Chapter 24: Whatever Lies Beyond This Morning

Riku stared down at his opened palms in shock and horror, his whole body shaking as he floated in the twisting void of darkness that was his heart. Something was wrong, and he didn't just mean the part where he got kicked out of his own body. No, something else was bothering Riku…but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what. His body continued to shake and his vision blurred. A painful headache was beginning to set in behind his eyes. Riku tried to focus his sight on one thing as nausea swept over him, to keep from falling over. Staring at his sweat-covered palms, it finally registered what was wrong with this picture.

His skin was pale.

Electric blue eyes glanced to Riku's side at the long hair hanging over his face; it was a shade closer to white than the one he was now used to seeing. Riku's body began to shake more, and despite the situation Riku suddenly found warmth growing within. Light laughter escaped from him without provocation and his face fell into his hands as tears began to well up.

"I'm me," he whispered. "I'm me." And the voice that spoke made Riku laugh even harder, for it was the voice he had thought he would never hear again.

He wiped away the salty water in his eyes and stared at himself once again. Perhaps pale was the wrong word; he was lightly tanned, sun-kissed, from growing up on an island. But it was certainly pale compared to Ansem's dark skin. Everything felt slightly taller, too, which meant that he was slightly shorter. His body was an athletic sixteen-year-old's once more, not that of an adult man.

But however overjoyed he was, in the back of his mind Riku knew it wasn't real. He was inside of his heart, exiled from his body because Ansem took over his body. Riku looked around at the void of swirling darkness, an aurora of blues and blacks eternally clashing beneath, above, and all around his tiny form. Was this really all that his heart was? Just darkness?

Pain swept through Riku's body, forcing him to lurch over as he floated in the abyss. Pins and needles covered his right arm and it fell limply to his side. Horrified, Riku gripped the arm with his left hand.

"What's going on-"

An invisible force slammed into Riku's gut, sending him flying backwards. He slowed to a halt and glanced around in the darkness, his arm still numb and useless, but there was nothing to see. Riku's jaw tightened in anger. What was causing this onslaught of pain?

Something hard hit Riku in the back of his head and he toppled over into the black swirling mass. Catching himself in midair – if it could be called that - and flipping upright, Riku once again looked every which way for his attacker. Nothing. It was completely empty inside of his heart-

Wait.

It shouldn't have been completely empty inside his heart. Where was Ansem? Of course Riku knew Ansem had won and was currently using his body to fight Vanitas, but- oh. That was it.

"I'm such an idiot," Riku growled, leaning his head back and slamming his palm into his face; he resisted the urge to roll his hand into a fist as he did so. Yes, Ansem had taken over his body, but it was still his body. It stood to reason, then, that-

Riku felt a sharp pain in his upper back, like a sword digging hard between his shoulder blades. Biting his tongue to avoid screaming bloody murder, Riku took a sharp breath through his teeth and then exhaled slowly.

…It stood to reason that these sharp pains he was feeling were places that Ansem was getting hit during his fight with Vanitas…and, Riku realized, probably with Oswald as well. His course was clear: get his body back from Ansem. Of course, doing that was much easier said than done. Last time this happened Riku was never actually able to do that; Ansem had just tossed his body into the Realm of Darkness like a pile of trash. But still, he had been able to fight Ansem's control, and he was much stronger now than he was back then. Castle Oblivion had proven that. He had overcome Ansem then, even if the stakes at that time weren't quite this drastic. He could do so again.

First thing's first, though—he had to find where Ansem was. Metaphorically, that is. Obviously in the real world he was fighting Vanitas and Oswald. But here inside Riku's heart, where was he? That was step one: find Ansem in this endless darkness and confront him.

"Right," Riku muttered as he gripped his still-useless arm. "Simple enough. Just need to find a starting point."

Riku closed his eyes, standing stoic through the pain as Ansem continued to fight, and took in a deep breath through his nose. Darkness—the scent of darkness. Even within his own heart he still held the ability to smell it. Its stench permeated the air—though Riku didn't need this sense to know that, he could tell just by watching his surroundings. But somewhere – far, far in the distance – the darkness stank more than anywhere else. Riku opened his eyes and began his trek forward.

