something borrowed something broken/
something bartered something sold
theme ii. freedom.
When Riku needs to think, like he does now, after meeting Sora's shadow, he visits his friend. Between his blindfold and the protective petals of Sora's prison, he cannot actually see the boy, but it helps to know he's there. He places one black gloved hand (he's not pure enough to let it touch his skin)on the glassand whispers his everything to Sora. Now he can't say anything, because what would he?
I met your shadow today and we fought in the rain. He has your eyes and your face but someone else's hair and he's only your shadow (the shadow of something perfect) but he's different and more perfect to me than you ever were. I don't know his name or his smile but I imagine they're like yours. I hope you're not upset because every other moment I've only ever wanted to make you happy and you've only ever loved her and if this breaks you it will break me and her and no one will pick up the pieces.
But either way, Sora won't listen and Sora won't answer, so Riku wonders if these visits are ever worth it. Maybe if he doesn't need Sora (he's broken those damn red strings that bound him from the first day and restrung them from fingertip to fingertip, because that's where shadows come from and he and Roxas-whose-name-he-doesn't-know are only shadows) he needs his other. He knows he needs someone (something?) and Sora has set him free or maybe he's freed himself.
The whiteness of the room stretches forever around him and Sora, agoraphobia settling into his soul. He wonders, dully, if the King has arrived yet. Mickey, he knows, will come to find him. To watch out for poor, confused Riku who, being neither a Princess of Heart nor Sora, has darkness in his heart. He knows that Sora has a dark side, but it was drained out and emptied into the boy he fought earlier (so much more real, and vicious and alive than Sora) and what remains is more of a subtle shading than a deepening shadow.
His hand, resting on Sora's cage, contracts into a fist and he storms out of the room. He can feel those strings cut into his flesh because, apparently, he will never be free of Sora and his shadow. DiZ refuses to acknowledge him when he enters, and continues to do so until Riku forcibly turns him around to face him. For all the rage coursing through him, his voice is surprisingly calm and controlled.
What are you going to do with Sora's memories? Is Naminé going to put them all back in place? The bandaged man's silence does nothing to deter him. Make her change them. I want her to change them. I don't want him to remember me; I need him to forget me. Please, please. His voice cracks a little on the last syllable, but DiZ tactfully ignores it and turns around, his back giving Riku all the answers he needs.
As the portal to the darkness opens on the far wall and Riku dives into it, searching for the blond boy he needs to know, he has to wonder if the subtle burning sensation is that of fate sundering.