This is easily the longest chapter so far, and it's a pretty important one too. I'm glad it landed on 30, that feels like a good number for something big to happen.
You may want to have Guardando nel Buio ready to play in the background for this.
Chapter 30: The Road to Dawn
After those foreboding words from Vanitas and parting with Melinda, Xion, Sora, and Kairi carried the Sound Idea back to Edward's Village. It was still the dead of night when they returned, despite the hours they had spent out in the wilds of the Symphony of Sorcery. Xion didn't have a way to check the time, but she figured that it was probably a bit past midnight. Give it another hour or two and the sun would start brightening up again. Maybe this Night on Bald Mountain that Melinda had been worried about wasn't going to happen after all?
The three of them met up with Donald and Goofy outside the village gates; inside, they could hear the pounding of hammers and clanking of metal and wood as the villagers repaired their homes. In Donald's hands was a floating paper identical to their own except for the color of the magical notes—blue instead of pink.
"You look like you got roughed up a bit," Kairi said with a laugh as she looked over Donald and Goofy. Grass and leaves were all over their clothes, and Donald had some half-melted snow clinging to his legs. "What happened?"
"Don't trust fairies," Donald muttered, and refused to expand any further. Goofy chuckled behind Donald's back, and when the duck turned around and shot him an angry glare Goofy covered his mouth while smiling apologetically.
Sora rubbed the back of his head. "Well, uh… Anyway, did you guys find any sign of Riku?"
Donald and Goofy's faces fell before Sora had even finished his question. Donald sighed and shook his head while Goofy's shoulders slumped. "Sorry, Sora," their tall friend said. "We went all through that forest lookin' for the Sound Idea, and the whole time never saw anyone but ourselves and some fairies."
"Right…" Sora said softly. He slouched down, dejected.
Donald glanced around awkwardly, trying to avoid making eye contact with Sora—perhaps out of guilt, though it was hardly his fault Riku wasn't there. "So…" He trailed off just after he started speaking, his beak closing slowly. He rubbed the back of his head and then turned to Xion. "I guess that means you haven't either?"
Xion took a deep breath and rubbed her face as she shook her head. No, they hadn't. And that field had been very clear, very uncluttered. If Riku had been there, been anywhere in the general area, then they'd have seen him. The horizon went on for miles.
"I want to find him, too, but…" Xion glanced at the Sound Idea that Sora held. "At the moment we do have a promise to keep."
Sora glanced down at the glowing, ethereal paper in his hands. An almost surprised expression crossed his face, almost as if he had forgotten completely about those. "Right." Immediately he was the normal, cheerful Sora again, standing up straight.
"Well, at least we have both Sound Ideas now," Donald said as he held up his for emphasis. "Let's go see Edward right away!"
The group moved into the little village, the soft glows two Sound Ideas lighting up the darkness of night as they walked down the simple roads. Orange candlelight came in from the windows of the in tact buildings further from the sight of the strange monster's attack. Children pressed against the glass, watching Xion and her friends move through the night as their mothers tried to get them to go back to bed.
"It's…kind of eerie…" Xion heard Kairi whisper.
She had to agree. There was a somber mood in the town, a depressed or worried atmosphere. Even as they watched the workers reconstructing their homes—and the workers in turn watched them carry the Sound Ideas—there was still an atmosphere of dread. The movements of the men up on the scaffolding were sluggish, and they seemed to flinch at every sound that wasn't the pounding of their hammers.
Something was wrong.
As they approached the center of town, Edward's figure came into view in front of the church, his face bathed in the glow of an oil lamp sitting on a nearby barrel. Next to Edward was an old man unfamiliar to Xion, with a long white beard, thick spectacles, and a pink coat.
"Ah, welcome back!" Edward said, extending his arms out welcomingly. "How was your trip? I see you have the Sound Ideas." Edward's grin widened and he turned to his companion. "See, Tellah? They were perfectly safe after all. You should put more trust into people Yen Sid sends to us."
"Hmph," the old man replied. "You didn't seem so certain just ten minutes ago."
Edward laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yes, well, we're all here now. Everyone is safe. So, everyone—tell me, how did it go? Did you find any more monsters like the one that attacked our town?"
Xion shook her head. "Mm, none of them. We did run into some Heartless, though."
"Heartless?" Edward and the old man asked at the same time.
