Your Adventure Begins in the Dead of Night

by signalsandsoundwaves

Alternate Title: In Which I Keep Writing the Genderswap AU Novelization Fic of My Dreams, Where Sora Is a Girl Because I Can Do Whatever I Want, Xion Gets the Character Development She Deserves, Radiant Garden's Fall Is Fleshed out More Than It Might Ever Be in Canon, Axel and Saix Have Unfinished Business, and Kairi Has a Nice Vacation-Ish in Radiant Garden. Fem!Sora. Girl!Sora.

3. Chapter 2: Cost of Entry

So...how's the apocalypse treating you guys? I'd give it about a 1.2/10 so far, for me! I'm not sure what to say that'll properly convey just how apologetic I am for my absence and any false hope I'd given you, but do know that I have been reading everyone's comments and keeping you all on my mind all this time!

Alright, I'll stop now lol. If you're reading this while waiting in line to vote, thank you. I put out this chapter today as a treat for exactly that, actually! And also a sketch in the prologue chapter too (´•ᴗ•`") Thanks to selenity136 as always for beta reading and being emotional support asdfgh-and Thank you all once again for all your patience and gentility, and without further ado, enjoy the new chapter!

---

RIKU

End of Day Twenty-Four

He slammed the door shut.

For several minutes, it was all Riku could do to just stand there and stare at the spot where Maleficent once stood beyond the doorway, as if she wasn't dead at all. As if it were completely normal for the chapel of Hollow Bastion to have been just outside his bedroom.

Something was wrong with this place. This couldn't be Hollow Bastion, Riku was sure of it. This was somewhere pretending to be Hollow Bastion. Where the hell had Aqua sent them?

"Riku?" Mickey asked from behind him. "What did you see?"

Riku ignored the question for now in favor of turning around and leaning against the door, both to collect his thoughts and to try and mollify his terror by forming a blockade. Though he knew it would have been useless against the likes of her, if that Maleficent he'd just seen were real. Which there was absolutely, positively, no chance that it could have been.

Are you sure? A cynical corner of his mind murmured. Sora came back. Why not her, too?

He ignored that thought.

Riku's eyes roamed over his old bedroom again, or what he had thought of as his old bedroom, and took everything in with a new perspective. No longer were such things as the vine carvings in the walls or the spiraling rivers of dust in the sunlight merely relics from the Darkest time of his life. Not even the destroyed courtyard outside was free from his suspicion. Everything in sight had to be a lie.

Up on the wall the clock still declared the time as being five minutes past midnight. Riku noted that only the seconds hand had moved during his and Mickey's whole conversation, uselessly spinning in place. Another lie.

If Maleficent really was back, which she wasn't, then she was up to her old tricks.

"Riku?" Mickey tried again. He had almost forgotten Mickey was even there.

Riku balled his hands into fists, and felt his fingertips slide over the wood grain of the door as he did so. Everything, even the textures of this place, was the same. Except for that clock. And except for what laid just outside the door.

"That was Maleficent," He spoke in a rush, nearly tripping over his own words. "She's right there outside my room. She's supposed to be dead!"

"What? What d'ya mean, Maleficent's there?"

"There's supposed to be a hallway outside my room, not the chapel we met up in when I worked for her! And Maleficent's supposed to be dead! Not—Not standing there without even a scratch on her like nothing happened!"

Mickey furrowed his brow and put a hand to his chin, undoubtedly either devising some kind of plan for what to do about the not-Maleficent outside the door or thinking about the awful puzzle it seemed they both had landed in. Or, at least, Riku certainly hoped he was doing either of those things. The nervous flicking of Mickey's tail told otherwise.

What could they do? Riku had been no match for Maleficent even with the keyblade. Even with all the power that she had bestowed on him over the course of their time together, even with the power he had taken from Sora on that day, he had been nothing more than a child throwing a fit in the face of Maleficent's might. It didn't matter that he was the strongest and fastest of his friends back on Destiny Islands. It didn't matter that he had destroyed scores of her heartless in his training, and fantasized of one day seeing her dissolve into Dark smoke like so many of her minions. It didn't matter that all of her lackeys had been picked off one by one until Maleficent had slowly become just as alone as he was. It didn't matter that he had held the stuff of legends in the palm of his hand as he struck.

The keyblade itself had simply hit the barrier of her magic and went no further.

The keyblade. Spoken of as the harbinger of chaos and ruin, or as the ultimate force of good. Capable of destroying worlds, or saving them. Capable of killing Xehanort's heartless.

And Maleficent stopped the thing in its tracks.

Until he'd taken Xehanort's offer.

"I only won last time because of him," Riku said. Mickey tilted his head just slightly and Riku explained, "Xehanort's heartless. I took his hand and let him in to help me get another keyblade and defeat Maleficent. He did all the work. I was just the…the body."

"Riku—"

"And he didn't even finish her off. It was Sora who did that when that Dark keyblade turned Maleficent into a dragon. And Sora didn't even have her keyblade then!"

"Because Sora had her friends to help, Riku," Mickey cut in, "Just as you did."

"I don't know if I'd call Xehanort's heartless much of a friend."

"Of course he wasn't, but Sora was. You needed the help of your friends to defeat Maleficent, and that's exactly what Sora did! Think about it, Riku: In a way, the two of you worked together to take her down. Even if you didn't do it side by side, you did your part and she did hers. You worked together!"

"But Mickey," Riku sagged against the door. "I could only do my part because I let Xehanort into my Heart."

"Well, I guess you could kinda say that was like getting a friend's help, too," Mickey hesitated, "If only because you thought he was your friend at the time. I'm not saying that was a good idea at all, but I am saying my point still stands, Riku. Remember what Sora told you? 'Our friends are our power.' I know that nobody, not even keyblade masters, accomplishes anything by themselves. Even if you think you're all alone and no one's around, you still carry people with you in your Heart. You use your experiences with people to guide you, and you use their wisdom to make choices and figure things out. You use the possibility of seeing your friends again to give you the strength to keep going. And you're not going up alone against Maleficent or whatever else is on the other side of that door, Riku. I'm here to help. We'll work together!"

Mickey called forth his keyblade to his hand to punctuate those words, and raised it high over his head.

(together)

("I don't need a keyblade, Riku. And neither do you.")

It was funny, wasn't it? A girl with no keyblade was able to make it through Maleficent's stronghold with nothing but a wooden toy sword and two friends by her side that she hadn't even known for a day. Not even Donald and Goofy had been there to help. Meanwhile, Riku, a boy who had thought himself the hero and turned out to be anything but, who did have her friends and her keyblade at his hand, ended up losing everything. Even the things he didn't know were possible to lose.

Not even the keyblade had been enough to save him from himself.

Riku looked away from Mickey's outstretched keyblade at a flash of brown at the corner of his sight. The wooden toy sword.

He chuckled. Of course it would be here alongside everything else just as he remembered—still leaning against his desk just as it had been since Maleficent had helped him forge Soul Eater. Before he'd gotten the spiteful idea to throw it at Sora's feet after he'd taken everything from her. That toy sword laid there as if it weren't part of so much Dark history between them, like this were Destiny Islands again and he'd use it again tomorrow for yet another spar on endless summer days.

Riku picked it up and felt the splintered wood bite into the pad of his thumb past his glove, as if it were still angry at him for abandoning it. Or for using it to hurt someone for real.

("Stop trying that. It's beginning to get embarrassing. Here," The racket from the toy sword landing at her feet was the only sound he could hear in the long-dead courtyard. "You can go play hero with this.")

When he'd done that, he hadn't even deigned to think of what she'd do with it. He hadn't even considered that she would do anything else other than sit and cry for a while and, a Dark part of him had hoped that day, soon learn her lesson and come crawling back to him. That 'lesson' in question, he had told himself at the time, was supposed to be a noble one: For her to remember her true friends—what Riku had thought of as her true friends, though for a very short list that included himself, he had turned out to be far less than deserving of the title. But just like the rest of his justifications for his actions on that day and the month preceding it, the truth was that such a thing wasn't really what he had been after all along.

For the truth was that Riku had wanted Sora to be the one who had been wrong, so that he could be the one who was always right. To be the one who was weaker, so that he could be the one who was stronger. To be the one who had no keyblade, so that he could be the one who did. All so she could go back to being that little kid that followed him around the islands, only this time she'd follow him around the worlds. Always behind him, always second best, so that he would never be last.

So that he could always have someone who needed him. Someone who wanted him.

He had taken away any means she had to defend herself in a nightmare like Hollow Bastion just so he could play the hero for a little while.

(For Riku, in that time, someone who needed you and someone who wanted you were the same thing; to him, there was no 'want' without a need of some kind. If they didn't truly need you, why on earth would they ever want you? He had hardly known anyone he wanted something from without also needing something from, and so the two concepts had become intertwined—and he had been worse off for regarding himself and everyone he'd met in such a way).

The wooden toy sword bit deeper into his thumb, and Riku welcomed the feeling. It distracted him from his stomach churning.

What would he have done if he were in her shoes that day? He wasn't sure. But, Riku thought to himself, maybe he had a way to find out. Especially since Mickey and Aqua had warned him against using Soul Eater again.

The image of a much-younger Sora came to mind, standing in the unnatural light of countless shooting stars and swearing to him that she didn't care about any drawbacks of the tethering charm they would soon undergo.

She had thought about that night over the years as much as he did, hadn't she?

Was that how they were able to connect? Bound by memory? Had the two of them been connected all along before Aqua's magic?

"If you're right," He said, "Then I hope Sora's with us when I open this door. Even if only in spirit."

"Of course she will be, Riku," Mickey replied. "And Aqua, Kairi, Goofy and Donald, any of our pals. Let them show you the way!"

He decided to hold his tongue on any rebuttals pointing out how Donald and Goofy were much more Mickey's friends than his own. At least Donald, anyway.

Riku cast one last look up at the clock, and saw that it now read half past midnight. He readjusted his hold on the wooden toy sword, and felt how its splinters didn't hurt quite so badly anymore.

And so, as he took one last breath to ready himself, Riku opened his bedroom door.

---

SORA

Day Twenty-Five

She had barely begun to reach for the front doors of Castle Oblivion when they opened of their own accord.

Sora recoiled her hand on reflex, fully expecting for there to be someone behind the doors waiting to ambush them, and Donald and Goofy's shifting from either side of her implied that they had been thinking the same. But the doors swung open farther with a grinding rumble that sounded ancient, foreboding, and nobody was on the other side.

Empty. Utterly empty.

She moved her hand to shield her eyes as a blinding light poured out from the threshold. It was a cold and sterile light, just like the kind that glared down at you in classrooms or doctors' offices, and she took her first few steps into the entry hall. Sora cautiously opened one eye past the overwhelming brightness to try and look around, and her friends followed her inside.

It was a beautiful place, despite how barren it felt—Hollow Bastion had, in some respects, been exactly the same way. Beautiful but devoid of life. Yet Hollow Bastion's splendor came from its echoes of departed life, a story of its people told in withered flowerbeds and torn flags. Shattered glass and a citadel that at times felt like a larger version of its monstrous inhabitants. Castle Oblivion's own grandeur, meanwhile, seemed to come from a uniquely manmade rejection of all life entirely.

It was the kind of place that clearly had been made by people, due to the fact that fully-furnished rooms didn't exactly appear in nature on their own, yet Sora could never imagine any person ever having so much as existed within them. She was reminded strongly of those movies set in the flavor of futurism where everything was too white and too sleek. Though Castle Oblivion's entryway lacked the sleekness, choosing instead to adorn itself with a row of columns and vases that each looked more identical than the last, carefully sculpted and unidentifiable coats of arms in between, it had just the same pale emptiness.

