Chapter Nineteen: Learning

Riku held his breath as the Heartless belched out noxious gas. Even so, he couldn't keep from inhaling some of the poison fumes. It burned as it trickled down to his lungs, though fortunately the pain didn't linger.

It gave him a chance to block the swinging arms hurtling towards him. His knees trembled as the tendrils crashed against his blade, yet he managed to hold his ground. Seeing his opening, he leapt up and slashed at the smaller head atop the Parasite Cage. The creature ineffectually swung at him. But with how high up he could jump, nothing reached him.

Finally the creature was knocked to the ground, and the mouth on its belly opened to reveal the dark core of the Heartless. Riku landed on the jaws, and began to stab his Dark Blade into the weak point. The heartless trembled as it grew weaker and weaker.

But then the jaws began to quiver and widen, and Riku lost his footing.

And the parasite cage bit onto it's meal.

Riku cried out as the jaws began to grind into his ankle. Using his good foot to keep steady, Riku saw the still glowing core of the heartless through the teeth. He growled, "What did I say? Eat me, and you'll get sick!" And plunged his sword into the core one final time.

The heartless shreaked at the blow, and with it, the creature finally expired for good. As it dissolved into dust, Riku chugged down a potion. Muscles relaxing as he could feel the medicine restore his foot to be good as new.

He waited again for something. Anything. One of the black cloaked men, Ansem, The King.

But still the guts of Monstro were silent, as the passage opened before him. All he could do was walk onward, back into the sterile halls of Castle Oblivion.

At least he could take comfort that Sora and Kairi were having an easier time than him. They deserved it.

Kairi ran in between the ice shots aimed at her. As Vexen fired another directly at her, she managed to bat the projectile right back at him. As he flinched from the damage, she focused her power and charged forward, breaking his guard. Again and again she rushed at him with her sonic blade, the final strike knocking him away.

Yet he was unperturbed as he picked himself up, chuckling, "Your skill with the keyblade in such a short time period is commendable." A cold wind surrounded him before he called out, "But now I must ask you to hold still!"

Kairi tried to block as he sent out whatever it was, only to find that her entire body was encased in a block of ice. The cold was almost too much to bear even as she was empowered by the Keyblade. She didn't want to think of what it would be like without it.

Vexen however, seemed to take his time walking over to her, "Hmm, combat response is slightly lacking. Though that may be due to a first time encounter with this particular stimuli." Kairi couldn't pay much attention to him. All she focused on was trying to fight back and break out of her frozen prison. Soon she felt the ice begin to creak as he kept on muttering "But certainly physically capable, eye response indicates consciousness while muscle activity shows struggle against—"

CRACK!

One large chunk of the ice broke away, resulting in the remainder splintering and falling apart. "You talk way too much!" Kairi wasted no time in cutting the rambling Vexen off with a swing of her keyblade.

His eyes widened in surprise as he brought up the shield to defect the blow. But then he began to grin again, "Indeed, quite tenacious! Willing to push on despite the odds! I'd say we were right in giving you a chance to hone your power!" He swung the spiked end of his shield towards her to break away from her.

Skidding against the ground, Kairi saw spikes of ice gathering around Vexen's feet. Then a larger one appeared in front of him, then another, much closer. Running from the ice needles chasing after her, she kept her eyes on her opponent. Once again, he gathered a cold wind around him. Though this time she was ready, rolling away out of another frozen tomb. She raised her keyblade and called out, "Light!" This time, a pearl of light shot forth to her target.

As it made contact with the off-guard Vexen, he screamed, "AAAGH! Potent! That power is very potent!" Kairi took advantage of his distraction to rush him down, unleashing a blitz of keyblade strikes. As the final attack sent him sprawling to the ground again, Vexen seemed more winded this time as he stood, "I..think that is enough for now. Even though you follow a different path from your father...there are some striking similarities in how determined you both are." Again, that same tremor in her heart. The dull ache as that connection seemed so difficult to escape. Vexen just began to smirk as he summoned a dark portal to limp into, "I look forward to seeing if you come to the same conclusions he did regarding the heart's true essence."