"The darkness in a heart given form," Sora explained. As he went on to explain the Heartless and Nobodies, Xion tuned his voice out and looked around at the square. The construction had come to a complete halt, the men sitting on the scaffolding and half-finished walls watching them—watching the Sound Ideas. Most of them, anyway…some were looking upwards. Xion followed their line of sight, tilting her head to look up at Bald Mountain towering before them. The higher reaches of the mountain, where the woods stopped, were wrapped in a thick grey fog. No matter how far she craned her neck, she couldn't see the peak. Darn it all, she knew she had seen this mountain in real life before, not just the painting in Traverse Town. Where? It was on the tip of her tongue…
"Ahem!" The old man faked a cough, snapping Xion's attention back to the group and making her lose her train of thought. Behind his thick spectacles the old man was glancing aside, narrowing his eyes in the direction of Edward.
"Oh!" the bard said. "Forgive me. Everyone, this is Tellah. He's…an acquaintance of mine."
"A pleasure to meet students of Yen Sid. I trust Edward has shown you all the proper respect?" The question was directed more to Edward than to them.
"I wouldn't really say we're students of his…" Sora said.
"Really? Well, you sure have proved yourself going and getting those Sound Ideas for us. Especially at such a grave, dangerous time."
Goofy spoke up. "I've been wonderin' about that. Why's everyone here seem all nervous? Is it just the monsters? But the Sound Ideas should protect ya, right?"
Tellah crossed his arms and shook his head. "Sure, the Sound Ideas and their Flowmotion can protect our town from the monsters no problem. But that isn't the issue here. Edward here—the idiot—sent you out during the Night on Bald Mountain! Who knows what could have happened to you?!"
"I didn't realize…" Edward mumbled.
"And you would if your head wasn't in the clouds!" snapped Tellah.
"The Night on Bald Mountain?" Kairi's face seemed paler all of a sudden. "That's what Melinda mentioned. Demons and ghosts come out of there, right?" She glanced up at the black stone peak.
"I don't see anything like that," Donald said.
"They come later!" Tellah's rage at Edward suddenly seemed directed to their group. Xion took a slow step back; she didn't feel that anger was warranted. "That's near the end. It starts with rumbles, a soft sound like the earth is moaning. Then the rumbles get louder, and the earth shakes. Fire erupts from Bald Mountain, and then it arrives!"
"'It'?" Donald gulped.
"The black god, Chernabog! When the volcano erupts, he rises from its mouth and calls on the dead, on the ghouls and ghosts. A figure nearly as tall as Bald Mountain itself, with pitch black skin and giant, leathery wings like a bat!"
Goofy brought a nervous hand up to his mouth. "Gawrsh, that sounds an awful lot like…"
"I remember!" Sora shouted, so loud that it practically made Xion and Kairi jump—and did make Donald jump.
"Remember what?" Xion asked, even as the recognition was coming to her. Tellah's description of this 'Chernabog' brought up memories; not hers, but Sora's. Traveling through world after world, pillars of light, an old laboratory, and finally falling into a deep black pit…
That's where she had seen Bald Mountain before.
"The End of the World," Xion and Sora said at the same time. They locked gazes for a moment and then glanced over to Donald and Goofy, who were already looking nervous. Kairi, Tellah, and Edward, meanwhile, looked on in confusion.
"I… We've seen Bald Mountain before—we've seen Chernabog before," Sora said slowly. "And we've beaten him. But it wasn't easy. It was in a place where destroyed worlds gathered, which I guess must have included yours after it fell to the Heartless."
"You fought and defeated Chernabog himself?" Edward asked with awe.
Donald shook his head. "Like Sora said, it wasn't easy! Sometimes I can still feel the heat of the volcano."
"Still, if you've fought him before, then perhaps you could stop this Night on Bald Mountain…"
"Don't be ridiculous, Edward!" Tellah shouted. "They may have survived the night, but they didn't fight Chernabog out there! They're only children!"
"Tellah, listen to them. They said themselves that they fought off Chernabog!"
"Without his minions at his side, I'm sure!"
"Will you just—"
"Listen here, you—"
"Enough!" Kairi shouted, interrupting the two men's argument. "Listen, I don't know what issues you two have with each other, but that's not really the point here, is it? If this Chernabog is going to appear tonight, then you're going to want somebody who can deal with him, who knows how to fight him." She pointed behind her. "And my friends have already done that."
Well, Xion hadn't beyond having Sora's memories of the fight, but she kept her mouth shut. Tellah and Edward glanced at each other, staring each other down for thirty seconds that lasted hours. Tellah relented first, averting his gaze and glaring at his feet.