As he had earlier established, there was nothing but swirling darkness in this place. And that disturbed Riku greatly. He knew he had given in to the darkness, but surely even he still had some light somewhere within him? Surely? There had to be something…

"Look as hard as you are able. You'll not find even the smallest glimmer of light."

Riku stared down at his feet as he continued on. Nearly two years ago now, he had heard Ansem say that from the other side of Kingdom Hearts. Riku knew it wasn't meant to apply to him but to Kingdom Hearts, but still the quote crawled its way up from the depths of his memory. Riku shook his head to get rid of the voice.

"I'm better than this," he muttered. "Don't give in to darkness and despair. That's what Castle Oblivion taught me."

But even without counting the apparently missing light, his heart was still disturbingly empty. The last two times he had been here—Riku paused. Right, the last two times… He had almost forgotten. The second time had been brief, when Ansem possessed him in Hollow Bastion before kicking him out into the Realm of Darkness. But Riku had been inside his heart once before that as well, and up until now he hadn't thought anything of it. It had seemed to be a dream, lingering in the back of his mind as dreams do.

It was a few nights before Destiny Islands was swallowed by the darkness. Riku had had a dream then, a strange dream unlike any he had ever had before or since, and to this day he still wasn't able to make sense of it. It had started with him sinking through black water – already strange enough since he was possibly the best swimmer of their group of friends on the islands – only to be blinded by light once his feet came into contact with the ocean floor. The floor changed into a massive circular pattern of stained glass, with a representation of Riku himself holding a gold and silver key—now, of course, Riku knew it to be Sora's Keyblade that was originally meant for him. Next to Riku, on a backdrop of the eternal ocean surrounding the Destiny Islands, had been pictures of Sora, Riku, and a man he couldn't name. Even back then Riku had thought he had looked familiar, and though he still couldn't place the name now he knew—it was a man he had met before, when he was still very young.

"So much to do, so little time…" That's what the voice had said that day. It was his voice that had spoken, Riku now realized, looking back—the voice resonating from deep within his heart. "Take your time. The door is still shut."

Riku's fists clenched at the memory. Hindsight is always twenty-twenty, isn't it? Riku was certain now that his subconscious was telling him back then that maybe he shouldn't have been so eager. If he had listened to the voice – listened to his heart – then maybe things wouldn't have gone so wrong. He was the one who had opened the door, the door to the heart of Destiny Islands.

But then, if he hadn't been so hasty to escape his prison—

"To the heart seeking freedom, this island is a prison, surrounded by water."

Riku shook his head. If he hadn't been so hasty to leave the islands and opened the door, then Sora would have never been able to stop Maleficent and later Ansem. They would have eventually found their way to Kairi regardless, as they had with the other Princesses of Heart, but he and Sora would have had no way off the island themselves. Ansem would have gotten Kingdom Hearts back then. And even if Ansem didn't, if its light had destroyed him in that scenario just as it did in reality, then Xemnas would have gone on unchallenged without Sora and Xion there to stop him and obtained Kingdom Hearts himself.

Maybe things happened for a reason.

Riku's eyes were half-closed as he continued to recall that dream on the stained glass. It felt like a lifetime ago, like it happened to someone else. He had changed a lot, sometimes for the better – certainly he was stronger now, at least physically – and sometimes for the worse. But in that dream, he had been asked three questions, and he still clearly remembered the answers he had given in reply.

"What is it that you're so afraid of?"

"Staying here forever," he had said. The thought of being trapped on Destiny Islands for eternity had terrified him. It was so small, so insignificant… But here, now, Riku would give anything to go back. If that was all that the universe was, just the island and the curved paopu tree where he'd sit with Riku and Kairi, then that would be okay.

"What is the one thing you care about more than anything else?"