But Castle Oblivion, once Sora had set foot within it, was now just beginning to feel as though it wasn't quite so empty after all. Though there were no colors and no people in sight, save for her and her friends, Sora felt that unmistakable heaviness in the air like the prelude to a thunderstorm.

Magic.

"Do you feel that too?" Donald asked as he held his staff aloft. She looked over to see him and Goofy both watching the corners of the room carefully.

"Yeah," Sora bit her lip as another feeling became apparent aside from the presence of magic; the odd sensation of a pulling from within her chest that goaded her to walk further into the castle. She ground her heel to keep from moving. Could that be the tether dream-Riku had talked about?

"Hey Donald?"

"Yeah?" He didn't turn, still busy with scrutinizing the hall.

"What do you know about tethering charms?"

Donald straightened. "Huh? Well, uh," He used the top of his staff to scratch his head, "I know charms are a kind of perpetual magic you can cast on almost anything, like people or objects—I can tell this place sure is charmed down to the rafters—but you gotta be real careful with them!"

"Ahyuck, yeah!" Goofy laughed. "I remember one time when Donald aimed wrong with a cleanin' charm and got himself instead of his clothes! The darn thing plucked every one his feathers right off!"

Donald squawked. "You weren't supposed to tell anybody about that!"

But Sora and Goofy had already started to laugh. And as their din echoed throughout the room, even Jiminy's good-natured chuckling could be heard joining in from his hiding spot in one of the many pockets of Goofy's jacket. The image of a Donald with the pink bumped skin of a plucked chicken was just too much. That is, until she imagined his tailfeathers stripped to leave only an angrily wagging sock of a tail behind. Now her face hurt from laughing.

She could hear Donald squawk again. "I'll show you—"

A lightning spell, maybe, or frost. It wasn't at all unusual for Donald to use magic as a form of rebuttal. But compared to the start of their journey, this time Sora was a little more prepared: She'd gotten long since used to Donald's antics, and let the last of her chuckling slowly subside as she lazily called the keyblade to her hand to prepare magic of her own in response.

If nothing else, it usually worked as a form of training. Competing against Donald in spellwork wasn't quite the same as competing against Riku back on the islands, but it worked well enough in the meanwhile, and Sora was glad for it.

But when nothing came, she and Goofy turned to see Donald only fitfully shaking his staff. He stared up at it with concern.

"Come on," Donald's concern began to visibly shift into worry. "Fire!"

Nothing.

"Stupid—Lightning!"

Not even a spark. Donald shook his staff again.

"…Lightning?"

Still nothing.

"What's wrong, Donald?" Jiminy asked as he poked his head out to see.

"Something's wrong with my magic," Donald fretted. He shook his staff again to no effect. "It's not responding!"

"The halls of Castle Oblivion are fickle," A voice answered from behind. Sora and her friends turned quickly to see the man from earlier standing leisurely by the entrance as the doors closed themselves of their own accord. "If you have a past, they shall treat it as they see fit. Whether they decide to magnify it, echo it," He began to walk towards them, and Sora could hear the smirk in his voice. "Or silence it. Such is the way of Castle Oblivion."

Her hold on the keyblade now was far from casual; Likewise, Donald and Goofy brandished staff and shield at the ready. Jiminy hid.

Sora angrily recalled their short meeting in the field. "Are you going to run away again or are you going to stick around and tell us what's going on here? What's wrong with Donald's magic?"

"The duck's magic was his cost of entry," The man replied.

"Cost of entry?" Goofy asked.

Meanwhile, Donald fumed. "Don't call me—!"

"Everything has a price," Though he was answering Goofy's question, the words felt directed at Sora. The man's face was still obscured by his hood, and yet Sora could sense that his eyes were boring right into hers. "And everyone who walks these halls must pay their tithe to Castle Oblivion one way or another."

He came closer.

"Not another step!" Donald shouted as he brandished his staff. Though truth be told, he did not make for a menacing sight without his usual magic making the top of his staff crackle around the edges. And the man must have felt the same way, for he then chuckled.

"Not another step? Well then," The man, still chuckling, raised his arm towards the empty air in a gesture the trio knew all too well—He angled his way into the Dark portal before it had even finished forming, deftly avoiding Donald's leap towards him in attempt to strike.

Where only minutes before the entrance hall had rang with the trio's laughter, now it had gone quiet. Sora and her friends were frozen in place, Donald with his staff still outstretched and Goofy behind his shield, and the keyblade still reared back in Sora's grasp. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. For all of them listened carefully for any indications that the man might have stepped out elsewhere in the room.

And the only warning Sora got was one quiet footstep close behind them.

"If you insist," A voice hissed, and Sora spun in place to find him not even a meter away. The last few dregs of the Dark portal still trailed after him.

Sora flinched. She stumbled backwards into Goofy's shield, and the keyblade, now held so tightly in her hands that her knuckles had gone white, collided into his shield with a dull metallic noise. The sound echoed back to them from all sides of the hall to make for an eerie applause. And suddenly, Sora saw that Donald's staff was held out as far as Donald could reach to block the man from coming any closer.

"No cheating," Donald grumbled.

The man hmphed. "You do not know the price you'll pay. You, duck, have already paid once—"

"We've all already paid!" Sora interjected. This guy's similarities to Xemnas went deeper than just the clothes. Clearly, he had the same uselessly long-winded way of speaking too. She was losing what little patience she still had which, admittedly, wasn't much even on a good day. "We had to stand around and listen to your stupid face talk in circles because I thought my mom and friends were here. That's enough of a payment for you!"

"Yeah!" Donald added with a cheer, "If nobody's here, we're walking! Let's go, guys!"

The man laughed, and Sora rolled her eyes as she and her friends turned to march back towards the front doors. The man's laughter was the same as his speech—pointlessly refined. But unlike Xemnas, who was actually kind of terrifying for what little Sora had seen of him, this guy was just smoke and mirrors. She was sure of it. After all, why was he still wearing his hood even indoors? Ridiculous.

Heh. He really was ridiculous, wasn't he? He probably even drank his undoubtedly fancy-pants tea (and he had to be a tea-drinker, nobody put on airs like that without drinking tea too) with his pinky finger out.

And he probably still wore that stupid hood while doing it.

She and her friends were almost to the door now. Sora longed to be back outside again. That field was nice when it didn't have any ridiculously hoity toity, tea-drinking, pinky-finger-wagging—

A snap came from far behind, and right before Sora's eyes grew a thick, thorned vine that wrapped itself around the door handles, barring their exit.

Of course that would happen.

Sora slid a hand down her face. She turned to give the man a scowl as her friends tried their best to pull the vine away without pricking themselves. "That's not fair!"

The man angled his head just slightly. "Is anything, keyblade wielder?"

She ground her teeth. This was one of those countless moments where Sora desperately wished she had even a fraction of Riku's seemingly endless comebacks, anything to stave off an unsaid admission that the man's words were true. She glanced down at the keyblade.

She had lost her home for the keyblade. She had lost her friends for the keyblade. She had almost lost everything she didn't even know she had for the keyblade, and even after saving the worlds—and getting everything back, and then some—Sora couldn't stave off the feeling that she'd still lost something she would never get back again. Something she could not put into words.

But, nevertheless, the keyblade had remained at her side. And if that wasn't fair, well, so be it.

By now, Donald had tried once more to call on his magic to burn away the vine as Goofy tried cutting away at it with the edge of his shield, and that gave Sora inspiration.

"Fire!" A bright coil of flame shot out from the keyblade as easily as it ever had, much to Sora's relief, and she shared a quick grin with Donald as they watched the vine blacken and die. Another attempt by Goofy, and the withered remains were beginning to break apart. She raised the keyblade to help him, until another snapping sound came from far behind.

Each of them gave cries of frustration and dismay as the vine repaired itself, and another grew across the door to join it. Another snapping sound rang out quickly, and another vine sprung up. And another, and another.

Sora whipped back to see that the man still had his hand raised, with fingers at the ready to snap again. She didn't have to see his face to know he was amused.

"Would you just—" Snap! "Hey!" Snap! "It's not funny!" Snap! Snap! Snap!

She balled her free hand into a fist. Sora began to raise the keyblade again and this time, she aimed it at the man. But before the fire spell she was preparing could be unleashed, Donald pushed down her arm.

He shook his head. "It'll be a waste. We can find another way outta here once he's gone."

"But he tricked us into coming here," Sora protested. "And how do you know there's another exit? You said this place has a bunch of magic in it, and he spouted off all that stuff about the halls using our pasts and being choosy or whatever. What if we can't leave?"

"King Mickey said there would always be a door to the Light, Sora," Goofy reminded her, and she could see Jiminy poking his head out to nod in agreement. "I'm sure that goes beyond just the Realm of Darkness!"

"And besides," Donald spared the man a suspicious glance before leaning in and whispering, "I don't think he was kidding about our friends being here."

"Are you serious?"

At that, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy all nodded. "I can't shake this sense that King Mickey's around here somewhere—" Donald began.

"Gawrsh, me too!" Goofy added.

"A-yup, same feeling here!" Jiminy nodded fervently. "Like he's just around the corner!"

The pulling sensation from somewhere deep down only grew stronger at those words, and Sora decided to take it as a sign. Not that she was the superstitious sort—or at least, she'd never admit it out loud before and risk Kairi and Riku poking fun at her when they were around—but after that dream earlier, what else could it be?

And besides, Sora had been outvoted three against one.

She sighed.

"Alright," She conceded, and turned. The man was watching them from a distance, still with his hand raised at the ready to snap his fingers again. "Fine. Go ahead. Lead the way."

The feeling that he was smirking at them still, beyond the feeling of the tether calling her further into the castle, had never left. But now both had become overwhelming. Nothing good would come from them staying in this place.

But now they couldn't leave. Or maybe Sora could try…but then that would mean leaving her friends behind. Sora would never do such a thing. And the man had to have known that.

He began to walk towards the lone door at the end of the room, and the group followed.

And as they did, Sora realized there was yet another feeling that had joined the cacophony of the rest, that was both pushing her to run away and run further in at the same time. It was a feeling of foreboding.

A feeling that Sora and her friends were nothing but the mice in a Dark game against the cat.

---

RIKU

Day Twenty-Five

"I'm pleased to see your stage fright has passed," Maleficent declared as they approached. On her shoulder, present as always, sat Diablo. "I nearly considered knocking."

"You're not real," Riku gritted out. His and Mickey's footsteps echoed down the hall, making it sound as if there were more of them walking together than just the two of them. It helped Riku feel a bit braver than before.

"Oh? I certainly feel real."

"You're dead!"

"I was, wasn't I?" For an instant almost too quick to see, her expression grew pained as she raised a green hand towards her jaw. But then her wince faded into a judgmental glare and Riku was sure his mind was just playing tricks on him again. "But you came rather close yourself, child. I had warned you about Ansem several times, had I not?" Now even Diablo was fixing him with a glare. "Pray tell, however did you escape him?"

"I…I couldn't," He felt Mickey reach out to give his hand a reassuring squeeze. "Not by myself. I got away with the help of my friends."

"I see," She replied, "You did not get away as easily as you might think; After all, by that point your Heart was steeped in Darkness. It is no different now. That wretched man has left scars on you, boy," Her eyes slid down towards Mickey. "Be thankful that you've still got company despite your best efforts."

