Apologies for the wait on this one. Sometimes real life gets in the way, you all know how it is.
Chapter 22: Fledgling Emotions
While Riku followed Oswald down Mean Street, they were greeted by a squad of little flying men in old-fashioned aviator suits heading in the other direction. Oswald paused only long enough to greet them as they flew past him, but Riku came to a stop and watched as the strange creatures immediately got to work on the floats that had been damaged by the blue monsters. They picked up pieces, gathered glass from shattered light bulbs, and even started cleaning up trash that had been left behind by the fleeing crowds.
"What, you've never seen a gremlin before?" Riku glanced down at Oswald, who was looking up at him with a cheeky grin.
Riku shook his head honestly. "Never." Not even in Disney Town. He looked at the little men – the gremlins – again, watching as they began to pilot the floats back up to the north end of Mean Street. A lighthearted chuckle turned him to Oswald once again.
"Yeah, I know you haven't. Just messing with you." The rabbit shrugged. "Gremlins only live here in Wasteland. They help us with machines and stuff. They made everything for the parade tonight. Poor guys, all that hard work gone to waste…"
"Why were you having a parade, anyway?"
"Why?" Oswald rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment and grinned sheepishly at the ground. "Well, six months ago today Wasteland got…fixed. If used to be a lot darker, more depressing. No blue skies or colorful buildings like you see now. We fought a monster called the Shadow Blot." Oswald held an open palm out and Riku watched as paint and thinner rose from his hand, mixing together into a swirling orb of blue and green.
"The Blot was a creature of paint and thinner—and Wasteland is a world inside of a magical map. So yeah, he was kind of a terror." The orb dripped backed down into Oswald's palm and then melted into his skin. "But six months ago, two visitors from the outside world helped us. The Shadow Blot is gone." He grinned widely. "So we were celebrating!"
Riku smiled under his hood. "Sure sounds like cause for celebration to me. And those creatures—you're sure they're unrelated to this Shadow Blot?"
"Positive." Oswald crossed his arms. "The Blot had minions called Blotlings, and they didn't look a thing like that. Those creatures only started showing up recently. Nobody knows what they are."
"Well, that's what I'll help out with. So, where to?"
"This way, follow me." Oswald waved a hand over his shoulder and then scampered off down Mean Street, nearly reaching the end of the road before turning into a building. Riku once again found himself stopping to watch a feature of Wasteland with interest. The building Oswald had entered was an old style cinema, its sign decorated with bright lights like those that had been on the parade floats. The receptionist stand was empty, so Riku brushed aside the red curtain hanging over the door and followed Oswald inside.
The cinema was only a single room inside. It was a round room with polished wood floors and a domed ceiling, from which hung a golden chandelier. Oswald stood on a circular podium in the center of the room, stretching his arms out smiling.
"Welcome to the Mean Street Cinema!"
Riku looked around the walls. Old-fashioned projector screens decorated it, each showing a different terrain—one was a mountain, another a dry gulch, another a mansion… Riku recognized one of them as the castle at Mean Street's north end, so were all of them places in Wasteland?
"What is this place?" Riku asked, walking up to the screen showing the old mansion.
Oswald stepped off the podium and walked up to Riku's side. "Mean Street Cinema, like I said."
"I don't see any projectors for the screens." Riku looked down at Oswald. "And anyway, how does this help us against the blue creatures?"
"You need to look beyond what you see, my boy!" That wasn't Oswald next to him who spoke. Riku, immediately on the defensive, turned around and found himself face to face with one of the gremlins. He relaxed, but only slightly. This gremlin was dressed in red and had a thick white mustache under his large orange nose.
"This is Gus," Oswald said, introducing Riku. Gus bowed slightly. "He's Wasteland's chief engineer."
"I see… Nice to meet you. So, are these screens special somehow?" Riku asked.
"Special indeed!" Gus fluttered up to the mansion screen and tapped it with his index finger for emphasis. The image rippled for a moment, turning into Oswald's grinning face on a yellow backdrop before fading back to the mansion. "Projector screens like these are placed in key locations all throughout Wasteland. They're used like portals to travel across the world."