"My friends." At least that was something he could look at the Riku of back then and not chide himself for. He just wished that maybe he had cared for his friends more, cared enough so that he wouldn't have dived into the darkness without a second thought; cared enough so that he would have considered the consequences of his actions. How could someone who claimed to hold his friendships above all else possibly be forgiven for breaking those friendships just to see the outside world?

"What do you wish?"

"Adventu- …No. Freedom."

Freedom. Liberation. Perhaps, more than anything, that represented the fundamental aspect of Riku's personality, the core part of his heart that made him him. But while the Riku of two years ago wanted liberation from the prison he had seen Destiny Islands as, the Riku of today wanted more than anything was to be liberated from the darkness that Ansem—no, that Riku himself had brought into his heart.

Riku slowly came to a stop as he pulled himself out of his memories. His surroundings looked completely unchanged. How long had he been wandering through this abyss? And still not the faintest bit of light out there, or any sign of Ansem either. How was he going to get control of his body back if he couldn't find Ansem?

"You are weak. You need darkness. Surrender. Bow to darkness. Bow to me."

"Why in such a hurry? I'll be here at the very heart of darkness..."

Echoing memories from encounters in Castle Oblivion bubbled to the surface of Riku's mind, and then he understood. Riku couldn't find Ansem inside his heart, but that didn't mean that Ansem wasn't there. Ansem was omnipresent. The swirling black and blue void that consumed all hints of light…that was Ansem.

Suddenly he felt ill. His grip fell from his damaged arm, and the darkness seemed to be closing in. Waves of pain flew over his body, coming in from the attacks by Vanitas in the real world, and Riku didn't have it in him to fight it any longer.

How do you cleanse corruption from your heart when the corruption is your heart?

x-x-x

"Vanitas!"

Darkness erupted around Ansem, flying high into the sky in a whirlwind of chaos. Clenching both hands tightly around the hilt of Soul Eater, Ansem leaped into the air and raised the sword above his head. The black and purple energy his explosion left behind swirled around the sword and hardened, transforming it from a one-handed blade to a broadsword. With darkness trailing behind it, Ansem dropped down to the ground and brought Soul Eater's new, larger shape down hard onto Vanitas.

Vanitas leaped backwards at the last possible second, and Ansem's attack left a crater where he had been standing moments before. Vanitas's leather-clad arm became coated in a blue-white mist, coalescing in his free hand as an ever-hardening orb. Thrusting his hand forward, Vanitas sent a Blizzaga spell flying. Ansem knocked it away with his sword, and the deflected orb collided with a tree, freezing it instantly.

"Coward!" Ansem roared again, his voice shuddering slightly as a second person seemed to speak beneath him. Darkness coated his fists and Ansem pulled one away from Soul Eater's hilt, slamming it hard into the ground. The earth beneath their feet rumbled before flying up, chunks of stone surrounded by black and purple auras tearing out of the ground and knocking Vanitas into the air. Ansem jumped up after him and slammed his broadsword into the masked boy's side, knocking him into and through the wall of a nearby building.

Electricity surged through Ansem's body as he landed on the ground. Spinning around, Ansem had just enough time to notice a short figure wielding an electrically-charged sword before a blue liquid splashed into him and hardened into bonds restricting his movement. Soul Eater fell out of his grip, clattering onto the upturned stone.

"The boy's companion…" Ansem growled as he stood there silently. He made no attempt to break the bonds formed from the paint.

"Riku, what's the big idea?!" Oswald demanded, holding his arms out in an imploring gesture. "What happened to helping us out, huh? Why are you destroying Wasteland even after I told you how we just got things fixed again?!"

Ansem's face hardened and he glanced up at the building Vanitas had broken into. He could see the masked boy starting to get up. Turning back to Oswald, Ansem's mouth curled into a smirk.

"Don't bother," he said coldly. "Your voice can no longer reach him where he is."

Oswald's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about…?"

Ansem didn't reply, instead looking once again to the broken building Vanitas was inside of. Yes, he was definitely recovering in there; the scent of Cure magic was in the air. Ansem roared, shocking Oswald who jumped back defensively. Ansem's muscles strained and a dark aura wrapped around his body as he fought against the bonds.