"I suppose we don't have much of a choice, do we?"
"Be careful," Edward warned. "Chernabog is supposed to be weakened by the light of the sun. If you can last until morning, then you'll be fine."
Kairi grinned. "I think we can handle that."
x-x-x
Of course, traversing the mountain was easier said than done. An hour later found Xion, Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy at the end of the forested slopes and at the hard part of the climb. The soft earth and dirt gave way to harsh, jagged stone. The path came to an abrupt end, forcing them to go off-road as they moved across the rough terrain. Xion's hands were already beginning to grow raw as she climbed up the stone, and they had only just begun.
During the course of the climb, Xion soon came to realize that she had a bit of an advantage over the others here. As part of Organization XIII, she always had to be in peak condition. Saïx had regularly assigned her and all other members on missions to gather emblems for the sake of showing off their abilities to move around terrain. Though with all that said, there was a big difference between climbing a mountain slope and climbing Agrabah's walls.
Kairi was having the most trouble of any of them. Sora, Donald, and Goofy at least had done a lot of stuff like this over their adventures. Kairi, still being relatively new to the whole thing, was often lagging behind the rest. On more than one occasion she slipped and nearly fell, only to be saved from an untimely demise by a friendly hand, usually Sora but just whoever was closest.
And so at current the group rested on a small flat surface near the peak of the mountain, a rocky outcropping above them giving some semblance of shelter. Xion glanced down at her raw hands, burning from all that grabbing onto the rough boulders. Sora and Goofy had gloves, but even they were beginning to complain. A soft green light washed over the group, Donald's Cure spell, and Xion watched as the raw pink skin on her palms grew paler. After a moment it was almost like she hadn't been climbing, though there was still a bit of a tingling left behind.
One thing that the Cure didn't fix, though, was the temperature. It had been growing hotter as they had climbed upwards. Strands of Xion's dark her were stuck together with sweat that trickled down her neck and drenched her forehead. The others didn't look much better in that department, either. If Xion strained her ears, she could just barely make out a bubbling sound, like a liquid boiling. Bald Mountain was a volcano, she knew that now, so that must have been the lava. They were getting close to the mouth.
After a moment's rest and a drink courtesy of Kairi's Water magic, the gang was on the move again. As they climbed higher the heat grew stronger. Xion could feel her clothes and hair clinging to her skin, glued by sweat. It was uncomfortable, but comfort wasn't exactly something on her mind right now to say the least. Just over the rocks above her she could see the red-orange glow of lava. Finally, after passing one final boulder, the group reached the peak of Bald Mountain.
It looked just as it had at the End of the World. Blue-grey clouds colored the sky a pitch black, blocking out all light save for that which came from the volcano itself. The lava bubbled and boiled in its crater, looking ready to explode at any minute. And not far before them, silhouetted against the glow of the lava, were two men.
The first stood on a tall, jagged boulder, grinning down at the other. He wore grey, with high black boots and matching gloves, and a purple sash and scarf decorating the outfit. His long black hair, tied into a ponytail, was streaked with silver. One eye was hidden behind an eyepatch and the other shined brightly, a pinpoint of gold breaching the darkness.
Xion's hands balled into fists. Braig.
As for the other man, he was dressed in the Organization's black coat and was facing away from them, but there was no mistaking that long silver hair or the glimpses of his tanned skin as he spoke to Braig. Ansem was here as well. Hadn't Yen Sid said he vanished in Wasteland?
Braig was saying something to Ansem, but Xion couldn't make it out. His voice was too quiet. However, he seemed to trail off and he tilted his head up, turning away from Ansem to look at the five of them. His familiar taunting, feral grin crossed his features.
"Well, well! Looks like we have some guests!"
Ansem looked over his shoulder slowly, apparently worried that Braig was going to pull a trick on him and attack while his back was turned. But when he saw that, indeed, they had arrived, he turned around completely. "What are you doing here?!"
"Us?" Donald asked, holding his staff and ready to fight. "What are you doing here?!"
"It isn't safe here! You should all go, before Braig can hurt you!"
Kairi shook her head and took a step back. "Is… Is Ansem concerned for us?" she asked, confusion plain as day in her voice and on her face.
Sora looked just as bewildered. "Well, he has helped us a few times already…"
"Oh, let 'em stay!" Ansem turned back to Braig, who shrugged nonchalantly and pulled out his Arrowguns. "I say they're in for a treat, wouldn't you?" His grin widened and his eye narrowed. "…Chosen wielder of the Keyblade."