Had Xehanort's heartless really left scars on him? Maleficent may have been a liar, but that part felt too close to the truth. There was no way Riku could've gotten away from complete possession unscathed. He remembered all too well how it felt to want to run away, yet not having the legs to do it. To have lost the freedom he didn't even know he had, freedom he'd been searching for all his life.

But then, in a deeply messed-up way, Riku had gotten it back. Sort of. When Xehanort's heartless, still possessing Riku's body, had torn away the necklace Riku had stolen back from Sora.

When he had awoken as hardly a spirit in the Realm of Darkness with Mickey and Aqua.

The Darkness. Riku scowled at the reminder.

"I'm not thankful to have your company, Maleficent."

She tutted. "Come, now. You once turned to me to sate your hunger for the Darkness. And I know you hunger for it still. You called me here, after all."

"What?"

This time, it wasn't just Riku who said that, but Mickey as well. Maleficent nodded.

"Oh yes. You, Riku, wanted me here," It wasn't often that she addressed him by name. "You beckoned me, and I answered. I'm sure you've figured out that the architecture of my former stronghold is changed from what you remember."

"Now hold on!" Mickey called out as he stepped forward. "I don't remember Riku asking for you!"

"He hardly needed to ask aloud," She arched a brow at him, and Diablo looked down his beak at Mickey. "Haven't you noticed the spellwork in every corner of this place? Surely you did. You were the great magician's apprentice, after all," Maleficent sneered. "This place is a labyrinth. It is a living thing that stares into every corner of its visitors and rearranges itself to match. And I? I am but another fixture of its landscape. A landscape that you, boy, have shaped and populated. The only reason why I am here is because you wanted me here."

("Then how about a fairy godmother?")

Riku froze. There had been times in Hollow Bastion, in the twilit quiet of his room before he began much of any of the 'work' she would soon assign him, that Riku had pondered over those words. Hours where he had dredged up memories of a home that had only ever been a house, picking at scabs that were still wounds to this day.

There were more than a few times where he had turned those words around in his thoughts the same way one would turn a piece of candy around in their mouth. Where 'mother' had such a bitter taste, 'godmother' fared much better in comparison.

And it had fared better and better with every day…until Agrabah unfolded.

"Maybe there was a time when I was stupid enough to want you around," Riku tasted bile at the back of his mouth at the memory of Agrabah, and all of the horrible revelations that followed. "But never again. I know you would have done just the same to me as Xehanort's heartless did," He continued, "Because it's what all creatures of Darkness do. They try and destroy you from the inside out until you're either gone or turned into a puppet that'll do their bidding—just like how you made me do yours! I've been done with being your errand boy for a long time, Maleficent! All it ever got me was losing myself and everything I ever cared about! And if I wanted you around enough right now to call the memory of you here, then I can only imagine it's because I wanted to tear it out of my Heart and destroy it!"

Riku was so angry, so fueled by recalling those Dark days of her manipulations, that he had drawn out the rickety little toy sword he'd picked up from his old room (or, the memory of his old room) in preparation for a fight. And he was still so angry that he had no idea of how pathetic he must have looked.

Until Maleficent cackled.

"Good heavens!" She crowed, "You precious little hypocrite, you are just as much a creature of Darkness as I am if not more! Need I remind you yet again that it was you who took Ansem's hand and let him in, even after my warning? That it was you who continued using the Dark portals for sheer whimsy?" Maleficent shook her head, and still shuddered with barely contained laughter.

His face burned furiously. But before Riku could respond, Mickey stepped in.

"Riku only turned to the Darkness because he didn't know he had a choice! You and Xehanort's heartless lied to him and made him believe Light was the danger!"

"'Lie'?" Maleficent rounded on Mickey as Diablo bit out an angry caw. Her amusement had turned to something far more dangerous. "I haven't lied to that boy once, not ever, not even for a single thing. Oh yes, I've hidden some truths from him for as long as I could, and I shall not deny it. Nor shall I deny that I've stretched other truths almost to their breaking point. But for a mortal rat to declare that a fairy could ever do such a thing as filthy as lying—!"

"She's right, Mickey," Riku cut in. He met neither of their eyes as they turned to him. Instead, Riku stared down at his remaining hand as he called Soul Eater to it.

All those sleepless nights spent desperately wishing that Soul Eater were a keyblade instead. Days, weeks, going from thinking that Sora just hadn't come around yet and would join him soon enough, to hating her when she'd refused the Darkness time and time again and rightfully left him behind. To trying to take everything from her in the thought that she'd come crawling back.

(there is no 'want' without 'need')

That wasn't Maleficent that had planted that idea. And it wasn't Ansem, either.

No. That had been Riku, and Riku alone.

"In the end, I turned to Darkness because my Heart was weak," Riku confessed. "It still is. And I hate that weakness more than anything."

"Riku?" Mickey asked.

Mickey deserved to have Riku look him in the eye, he knew that. But right now it felt impossible.

"Ansem and Maleficent…they were just taking advantage of the opportunity. But I would have always gone down the path I ended up on the moment I saw Sora wielding the keyblade instead of me. It was inevitable. All along, I was my own enemy."

"But," Riku continued, and found the strength to raise his head to glare at Maleficent instead. Soul Eater disappeared from his hand as he gripped tighter than ever onto the wooden toy sword. "Seeing people like you embracing the Darkness makes me sick. When I find those people, even if it's just their memories," He vowed, "I'm going to take them out one by one. Starting with you!"

Maleficent drew herself to her full height. On her shoulder, ever-present yet hardly noticed in the squabble, Diablo grated out a noise quite like a growl. And together their eyes lit up with the hellish glow of the torches burning green on every wall.

"If you are to destroy anything in this place on your pathetic crusade, then you mustn't forget to destroy yourself last. For you and I are two of a kind; Dark and Dark alike," Maleficent jeered as her staff lit up like the sun, and she held it at the ready as Diablo began to dive forward. "But for now, you pathetic boy, make this worth my while."

At that, toy sword drawn out, he lunged.

---

NAMINE

Day Twenty-Five

—Sora finished scrawling in the last few lines of the fishes she'd drawn on the wall of the secret place and turned to check on Kairi's progress with her own drawing. It was of her, Sora, and Riku all poking their heads out of a house, and Kairi was now adding little clouds for the sky. Sora grinned at the artwork. Kairi was the better artist, obviously, but Sora didn't mind. Because Sora could now reach the higher stones on the walls where previously only Riku could—

The sound of a Dark portal opening in her room prompted Namine to hurriedly withdraw from the memory. She relaxed slightly when it was revealed to be only Axel, dragging his feet and sighing.

He shuffled over towards the new couches on the far side of the room. And upon reaching them, promptly fell face-forward onto the empty one in a graceless pile of too-long limbs and too-red hair. Namine gave a quiet breath of amusement to resist making a sound at the spectacle. Larxene was in the room, after all.

"Well," Axel spoke into the couch cushion, his voice muffled, "Vexen's pissed."

Larxene hadn't even looked up once at his entrance, and it was the same now. She boredly flicked through her magazine. "Tell me something new."

Namine flinched at the memory of piles of paper falling. Vexen's yelling. "Was it my fault?"

"Hm?" He unburied his face from the cushion enough to see her beginning to fidget with the edge of the tabletop. "Oh, nah. That little hissy fit was ages ago, Nami, he probably found something else to be mad at an hour later," Axel wrangled himself into something resembling an upright position just as awkwardly as he'd fallen onto the couch, and ran a hand through his hair. "This time he's pissed about that energy signature in the basement I mentioned. We were assigned here to keep an eye on it, but Vexen said it disappeared last night and none of his equipment could detect anything of it happening."

Larxene peeked at him from over her magazine at those words. "Now that's new. That iceberg's junk can pick up on Demyx's attempts to eat dairy from the other side of headquarters. Did the guys downstairs screw up with assembling it or something?"

Axel snorted. "Nope, we did fine. Even with that geezer breathing down our necks the whole time. This was something else."

"Tell me," Larxene demanded as she lowered her magazine just slightly.

Just then, another Dark portal opened. Marluxia strode in as he removed his hood with a flick of his hair.

"I managed to convince the keyblade wielder to continue into the castle. I'm sure it won't be long before she and her lackeys wander too far," He smirked.

"I've got some bad news, man," Axel replied, "She might not be as alone as we were planning on."

"Those 'companions' of hers are nothing to worry about."

"I'm not talking about the animals."

Marluxia turned towards him entirely and gave Axel his full attention. On the couch, Larxene lowered her magazine completely. "Tell me," Marluxia squinted.

Axel recounted Vexen's temper at the failure to get any data from the cause of the energy signature vanishing. "—But we went down there and saw it wasn't from the equipment at all. They were still working when I walked in. Turns out, and get this, the machines couldn't read anything because something was blocking them from within the perimeter. Somehow the castle created a whole damn room—it might have been two, I couldn't look in to check—and that, combined with the magic in this place already limiting the sensors, made it so that none of the stuff could detect the energy signature at all. Vexen's sure it's gone now."

The room went so quiet that Namine could've heard a pin drop.

Marluxia was the first to speak. "You're certain it created a room? Then that could only mean…"

"…Someone else with memories has entered Castle Oblivion," Larxene continued, "In a way that provoked its effects."

"And somehow without using any of the doors here at all," Axel finished.

They all went quiet again. The silence this time was almost twice as shocked as before. But now, it was laced with something Namine could identify instantly: Unease.

It made sense. None of her friends had spoken much of the keyblade wielder they had supposed was Namine's somebody. The girl who was interesting. The girl who had defeated the heartless of the superior, a mysterious figure whom they spoke of with equal parts derision and awe. But on the matter of Namine's somebody, they had only ever spoken of her with a kind of begrudging respect towards her accomplishments. Even if she was just as much of a kid as Namine was.

After all, they had never referred to her by her name once. Sora was usually only ever called 'the keyblade wielder' by her friends. A title had to mean respect, didn't it?

Namine didn't know what her friends had planned for her somebody. But she knew they were thinking of something, even if they hadn't said what it was yet. She recognized their whispering, the looks, their smirks. She had barely ever seen Axel doing anything other than watching the two of them closely whenever he was in the room.

But if the new arrival was anything like Sora, well. The unease told Namine enough.

Because it always meant trouble.

---

SORA

Day Twenty-Five

"Grip the door handle," He instructed.

"I am, I am," She muttered as she continued holding onto the handle yet refusing to open the door itself. Just do it, she told herself, it'll be just like ripping off a bandage. Who cared if she felt at odds with it?

"King Mickey and Riku are in here somewhere," Goofy reminded her. Sora felt her shoulders fell.

And after only one more moment's hesitation, she opened the door.

Her jaw dropped as Donald and Goofy ran on in—The sight of Traverse Town's First District loomed in the room beyond.

Every building was accounted for, right down to their particular fairy tale-esque style of white mortar with dark wooden framing. The same twin streetlamps beamed down onto the cobblestones, and the same gas lamps lit up the tables of the outdoor café on the square. But over them all the neon signs of the Accessory Shop and the moogles' workshop glowed with a pleasantly colorful light.

There was no ceiling in the room beyond as there had been in the entry hall; instead, a starry night sky appeared to extend far beyond what should have been the limits of Castle Oblivion.

"This can't be right," Sora gasped. This obviously had to be some kind of illusion from all the magic in this place. Though it was a very convincing one. "Traverse Town? How did you—?"