"H-hey, you can't-"

"Come, Guardian!"

Ansem's shadow shifted beneath his feet, raising out of the earth and forming into his most trusted ally. The moment the Guardian became physical it slammed a powerful fist into Oswald's stomach and sent him flying yards down Mean Street. Ansem roared once more and broke the chains holding him, blue drops of paint raining to the ground around his feet. Soul Eater dispersed into a black cloud from its position on the ground and reformed in his hands. Tightening his grip on the sword's hilt, Ansem jumped at Vanitas while the Guardian dealt with the rabbit pest.

Vanitas leaped out of the building to meet Ansem halfway, their blades clashing in midair. Shockwaves of darkness flew out from the impact, knocking down trees, lampposts, and other odd objects in the area. A dark, chilling chuckle came from Vanitas as he thrust his hand forward. Ansem's eyes widened as an explosion of darkness burst out of the masked boy's palm, sending him flying away.

Ansem caught himself just before he crashed into the ground, levitating inches above the asphalt. His shadow reached up and black tendrils wrapped around his body before pulling him beneath the surface. Inside his shadow, Ansem clenched his left fist while his right held tighter than ever onto the modified Soul Eater. Darkness swirled around his hand, accompanied not just by black and purple but a red aura as well. Taking a deep breath, Ansem shot upwards and burst out of the shadows behind Vanitas. The masked boy spun around just in time for Ansem to shoot his arm out in front of him, and a hand of manifested darkness flew out of his grasp to strike the boy.

Vanitas's image flickered and vanished before Ansem's eyes. There was a blur of black and white, and laughter came from above him. Vanitas dropped down from the air with his Keyblade surging with power and brought the weapon down on Ansem's head. Ansem blocked the blow with his sword and then swung it out in a wide arc. His own swing was blocked by Vanitas as well.

Vanitas laughed again and jumped atop the frozen tree from before. "You're getting rusty, old man!" he called.

Ansem's jaw clenched in irritation. "Fight me, you coward!"

Vanitas paused for a moment and his Keyblade fell to his side. "Tell me," he began, "is this what you had in mind when you started all of this, Xehanort?"

Xehanort? It seemed everyone called him 'Xehanort' these days. Ansem didn't understand it. He shook his head; he was Ansem the Wise of Radiant Garden!

"That's not my name," he shouted at Vanitas. But there was doubt, his voice wavering slightly. If he was Ansem the Wise – and he was – then why did he have memories of this boy? Why did he see a brown-haired man with his face and an elderly man with his clothes through the haze of the past?

"Hmph," Vanitas replied. "Then I suppose I should call you Te-"

SLAM!

Ansem's fist met Vanitas's face. The boy cried out in pain and Ansem felt shards of glass digging into his knuckles. Ansem was on the frozen branches now, glaring down at Vanitas on his knees on the ground, hands covering his shattered mask as wisps of darkness rose up from his face. Vanitas glanced upwards, a golden eye glaring with utter hatred at Ansem from between his fingers. The glare made Ansem's blood boil.

"My name is Ansem," he spat.

"From where I'm standing," Vanitas said with all humor gone from his voice, "you look more like Riku." He chuckled dryly. "Or is it popular within the Radiant Garden nobility to dress like a teenager?"

The boy stood up, his hands dropping from his face. The mask wasn't completely destroyed; there was a hole revealing that single golden eye and a few strands of black hair.

"The boy has surrendered himself as my vessel," Ansem replied, his locked gaze never wavering from Vanitas. "Although perhaps you'd be more fitting, since you have a Keyblade to call your own." A frown tugged on Ansem's lips. "…How did you get one of those anyway, boy?"

Vanitas held the Keyblade in front of him, inspecting it in silence. It was completely monochrome, like his outfit, with the hand guard and teeth shaped like gears. Eyes identical to Soul Eater's except for the color decorated it, further increasing Ansem's unease about the weapon.