"What?" It wasn't just Ansem who asked the question. Xion herself said it, and she was pretty sure all of her friends did as well. What on earth was Braig talking about? Sure, Ansem had used a Keyblade back when he was possessing Riku, but…
"It was yours first, wasn't it?" Braig continued. "But you fell to the darkness, you couldn't control it. And so your precious prize—the Keyblade—passed on to Sora instead." He chuckled darkly." Your mistakes always turn out making messes for other people, don't they…Riku."
Xion froze, and it felt like her heart froze with her. Riku? Braig just said Riku, right? She hadn't imagined that? But… How?! Last time they had seen him, he had looked so normal! The same youthful face, same white hair, same everything. He had vanished after fighting Axel in Twilight Town, Xion—all of them—had been so worried. And he had protected them! At least this explained why Naminé had trusted him, but he had never said anything.
"In my searches, I found something…unexpected. It is a heart unlike any I have ever seen before, one that holds light and darkness in perfect balance."
"Riku?"
"I truthfully do not know. Perhaps. And if not, then perhaps it belongs to a future ally…or a future foe. Either way, I believe it is a trail worth investigating."
Suddenly, at least, some of this all made sense. A heart in perfect balance, Ansem disappearing only for that heart to reappear… Xion still couldn't fathom why he looked like Ansem, but she could see what must have happened. Riku overcame Ansem inside of him. Was that it?
"Riku…?" Sora whispered. "All this time… It was Riku? Not Ansem?"
Riku either didn't hear Sora or didn't take time to respond. He clenched his fists and glared up at Braig. "Maybe so. But I'm here to change all of that. And if you're feeling so chatty, let's skip to where you reveal what this is all about. Why did you want to meet me here?"
Braig shrugged. "You know, if I told you guys everything then you'd be able to stop me. That's really not too good for me, now is it? But if you want a clue…" He pointed one of his guns at Riku. Darkness began charging at its tip. "Then maybe, just maybe, it's time for you to face your sunrise, Riku. Get rid of the darkness inside."
Braig fired.
"RIKU!"
x-x-x
"Ugh… Ngh…"
Riku's head was pounding, like he had just gotten run over by a massive truck. What kind of power was Braig packing if one attack knocked him completely unconscious like that? And how long had he been out? With a groan he struggled upwards, his body resisting with sharp bursts of pain every time he moved. After forcing himself to his feet, Riku's legs gave out and he tumbled down again, slamming face-first into…sand?
Riku stared at the golden grains of sand in front of him, absolutely dumbfounded. What happened? Where did Bald Mountain go? Where were Kairi, Xion, and Sora? Donald and Goofy? Had Braig's attack opened a corridor of darkness? Planting his hands in the sand, Riku forced himself upwards, hair blowing softly in the salty shore breeze. He glanced out at the water as he climbed up—and he froze. His reflection, the figure in the water on his hands and knees, wasn't Ansem.
Riku was himself once again.
That could only mean one thing.
I'm inside my heart again… But there isn't any darkness now. I guess it's because I opened that door the last time… Riku stood up once again, grabbing a long lock of his hair and pulling it out from in front of his eyes as he stared out at the ocean. The sun was setting, painting the water and everything else gold and orange as it reflected on the waves in the distance.
"Wait a minute, this is…"
Riku's feet shifted on the sand as he turned to his right, his eyes wide and his heartbeat quickening. Sure enough, just as he had expected, to his right was a doc cobbled together with mismatched wooden planks, of varying sizes and colors. Further back, beyond the dock, Riku could see a lovingly crafted, if equally mismatched, patio sitting against the trunks of thick trees and standing on stilts above the sun-kissed waters. A bridge ran along the trees and connected toe patio to shore.
In the other direction, to Riku's left, was a pair of waterfalls, one much wider than the other, flowing out of a grey rock wall and filling up a pool of cool, pure water. A wooden shack sat on the seashore, and on the small cliff above it another wooden bridge led to a smaller island sitting in the water, a curved tree with star-shaped fruit resting there.
The wind picked up again, carrying with it the fruit's sweet aroma. Seagulls cawed in the distance, their cries accompanied by the high-pitched chattering of cicadas and other insects coming out of the jungle. The rhythm of the waves flowing in and out on the sand finished the natural melody, and brought with them the familiar taste of salt and humidity in the air.
