arms over the chest of his black hoodie, and waited for the explanation.
A pout danced across his Sora's lips, and he dropped his hands on his hips. "For starters, my name's not 'kid'. It's Sora, and we grew up together on an island—well, on another world—"
"Excuse me? Another world?"
The brunette waved a hand impatiently. "Yeah, yeah, you know, like from the stars. You saw me when I crashed in the middle of the street, right? Well anyways—"
"Wait, that was you? Are you trying to tell me that you can travel from world to world? As in through space?"
"Yeah, but that's the issue, see, 'cause I shouldn't be able to move from world to world, that only started with the Heartless—"
"With the what?"
Sora peered at the other boy, running nervous fingers through his thick chestnut hair. "You can't even remember the Heartless?"
Riku crossed his arms and glared back, leashing his fury and annoyance. "How am I supposed to know about things that never happened to me? This whole day has been damn ridiculous from the start. Number one, I think you're crazy. Is this a game show or something?"
"Are you nuts?" Sora laughed. "I finally manage to find you, thanks to the Keyblade, and you can't remember a thing. You can at least remember Kairi right?"
"…I think I've just been dropped into the fucking Twilight Zone. I have no idea what you're talking about."
Sora was beginning to look a little desperate now. "Riku… think about it. There must be a reason I'm here, right? I mean, people don't fall outta the sky everyday! And there has to be reason that you're here, when you should be with King Mickey somewhere, behind the Door…"
"King--? Alright, you know what? I'm going to go to school now. And if you're not out of here in five minutes, I'm calling the cops, you hear me?" Riku pushed past the protesting boy and trotted down the grand marble staircase, squeezing his eyes shut against an incoming migraine. "The things people will do for an autograph," he mumbled with disgust. Why couldn't his mother just keep her raving fans to herself?
The teen strolled out into the garage, twirling his keys lazily in one hand. The enormous room contained at least twenty of his mother's cars—Riku always lost count of the exact number. The shiny vehicles were doused in the rosy fire of the morning light, which seeped through the ceiling-to-floor bulletproof windows.
"G'morning Mister Riku!" The heavyset guard waved from his cubicle, his pleasant face spread in an amiable grin as he addressed his employer's son. "What can I get'cha? The red Porsche is runnin' rather smoothly today, but the Royce matches tha' color of your jacket there, fancy that—"
"Riku! Wait up!" The sound of sprinting feet drumming towards them prodded the guard into jumping to attention. The man pulled his pistol from the buckle of his trousers and leapt in front of Riku, aiming the gun at an extremely startled Sora.
"Don't kill him, Carlo," Riku laughed, amused at the standoff between the fifty-year-old guard and the stalker kid. "You'll be filing the damn police reports all day!"
Sora's lips twisted with frustration. "Hey, gramps! Move it! I'm trying to have a conversation and you're not see-through, ya know!"
"What'd you say to me, ya little punk?" The man's ruddy cheeks flared with color and he lunged out, ready to give the little brat a thorough beating for his rudeness. Unfortunately for Carlo, though, Sora was rather used to being attacked by foes much larger than he. Riku's eyes caught the glint of the gigantic key as it slashed through the air, magic flowing from its blade.
"Stopga!" The guard froze midair, his face a mask of surprise, his body completely forgetting how to move. Everything within the vicinity stilled, even the particles of dust that floated through the windows' beams of light and a tiny fly that happened to be buzzing by.
"How'd you do that?" asked Riku, wide-eyed with astonishment.
"Magic, of course," said Sora, as though he were merely explaining why the sky was blue. "He'll be fine in a couple of minutes."
"So… you really want me to believe that you're from another world. And that you can do magic." Riku paced away from the frozen form of Carlo--the stillness of the man was eerie.
"That's right." Sora followed, his hands casually resting behind his head.
"And what exactly is it that you want from me?"
"Whaddya mean? You're coming with me, of course." Sora glanced back at the sound of a slamming door. It sounded as though the guard had fled though a side door.
"The magic kid from Jupiter wants me to join him on an adventure." Riku turned with a smirk, his hands falling to his hips.
"Uh, well I don't know what a Jupiter is, but I do want you to come. After all, I've been looking for you for the longest time—and I have so much to tell you—"
Derisive laughter bubbled up from the older teen's throat. "Listen, kid. Unless you can give me some solid proof of this magic, or how you can travel to whatever world you're talking about, then I'm just gonna hop in my car and be on my way."
The world-traveler frowned, nibbled briefly on his lip in thought, then slowly closed his azure eyes. His silhouette was outlined in light, from both the windows and from within. The boy seemed to be focused inwards, his face a mask of serene concentration as the glow dusted his body in golden light. Riku heard his breathing dwindle into nothingness, and could feel a pleasant sensation paint his body in warmth. The ivory key pulsed into existence, where it hovered horizontally between them.
Come, come. Take it, wielder, come, I've been calling… A voice that had no voice, somehow familiar, ancient but fresh with a brimming power…
Without permission, but feeling that Sora wanted him to—that he had to—Riku clasped the winged handle and pulled the weapon from midair. He explored the elegantly carved design with his eyes, and the light danced along the blade like the sun against the sea. He was immediately overcome by sleepiness, as though the magic of the key had filled him with a gentle draught that dragged his eyelids down.
Oathkeeper.
The name flashed in his mind, and Riku said it aloud without wondering how or why he knew it. Sora remained perfectly still, witnessing but not interfering with the Keyblade's magic. The key spoke to him, in words that slid through his consciousness like a hazy dream.
Soul Eater has returned to the side of its former master…
Wielder, this world is not your own.
You must find the true…
Memories, tender strands and chains of heart, must be forged once again.
The light… you hold.
The shadow… you must seek.
When the raven and the dove become as one, call upon our brother's name…
You are the one who will open the door…
You are…
The turquoise-eyed boy awoke with a start. He gazed at the Keyblade, but its cryptic message seemed complete and it flashed out of existence leaving Riku's fist empty and his mind full of questions. His body trembled from the aftereffects of Oathkeeper's potent spell, and his mind was suddenly finding it easier to grasp that, somehow, magic did exist after all. "I am what?" he questioned no one in particular. "If I… really don't belong here… then who am I?"
"Do you really want to know?" Sora grinned, abruptly cheerful again. "I don't know what it said to you, but the Keyblade hasn't led me astray yet. It led me to here to you, after all. So… let's go."
Riku's suspicious gaze lifted to the boy's face. "Go where?"
Sora laughed, jamming his hands into the pockets of his red jumper. "I dunno…wherever Oathkeeper takes us. You won't find your answers here. So, let's go to other worlds…together!"
"But…how?"
"See for yourself."
The boy extended an open hand, summoning the Keyblade's power. All the light in the room swept forward and encircled his form, lifting his feet inches above the floor. Even the sun seemed to lose its shine; the world became a void of darkness with a single nucleus of light which rested within Sora. A delicious, golden scent wafted through the room, and Riku understood—the dream—
"Are you afraid?"
What did he have to lose? His current existence, under the thumb of his conceited mother? He had no friends here, only fawning admirers who followed him around at school like lovesick puppies. What did he have to gain? A memory of a past self, which he wasn't sure he believed in? An escape from this world, which was all he had known, yet despised? The friendship of this boy, who beckoned him with a smile on his face and a challenge in his eyes…
It was enough.
The sterling-haired boy grasped Sora's hand, answering the other boy's smile with a grin of his own. "Afraid? Not on your life."
The arms of the light enclosed them, and where they had stood there was now nothing—as if they had never existed at all. Outside, the first snow flurries of the day began to fall.
------
Don't forget to review!