He shrugged. "Riku can use them, too, can't he? Even if he doesn't have one of its own." Indeed. The Keyblade of People's Hearts formed from the Princesses of Heart had been wielded by Riku. But what was Vanitas's point? "Maybe you should ask him the same question."

"In your hand, take this key."

Ansem gripped the side of his head, Soul Eater falling to his side. He saw things—a sunset, a prison, a boy—two boys—

"This world is just too small."

"Enough rambling," Ansem growled. "And enough of your mind games!" He jumped into the air and brought Soul Eater down hard, slamming it into Vanitas's shoulder. As the boy cried out in pain, Ansem spun around and slammed a fist into the back of his head.

"Come, Guardian!"

The Guardian flew in from the distance at lightning speeds, crashing hard into Vanitas and wrapping its muscular arms around his body. It flew high up into the air as Ansem watched, darkness beginning to wrap its way around his body. The Guardian returned, falling like a meteor with Vanitas helpless in his grasp, and slammed hard into the earth. It flew off and returned to its master, leaving Vanitas lying in the crater. The darkness enveloping Ansem's hands turned blue and he moved his open palm forward slowly, deliberately.

But before Dark Firaga could put an end to this battle and the memories that tormented Ansem so, electricity once again surged through Ansem. Soul Eater fell from his grasp and Dark Firaga vanished from his hand. The Guardian moved immediately to defend him, but already Ansem had realized his mistake. With the Guardian aiding him, it wasn't containing the pest.

Oswald leaped over the Guardian and sent a stream of paint at the dark creature, forming an impenetrable cage around it. If Ansem recalled correctly, the cage would not last forever; that's what Oswald had told Riku: that he couldn't keep painted objects sustained for long. But it lasted long enough for Oswald to move onto the offensive with Ansem, bringing his pseudo-Keyblade, coursing with electricity, down in an arc.

"Riku!" Oswald shouted. "I deserve answers!"

"I told you already," Ansem said with a snarl. "He cannot hear you!" Ansem swung a fist at Oswald, but the rabbit leaped away. Thinner surrounded his arm and he sent a stream of the bright green liquid at Ansem's feet. The ground vanished, leaving a deep pit that Ansem would have fallen into were it not for his powers of levitation.

Unfortunately, Vanitas chose that moment to recover.

The masked boy dug his Keyblade into Ansem's back, its jagged teeth cutting through his skin and muscles with ease. Ansem spun around and knocked away Vanitas with an explosion of darkness, and when Oswald leaped at Ansem once again the Guardian finally broke out of its prison, slamming a fist into the rabbit's head before taking its place behind Ansem.

The three of them stood in a triangle, their weapons drawn.

x-x-x

Darkness… Nothing but darkness.

Riku hovered in the blackness, his eyes shut and his face soaked in sweat. His body ached as the battle in the real world ate away at him. He couldn't move a limb without his muscles screaming in anguished protest.

There was nothing left to do, nothing he could do. Nothing left but to fade into the darkness of Ansem's heart.

"You won't fade."

Riku's closed eyes twitched. Naminé? Her voice sounded so distant. How was she contacting him? Hadn't she reunited with Kairi?

"You can't fade," Naminé continued. "There's no power that can defeat you—not the light, not the dark."

Oh, of course—now Riku understood. Naminé wasn't really talking to him; she was gone, returned to her complete self. She had no way to talk to him. This was, once again, his memories speaking to him from the abyss. He remembered this speech. She had said this to him at Castle Oblivion, hadn't she?

But things are different now than they were then, Riku thought, sadly. Back then, I was being consumed by the light. But now… Now it was the darkness that was eating away at him, destroying everything that made Riku, Riku. Ansem had won. Ansem ruled his body now, and Riku was just a tiny voice who would eventually cease to exist.

But… But…

"No. You won't use me for this!"

He had fought before. Why wouldn't he fight again?

Was he afraid?

…Yes, he was. He had admitted as such. But he wasn't afraid of Ansem, so why didn't he stand up for himself?