"I see..." Riku pressed a hand to the screen. It was solid, but his fingers dipped inside slightly and caused the mansion image to ripple. It felt like touching gelatin. "So, we're going across the world hunting those monsters?"
"That's the plan," Oswald said. "This one leads to the Lonesome Manor. You ready? It's a bit disorienting for first timers."
"I think I've had enough teleportation in my life to handle it."
"Gus, can you hold down the fort here?"
"You know I can, Oswald." The little gremlin said with a salute. "And Mean Street will be cleaned up by the time you return."
"Great! Riku, I'll see you on the other side." Oswald jumped up high, typical of a rabbit, and leaped inside the projector screen. Its image wavered again and the fabric flapped from the momentum. Gus looked to Riku.
"It doesn't hurt, I promise."
"Even if it does, I'm heading through." Riku pressed his hand against the screen again, feeling the almost gelatin-like resistance as he moved his arm further in. When he was inside up to his shoulder he pressed his other arm through, then gripped the insides of the screen and pulled the rest of his body up and past the barrier.
He tumbled out of another projector screen, but he wasn't outside the mansion that it had shown an image of. Instead, he stood on one of many hundreds of platforms that extended out quite a ways ahead of him. High up above the sky was an aurora of purple and yellow, resembling something the Gummi ship might fly through. Oswald was already running ahead of Riku, jumping over the gaps from platform to platform.
"Wait, Oswald!" Riku shouted while he started to chase after him. "What is this place?"
Oswald stopped right before he jumped onto an elevator platform that would take him up to a higher level. "What? You thought we'd just hop through to the Lonesome Manor? Teleporting doesn't work like that. As a world traveler you should know!"
Riku frowned. He was right; with corridors of darkness or Gates, you had to walk through. You couldn't just wind up at your destination the second you passed through. These projector screens must have behaved similarly.
Or like the Lanes Between…
Ansem? Lanes Between? What? But Ansem didn't reply. Riku shook his head and shoved his companion into the back of his mind, then leaped over to the next platform and made his way after Oswald. Oswald was already up on the second floor, jumping from platform to platform. Riku followed behind dutifully, but when he had almost caught up the platform he was on apparently decided it didn't like him anymore. Rumbling under his weight, the platform suddenly gave way and dropped Riku into the aurora-like pit far below. Riku quickly called on Ansem's powers and caught himself before he fell too far, halting in midair.
"You okay?" Oswald called from above, leaning over the edge of the platform he stood on.
"I'm fine," Riku called back. He levitated upwards, setting foot next to Oswald. "Is traveling through these always so dangerous?"
Oswald's reply was a sheepish laugh, and then he jumped away to the next platform. Riku sighed and followed the rabbit through the last leg of this strange in-between world, this time with no more problems with the platforms. His goal was in sight: another projector screen sitting at the far end of a long platform just a few more jumps away. Oswald ran up to the screen and waved to Riku before jumping inside. Riku wasn't far behind and approached it, reaching his hand inside as he had before.
Then the darkness came.
Spots of black shot out of the earth, materializing into the familiar blue shapes of those creatures from Mean Street; it was only the little twitching ones, but there was a surprising number of them. Riku growled and pulled his arm out of the screen to fight them… Or rather, he tried.
"What?" Riku turned from the monsters to the screen and gave his arm another tug. Nothing—he was stuck.
One of the blue creatures jumped up and scratched Riku across the face with its sharpened needle-like arms. Grimacing, Riku turned around as much as he could with one arm stuck inside the screen and extended his free hand. Blue flame engulfed his fingers and rose out of the ground, creating a circle of Dark Firaga that warded off the monsters from approaching him. Or at least, that was the plan. Much to Riku's surprise, the creatures melted into the floor much like a Shadow and traveled under the barrier, leaping out of the ground to attack him again. Riku knocked them away with his free hand and fired volleys of Dark Firaga, but he couldn't turn around with one arm stuck, and the creatures seemed to catch on to that.
They were only attacking Riku from behind now, hitting him in his blind spots. Painful jabs from needle-arms shot across his back. He felt their limbs tear holes in his coat and dig into his flesh. Fighting them wasn't possible… Not by himself, anyway.