She had moved the door to talk to the man again, but he was gone. He must have left when they were distracted. And so, with one last glance towards the entrance door on the opposite end, its barrier of vines still in place, Sora walked into the illusion of Traverse Town and closed the door behind her.

It was a very convincing imitation. Even the sound of her and her friends' footsteps changed to match how she remembered them sounding on the cobblestones. Or, at least it sounded quite like how she'd imagine them to sound.

"It's exactly how I remember it," Jiminy said from Goofy's pocket. "Even the café's sign is the same," He pointed towards the folding chalkboard sign out front, still advertising the day's special in looped script.

"But the lamps are lit," Donald studied them. "Who would be here to light them?"

"Or to make sure they don't catch fire," Goofy agreed.

The blinking of the Accessory Shop sign caught her eye. "That's easy," Sora said as she moved towards the shop's doors. "Leon and the gang manage all that."

A part of her wondered if her friends would still be here. Nobody else was in sight of what little they'd seen of this imitation of Traverse Town so far, for some reason. What had it been that the man said about this place? Something about this place making the past weird? Or mimicking it? Sora supposed that Castle Oblivion decided on starting at the beginning of her journey last month, then. When she'd woken up here alone and knowing nobody. Maybe that was why all the people were missing?

"You're right," Goofy chimed in as he followed her up the First District's stairs. "It sure would be good to see 'em again."

"Wait you guys, d'you really think they'll be here in this Traverse Town?" Jiminy asked. "It's all empty."

"Why wouldn't they be here, Jiminy? It's right where we left 'em," Goofy replied.

"I, well, uh," Jiminy paused. "Now that you say it, I'm not so sure."

"That's not right!" Donald said, "We're barely into this place and you're forgetting what that guy said already?"

"Gawrsh, what did he say, Donald?"

"Something about imitating the past, which means," Sora answered instead as she grabbed onto the door handle and threw it open with an excited shout, "CID!"

And just as she'd hoped he'd be, there he was.

"Hi?" Cid chewed on his toothpick as he looked at her askance. The look only intensified as Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy made their way in. "Y'all are way too excited about some old knick-knacks. How'd you know my name? One of the guys on patrol out there send you?"

Did he get his memory messed up by this place too? Wait, he was supposed to be one of the memories, right? That only made it more confusing. Sora turned to her friends and found that they appeared just as lost as she was.

Or this had to be a joke.

Yeah, that sounded like Cid.

"C'mon Cid, don't you remember us?" She teased back, and her humor faded somewhat when she saw him look just as blank as before. "We met here! I came in all lost because I'd just landed here from my homeworld?"

"Whole lotta people come here from their homeworlds, kid, that's kind of how interspace travel works. Can ya get a little more specific?"

"Well, uh," She brightened as she got an idea. "'Kid', that's it! You kept calling me a kid and I kept calling you 'gramps'!"

"I bet I sure didn't appreciate you calling me that!" He grated.

"You didn't! But I didn't like you calling me a kid, either! But for some reason we kept calling each other that!"

"Now why would we," He pinched the bridge of his nose between his eyes in a well-known gesture of frustration. Just like how the real Cid would. Sora cracked a smile at the sight. "Alright, whatever. You guys all clearly know each other well, how about you tell me how you all met up here and maybe we can figure out how I factor into this little equation."

Wait, they hadn't said they'd met up here at all. Not in front of Cid. Did that mean…?

But before she could think on it more, Goofy answered. "I think she was helpin' me and Donald search for Pluto, right Donald?"

"Now who the heck is Pluto?" Cid shook his head.

"That's King Mickey's dog!" Goofy replied cheerfully, "He sent us on a quest to find Pluto so he could save the worlds!"

"A normal dog saving the worlds?"

Donald stamped his foot. "We weren't sent to go looking for Pluto, we were sent to find the keyblade!"

"And then what, was Sora helping you search or someth—" Cid cut himself off as he turned visibly perplexed.

Sora started bouncing on her toes.

"That's my name, you said my name!" She cheered, "I knew you remembered me, Cid!"

"I do," Cid replied finally. His confusion remained, however. "But uh, how?"

"Maybe I can help," Jiminy announced as he ducked down to rifle through Goofy's pocket, and emerged moments later with his journal in one hand and his umbrella in the other. Goofy picked him up and held him aloft as a takeoff point before Jiminy jumped down onto the counter, using his umbrella to slow his descent. "I've got it all written down right here in my journal."

But then a new voice was heard in the shop, coming from the front door.

"Woah, Cid, you didn't tell me you were throwing a party in here! I don't think your old mug has ever had these many customers."

"Yuffie!" Now Sora's bouncing around was threatening to launch herself into the ceiling.

"Oy!" Cid barked, "For the fifth and sixth time, damn it, I'm not old!"

"No cursing!" Donald scowled.

And Cid scowled right back at him. "Don't tell me what to do in my shop!"

"Guys," Jiminy was nearly forgotten on the counter as he nervously called out to them. Sora glanced over to see him rifling through the pages of his journal again and again. Something was wrong. "Guys!"

"What's the matter, Jiminy?" Goofy asked.

The room went quiet as Jiminy held out his open journal for them to see for themselves.

Every page was completely blank.

"All of my notes are gone!"

---

NAMINE

Day Twenty-Five

Everyone had left shortly after that revelation, of course, and left Namine behind. (of course)

It still stung a little, to be left out of the important things like that. She understood perfectly well why it was necessary, and that it wasn't the fault of herself or her friends, it just…hmm. Namine was a resident of the castle just like anyone else here. If there was someone unknown in here, who could be dangerous enough to be able to spawn whole rooms and doors in the castle where there wasn't any, and evade Vexen's detection while doing so, then it would've been good to know firsthand. Whoever they were, they were just as much of a danger to Namine as any of her friends. And Namine still didn't know any kind of ways to defend herself like her friends were so good at.

Sure, secondhand recounts of the discussion would work alright, but a nagging little corner of her mind couldn't help but wonder if her friends missed something. Larxene and Marluxia—well, she loved them and was so happy they kept her around, don't get her wrong—but they had a habit of leaving things out a lot. Things that Axel, thankfully, usually mentioned himself. But what if even Axel missed something? Something that Namine needed to know, especially about something as dangerous as this?

She wasn't sure. She knew she was only around a month old, so maybe she just didn't know enough to understand, but something about this didn't really feel right.

Oh well. She was probably just overreacting again. Maybe it was time to just rewatch a memory or two to calm down, hopefully she could gleam some sort of useful information from them in the meanwhile.

— "K̷a̸i̵r̷i̶! That's perfect!" S̵o̴r̶a̸ cheered and gestured between them as she explained to the girl, "S̸o̴r̴a̴, sky," She pointed to herself, "Ḵ̵͑ā̷̝i̷͇̇ȑ̸̙i̶̺͂, sea," She pointed to K̶a̸i̷r̸i̴, "Riku, land!" She pointed to Riku and stopped as she realized she'd never properly introduced him. "Oops, right," S̶o̵r̷a̴ waved her hand to try again. "This is Riku, by the way." —

Namine froze.

This wasn't right. Why were the faces beginning to blur? And the names, it was so strange. Like Namine knew the syllables were still just the same as always but somehow she could no longer comprehend them. She checked again.

— "K̷a̸i̵r̷i̶! That's perfect!" S̵o̴r̶a̸ cheered and gestured between them as she explained to the girl, "S̸o̴r̴a̴, sky," —

What was happening?

---

RIKU

Day Twenty-Five

He had drawn that little toy sword at the ready and leapt when his world seemed to shift.

A flash of green, and everything blurred as Riku felt himself be thrown off his feet. A flash of white, just for an instant, and he felt himself smack painfully against the wall of not-Hollow Bastion's chapel.

He could hear Mickey calling for him. His already high-pitched voice had gone shrill with fear, and Riku dazedly gestured for Mickey not to worry. Riku was used to this. Riku had expected this, even.

After all, the last time he had tried fighting Maleficent had gone almost exactly the same way. But Riku refused to call on the help of neither Xehanort's heartless nor Soul Eater this time. It wasn't just that Ansem was a little too dead to 'help' right now, but that Riku swore to himself that he wouldn't use Darkness at all in this fight. To do so would feel like he was giving in to this memory of Maleficent. Even if he'd won, and a small part of Riku knew that he was up against some unlikely odds, to put it lightly, to win using Darkness would feel like he was acknowledging that she was right. And his pride refused to allow such a thing.

But Riku was beginning to hate his pride a little bit when he pushed himself back upright, and the ground felt like it was starting to swerve in response. Mickey loomed in his vision as he pulled Riku to a halfway seated position.

"That was far from worthwhile, boy," Maleficent's voice rose above Mickey's continued attempts to ask if he was okay. "It was hardly fit to even deem pathetic. Have you learned not to refuse my help now?"

He coughed. "Help? You were a mistake."

"If so, then I was but one amongst many."

"Then you were the worst!" He stumbled to his feet and wrenched his eyes shut against the vertigo as he raced forward, swinging blindly but feeling himself hit something. Maleficent laughed, and it only made Riku angrier.

Every heartless that he'd ever fought in training, every spar with his friends back on Destiny Islands, made for a muscle memory that he had learned over a lifetime. Stars danced across his vision as the vertigo tapered off, and in his imagination they became the glowing yellow eyes of heartless. This was just another training session, he told himself. Just another heartless, only he asked it to become Maleficent this time. Just destroy it like all the rest.

He saw a great flash of green begin to build from behind his closed eyelids, and Riku remembered a fear that was almost as old as he was.

One shuddered breath, and his swinging with the wooden toy sword went rabid. There was no thinking, no feeling, except feeling the dig and scrape of his (pathetic) weapon against something that hardly gave. But Riku did not care. He only swung, and swung, and swung again in the wild hope that something, even a splinter, would hurt. A coldness bit at his skin.

There were flashes of blue and yellow now in his sight, and Riku saw that Mickey had joined him in fighting. A curl of bitter shame formed in his Heart—this was supposed to be Riku's fight. It had been his mistake. His enemy. And other people were paying the price yet again.

He swung, and still nothing gave.

"Remember the last time we fought, child?" Maleficent's voice rang out over the din of hers and Mickey's magic. "I recall another mistake of yours doing most of the fighting then, as well."

The barb stung.

"Don't listen to her, Riku!" Mickey gritted out as his keyblade struck across her outstretched staff with a shower of sparks. Riku could see Diablo flapping his wings furiously as he pulled at Mickey's ears.

Yet Riku couldn't help but listen. Maleficent had always had a way of being able to see through the very core of him, and this memory of her was just the same. All bark and all bite. He winced as he felt his skin begin to burn from the magic she and Mickey were hurling at each other.

The last time they had fought, huh?

("Quiet, boy. The ends justify the means. You know this.")

Riku flinched again, but this time it was not from any callous remark of Maleficent's. A whipcrack of pain sprung across his chest and he stumbled back as his knees buckled. He blinked. When had he fallen to the floor?

Another clamoring racket and Riku looked up. Mickey was leaping to unlikely heights as he swiped his keyblade again and again to stop Maleficent's staff in its tracks. Diablo had become a blur as he continued to swipe at Mickey with everything he had, and Riku could see him swipe at Mickey's ears, his hands, anything he could reach. But Mickey refused to be stopped. Shout upon shout of spells of all kinds, and Mickey—and Maleficent, in turn—was wreathed with magic. Riku felt it wash over him just from how close he was to the fight.