Anger, despair, doubt…fear. Riku had been fighting those today, hadn't he? Though there was a difference between fighting monsters born from those and fighting it within yourself…wasn't there? Literally, sure there was; you couldn't just wail on your insides with a sword, it didn't work like that. But fundamentally, what was the difference? You're still fighting the negativity.

I was always jealous of Sora. He wasn't sure where the thought came from, but it was true. Riku was always jealous of Sora; he was jealous of the way he made friends so easily, of how he never let things eat away at him. Sora wouldn't be in this situation. Sora wouldn't have given up already. And Xion wouldn't either. She fought to the very end. If Xion had just given up and returned to Sora, what would have happened?

The reason why they could go on was simple: they had friends. Friends…

"No matter what happens, I'm gonna be right there to help ya."

Riku had friends, too. Sora, and Kairi, and Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka… King Mickey… And maybe Xion, too; they were certainly beyond acquaintances, at least. And if Sora and Xion could continue on because of friendships, then why couldn't he? Riku had accepted the darkness. He had made it a part of himself. Who was Ansem to just take over? This was still his body, and no one was going to take that from him!

Slowly, his eyes flickered open. Riku wasn't in Wasteland; of course, simply stating his resolve would do nothing. Action speaks louder than words, after all. But he was no longer alone in the abyss, for a brown double door stood before him in the middle of the darkness. It was decorated with stained glass and golden embroidery, and Riku felt a strong presence on the other side. A kind presence. His fingers wrapped around the handless to the door.

Immediately Riku sensed a reaction. Ansem knew what he was doing, and his consciousness was pressing down around Riku. The darkness began to close in. Riku's grip on the handles loosened slightly, but his face hardened and his fingers wrapped tighter than ever before.

Don't be afraid.

Riku pulled. He pulled on the handles, creaking the door open little by little, second by second. Bright, white light broke through the open door, shining out and illuminating the black abyss, parting it like the sun parting clouds after a storm.

The darkness recovered from its recoil, however, and continued forward. But Riku stood undaunted, even as the winds tossed at his hair and the wounds from the battle outside struck at his body. He would not stop, no matter the cost.

You hold the mightiest weapon of all.

The door swung open completely and light poured out, the dam destroyed. Gold and white clashed with blue and black as the light poured out more and more, pushing the abyss out into the corners of Riku's heart.

But Ansem would not be denied so easily. A figure shrouded in black flew out of the remaining darkness and through the light, moving without interruption toward Riku and the door. Riku spun on his heel and brought his arms up defensively, blocking the blow from the figure's sword. The light burned away at the shadows concealing it, and Riku was shocked at what he saw; shocked, but he did not falter.

The Riku dressed in the purple clothing that Ansem had given him jumped back, his golden eyes narrowing and hair more of a steel silver than Riku's own platinum blowing in the wind. He crouched into a combat position, holding an unfamiliar silver and black Keyblade decorated in blue eyes, but Riku stood stoic and shook his head.

"I'm not afraid of what the darkness holds now," Riku said to himself. "I can't get rid of it, but I have accepted it. This is my body, and Ansem has to either learn that or get shown the door." He clenched his fists. "I've made my choice. No matter the cost, I'm ready to pay it."

The dark Riku charged forward silently and Riku stood as still as ever. A fraction of a second before the Keyblade pierced his chest, a figure flew from the door. Blinded by the light, Riku could not make out his features, but he was a tall, muscular figure, wielding a broadsword-like weapon. Light clashed with the darkness, knocking away the remnants of Riku-Ansem within his heart.

The darkness was his. Ansem would never take his heart away from him.

Blue eyes shut…

…And golden eyes opened. Riku stood in Wasteland before an exhausted Oswald, a broadsword resembling Soul Eater in his hands. Vanitas was some distance away, standing over the dissolving corpse of the Guardian. Riku spared a glance down at his body; he still looked like Ansem, but that was okay. It was his body, he was in control, and that was all that mattered.

"Impossible." Riku turned around to face Vanitas, the darkness that had grown Soul Eater into its new shape vanishing as it returned to being a one-handed sword. Vanitas shook his head, his one visible eye widening in surprise through the hole in his mask. "Ansem was in complete control!"

