Riku sighed heavily. It had been a day since he, the Fake, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy had faced Sora. Though DiZ had told them to return to him, they certainly weren't in a hurry. Since yesterday, no one had really said anything.

Riku was still trying to process the entire ordeal. Sora didn't recognize them. He was with the people in black cloaks.

What exactly did they want with him?

Was there any hope in getting him back?

What if there wasn't?

Riku…

Riku stopped in his tracks and looked around. It didn't look like anyone had said anything.

Riku…

"Who said that?" he asked. He turned and faced his companions. They shrugged, and Donald and Goofy looked concerned.

"We didn't say anything," said Goofy.

"You must be imagining things," Donald added.

Wonderful. In addition to everything else, Riku was going crazy.

I know you can feel it… The grip I have on your heart.

Riku put a hand to his chest.

No. Not now. Not Ansem.

You have let in the darkness, Riku. That means very soon, your heart shall become an all-consuming darkness.

"I'm not like that now!" Riku said out loud.

"What's wrong, Riku?" Goofy asked. He approached the teen.

Yes, you are, Ansem snapped.

Riku felt piercing cold grip his chest. His muscles locked. He couldn't move. Wisps of darkness rose in front of his vision.

"Riku!" Donald cried.

"It's his darkness!" the Fake exclaimed. "He can't control it!"

Riku tried to focus on their words, but as each second passed, it became more and more of a challenge.

The deeper the darkness runs inside you, the stronger I become, Ansem's voice boomed. Controlling you is effortless.

"Fight it!" the Fake yelled. "It's your darkness! You control it!"

The cold spread. The iciness seeped into his veins, making him shudder. It was getting hard to even breathe.

To think he'd once craved this.

Now, it disgusted him.

It scared him.

Then suddenly-

Ansem grunted in frustration. Must you interfere again?

Light filled Riku's vision, and the cold receded to be replaced by calming warmth. He was able to move again. He tried to catch his breath.

"Phew! Sure glad I made it in time!" a bright, familiar voice exclaimed. "That oughta keep Ansem busy for a while!"

"Your Majesty!" Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy exclaimed.

Riku turned. Sure enough, there was King Mickey, his only companion in the Realm of Darkness and guide in this castle. Riku reached out to touch him, to see if he was real. Before he could, though, Donald and Goofy had already embraced him.

"You're really here," Riku said weakly.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to get to you," the King said as he approached Riku. "But I made a promise to you that I would find a way, didn't I?"

Riku fell to his knees. The weight of the previous days seemed to have finally caught up with him. He'd been pushing it away for so long.

The others made their ways to his side. "I'm alright," Riku said as he waved them off. "I'm just relieved."

The King glanced around the hall a couple more times. "Wait a minute, isn't Sora with you?"

The glee that had filled the room instantly evaporated. "A lot of things have happened the last while," Jiminy replied.

It was then that Riku realized how long it had been since Sora had lost his memories.

Nine days. Even though Riku had only known of this since yesterday, it still felt like entirely too long. Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy took turns explaining what happened. Riku took this time to tune them out, but he did notice the King's expression grow more and more worried as the three told their stories.

"What about you?" the King asked, turning his attention to the Fake.

The Fake, who had been leaning against the wall, stood taller. "I am a Replica. I was originally created to test the Real Thing's strength and return him to darkness." Riku flinched. "The people that created me then had Naminé implant fake memories in me." The Fake looked away. "I hope she's okay."

"What's your name?" the King asked, kindness in his voice.

"My name?" the Fake asked, surprise written on his face. "I've been calling myself Riku and Fake for so long, but neither of those names fit me anymore."

Riku looked away. He'd been perpetuating that. Though while this boy shared his appearance, he was becoming his own person.

"What about Shin?" Riku asked. "It means 'real' or 'new' where I come from."

The boy crossed his arms and contemplated it.

"I've also been calling you Fake," Riku continued. "And I shouldn't do that. You shouldn't have to base your life around mine."

"Yeah, you're a person, Shin!" Goofy said. He put his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Nice to officially meet you, Shin!" Donald added.

Jiminy piped up from Goofy's shoulder, journal in hand. "I can't wait to get to know you, Shin!"

The King approached the boy and held out his hand. "Good to meet ya, Shin!"

Shin accepted the King's hand and shook it. A small smile formed on his face. "It's good to meet you, too." Shin then looked to Riku, who nodded. Shin took a deep breath as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

The King turned to the others. "Now to figure out the next step. You tried to get to Sora, but Marluxia has control of him. What about Naminé?"