Riku dug his fingers into the floor. He was pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

A lump grew in his throat and his eyes prickled.

He had been the best of the best on the islands, but only on the islands. A big fish in a far too little pond. And in all the dreams of when he'd one day make his way off the islands, whether on his own or with the help of Terra who had never returned for him, Riku had never thought that he'd be anything other than the big fish wherever he went. He just hadn't considered it.

And when it happened, it was like a slap in the face. Even just seeing Maleficent for the first time that fateful day made him feel hopelessly outmatched. Doubly so when he'd later learned that his fated keyblade had gone to Sora instead of himself.

Riku had thought that things would improve once he took Ansem's hand. Heh. Riku was reminded every second of his existence since that day of just how horrible of a choice he'd made. But…well, Ansem had been right about one thing. He technically had given Riku everything he'd asked for, and more.

So much more.

"I think it's time for a changing of the guard, don't you agree?"

Maleficent gave no response save for a momentary twitch at the corner of her mouth. Disgust.

And then, an explosion.

To call the next moments a blur would have felt incorrect, for such a word suggested even the slightest slowness; Riku felt his body be jerked around by Ansem so fast that he barely felt it at all—A foot sliding on the ground here, a hand colliding against Maleficent there. It was like he was flying. The only things he felt for certain were the building pressure of magic in his veins seconds before it shot out of him almost non-stop. Like the buildup of lactic acid from running too long, or if his pulse were magnified to the point where every corner of himself could feel it.

And the constant pulling of his Heart shrieking (NO), but it was far too late for that to change anything now.

He was moving again. Riku wasn't sure when he'd done so, was he moving in time with the memory? Or was it the other way around, and the memory was moving in time with him? He couldn't tell. All he knew was that all had become a blur in both the memory and in real life.

"I had a feeling that our last meeting would not be the end," Maleficent's voice called out from somewhere in the fight. Ansem's Dark keyblade met her staff in fireworks of green.

"Nor will this."

They both grunted as pinpricks of white-hot pain lashed out from where the fireworks landed. Riku could just barely hear Maleficent's biting frustration through closed teeth as the world went blurry again.

The great stained-glass windows of the chapel swirled in his vision with green fire, and Ansem jerked his arms back when a rippling wave of magic scalded the Dark armor and burned it away. Riku couldn't help his morbid fascination as he watched it regrow like a tumor on his skin.

Mickey's voice was yelling at him from somewhere. Riku didn't hear it, and he didn't listen. He was too busy watching the Dark armor grow back.

Maleficent cackled again.

"The Heart of all Hearts, you called it," She called out, "You told me yourself that seven Lights would form half of the key, did you think your Darkness alone would be enough to finish the rest?"

Ansem did not speak. The Dark armor had recompleted itself by now, and Riku could feel the stinging buildup of lightning deep within, splintering into branches the longer Ansem held it. Pins and needles that were crawling down every inch of himself.

An odd noise like a low, rumbling howl swelled around the duel.

"—IKU!" Something was jerking at Riku's hand, and he looked down. It was Mickey. He was saying something, but Riku couldn't hear him anymore. That noise had become too loud.

He could almost read the words on his lips. What was he trying to say?

His own body—no, Ansem's body now—felt like it was made of television static. Maleficent carried on.

"Ten years of work," She boasted, "And your toy is no better for it."

The feeling of static grew stronger, and stronger, until it felt as though Ansem's arms were on fire.

"It's exactly as I knew it would be, boy!" Maleficent's amusement did not stop as she let loose a comet of pure magic. And, as if it were in slow motion, Riku could only watch as it came closer and closer.

And then, he let go.

Riku hadn't even known that he'd done it until he noticed the pain in his arms was gone.

He'd fantasized for so long as to how Maleficent's death would go down that he wasn't prepared for it when it finally happened—an odd emptiness in his limbs preceding a cut-off scream. Maleficent.

No, Riku realized, not Maleficent.

Mickey.

---

SORA

Day Twenty-Five

"Oh," Sora finally said, "That's, uh, that's not good."

"No, it's not!" Jiminy cried, "What am I gonna do? Oh goodness, I was supposed to be the royal chronicler, but if I come home without anything to show Queen Minnie—"

"Aw, don't worry, Jiminy," Goofy assured him with a pat on his tiny shoulder, "You know she won't be mad."

"I know, but it's the principle of the thing," Jiminy replied as he flipped through the journal pages. "All that work writing everything down and organizing it, but nothing to show for it? What if we ever needed that information for reference, like right now? I can't bear to think of all that history just disappearing!"

("And everyone who walks these halls must pay their tithe to Castle Oblivion one way or another.")

"Maybe this place broke your book or something, Jiminy," Sora piped up, and looked over at Cid. "Say, gramps, didn't you fix a book once, or something like that? Can you fix this?"

Cid snorted. "I've fixed all sorts of things. A frayed cover or a few torn pages are nothing for me to handle, but I can't just rewrite your whole dang book for you."

"I definitely remember him nearly rebuilding the gummi ship more than once," Donald deadpanned. "Can't forget that if I tried."

Sora balked. "Not even in a place that could be eating our memories? It was an accident!"

"There's some things I just can't let go."

"You really would let go of your magic before you ever let go of a grudge," Sora muttered.

She could nearly see smoke coming out of Donald's ears at the remark, but before an argument could start Cid held up a hand.

"Geeze, calm down! Have you two always been this hotheaded?" Cid locked the shop register and readied to leave, waving for all of them to follow. "Come on, let's try talking to Aerith and Leon about this. This mystery stuff is more their speed anyway."

The walk towards the old vacant house in the Third District was short and relatively peaceful one, aside from the occasional heartless. Which was somehow both surprising and unsurprising, though Sora couldn't figure out why she felt either way at all, never mind trying to figure out why it was both simultaneously; She could swore she remembered something about the worlds having been saved should mean the heartless should be gone entirely, yet here they were.

Eh, it probably had something to do with this Traverse Town just being one of her memories, anyway. At least that meant it wasn't so bad that Donald lost his magic. He could still use his staff as a club. Which made it much easier to dodge his wrath whenever Sora teased him, too.

But if this place was just another memory, then all of her friends in this place had to be memories too, right? So if she could remember them remembering her, then why didn't they remember her now?

Ugh. This place was beginning to give her a headache.

"Oy, Leon! Aerith!" Cid called out as they arrived, "Any chance you remember any of these knuckleheads?"

Leon looked up from his familiar stance as he leaned on the far wall, with his arms crossed and gunsword by his side. Beside him, Aerith turned to face them.

"No. Especially not that ninja," Leon nodded towards Yuffie with a ghost of a smirk, "Never seen her before in my life."

Yuffie scoffed. "Very funny."

"We all know you two remember that one, that's not who I'm askin' about," Cid replied, "I mean the other four here. Sora," He gestured towards Sora, and stopped short at the rest. "Sora and, uh…"

"Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy!" Yuffie corrected. Everyone turned towards her.

"Yuffie, you remember us?" Sora asked. Only Jiminy's name had been mentioned already in front of Yuffie. Yet none of the others' names had come up, Sora reminded herself, aside from Cid somehow remembering Sora's name.

But Yuffie shook her head. "Nope! Total strangers. But I definitely know your names somehow. It's totally weird, but it's convenient to spare the introductions!"

Leon looked puzzled. "You've never met them, but somehow you know their names? And you're not at all bothered by that?"

Yuffie shook her head, and Sora turned to Aerith and begged, "C'mon Aerith, do you remember us? Please say you remember us."

"I don't. I'm sorry," Aerith apologized with a wince.

"I—ugh, okay," She slid a hand down her face in exasperation and thought for a moment. She paced back and forth. "But you guys seriously have to remember us. What about the last time we saw you guys—when was that? Oh! Right! After we helped you take back your home from the heartless!" Sora brightened. "After the Fairy Godmother got us all together and did some fancy magic, and the four of us were about to leave to go fight Ansem, I was all 'Oh no! We'll never see each other again because of the natural order!' And one of you guys said something like 'We may never meet again, but—'"

"'—But we'll never forget each other,'" Leon finished, and his puzzled expression turned deeply perplexed. "…What…?"

Sora pointed at him with an overjoyed shout. "That was you! You said that! And you remember it!"

"I don't know how, though," Leon hesitated. "I don't get it, something's wrong with my memory. What's happening here?"

"It is strange, though," Aerith added, "I don't know whether to say, 'nice to meet you' or, 'it's good to see you again'."

"Exactly!" Yuffie chimed in, "Like we've never met before, but it still doesn't feel weird knowing your name."

"But I'm telling you, we have met. We all took on the heartless together!"

"I don't have any memory of that, but somehow I still know the events you're referring to," Aerith said, "I do remember Leon saying that, now, just as he remembers the words. But it's as if our Hearts remember instead of our heads. Like maybe it's your memories of us together that resonates in our Hearts, even after our own memories of those times are forgotten."

Forgotten? Sora felt hurt. Everything happened only a few days ago, by her estimate. A week or so at the most. How did they already forget something so important as how they got their home back? How could they forget her?

"You're saying that Sora's memories are affecting ours?" Leon asked.

"If that were the case then we probably wouldn't have forgotten anything, because she's remembering what we're forgetting," Aerith noted, "But her Heart could be affecting ours, and that could have something to do with the memories. The connections we make with people can have an unlikely power that goes far beyond what we can predict."

Memories, huh? "Maybe it's like that guy said, then. This whole town isn't real, it's just Castle Oblivion reflecting my past."

"And there's someone special to you in this town?"

The question caught Sora off guard, and she felt her face turn pink. She wouldn't call Riku special to her, definitely not, absolutely no way, but she'd happily say he was important. Yes, that was it. Riku was an important friend. He was her oldest friend. Her best friend, her favorite friend. That's all.

Saying he was her special friend was—um—well—

"Sure is!" Goofy said, and Sora felt her brain start to short-circuit until Goofy went on, "We're lookin' for King Mickey!"

"Yeah!" Donald agreed.

Oh, King Mickey. Right. She could work with that. "Y-yeah, and, uh, my friend Riku too. I guess my Heart resonated there and told you what we were here for, huh?" Sora finished with a nervous chuckle.

"Hang on, did you say this town was some sort of a castle?" Yuffie asked. Sora welcomed the change in subject.

"Yes! Yes, it's called Castle Oblivion. Giant from the outside," She spread her arms wide to punctuate her words and glanced out the room's window towards the night sky outside. "And I guess it's even bigger on the inside? Enough to fit all of Traverse Town in it, apparently. And the sky. We walked in through the castle's front door to some entry hall and talked to this annoying guy who blocked off the front door with a bunch of vines so we couldn't leave, said some vague stuff about how this place mimics our memories and takes things from us like Donald's magic or Jiminy's notes, and we decided to keep going on in because all of us could feel that Riku and King Mickey were here in the castle somewhere. After that, I opened another door in that hall and it opened to the First District."

"What in blue blazes?" Cid replied, "This has gotta be some sort of a dream."

"It's not a dream for us," She sighed. Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy all did the same.

Aerith gave a sympathetic smile. "You're still not sure what's going on yourself, right?"

"Right. We just got here, after all. I want to take a better look around and see if they're anywhere around here."

"We'll help you guys out with that!" Yuffie grinned, and everyone nodded in agreement. "An itty-bitty town like this, we'll find them in no time."

---

RIKU

End of Day Twenty-Five

Mickey shuddered as he clutched at his chest while the last curls of smoke drifted away from the scorch mark in his back, and the chapel of Hollow Bastion was filled with a wretched burning smell as the last of Riku's lightning dimmed. Somehow, Riku had managed to use the magic both in the memory and in real life.