"Come, Guardian!"
Xehanort's shadowy other sprung to life, erupting out of the platform and charging at the monsters without a second thought. With it distracting them Riku turned back to the projector screen and continued his way through. He couldn't fight them, but he could escape. And if they followed, then he'd fight. And he'd show them that he was not to be messed with.
But when Riku was nearly through, one of the creatures shot forward like a bolt, twitching through the air at high speeds and sharp angles and avoiding the Guardian completely. It flew toward Riku—and past him, piercing through the fabric of the screen. Riku felt a horrible surge flow through his body and let out a scream of pain. His grip around the edges tightened and he felt weightless for a moment before suddenly the screen vanished. Riku fell through, landing on his face in wet mud.
"Ugh…" Riku groaned, picking himself up and spitting mud out of his mouth. His hood had fallen off and his long silver hair had landed in the mud as well, so he ran gloved fingers through it to clean it out as well. It wasn't a perfect job, but it was passable. Pulling his hood back over his face, Riku suddenly realized there was something missing from this picture. The projector screen he should have exited from was nowhere to be found…and neither was Oswald.
"Oswald?" Riku called out. He was in the middle of a dark forest, surrounded by twisted trees. "Oswald!" His calls out into the woods were met by nothing but chirping from insects and caws from crows.
"I get it…" Riku's hands fell to his side. "That monster's attack on the screen must have messed with the teleportation. I was tossed out somewhere else." At the very least the terrain seemed similar enough to the mansion he had seen, so he had to be close. He just had absolutely no idea where to go.
"I guess my best bet is to just move forward."
And so he did. Riku made his way through the dark woods, his hands clenched and ready to summon Soul Eater at a moment's notice. His golden eyes wandered beneath his hood, taking in every detail in case more of those creatures appeared. On more than one occasion he heard something and held up a hand coated in Dark Firaga, only to have it turn out to be a crow in one of the dead branches or an alligator moving through the nearby shallows. Still he couldn't shake the feeling that someone was following him.
As Riku moved forward the terrain became considerably wetter. It started with water rising from the mood, first ankle-deep and then up to his shins. Now Riku had to make the choice between wading through knee- or sometimes even waist-deep water or jumping between islands and logs. This wasn't just a forest, it was a bayou. And here he was hoping he had left bayous behind after visiting that blind old voodoo lady.
Riku grumbled as he stepped into a particularly deep section of mud, his boot sinking into the mess. As he kneeled down to pull it free, the familiar scent of darkness assaulted his nostrils. Gritting his teeth, Riku cast Dark Firaga to quickly dry out the mud and then pulled his boot out, sending shards of hard mud flying. Soul Eater was already in his hand as he looked around, breathing deeply to locate the scent. It wasn't a Heartless, so it had to be-
Condensed, razor winds hit Riku from behind and knocked him into the air. He spun around in the air, trying to get a view on his attacker, but another burst of wind knocked him higher up. Then another came, and then another. Whatever or whoever was attacking him, it was juggling him through the air with its attacks. Riku pulled himself together and stabilized himself in the air, levitating up and hopefully out of the attacker's reach. He scanned the immediate area looking for what was shooting those razor winds at him, but with the murky water and high-reaching plants the bayou just had too many places to hide.
Wait, there was something. A group of plants with tall green leaves lurched forward and sent more razor winds flying out. Riku's eyes narrowed. He couldn't see any of the blue monsters, but something red was glowing down there among the plants—a lot of red things, actually. Holding an arm out, Riku cast Dark Firaga down into the plants.
They reacted, jumping up and scattering about. Riku's eyes widened; they weren't plants, they were more of the not-Heartless! Little green and white creatures with the unfamiliar emblems on their chests, the red glows were their strange eyes—eyes set in a lonesome, sorrowful expression.
As one the plant monsters glanced up at Riku and shook their leaves threateningly, firing more razor winds at him. But he was indeed too high up for their attacks to reach. Riku placed his hands together in front of his chest and they became alight with blue fire. Pulling his hands apart, a crescent of fire formed in front of Riku. He cast the Dark Firaga forward, hitting the creatures down below and knocking them aside. About half took the brunt of the attack and faded away in the flames, while the others composed themselves and cast more of their wind attacks at Riku. But the blades of air faded away before they reached him.