"The…island…"
A rush of feelings overwhelmed Riku. Nostalgia, anger, regret, longing, sorrow… Riku hadn't been to the island in a long, long time; the last time was when he first properly introduced himself to Xion. Of course, he still wasn't really there, was he? This was all inside his heart. And if it was inside his heart, then there was one thing—one person—conspicuously absent from all of this.
This heart belongs again to darkness.
Riku's head perked up as Ansem's voice echoed all around him…or maybe in his memory. He turned around, facing the tree house that island children from decades ago had constructed, the one that had been lovingly maintained by generations up to and including Riku's own. And standing before him, on the small ledge separating the beach from the tree, was a figure in a black coat. His back was to Riku and his hood was up.
"Ansem?" Riku asked, stepping forward. But he knew it couldn't be; while not especially small, the person in the hood was still too short to be Ansem. Riku moved forward, his footsteps crunching in the sand, and slowly raised a hand up toward the figure, intending to place it on his shoulder.
The person in the black coat reacted before Riku touched him. He turned around slowly, the loose parts of the coat around his hands and legs flapping in the wind. Riku paused, his hand falling to his side, as the mysterious figure raised his arms up and slowly pulled the hood off.
Riku's heart skipped a beat.
He didn't know who he has been expecting under that hood, but it certainly wasn't himself. Immediately Riku's mind went to the past, to Castle Oblivion, to the Replica—but no. The Riku in front of him had longer hair than the Replica ever did, as long as his own hair was now. And the Replica never wore a coat, or…or a blindfold. Seeing that thin strip of black fabric, Riku understood. This was him; him as he was last year, that is. Before he had given in to Ansem while fighting Axel.
"What is it that you're so afraid of?" The blindfolded Riku asked.
Once again Riku felt surprise. That question, it was the same question he had heard two years ago—so very long ago. Three questions had he been asked, and three answers had he given. But he didn't have those same answers, not anymore.
What am I afraid of? Riku wondered to himself as the blindfolded Riku in front of him waited patiently, silently. What a good question...
"Losing something that's important," Riku answered softly, so softly he barely heard the words come out of his lips. He was completely and utterly horrified of losing himself… Losing himself as he had already done before. And he had never quite recovered, had he?
The blindfolded Riku vanished, blowing away in the breeze like sand kicked up from the beach. Riku watched the last fragments of the black coat and white hair fade into the sunset as another voice spoke up in his mind.
All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different.
Riku turned again, looking toward the smaller island and the sunset. But another figure caught his eye as he scanned the shore, one that should not have surprised him as much as it did considering who he had just run into.
The Riku of two years ago stood under the wooden bridge, still as a statue save for his electric blue eyes which tracked Riku's movement. His sleeveless arms were crossed in an intimidating pose. Riku silently scoffed; he used to be so into that tough guy act. What a joke that was.
"Do you have a question for me, too?" Riku asked his younger reflection.
The fifteen year old Riku uncrossed his arms, revealing the yellow shirt beneath. Riku winced slightly at the black X across his chest. He had come to learn many things in these last two years, and one of them was that the letter X was not his friend.
"What is the one thing you care about more than anything else?"
Riku nodded as his past self voiced the question. He knew the question, and he new the answer. This was the one answer that had never changed, would never change. And now, more than anything, it was the answer he needed to focus on.
"My close friends."
Sora, Kairi, and Xion were all right there, right outside. With Braig. If Riku didn't do something quick, if he didn't find a way out of this place, then he wouldn't be able to protect them. They were all gathered, and Braig wasn't one to just let them leave like that. Even if he did, the volcano was still going to erupt. Even he had felt the tremors. He needed to be at their side, to fight with them.
Riku watched the fifteen year old Riku vanished just as the blindfolded Riku had. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, listening once more for Ansem's voice to speak up.
Darkness sprouts within it. It grows, consumes it. Such is its nature.
Riku opened his eyes to find that somehow he had moved upward. He stood now on the wooden bridge leading to the small island, and as he made his way forward, the old boards creaking under him with each and every step, the final figure to ask the final question came materialized on the little island.
Riku slowed to a stop at the end of the bridge. Sitting on the edge of the island, his feet dangling over the water, was Riku once again…as he appeared twelve years ago. Five year old Riku, dressed in a yellow vest and black shorts, leaned back and closed his eyes as Riku moved over and sat down next to his reflection. Both of them stared out at the water for a long time before the reflection spoke.