Just as he had donned that Dark second skin in real life as well. Riku stared down at his hands with growing horror as he saw the ridges of his—Ansem's—old armor having returned. Along with all the danger it, and all powers of Darkness, posed. He swallowed hard against the urge to retch and felt his breath go shallow.

(Sora's dead and never coming back, and it's all your fault)

("This place is a labyrinth. It is a living thing that stares into every corner of its visitors and rearranges itself to match.")

This horrible place knew his fears as well as he did. As well as Maleficent did. As fake as it all was, the danger it posed was real.

Mickey started to slump forward, and Riku jerked himself out of his daze to catch him in time. Mickey weighed even less than he'd expected. Somehow, that made everything so much worse than it already was.

Riku could only watch numbly as Mickey's clothes repaired themselves as the wounds underneath did not. Was this it? Was it his destiny to hurt the ones he cared about?

"No," He spoke without thinking as he began to panic. "No, please, no! Mickey! Curaga!" Riku shook Mickey's shoulders as he tried to recite the healing magic Aqua had cast in battle. "Curaga! Curaga!"

And nothing happened. Just as the earlier memory of lightning had gone dim, so too had the vague recollection of those green waves of Light Aqua had called forth. He adjusted his hold on Mickey so that he was holding him with one hand as Riku uselessly yelled the word over and over again at the other. Maleficent, far too calmly, strode over towards the spectacle and kneeled down to inspect the damage as Diablo circled above and landed on Riku's shoulder.

It wasn't long before the word curaga started to come out stuttered, fitful, and still ineffective. But Riku didn't care. He said it until it lost meaning, like the syllables were just tumbling out of his mouth of their own volition, and Mickey writhed. The burning smell was still seared into Riku's nose.

(ALL YOUR FAULT)

"Fool. He knew that would happen."

He yanked his head up at her words. Maleficent looked almost bored as she continued to inspect Mickey.

"I didn't—I didn't mean to—"

"Didn't mean to what? Use your Darkness?" At Riku's silence, she chuckled humorlessly. "Then you are just as much a fool as him."

She got up and moved to turn away. "You're better off without him," Maleficent said. "The likes of us are not meant for the kind of Light he preaches, boy."

"D-Don't," Mickey rasped as he tried to push himself upright, and Riku tore his eyes away from Maleficent to see Mickey leveling him with an unusually stern look. "Don't listen to her!"

But whatever power Mickey's words and demeanor may have had was dampened by his wince. He curled in on himself as he clutched at his chest.

(His eyelids drooped more, and he could just barely see the bottom of Maleficent's robes come closer as his broken skin healed. She knelt down and Riku could feel a hand in his hair.)

"You're wrong," Riku declared.

"Hmm?" Maleficent held out a hand for Diablo to alight upon, and Riku dimly felt the raven's claws scrape at his shoulder as he made to fly towards her.

"Not only are you wrong about me being better off without him," He said as he glared up at her, "But you're wrong about yourself."

She did not turn, and did not speak. Riku went on.

"Before I fought you as Ansem, you healed me after I threw that fit when you took Kairi. I…I didn't know why you did that. You didn't have any reason to. But you did," He finished, "And I know you have it in you to do it again."

Maybe this Maleficent was a memory, and maybe the rest of this place was, too. But memory or not, this place and everything in it was dangerous.

And, he hoped desperately, maybe it wasn't all that way. If it could hurt, perhaps it could heal.

Maleficent turned, and her expression looked so carefully neutral as she stared back at him that Riku very nearly missed it; In her eyes was none of that green fire he remembered from the twilit days of Hollow Bastion, and yet no scheming and no fury, either. Instead, what lingered there was a hint of something Riku recognized but couldn't name.

And then he remembered that momentary wince she'd made earlier—the one he thought he imagined.

Was Maleficent capable of such a thing? Had he not imagined it after all?

Looking at her now, he almost saw that same trace of something vulnerable. Almost. But then Mickey writhed again and Riku made himself set aside the thought for later. "Please, Maleficent."

She did not move. For a long moment, long enough that Riku was beginning to think she'd refuse, they only stared at one another in a strange continuation of their battle of wills only minutes prior.

And, finally, she knelt down.

Maleficent reverted to her typical disdain as she assessed Mickey's injuries. On her shoulder now, Diablo shook out his feathers and started to groom himself.

"Fine, then," She spoke. "I shall grant you your wish."

"Oh thank you, thank you—"

"But in return," She put one hand on Mickey's chest and the other on the wooden toy sword still in Riku's grip, nearly forgotten in the aftermath of the fight, "You must do something for me. You didn't think I'd do this for free, did you?"

That was the Maleficent he knew.

Under her hand, Mickey squirmed and wheezed, "Riku, no—there's a potion in my pocket—"

"Come now, you and I both know the Dark seeker's magic well. Do you truly think one measly potion is enough to undo what the boy did?" She arched one brow. "All I ask is that he listens to what I have to say. And I do mean listen this time, and consider my advice," Maleficent turned back towards Riku with a squint.

"What is it?" Riku asked.

The hand Maleficent held on to Mickey with glowed as waves of green light washed over him, and what parts of Mickey's injuries Riku could still see began to close themselves up. A shifting feeling all over Riku's arms made him look down to see the Dark armor he wore begin to contort, moving in the direction of Maleficent's other hand that held onto the toy sword with such a strong grip that he could hear the wood creak.

He looked back up to see her eyes boring into his as she spoke next. "That there is no good sense in rejecting one's nature."

The Dark armor moved over himself as its tendrils reached out to ensnare the wooden sword. Riku bit back his panic at the sight; Mickey needed help more right now. Riku would just deal with whatever Maleficent was doing, he could figure out an alternative later.

He shivered at the feeling of the armor slithering down his neck.

"The sparrow flies, boy. The fish swims. The bear slumbers in the winter and awakens in the spring. And young children with burdens in their Hearts must understand their Darkness," The Dark tendrils covered more of the sword, and began to form a very recognizable shape over it. "Never run from it," He realized that as his Dark armor reached out to cover the sword, it was slowly abandoning him. His old clothes were showing through again. "And never hide from it."

The dips and points of Soul Eater's blade sharpened themselves as the last of those Dark tendrils unfurled to reveal its blue-green eye in the hilt.

("All we are is poison.")

"For it is a fool's errand to abandon the true self," Maleficent concluded.

---

NAMINE

End of Day Twenty-Five

Her friends had all come back from meeting with the others in the basement levels, but Namine's attention was far away from that. Her focus had been reserved solely for inspecting each memory she'd seen so far in search of more defects.

— "I don't know how to feel about it," S̸o̴r̵a̵ replied, "Today marks the day that my d̶a̶d̴'̶s̶ been gone from my life longer than he's been in it. But I was so little when he died, that I didn't even understand what happened when my m̷̳̯͍̃̓͋͗o̶̫̅m̵̢̕ told me there was an accident and that he was gone. I thought she meant he was off on a trip until Riku explained what death was." "…That part never changes. You're never going to be sure how to feel about it," K̶̢͛a̶̘͝i̶̩͐ṛ̶̂i̸̘͋ finally said. They both went quiet after that. —

— "But what if we come back to the goldfish stall and the one I wanted isn't there?" S̵o̶r̶a̶ fretted as she and Riku wove their way through the crowds, their yukatas whipping around their ankles. "Then you can just win a different one. Now come on, Ḱ̸̟a̸̼̾i̴̜͗r̸̞̚i̶̎ͅ said her ̶̬͛d̴̫a̵̞̋ď̷̰ would be done with the parade by now." "But me and N̴̩̄i̸̝͒b̴̩̄b̸͙̽l̵͔̀e̷͕͒ŗ̷͠ had a connection!" "You named it already?" —

Every memory was beginning to go the same way. Names were starting to turn indistinct, their faces going out of focus. And the more Namine searched for flaws, the more there were to find.

She felt fear coiling up inside worse than usual. The very idea that these memories could change one bit was terrifying. Her old friends no longer having any names, any faces, to go with the connection they'd had that Namine savored was an awful thought.

"—Fine. If headquarters had nothing to say about the matter, then leave Vexen and the others to their half of the work. We'll simply continue to remotely monitor the keyblade wielder's group and keep an eye on where the intruders might come out from," Marluxia tapped the crystal ball in the corner of the room to punctuate his words, and the surface of it made a quiet clack as he did so. It seemed her friends had been in some argument before coming back, judging by their even more tense mood now than when they'd left.

Namine had noticed this just as she'd noticed even the slightest shifts in moods in her friends. It was a skill that had formed itself in the earliest days of her existence, and had come in very useful almost constantly. But at the moment, though, it was almost annoying. Her friends weren't yelling—yet—but their tone was clipped and their voices were becoming raised, and it set Namine on edge. She had to repeatedly stop whatever memory she was checking to note what they were mad about (and whether her friends were close to getting scary even with Axel there) and if she had anything to do with it. And then go back into the memory once she made sure things were still okay.

Sometimes it made her lose her place, like now. She sighed.

Namine held her arms and looked down at the tabletop, as imaginary pinpricks of lightning tiptoed down to her fingertips. She was being unreasonable. It made sense for them to be getting so perturbed by the fact that someone unknown was in the castle. It didn't warrant her being agitated at all over something as insignificant as what volume or tone they were talking at. Namine just had to try focusing a little harder, like when she was trying (and failing) to learn magic.

That, and Namine was being extra unreasonable for preferring any past friends over the friends she had now. How could she do that? It was her friends now who took her in and gave her a name, and housed her still even when it was a risk for them to do it. Her past friends…well, as good as they were—great, even—they weren't here now. They weren't the ones sheltering her or teaching her magic. They weren't the ones who were there for her now. And that had to mean something, even if it hurt.

"It looked like that girl and her pets were about to come out soon when I checked earlier," Larxene smirked. "I wouldn't mind going downstairs to see how their little search went so far. It'd be better than hanging around here all bored out of my mind."

'Bored'.

Yes, Namine told herself. The friendships she had now had to mean something, no matter what. Even if they hurt.

"I'll be going down there to check on them, Larxene," Marluxia answered with a note of reproach, "Nothing extra."

"You said it, not me."

"We all know what you really meant, Larx," Axel scoffed. "The orders are to subdue the keyblade wielder for the Organization. Nothing permanent. Although," He added slyly, "I wouldn't mind volunteering for the honor, myself. You got to chat once already, Marluxia, I want to see the kid who defeated the strongest heartless ever."

"Me too!" Larxene insisted, and Namine could feel another argument start to brew. If she was going to say anything about what was happening, it had to be now.

"Her memories are starting to fade," She blurted out. Namine shrunk slightly when she saw them all turn towards her.

"What are you saying?" Marluxia asked. "That the castle is working on her?"

"Um, it's just, well, names and faces in her memories are starting to fade," Namine hesitated, "What does the castle do?"

"It'll erase your whole mind eventually, if you're not careful," Axel replied. "You'll be as good as a ghost wandering around these halls forever. It's one of the reasons why we wear these coats, to protect ourselves from the castle's effect and to let us use the Dark portals as much as we want without side effects."

Erase…her whole mind? Was that what was happening to Sora?

No more memories, no more old friends, no more anything. Not even her name would be left. The thought made Namine shudder.