Wordlessly, Riku dashed toward Vanitas. His fist connected with the masked boy's gut and a satisfying grunt escaped from that hidden mouth. Before Vanitas could recover Riku cut him across the chest with Soul Eater, then caused an explosion of Dark Firaga that tossed Vanitas to the floor. Bruised, burned, and bleeding, Vanitas climbed slowly to his feet.

"Let's skip to the part where you reveal what this is all about," Riku said. "What are those creatures, really? And what were you about to do to the Keyhole?"

Vanitas was eerily silent, no longer taunting or laughing. It was…disturbing. Riku had barely met him, but he knew this was not what he was normally like.

When Vanitas finally spoke, his voice was deadly cold. "I don't know how you did it, but you really have found a way to trap darkness inside your heart." He chuckled darkly, showing some signs of his normal personality. His visible eye flashed wildly. "But this is hardly over, Riku. Ansem took over once, and he could do so again. Trapping him isn't enough. You need to purge him from you entirely!" Suddenly, despite his exhausted state, Vanitas dashed forward at top speed with his Keyblade aimed at Riku's heart. "Allow me to do it for you!"

A sword resembling a Keyblade blocked Vanitas's blow and knocked the Keyblade out of his hands. Oswald dropped down in front of Riku even as his weapon dissolved back into paint and dripped to the floor, holding his arms out wide defensively.

"Stop right there!"

"Oswald-" Riku began, but the rabbit shook his head.

"I don't understand half of what's gone on here, but it's clear to me that Riku wasn't in his right state of mind during this fight. And…I don't get this talk of hearts, light, and darkness, either, but I do know this—" He stood proudly, puffing out his chest. "You will not hurt my friend!"

"You're all just pathetic little 'heroes' running around with powers they can't control." Vanitas shook his head. "Fine," he growled. "See where your friendship gets you. It doesn't matter anyway." Darkness swirled at his feet, rising up to consume him. He was getting away, but Riku and Oswald didn't make a move to follow. The further he and his creatures were from Wasteland, the better.

"Mission failed. Congratulations, Riku. You won." The shadows swallowed Vanitas up, leaving one question lingering behind. "But for how long?"

Riku and Oswald stood in silence. Before him, on the horizon, Riku could see the sky begin to lighten up as the sun started rising. The light illuminated just how much damage had been done during the fight, with destroyed buildings, fallen trees, craters, and upturned stones jutting out of the earth.

"Oh boy," Oswald said softly. "It's going to take a lot of paint to get this done."

Riku glanced down at the rabbit. "What can I do to help?"

Oswald blinked, looking up at Riku with apparent surprise at his question. "You don't need to. Wasteland is my world and I can handle it." He didn't say that coldly; it just was what it was. Riku nodded.

"…One more thing before I go, then," Riku said, looking down at his feet. "I haven't been completely honest with you, Oswald." He took a deep breath. "I… I have some trouble, with my dark side. I lost my body before, and ever since I've been haunted. That wasn't me fighting tonight, but it was my fault that he exists. And I'm sorry if he hurt you in any way.

"It's fine," Oswald replied with a smile. "One thing I learned: a second chance is what we all deserve. You included." Riku smiled back at him and the little rabbit raised a hand. "So what do you say? Friends?"

Riku kneeled down and took Oswald's hand in his own. "Friends."

"So, where are you off to next?" Oswald eyed him up and down as he stood up again. "Maybe a clothing shop?

Riku chuckled softly, looking down at his torn clothes. "Probably to get another coat." Castle Oblivion would work, and if that failed there may be some at DiZ's mansion. "Not to hide my face any longer, like I had used it before. Now it's just because they're the easiest clothes to get my hands on."

Oswald laughed, and Riku joined in. Silver hair blowing in the early morning wind, his smiling tan face looked out to the sunrise.

Whatever lies beyond this morning, I'm the one who will face it—together with the friends in my heart.