"It looked like Naminé didn't want to do what Marluxia told her," Goofy commented.

"We may be able to convince her to help us," Shin added. "Marluxia and Larxene were always awful to her, and they made her do things she never wanted."

"And Sora would do anything to protect Naminé," Donald said.

"So," Mickey said, "what I'm hearing is that we need to talk to Naminé and see if she'd be able to convince Sora to go with us."

The group nodded. "But first, we need to talk with DiZ," Riku stated. At the King's questioning look, he continued, "he met us here yesterday and looked like Ansem at first. Then he told us that Marluxia has too tight of a grip on Sora." Riku turned his gaze to the ground. "And he was right. He told us to go back to him, but we've just been taking our time."

The King nodded. "Well, let's hurry!"

Shin opened a Dark Corridor, and the group proceeded through.

Axel shifted from his hiding place after the Dark Corridor dissolved away. Like always, those with hearts always confused him. They were willing to do everything they could for those they loved. Axel couldn't say when the last time he'd cared for someone was. Sure, he stuck with Saïx, but that was because of their former lives, back when they had hearts.

Speaking of Saïx, Axel was going to have some interesting news for him.

Still, he couldn't return yet. This was just starting to get interesting!

He wondered if he'd be able to reach Naminé…

Maybe he could sway her again.

With newfound resolve, it wasn't long before Riku and the others made it back to DiZ. His visible, orange eye was narrowed.

"So?" he asked as the group approached.

After a second to compose himself, Riku spoke. "You were right. Sora is under their control. He doesn't remember us. He only knows my name."

"As I expected," DiZ responded. Riku frowned and crossed his arms. He wasn't exactly fond of DiZ's tone. He almost felt like he was back in school getting told off. "This group has been working to erase Sora's memories so they can attain the power of the Keyblade. They have succeeded. What their purpose for him is, I am not yet sure, though I do have theories. One of their number also has the ability, so as of this moment, I do not know why they need Sora."

"There are more out there than the ones we fought?" Donald asked in alarm.

"Oh yes," DiZ answered. "They recently recruited numbers XIII and XIV to their rank. The members that were here constituted about half of them."

Goofy started counting on his fingers. "Let's see… there was Axel, Larxene, Vexen, and Marluxia."

"And Lexaeus and Zexion," Riku added. "I defeated Lexaeus before I met up with everyone."

"Sora beat Larxene and Axel. And Axel," Donald shuddered, "killed Vexen."

"So that's four down and ten to go," the King concluded. "That is a lot of them, but we know it's possible to beat them."

"But what can we do about Naminé and Sora?" Shin asked. "We need to free them somehow."

Riku noticed DiZ's lip curl as Shin spoke. "We may be able to retrieve them. If it comes to it, however, we may need to strike Sora down."

Riku's eyes widened. "No way!" he cried. "Sora never gave up on me, so I'm not gonna give up on him!" Shin nodded with him in agreement, his fists clenched.

"And we promised Sora we'd help him remember!" Goofy exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Donald agreed. "We've turned our backs on him before, but we're not gonna make that mistake again!"

"I've only met Sora once," the King said, "but I know he wouldn't want us to give up on him."

DiZ narrowed his visible eye. "I suppose we will have to wait and see. For now, though, we must retreat and recuperate."

The group sighed, but it seemed everyone was in agreement. They needed to spend some time to recover from the ordeals of this castle and come up with a plan for rescuing Sora.

Once Roxas started writing, it was hard to stop. He wrote down the memory of Sora meeting Marluxia for the first time. After that, it was like releasing a flood. His pen hardly left the page as it described the thoughts and events Sora had endured all the way up to the 13th floor. His memories about that floor and anything following were still hazy.

He didn't realize how long he'd been at his desk until he looked up and noticed the time on his clock. Roxas cringed and stood. He was stiff but not nearly as bad as when he'd woken up the other day.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting there. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed just judging by the sky. There weren't any stars or a moon to help with that.

As he readied himself for bed, Roxas started forming a plan for the next day. He would accept his mission like normal and complete it as quickly as he could. Then, he would go to Destiny Islands and talk to Kairi about everything he'd written. He would need to remember to take his journal with him.

Hopefully, he'd still have time to go to the castle. Maybe memories of the 13th floor would return to him.

There was something really wrong happening at Castle Oblivion.

A/N: I felt it was right for Repliku to get his own name. He's not Riku, and I don't feel it would fit to call him Riku's Nobody either. So, meet Shin!

Also, Axel's up to his own shenanigans.