"Riku, what do you wish?"
Even for someone so young, his voice was heavy. Thoughtful. Had he ever truly been just an innocent little boy? Riku wondered…
Riku took in a deep breath and stared up at the orange sky. What did he wish? He wished for Ansem to be gone, and to be at his friends' side. He wished he could look the people of the islands in the eye again. He wished he didn't live every day and every night with the guilt of destroying his home.
But most of all…
Riku glanced down at his younger self, whose eyes were scanning the horizon. A million thoughts were running through that small head, Riku knew. What other worlds were out there? What were they like? Would he ever see them? Would he ever see him again?
"I wish…" Riku exhaled, his breath turning into soft laughter as he ran a hand across his face. Was that sweat or tears on his cheeks? "I wish…to recover something important that I lost."
What Riku wished for, what he wanted most of all, was the innocence of childhood.
The reflection nodded without a word and vanished, just as the others had. Riku took another deep breath and stared out at the orange ocean, only vaguely aware of Ansem's voice finishing that speech in his mind.
In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came.
The water's surface rolled gently toward the beach, flowing in a constant push and pull. When Riku was young, Sora's dad had taken the two of them out on a fishing trip. It was during that day spent out on the open water that Riku had come to learn about the tides. The moon pushed and pulled on the oceans of the world, bringing a constant ebb and flow to nature. The tides come in, the tides go out. Everything was balanced. Every time the tides came in, they would always, always go back out.
It wasn't just water, either. Everything in all the worlds was balanced. Light and dark. To close the Door to Darkness, they needed two Keyblades on both sides of the door. Balance. If all hearts return to darkness, as Ansem said, then surely that darkness will in turn become light.
Tides come in, tides go out.
Riku didn't realize he had shut his eyes, but they opened slowly now as a sound behind him broke the peaceful silence. Footsteps shifted, going from wood to sand as someone approached Riku from behind.
"This world is just too small."
Riku took one more deep breath and stood up, glancing down at his body and dusting the sand off before tilting his head to look the visitor in the eye. Ansem stood before him, his clothes and long hair utterly still even as Riku's blew in the wind. He didn't belong here. This wasn't his heart.
"At the start of your journey, the day before you set out from this tiny island, you saw me here dressed in a robe."
Riku said nothing as Ansem spoke, but he knew what Ansem meant. It had been while Sora and Kairi were gathering supplies for the raft. The brown hooded figure, hunched over like an old man, had been sneaking around the beach, and Riku had seen him. He had confronted him in the Secret Place, in front of the large brown door; the door that, as a child, Riku had looked within. He had seen the darkness beyond the Keyhole, and the light even further beyond that.
"You knew I was from another world, and what powers I had used to arrive. And so to travel beyond this one, you opened your world—and your heart—to darkness." Ansem pointed a gloved hand forward. "And you became exactly what that sword of yours represents: a Seeker of Darkness, a pawn for the shadows."
"But I put that behind me," Riku replied, never wavering as he looked Ansem in the eyes.
Ansem smiled. "Correct. But you still failed to protect them." Riku's eyes grew downcast. Ansem was right; even with the darkness, he couldn't stop Sora becoming a Heartless, or stop him from losing his memories, or keep Xion's friends alive. "After all your efforts to command the darkness and protect those you cherish, it is a shame you locked my power away in Wasteland."
Riku let out a sigh. "Except…" His fingers tightened, his fist clenched. "It's not over. I can still save them."
Ansem's smile was still present as he extended an arm forward, holding it out in a welcoming gesture. "So you understand what to do. Set the darkness in you free, and you can rescue your friends from Braig's clutches."
Riku shut his eyes. That was definitely an option. But was it the best way to go about it? He had had so much trouble controlling it before, he wasn't sure if he could do it.
"Ansem. Or…Xehanort." Ansem's smile faltered at the name, one eyebrow raised ever so slightly in a question. "You used to be a lot like me, searching for worlds outside your own; I've read the reports. But darkness stole your heart, and your memories with it." Riku shook his head and unfurled his fingers, bringing his hand up to his chest. "Don't you see? That's half the reason I'm even on this journey. After allowing darkness into my heart, am I still fit to face everyone?
"Even after locking you away, here you are, haunting me again. So I get it now." Riku's hand fell to his side. "There's no point in trying to hold the darkness back."
Ansem, with his hand still outstretched, smiled once again. "At last you see clearly."