Kairi sighed as she dismissed her keyblade. Another set of stairs, another reprieve from the fighting. But this time there was no calming her heart or her mind. How her search for answers would lead her here.

To the fact that Ansem was a lunatic…A madman.

Even when they met again, he didn't say anything. Not even an acknowledgement of who she was to him. Ansem just decided that she was to be disposed of like garbage once her purpose was fulfilled. Along with the rest of her friends.

There was no way she could call such a monster her father.

Chugging another potion, she continued further into Castle Oblivion.

How far had he come in Castle Oblivion? How long was Riku here? For all of his bonds to become so loose that all he could remember was fighting him? Sora kept on blocking against the attacks, "Riku, don't you remember anything!? Please, you have to try!"

"I know I need to beat you! That's all I need to know!" And with that, he kept on swinging. Just like Hollow Bastion, Riku had created a barrier to block off Donald and Goofy. The two could only try and batter against the wall of magic as Sora fought on.

"Why won't you fight back!?" Riku snarled at him. "I can feel it, you're stronger than this!"

Sora knew he was right. He could beat Riku right now with ease. Especially since the moves he used were hardly as powerful as what he had when they fought for Kairi's Heart. Perhaps with Ansem gone, he had been weakened by that?

Riku's sword rang out as it clashed with the keyblade as he growled out a word with each strike, "Quit! Holding! Back!"

…

If there was really no other way to get him to listen…

"Fine!" Sora shouted out as he rolled away from the attack. Immediately, he rained blow after blow on Riku's back, rising higher as he did so. As Riku was knocked into the air with him, Sora called upon the familiar technique of Ragnarok. An array of energy balls surrounding Riku before they were let loose, seeking out their target.

Explosion after explosion of energy knocked him away. But even so, Riku picked himself off the ground, "No...Can't lose! Have to win!" And he charged Sora again.

This time Sora tried something new, a skill he had acquired as he climbed up Castle Oblivion. Focusing on his keyblade, he summoned familiar fire. But instead of casting it out like a normal spell, he tossed out his keyblade towards the approaching Riku.

As the flaming projectile struck home, Riku was knocked out of his attack, and skidded along the ground to Sora's feet. Kneeling down, Sora pleaded, "Now will you please listen?"

Riku groaned as he tried to stand up, "I...need...to—!"

"Win!?" Sora answered, tired of the repeated mantra, "Why do you even want to beat me so bad? Can you answer that?"

"Why do I need to beat you?" Riku glanced up at Sora as he heard the question.

Then he repeated it, "Why do I need to beat you?"

Then his eyes widened, he began to shake and clutch his head,"I...I don't know why!?"

Sora reached out to him, "Hey...Riku, easy!"

But his hand was slapped away as Riku cried out, "Why can't I remember?!" Darkness began to surround Riku as his shaking became thrashing "Why?! Why!? WHYWHYWHYWHY!?"

And as the dark portal dispelled, Sora could only stare at the spot where his friend once sat.

"Sora!" Goofy ran up next to him, the barrier finally gone with Riku's departure. He looked at Sora, wincing as he asked, "Are...you gonna be okay?"

Sora could hear Goofy's tone to understand that though he had walked away unscathed, there was another wound that was left. "That man said that as we go further into this castle, we lose our bonds with others." He began to tremble, shaking his head, "Riku seemed like he barely knew anything, Not even himself. Is...that going to be me?"

Donald shook his head,"Sora, There's no way that'll be you! You've got us!" He pointed to himself, and Goofy nodded as well.

Sora gave an uneasy smile, "Yeah...I've got you with me. Let's keep going, see if we can't catch up to Riku." But as they headed to the stairway, Sora glanced back to the spot where his friend vanished.

And hoped that his other friends would still know him when he got back.

"When my heart shattered after fighting Vanitas I thought that was it. But in the darkness I saw a light. A boy called out to me, offered to let me use his heart to hide and put myself back together." Ventus looked down at the ground as he finished, "And for a long time...I just did my best to put myself back to the way I used to be."

"And Sora was that boy. That's why you said you owed him." Yuffie answered as Ventus' story of the past came to a close. At his nod, she tapped her chin as she followed the logic, "And it's why you've shown up now. Sora had to release his heart to rescue Kairi. Must have let your heart go free."