Her being able to see those memories was the only thing Namine could do to make her friends like her again. It was the only thing that always made them happy with her. It wasn't like Namine was able to do the simplest things like summoning a Dark portal, or use magic. Memories were all she had. If she couldn't be useful anymore, what good was Namine worth keeping around for?

What good was it to be the nobody of the keyblade wielder, if the keyblade wielder in question was just a ghost wandering around the hallways?

And moreover, though Namine wouldn't dare say it aloud, the memories were the only entertainment she had. Like having a whole library in her head, where almost every book was her favorite. Or a whole art gallery where every inch was a painting. If Namine didn't have that, then she'd just be left sitting at this stupid table in this stupid white room staring at her stupid, stupid, stupid hands again—

Larxene gave a whoop and clapped her hands. "Yes!" She laughed and grabbed at Marluxia before hopping from foot to foot. "This is perfect!"

"Uh, Namine?" Axel asked, "Are you okay?"

She stared at him with wide eyes and struggled to form a response. What could she say?

"What—I—" She gasped, "I can't lose her memories. Axel, please. What are they so happy about?"

He searched her face before turning back towards Larxene and Marluxia, who had a rare smile on his own face now. "You know," Axel said, "I'm not so sure either. What are you guys going wild about?"

"We won't have to do any work to make her one of us now, duh," She giggled as she held on to Marluxia. Both of them had matching grins with a foreboding edge. "Won't the organization like that?"

Axel was slow to respond, and Namine could see he had that calculating look on his face again.

"I guess they would," He raised his hand to summon a Dark portal. "I guess they would. You two can stay behind to celebrate, I'll go down to check out the damage myself."

---

RIKU

End of Day Twenty-Five

Riku held out Soul Eater and looked at it with wide eyes. "This can't be the real thing."

"Oh, but it is."

"No, it's not! She's wrong!" Mickey yelped as he scrambled to his feet and yanked Soul Eater out of Riku's hand and angrily shook it, as if to try shaking off the Dark tendrils that had transformed it from the toy sword. When they didn't budge, he threw Soul Eater as far as he could, where it landed off in some shadowy corner of the chapel with a distant metallic racket. When it reappeared in Riku's hand only seconds later, Mickey tried throwing it again.

The second time it reappeared in Riku's hand, Mickey gave up and told him, "Don't listen to her, Riku! The Light will never give up on you! If you look for the Light, then you will always find it, but," He added with a glare aimed towards Maleficent, "If you look for the Darkness, then that's all you'll ever see."

"Well then," Maleficent bowed her horns with a simpering smile, "Are you saying the boy's Heart requires balance?"

Even the mention of that word made Riku wrinkle his nose with disgust.

"I think we all know the kind of balance you're talking about would've left me just aware enough to continue doing your bidding while keeping me too blind to free myself," He spat. "I'm grateful for your help in healing Mickey, Maleficent, but we're going to get out of here now. You're just a memory, and I hope you stay that way."

As he turned to leave, Riku saw out of the corner of his eye that Maleficent's smile widened at those words. He decided to ignore it.

Just as he decided to ignore her parting words: "I hope so too, my dear. Farewell."

Their footsteps echoed around them as they left, once again making it sound as though he and Mickey weren't alone in the chapel. But Riku didn't care. All he wanted right now, he thought to himself as he reached to open the door, was to be as far away from that illusion of Maleficent as possible. And as far away from the stage of some of the Darkest days of his life—

Riku opened the door, fully expecting it to open back into his old bedroom back in Hollow Bastion again. But all that awaited him and Mickey beyond the threshold was a blindingly white room lined with an array of electronics and tangles of wires, and they both stopped short at the sight and shared an uncertain glance. Despite himself, Riku couldn't help but turn to look back at Maleficent again.

Yet Maleficent was gone.

He sighed and muttered a curse at himself under his breath. Maleficent hadn't changed a bit; she was still thinking he'd be her faithful lackey as always, that 'balance' comment was but one of several examples of proof in that encounter. Like asking for something in return for healing Mickey's wound.

That wound which had very much been Riku's doing.

And really, technically even Maleficent's part in it was because of Riku, because his imagination had apparently put her there in the chapel. For some reason.

Wow, was he really just destined to hurt people or something? What was wrong with him?

Mickey had already walked into the room beyond and was busy looking around, but Riku lingered in the doorway. The wound on Mickey's back had long since healed by then, but Riku couldn't help but feel his face curl uncomfortably as his eyes fell on where it had been. "Hey, Mickey?"

"Hmm?" He didn't look over, as busy as he was with inspecting the equipment around the room.

"I'm sorry," At that, Mickey turned. His ever-present smile drooped at the expression Riku must've had on his face right then. "I'm sorry for hurting you, and for dragging us to that place. And I'm sorry for putting Maleficent there, and I'm sorry for using Darkness—No, wait, she said that was Ansem's Darkness somehow apparently, which is way worse—and—"

"Riku, it's okay," Mickey beamed. "I leapt in the way anyhow, so don't worry about it."

"But—"

"But nothin'! It's all fixed now and I'm as fit as a fiddle, so don't beat yourself up over it."

"Mickey—"

He held up a gloved finger and wagged it. "Nope, not another word there, mister!"

Did he just wag his finger at me? The gesture was so corny in comparison to the gravity of what had almost happened that Riku felt himself come close to cracking a smile. And Mickey must have seen it, for he then smiled wider.

"Okay, okay," Riku relented, "I won't bring it up again," For now. "But how are you able to just let things go like that? Even things that big of a deal?"

"Well, that one was easy because it really wasn't that big of a deal," Mickey replied. "You were aiming at Maleficent, and she was aiming at you. I knew you'd tapped into something bad because of all that armor, but I didn't think you'd had the know-how or anything yet to do any real damage. I thought it was Maleficent that was going to do something real bad to you! So I was plannin' to just try getting in front of ya in time to cast a shield against her and that your magic would take a little longer to fire, so I'd have time to prepare for something I thought would just sting a bit. I sure wasn't expecting that!" He laughed.

Riku could only blink. He'd already had an idea from their time in the Realm of Darkness that Mickey had a habit of brushing things off to keep the mood light, like telling Aqua that Terra would be okay when all signs at that point had seemed to say otherwise. But being able to dismiss your own near-death experience?

Was this sort of thing required to have enough Light in your Heart to make it as a keyblade wielder?

Riku looked down at his hands as his stomach churned yet again. The sight of Sora stabbing herself with the Dark keyblade and collapsing into Light replayed itself over and over again in his mind, just as it had countless times now, and would continue to do so for the rest of his life. Only now, it was joined by the sight of his own Dark magic striking Mickey in the back. That burning smell. What other horrible memories would be made and endlessly replay themselves in his head as time went on?

…Did Sora have these kinds of things to think about, too? Or Aqua?

Mickey must have mistaken his silence as being caused by a different line of thought, for Mickey then said, "Just because you shouldn't use your Darkness doesn't mean you're rejecting your true self, Riku."

He looked up. "But isn't that exactly what it is? Rejecting a part of me? Darkness is just as much of a part of you as Light is, isn't it?"

"Well, uh," Mickey floundered, "Technically yeah, but think about who's saying that! That Maleficent may have been a memory, Riku, but the real thing helped lead you to losing everything once already. You can't trust her!"

"She healed you, though. And all she wanted in return for that was for me to just listen to her talk for a second. Maleficent never does that. The only time she told me to listen to her about something, she—I—"

He stopped himself. I ended up telling her where Kairi's Heart was, of my own volition.

"And think about what she's asking you to listen to her say, Riku. Maybe she doesn't lie, but she can tell the truth in certain ways to make you believe a whole other story!"

"Maybe, but not this time. You just told me that she was right about 'not rejecting my true self', as in rejecting my Darkness."

Mickey looked like he was struggling with an answer before sighing. "The easiest—well, the safest way of using your Darkness for good is learning from it. Not using it to fight like back there. Nothing good comes from using it to fight or anything else."

He had repeated the mantra a number of times and just as many ways in their short time together so far. Avoid Darkness, never use it at all costs, Darkness was dangerous, so on and so forth. All warranted, of course, as Riku had just been reminded once more. But this time when Mickey had said the words, he seemed to say them with a sort of heaviness.

"You sound like you speak from experience," Riku noted. Experience beyond what he'd discussed of Terra, Aqua, and Master Xehanort.

"I do, sorta. How should I explain…" Mickey scrunched his face up in thought before a look of inspiration dawned on him. He turned towards the door at the other end of the room and asked, "Say, Riku, did that memory of Maleficent back there say this place uses your memories to change itself around? And that that's how it looked like Radiant Garden's castle back there?"

"She did," Riku teased, "But I thought we weren't supposed to listen to her?"

"And we're not!" Mickey insisted, "But you know what I mean!"

"Yeah, yeah, I do," Riku replied, "So what were you thinking?"

"I was thinkin' I'd just go ahead and show you what I mean!"

---

SORA

End of Day Twenty-Five

"So, they weren't in First District?"

Sora shook her head. "Nope."

"Second?"

"Nothin'," Yuffie answered.

"Third?"

"Just some heartless," Leon replied.

"Merlin's house?"

"No," Donald grumbled as he lit their path with small fireballs as practice. It seemed that rather than taking his magic outright, Castle Oblivion had only taken Donald's memories of all the spells he'd known before. Which was still a crippling blow in Donald's opinion, as now Merlin had only had time to teach him 'the basics', which consisted of just the spells Sora knew and nowhere near the battery of nigh-countless spells he'd spent years learning and mastering. At least he'd still retained enough knowledge of theory to remember things like charms, when Sora had asked earlier.

And speaking of which, that tethering charm had come in completely useless here. While searching every inch of Traverse Town's districts, that feeling prompted her towards nowhere but further into the castle.

"I don't think they're here, guys," Sora said. Donald and Goofy shared their agreement. Under Goofy's hat, they could hear Jiminy's muffled voice do the same while he continued to inspect his journal.

"Shoot, I don't think so either," Cid scratched the back of his head as the toothpick in his mouth bobbed. "Ain't ever seen anyone 'round here like what you describe. Certainly no talking king mouse, either. Sorry, kid."

"His name is King Mickey," Donald huffed, "Get it right!"

"Don't worry," Sora said. "Maybe they're not in Traverse Town, but I know they're in this castle somewhere."

"Yeah," Goofy said cheerfully, "We had a feeling they were around here when we walked into, uh, what was it called again? Castle Obvious? Castle, um, Castle Vivian? Viridian—?"

"Castle Oblivion," Donald corrected. "And we should get going. If this Traverse Town is only one part of the whole place, who knows how long it'll take to search the rest?"

"Then follow your Hearts," Aerith smiled, "And no matter what shape the castle's reality takes, you can handle it. We may not remember you four as we should be able to, but we know you in our Hearts. We have a connection. Let that connection guide you and give you strength."

"'We may never meet again, but we'll never forget each other'," Leon repeated. He smiled. "That's what your Heart is telling us. Good luck, everyone."

At Cid's muttering about reality taking the shape of ridiculous dreams about searching for king mice in a town located inside of a castle, Sora laughed. This situation really did sound kind of surreal, didn't it?

It wasn't long after that that they parted ways. The goodbye was an odd one, given the unusual circumstances, though not unpleasant, and shortly thereafter Sora and her friends were wandering the streets of Traverse Town alone in search of a way back into the rest of the castle. She hung back as Donald and Goofy walked on, discussing with Jiminy about the state of his journal, but Sora's thoughts were elsewhere.