It would seem, however, that the creatures were not working alone. Something small and fast slammed into Riku from behind, its thorns tearing at his already torn and muddy coat. Riku spun around and swung Soul Eater at his new foe. There was just enough time before it got cut in half to take in its appearance: another of the strange monsters, this one's lower body was like a top that it spun around on. In place of arms it had thorny vines, and its glowing red eyes were in the same depressed pattern as the leaf monsters down below.
More of the thorn monsters leaped from trees branches, spinning through the air and attacking Riku. Riku held up his arms to block their assault, but the thorns caught what tattered remains of his coat were left and tore them off, clawing at his tanned arms underneath. Riku dropped to the ground, the black coat's magic wearing off as all but some tattered remnants still clinging to him was torn apart. His black boots shifted into sneakers and the matching gloves vanished. Riku sunk into the mud where he landed, the lower reaches of his baggy jeans stained brown.
Riku brushed some of his muddy, tangled hair out of his eyes and sliced Soul Eater through one of the spinning monsters as it approached. The leaf monsters shook their bodies and sent more razor winds at Riku, which he mostly dodged though they did tear into his white vest to some degree. He spun on his heel with Soul Eater outstretched, sending a circle of Dark Firaga out around him. Most of the creatures were consumed by the flames, and for those that remained…
Riku jumped up into the air and brought Soul Eater in front of him as it began to glow purple. He held it out and fired bursts of darkness that rained down on the remaining monsters, causing them to fade away as purple fire coated their body. Once Riku was certain the threat was gone he mentally pulled back on the darkness, causing it to evaporate. Soul Eater vanished from his hand and he lowered to the ground, landing on a dry patch among the bayou's water.
Riku glanced down at the water. It was certainly murky, but it was just barely clear enough that he could make out his own reflection. Despite wearing his own clothes, it was Ansem's eyes, face, and hair staring back at him. Angered, Riku slammed a fist into the water and turned away as the image rippled and contorted.
"I'm going to need to get a replacement coat when I'm done here," Riku muttered as he started moving again. And that wasn't going to be the easiest thing in the world, what with Organization XIII gone. Maybe there were some left over in Castle Oblivion; certainly he didn't feel like searching through the Castle That Never Was when Maleficent still occupied it.
"As the moon climbs high o'er the dead oak tree
"Spooks arrive for the midnight spree"
Riku paused. Was somebody singing? The voice sounded almost depressed, certainly befitting the darkness of the bayou. It definitely wasn't Oswald singing, but maybe whoever it was had seen the little rabbit. Turning in the direction the singing was coming from, Riku made his way through the darkness of the bayou. The water began to rise and grow clearer as he moved, until eventually he wasn't wading but swimming. The trees, too, started to clear away and grow apart. It never quite cleared up enough to stop being a forest, though.
"Creepy creeps with eerie eyes
"Start to shriek and harmonize"
As the mysterious singer continued on in that depressed voice of his, Riku emerged into a wide river. The sun had set during his time in the dark forest and the full moon hung high in the sky, illuminating a wrecked river boat sitting half-submerged by an old wooden dock. Pulling himself up onto a nearby island, Riku glanced around for the singer.
"Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize…"
The song finished with a depressed sigh. Translucent and glowing a pale green, the singer was sitting on the edge of the wrecked steamboat, hunched over and resting his head in his hands.
"A…ghost?" Riku gasped out. This was not what he had been expecting. However, Riku certainly had to admit that he fit the area. Although… Something about the strange, lonesome ghost seemed off, and it wasn't just his depression. A purple aura was floating off of him, and to Riku's surprise the darkness coalesced and formed into one of those strange monsters—one of the spinning ones, to be precise. Riku clenched his fists. Was that ghost behind them?!