Ventus' eyes immediately widened in panic before Naminé spoke up, "He got better, Kairi was able to restore him to normal."

Relaxing, Ventus continued, "After that, I woke up in Castle Oblivion, where I found Naminé and helped her escape. We hid out in Traverse Town before the Organization found us...and I learned I was gone for ten years."

"And you set fire to the marketplace," Cid grumbled.

Ventus waved his hands, "Hey, that was Axel! Not me!" Putting them down he continued, "After that, we looked to get some answers from someone...knowledgeable. And they said that Aqua and Terra were last seen here."

Merlin stroked his beard before asking, "Would this knowledgeable person happen to be Yen Sid?" Chuckling as Ventus and Naminé looked up at him in surprise, he continued, "I may not use a keyblade myself, but I've worked closely enough with the sorcerer to know he has a hand in such matters. And that brings us up to...well now."

Ventus nodded as he stood up, "Yeah. It's why I need to keep fighting Maleficent to keep X-Blade away from her." He scratched the back of his head, "Even though I still need to find Terra and Aqua and whatever the Organization still has planned and I'm not sure if...somewhere Vanitas managed to survive. Or if Xehanort—"

"Ventus." Aerith's stern voice managed to cut off Ventus' rambling, "One thing at a time. It's good you're trying to be mindful of things, But trying to handle all of them at once is hardly going to help."

Ventus deflated and crossed his arms, "It's just...they're all so important to take care of."

Leon stood up and walked toward Ventus and Naminé, "Well let's start with what we can do right now. You said you were looking for clues in this castle to find Terra and Aqua? Well, right now, we're going to be in the best position to handle that. You've already given us a good head start in clearing out this place to begin excavation." He pointed out the city, which had finally begun to drain.

Cid looked out to the ruins. "That being said, we've still got a few nests down in town and in the abandoned fort. He pointed over to a larger structure, now visible from the lowered water."

Naminé nodded as she heard the plan, "So we work on fighting Maleficent and keeping things safe for you to work putting things back together?" But after a moment, she realized one other concern, "What about the princesses of heart?"

Merlin began reaching into his briefcase and pulling out some parchment. "Well, for the moment I should be able to get in touch with a few of my colleagues. Since Sora met the princesses some time ago, we should be able to locate and protect them with some greater ease."

"So...I just stay and take care of things here?" Ventus looked over to the town below, sighing, "It's just...I feel like I ought to be doing more...myself."

Aerith gave a mirthless chuckle as she walked up beside him, "Trust me, I know how it feels when you've got so much you want to handle." She put a hand on his shoulder, "But that doesn't mean you need to do it alone."

Ventus thought about everything. About his journey that had taken him so far from home. How he had tried to fix everything himself. His hand went to his pocket, where Eraqus' badge still sat. Despite saying so much his friends were his power...he had tried to push them away. To prove that he could do things on his own.

He looked around at the group around the campfire. Everyone from Hollow Bastion who had fought alongside him to reclaim their home. Who were willing to listen and help him through this challenge.

And he looked to Naminé, smiling at him. After all she had endured at the Organization's hands, she was willing to help him. Still believed in him despite his mistakes. Just he was helping her realize that there was so much more to her than the Organization had told her.

That's when he finally understood.

They were much stronger together, than alone.

Ventus smiled for the first time after he had begun his story, "Alright, where do we start?"

Yuffie hopped off her seat with a grin, "Well, while you were dozing off, Leon pointed out the closest den of heartless down in town." She pulled out her kunai with a twirl, "How about there?"

Naminé nodded as she re-attached the sword to her belt and summoned her cards, "That sounds good. Ven?"

He paused, then reached into his pocket. When he woke up after his heart shattered, all his keychains vanished. He knew from his training that keepers of the keyblade often gained new ones over time. As they grew from the worlds they visited, or how their hearts had changed.

And he felt a familiar one.

Though the pain from confronting his Lost Memories lingered, he felt more ready to face the future again

And so he changed his weapon from the bronzed metal blade, to a silver one-winged keyblade with a broken heart.

"Let's go."