In particular, she was most concerned with Leon and the rest of the crew not remembering hardly a thing about Sora and her friends. How could they forget in such a short time? Only managing to remember their names and some trace of the friendships they've made together, but not remembering how that came about? What about the times they've together against the heartless? When they helped reclaim their home?

She stopped herself and looked up towards the rooftops of Traverse Town. That was right. Sora, Donald, and Goofy had fought alongside Leon, Yuffie, Cid, and Aerith to get their home back. She was sure of that.

But…where had that home been?

She couldn't remember. She wanted to say their home had been Traverse Town, but something about that didn't sound right at all.

"Sora?" She turned to see Aerith had come back, and now looked just as troubled as Sora felt.

"What's up?"

"I don't have any answers, but I felt like I'd needed to tell you something. Just a feeling I had. So, your memories created this town, right?"

"That's what the guy in the hood said earlier," Sora confirmed. "Castle Oblivion is using my past to imitate it for some reason."

"If that's true, then this town is just a figment of your mind," Aerith said, "And so are we."

"I was wondering about that, too," Sora gnawed at her lip. "But I don't like that thought. If you and Cid and everybody were there right in front of me, how can you be imaginary? How can this Traverse Town be some illusion if I can reach out and grab it?" She reached a hand towards the plaza wall, feeling the grit of the bricks drag on her fingers. She paused. "If I can remember you, why can't you all remember me?"

"Because I'm not really me," Aerith replied. "None of us are. That's the only explanation I can think of—Castle Oblivion itself is doing this to you. I don't know the reason for it, or if there is a reason at all. But I'm sure that I'm not the last illusion you'll see," Her brow furrowed into a look of pity. "Your time in this castle will be full of them. And I'm sure these illusions will try to deceive you and lead you astray."

"But none of you tried to deceive me or do any of that kind of stuff."

"None of us can know that for sure. Maybe the castle made you talk to us to sow doubt. Maybe it made you look for your friends in this imaginary town when it knew they were somewhere else in the castle, just to make you waste time and miss them."

"C'mon, don't say that. That's depressing," Sora winced.

"I'm sorry. But you need to stay strong, Sora, and beware your memories. Don't let any illusions distract you from what's truly important."

"Sora!" Donald called out from far behind. "Are you ready to go?"

She turned back to see him and Goofy walking back, with Jiminy now on Goofy's shoulder. They all appeared to be confused.

"Yeah, one second," She called back, and made to say goodbye to Aerith one last time. "See ya—"

But Aerith was gone. Sora blinked.

"—Later? Huh?" She angled her head to peek around the corner, but no one was there, either. And the rest of the Third District was empty. "Aerith?"

"What about Aerith?" Donald asked.

"Did you guys see her go anywhere? I was just talking to her."

"She walked away with Leon and the rest of 'em, remember?" Goofy cocked his head.

"You worried us, just standing there by yourself," Donald added.

Is this what Aerith meant? Sora inspected the Third District once more with wide eyes, but still it remained empty.

"You okay?" Goofy asked. She gave a hesitant nod.

"Don't worry about me," She pushed away her own unease so they wouldn't catch on. All of them had enough to worry about in this place, no need to add on to the quickly growing pile of concerns to deal with. "I'm fine, I was just messing with you."

Goofy and Jiminy chuckled as Donald tapped his foot with frustration. "Come on, then, let's find a way out of this place so we can keep looking for the king!"

"Okay, okay," Sora followed along as they resumed walking in search of a way out of Traverse Town. Or, technically an illusion of Traverse Town.

Which made her think: They came in here from the castle's entrance hall just by opening a door that led into the First District. A door that, by the time she'd tried returning to it while on her and her friends' search for Riku and Mickey, had already disappeared. Only the town gates were left in its place, and those led to the empty gummi hangar and the outlying fields. There had been no chance of returning to the halls of Castle Oblivion using the same way they'd entered.

Or was there? If they came here using a door, was leaving just as easy as using another door?

The idea made sense. Assuming the Aerith-illusion was right about this place playing tricks on them, then maybe it was distracting them even more right now by making them think they had to walk around the whole town all over again in search of a way out. How would she and her friends even know that it was a real exit when they saw it? Would it have a flashing neon exit sign over it, with arrows pointing to it and everything?

Or, Sora thought to herself as they passed by the entrance to the town's hotel, would it look like any other door you'd expect to see in the illusion? Perhaps it'd even be mislabeled.

Like putting a sign above it saying 'hotel' instead.

Sora turned on her heel and strode back towards the hotel door again, and started inspecting it. It didn't take long before Donald's and Goofy's footsteps went quiet.

"What are you up this time?" Donald remarked. "Messing around again?"

"Maybe," She joked as she reached towards the door handle, "Or maybe I'm onto something—Oh. Huh. Whaddya know, I guess I was right."

Sora squinted at the return of the overwhelmingly bright, bluish-white light that streamed out from the open door. Compared to the nighttime ambiance of the fake Traverse Town, lit by only the stars and gas streetlamps aside from the shop signs, the hallway of Castle Oblivion beyond was nearly blinding.

"Is that the way out?" Goofy questioned as he and Donald came closer.

"Looks like it just goes back into the castle proper," Jiminy supposed, "But hopefully we can figure out the rest of the way from there. Good eye, Sora. I wouldn't have guessed this was it."

"Neither would I," She said with a suspicious glance at the other door in the entryway. The hotel 'entrance' of the illusion-Traverse Town looked exactly the same as the one in the real Traverse Town did, right down to the orange light shining through the double doors' windows. And within those windows, Sora noticed as she looked more closely, she could see the ordinary scene of the hotel lobby. As if the bright white room beyond didn't exist. "I was just thinking on what the others said."

And on the other side of the door she'd opened, that was part of the hall, the doors didn't have windows at all. The stained dark brown wood of the Traverse Town side was white as snow on the Castle Oblivion side.

This place was getting more and more confusing.

"About reality taking another shape here?" Goofy said as he and Donald walked on in after Jiminy. Sora nodded and followed them.

"Something like that. This whole place is an illusion, it's easy to get swept up in it. Pretty convenient for it to put a door out next to us like that, though."

"I guess that makes two of us," A voice rang out from somewhere in the room, and all of them jumped.

Sora summoned her keyblade at the sight of the hooded man standing just beside the door at the opposite end of the hall, as the last dregs of a Dark portal fell away around him. Beside her, Donald and Goofy readied their weapons as Jiminy hid.

It took another moment for Sora to realize he wasn't the one they'd talked to earlier. This guy had a completely different build, as thin as a rake and twice as tall, and his way of speaking wasn't anywhere near as refined.

"Hello!" He raised his hand in a mocking two-finger salute. "Marly wanted to be the one to test you three after your little initiation into the castle, but I told him to quit hogging the heroes. It's not fair that he's the only one to get to see the great keyblade wielder we've heard oh so much about, huh?"

"Who are you?" Sora ordered. "Who's 'Marly'?"

"He really didn't even bother telling you his name? Classic, always putting on the theatrics," He mused. "Too bad it's my show now."

He reached for his hood and pulled it back to reveal a face as angular as he was, framed by a lion's mane of strikingly red hair. His unusually short brows scrunched together as a lopsided grin curled across his mouth as naturally as if it were always there, and Sora saw that beneath his green eyes—an icy, almost cold shade of pale green, like the first spring leaves frosted over in the late winter's morning—laid two dark violet marks like teardrops falling backwards.

He pointed to his temple. "The name's Axel. Got it memorized?"

"Uh, sure," Sora already had that hair memorized, apparently, because that shade of red was far too familiar. Where had she seen it before?

"Good. Now I'm gonna have to ask you to do me a favor here, Sora," He grinned as he held out his arms, and great spinning flames erupted on either end to reveal they were hiding two wickedly sharp chakrams clutched in his hands. "And that is: don't die."

---

AUTHOR'S NOTES

So, uh, holy shit! I'm not going to go too deep into it because I don't want to drag my personal life into the fic or get political, but pandemics suck. What an abysmal, Dark hole we've found ourselves in, huh? I guess, for a silver lining, this pandemic hysteria and potential impending collapse of democracy both domestically and abroad will go a very long way towards informing my writing for RG's collapse-'write what you know' and whatnot :P So I'll just go right into the notes for this chapter instead!

NOTES:
1. the CoM manga gives an explanation for Donald getting his magic back shortly after losing it in the beginning by having Merlin teach him some (which would technically be Sora indirectly teaching Donald magic, since that Merlin was a figment of Sora's memories and therefore could only teach as much as Sora knew), which I thought was useful to appropriate here. The CoM game is kinda weird because it makes a show of Donald losing his magic in the opening, but then he just…gets it back when he's in your deck without any explanation :P So I'll just try to meet canon halfway by having him not able to do the fancier stuff you saw in parts of YABAM until KH2 and demote him to lvl 1 spells.

2. Riku's saying 'curaga' and not just 'cure' like Sora would is because Aqua, by the time Riku encountered her, pretty much only ever used spells in the 'aga' range and up. Can't recall off the top of my head whether she does that in 2.8, but it's pretty much canon that she's a bomb-ass magic user and I'm stickin' to that!

3. Now, about Castle Oblivion!

So as we all know from canon, Castle Oblivion was actually just Land of Departure after being transformed by Aqua using Eraqus' keyblade to protect Ven's body. And if I recall correctly, they say at some point that Land of Departure was Eraqus' ancestral home or something like that? Because Eraqus is revealed in KH3 to have been a 'blueblood' descended from the foretellers. I don't know, I'll try researching the ancestral home factoid again (and watch me turn out to be completely wrong lol) BUT even if that's not the case then I'm still rolling with that idea in this fic series solely because it sounds cool. Anyways! I imagine an ancestral home that has housed generations of keyblade wielders, and can transform into something like Castle Oblivion using Eraqus' keyblade specifically, is steeped with magic. Perhaps it was built that way originally by the foreteller ancestor themselves, a few charms and wards here and there to protect it, the usual, and definitely one heck of an enchantment to transform it into something like Castle Oblivion in times of need.

So we all remember Hogwarts from Harry Potter. With stuff like the changing staircases and the Room of Requirement, to the house dorms that had some very specific requirements for entry (as a ravenclaw, I would've sucked at those damn riddles lmao), the castle itself felt like its own character in the story sometimes. Really, most of the buildings in those books had their own quirks and personalities, and I loved that. So I decided to steal that here!

I'm sure the Land of Departure has seen many, many memories made there. Lots of students learning the ways of the keyblade, lives begun and lost, all that stuff. I like to think that the Land of Departure, being its own world (despite consisting of only the building itself), would therefore have its own Heart. And that so much magic being cast there both on itself and by students learning in its halls, combined with being a part of those students' lives, have made the Land of Departure into its own living thing in a way that other worlds usually aren't. After all, we get the idea in Days that making memories with someone helps them form a Heart, right? With Xion? I imagine that with a little bit of magic, Land of Departure has accomplished the same. Sort of.

Of course, I was thinking that Land of Departure and Castle Oblivion are two very different 'people'. Where Land of Departure is usually peaceful or makes a good-natured joke, Castle Oblivion can be cruel. Castle Oblivion is only ever used for a purpose, whatever purpose its summoner has in mind (in this case, to protect Ventus' body), and Castle Oblivion will do it to the best of its ability regardless of its (unwanted) inhabitants' wishes. It will look right into you and use that against you. But, if an outsider is good of Heart and open to listening to what it has to say, some can be fortunate enough to learn some very valuable lessons from their experience there ;) You'll see.