He jumped off the island and onto the dock, its old wooden boards creaking beneath his feet. The monster turned to face Riku but was consumed by darkness before it could do anything. Riku narrowed his eyes as it faded away, black wisps from the spell he had cast still rising up off his fingers. Riku turned to the ghost to confront him about the creatures, but he found the ghost was watching him too—and his lonesome expression was replaced with a huge grin.
"Oh, wow! Someone came by!" The ghost said, jumping up onto his feet. "This is great, there's someone new to scare!" Riku frowned. The dark aura that had been rising up from the ghost was gone, and he didn't even seem to have noticed that it was ever there.
"Hold on." Riku said, stepping warily toward the ghost. "What happened to the darkness?"
"Darkness?" The ghost frowned and looked around. "You probably don't just mean night time, do ya? Oh… I bet you're talking about those monsters!" He floated away from the old boat and moved toward Riku. Riku backed away; he could see through the ghost's pale green body. This was so bizarre.
"They started showing up when Bog Easy cleared out," the ghost continued. "It's been depressing without people around here to scare. I've been so lonely." The ghost frowned and his eyes grew crestfallen. Riku's eyes narrowed further; the ghost's expression resembled those on the monsters he had fought in the bayou.
"So you aren't responsible for them, then?" Riku asked, somewhat unconvinced.
"No sir."
"Okay… Well, I'm looking for someone. Have you seen a rabbit in blue go by here?"
"You mean Oswald?" The ghost asked. "Haven't seen him lately, sorry."
Riku scratched the back of his head and frowned down at his feet. Well, judging by his position in the parade it made sense this ghost knew Oswald, at least. Still, though, he apparently hadn't come this way. Riku wasn't sure what was a bigger priority: finding Oswald or learning more about the monsters.
The ghost spoke up again. "Say, would you like to let me scare you?"
"Not today, sorry." Oswald wasn't here, so it was time to move on. Maybe he was in that Bog Easy place; Riku assumed it was a town. As Riku turned around, however, he caught sight of something – someone – standing atop the smokestack on the broken boat. Calling Soul Eater into his hand, Riku jumped over the lonesome ghost and landed on the slanted deck of the boat.
"Come out into the light!" Riku shouted into the night. More insects and birds greeted him. He thinned his lips and glared up at the smokestack. There was definitely somebody moving up there. Flame wrapped around his left hand and Riku launched a Dark Firaga upward. It flew past the smokestack and faded away in the sky, but it illuminated the boat long enough to see his target.
"I wasn't expecting you here," the familiar masked boy said. He jumped down onto the deck and leaned against a moss-covered wooden pillar with his arms crossed. Riku took in a deep breath; muscle-like leather clothing with a heart design on the chest and cloth hanging at his waist like a skirt. Save for the color scheme, he was dressed just like Riku's own Dark Mode. "Not that I'm complaining. I've been looking for you."
"I haven't seen you since the Castle That Never Was," Riku said calmly to the stranger as he tightened his grip around Soul Eater. "What do you want?"
"Has it really been so long?" The masked boy shifted his weight from one foot to the other but otherwise didn't move. "How's Ansem?"
That's…!
Riku blinked in slight surprise. Ansem hadn't spoken up for a while, so why did this guy suddenly get a reaction out of him? And how did this guy know that?
"Why do you want to know?"
"We're…old friends." Riku could just hear the smirk under that mask. The boy stood straight and his crossed arms fell to his side. "Have you listened to my warning, Riku? If you wait too long, Ansem will consume you whole."
"I don't need you to tell me that!" Riku snapped, taking a step forward and raising Soul Eater threateningly.
That can't be-
A sudden pain pierced Riku's body and he gripped at his head, clenching his eyes shut. Soul Eater fell to his side, clattering against the old wood of the deck. The boy crossed his arms again as Riku felt his legs begin to weaken. The pain was growing stronger.
"Oh… Hello there, Ansem. It's been a long time."
YOU!
"Admirably done."
Riku's eyes snapped open. He no longer stood in Wasteland, but in a strangely familiar location high atop a mountain…a desert plateau…
…Wait. Was this the place where he fought the knight?