Riku was silent, staring down at his feet. His head turned, his gaze shifted, and he looked down at the main part of the beach by the seashore shack. "You know…" he said softly. "When I look at you…there's this memory that flashes back. A secret I said I'd keep when I was little." Riku stared at his hands, hoping, almost expecting, for light to dance at his fingertips.
"The main reason I kept dreaming about seeing the outside world…was because of him."
Ansem faltered. His hand lowered and a strange expression crossed over his features. Recognition and confusion fought each other for dominance over his face as a soft gasp escaped his lips.
"My journey begins here, and now." Riku held his hand out and watched as a purple mist began to form. Soul Eater manifested, its hilt tight in his grip. "I'm going back to the outside world, and then to my friends' sides."
"That…is your answer?" Ansem asked in a deathly cold voice.
"Yes. I know the way." Riku looked up from his sword and locked eyes with Ansem. His legs spread apart and his feet were planted firmly on the earth. The hand wielding Soul Eater rose up and he held his other hand out. "Consume the darkness, return it to light."
"You can try!" Ansem snarled, crossing his arms. His feet lifted off the ground and his shadow beneath him darkened, rising up to form the familiar sight of the Guardian. It had been far too long since Riku had seen that thing from the other side of the battlefield, and with luck it would be the last time he ever saw it, period.
Riku struck first. Sprinting forward, he thrust Soul Eater out in front of him and aimed for Ansem's chest. The Guardian reached out and wrapped its muscular fingers around the blade, but Riku had been expecting that. Using the momentum from his swing, Riku spin around and slammed the back of his foot into Ansem's side. Ansem grunted and moved sideways, not quite stumbling but not exactly stable. Before he had time to recover Riku broke Soul Eater out of the Guardian's grasp and plunged it toward Ansem's chest.
The Guardian was fast, however. Instantly it was in front of Ansem to block Riku's strike. The Guardian swung a fist, hitting Riku in the gut with a powerful uppercut and sending him flying over the edge of the islet. Luckily Riku fell off the side facing the main island, where the water was deep enough that he didn't hit the ground; smacking onto the surface of the ocean still hurt, though.
Glaring up at Ansem hovering above him, Riku pushed off against the cliff and propelled himself back through the water. Raising his hand, Riku cast a fireball—not a Dark Firaga, a normal Fira spell. The flames flew toward Ansem and once again the Guardian blocked it, but it distracted the two of them long enough for Riku to make his way to shore.
The saltwater dripped off his body as he climbed onto the beach, soaking into his clothes and slowing him down. Ansem floated calmly, lowering from the islet onto the beach with a smirk on his face.
"Come, open your heart." A purple and blue aura surrounded Ansem and he pointed forward, the Guardian moving in front of him. With the Guardian leading the way the two of them barreled forward, the aura charging with energy and ready to slam into Riku like a brick wall. At the last moment Riku was able to roll away, only for Ansem to turn on a dime and charge into him from behind.
Climbing up to his feet, Riku tightened his grip around Soul Eater's hilt and ran forward. Ansem locked eyes with him and grinned, but neither he nor the Guardian made any move to stop Riku's attack. When Riku was just feet from reaching his foe, however, an explosion of purple flames erupted out of the ground, scattering sand in the air and flinging Riku back. Riku tossed his hand back and caught himself, turning his fall into a backflip and putting him back on his feet.
The Guardian had vanished from behind Ansem.
Darkness exploded behind Riku. The Guardian burst out of the ground, inches from his feet; if Riku had been even the tiniest bit slower, he would have been caught. The Guardian vanished in the air and erupted out of the ground again and again, but each time Riku dodged its attacks, using the telltale pool of purple and black to tell where it was about to rise. Leaping high into the air, Riku brought his sword down on Ansem. The Guardian wasn't fast enough to block it this time.
The thing about Ansem was he had a very good defense in the Guardian, but once that defense was broken he was easy prey; at least until the Guardian returned, anyway. When Riku got one strike in, he was able to get another, and then another, and then another. Unleashing a furious combo on his opponent was child's play, and Riku could not deny taking pleasure in the man's grunts of pain.
It couldn't last forever, though.
"Enough. Submit!" A burst of darkness between the two of them tossed Riku high into the air, which was followed up by a Thundaga spell cast by Ansem down below. Riku screamed in pain as the lightning coursed through his body, and then slammed onto the stone below with a very painful thud. Climbing up to his feet with a low groan, Riku looked up just in time to see Ansem and the Guardian charging at him once again with the blue aura around them.