"I knew this was a journey you could make—over the unseen wall between darkness and light." Riku's lips moved of his own volition and it wasn't his voice but the voice of an elderly man that came out of his mouth. Before him stood a figure with brown hair, glaring at him with an anger brighter than any Riku had ever seen. Though Riku's face would not answer his emotions, inside he was a hurricane of surprise. He knew this man; but, hadn't that just been a dream? It was so long ago…
"And I was not wrong, Terra!" Riku shouted in the old man's voice, holding his arms out.
"My friend, Ven." Suddenly Riku's point of view shifted, and the words he was now speaking were from another new voice. He held his hand out to his side as he glared at an elderly man dressed in suspiciously familiar clothes and felt magic spring to life as a Keyblade materialized in his hand. "You tell me, Xehanort…what did you DO to him?!"
Trapped within this body that was moving without his command, Riku felt the wind get knocked out of him. How was this wrinkly, bald man in any way Xehanort? Certainly he dressed similarly to Ansem and he had the same skin, hair, and eyes, and…and…
But he was so old! He looked nothing like Xehanort!
"Why, I did him a favor and freed the darkness inside him." Again Riku was now the elderly man, moving his hands out from his chest in a gesture of feigned innocence. As he spoke, his eyes wandered to the Keyblade that the brown-haired man held. He knew that sword. "Alas, poor Ventus never had the strength for such strenuous trials." Riku felt his lips curl into a sadistic grin, which just angered the brown-haired man further.
His point of view shifted again. "Xehanooort!" he yelled so loud it strained his throat and swung his massive Keyblade forward.
Riku wouldn't have further time to consider it, however, because at that point a figure in black leaped out from behind the supposed Xehanort and clashed his own Keyblade against Riku's. For the third time in the last two minutes Riku was shocked; though his black leather clothing was decorated in red instead of white, there was no mistaking who this was.
Vanitas! Ansem roared inside Riku's mind. There was an echo of a second voice underneath, calling the masked boy's name alongside Ansem. An incredibly angry voice.
The brown-haired man's voice.
Riku was on his hands and knees, staring down at the rotting wood beneath him. Silver hair soaked in mud, river water, and sweat fell down all around his face. Riku's golden eyes glared down at his tanned hands and he clenched them into shaking fists. Inside his head, two synchronized voices continued to yell angrily at the masked boy.
"Vanitas…" he whispered as he stood up. His legs were still weak, but they could support him. Riku glared up at the figure in front of him, strands of messy hair hanging in front of his eyes.
Vanitas's head tilted up slightly. "Did Ansem tell you that name?"
"Who are you?" Riku asked, summoning Soul Eater from the floor into his hands. "Are you responsible for those monsters? What are they?"
For an instant Riku could swear he saw golden eyes flash beneath the black mask. "A horde of fledgling emotions under my control. What possible purpose could they have to visit a world of forgottens and cast-asides, I wonder?"
'Fledgling emotions'? "Is that a yes?" Riku asked with a growl.
Vanitas was silent for a long moment. Riku's muscles tensed and sweat coated his hand as he tightened his grip on Soul Eater.
"Like I said," Vanitas said at last, "I wasn't expecting to see you here." The shadows at his feet began to rise from the floor. Riku's eyes widened; he was opening a corridor! "I've had my fill. It's time to take care of the real reason I came to this world."
Boy, stop him!
You don't have to tell me twice!
"Wait!" Riku shouted, diving at Vanitas as the corridor of darkness vanished into the shadows. Immediately he thrust his hand out to open a corridor and follow, but
Sorry, Riku, Vanitas's disembodied voice taunted, but I can't let you follow me. Take care of your Heartless problem first, okay?
Come back here and fight me, coward! Ansem shouted inside Riku's mind. Riku gripped his head and grunted in pain through grit teeth.
"Calm down, damn it!" Riku shouted out loud to hear himself over Ansem's rage. Over on the dock the lonesome ghost jumped back, apparently thinking Riku had yelled at him. "Ansem! Since when do you get angry like this?!"
The cacophony of Ansem's anger was suddenly silenced. Riku stood still, not making a sound except for his frantic – if not slowly calming – breathing.
"Ansem… Or, Xehanort." Riku gulped. "…Who are you, really?"
Silence.