"What do you hope to accomplish?" Ansem asked as he watched Riku get sent flying into the large tree.
Riku shook his head and cast a Curaga spell. He stared down at his hands as the green light seeped into his wounds and then stared up at Ansem. "The road I walk…is my choice and my choice alone."
"You are nothing but a puppet for the darkness!"
Purple magic swirled around the Guardian's hands. It flung them out, sending two discs of energy that ran along the ground toward Riku. Riku rolled out of the way, and as he got up onto his feet a Dark Firaga from Ansem was flying his way. Blocking it with a quick barrier spell, Riku then broke into a run and made his way across the old wooden bridge to the patio across the water.
Darkness began to well up at his feet. The Guardian was about to attack from below.
"You cannot escape me, Riku."
"I don't need to!" Riku shouted, spinning around and casting Firaga at his feet. The old wood burst into flame, and as the Guardian rose from its hiding place the fires leaped onto its leathery flesh. Diving into the sea to avoid the flames, Riku brought his head above the waves and watched the Guardian write around in pain.
Bursts of darkness came from the direction of the beach, sent out by Ansem. Riku dived back under the water and swam as fast as he could, which admittedly wasn't especially fast while he was weighed down by his clothes and with one hand holding his sword. Above him, through the filter of the water, Riku could see Ansem floating above the surface. The man held his hand out and a pulse of energy flew from his fingertips, parting the water in Riku's location and creating a sort of crater in the sea. Riku landed on the now exposed wet sand, fish flopping around him at his feet.
Riku jumped up and grabbed the only part of Ansem he could reach: his ankle. Dragging the man down and climbing up him at the same time, Riku held up his sword and dug it into Ansem's thigh. Ansem grunted through grit teeth and bent down to pull Riku off of him, but Riku let go and cast Firaga right in his face. The fire exploded between them and both fell into the water. Riku was the closer one to the shore. Climbing onto dry land was easy enough, but he kept his eye on Ansem's body floating in the water the entire time.
The ground beneath his feet rumbled. Riku glanced down, but it was too late. The Guardian burst out; its skin was burned and scarred from the flames, but its defense was otherwise no worse for wear. Grabbing Riku by the arms, it trapped him in a full nelson as Ansem rose out of the water with a sneer on his face.
"Stop fighting, Riku."
Riku said nothing, preferring to glare daggers at the man before him. The Guardian held him tight, but he wasn't helpless. Taking a deep breath, Riku stretched back his hand that wasn't holding Soul Eater as far back as he could. A blue and white glow wrapped around his fingers and a chill wind passed over the island.
"Blizzaga!"
The blast sent the Guardian flying away and encased it in a tomb of ice. Riku, freed from its hold, tackled Ansem to the ground. When he raised Soul Eater to drive it down into Ansem's chest, Ansem caught his wrist with one of his hands and struggled against Riku's weight pressing down on him. In response, Riku ignited his free hand with Firaga, but did not launch the fireball. Instead, with his fist aflame, he punched Ansem right in his stupid, smug face.
Ansem's grip on Riku's wrist broke and Riku stabbed Soul Eater downward. Ansem rolled out of the way at the last minute, meaning Riku missed his chest, but he did stab him through the arm—right through the inner curve of his elbow. Ansem cried out in pain as black smoke, not blood, leaked out from the wound. Riku grabbed the injured arm and squeezed it tightly, painfully, as he rose up Soul Eater once again.
Ansem, however, broke free of Riku's hold. Sitting upwards, he grabbed Riku by the shoulders and spun them around, pinning Riku face-first into the sand with a hand on his neck and a hand on his sword arm. Purple and black energy began to swirl around Ansem's hands. Riku could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Grunting as he struggled to break free, Riku willed Soul Eater to vanish in a puff of smoke.
An instant later, it appeared in his other hand held in a reverse grip. Riku swung out behind him and dug the sword into Ansem's side. While Ansem moved a hand over his newest wound, Riku broke free. He spun around and kneed Ansem in the gut.
"Why do you…refuse…the darkness…?" Ansem asked between gasps as he leaned over, grasping at his chest as black wisps of smoke rose up from his body.
Riku jumped backwards, away from the dying man, and held his sword out. "Ansem! You're part of my heart now! Part of the light!"
Ansem began to chuckle. It started so low that at first Riku thought he was crying, but it grew and grew until he was standing up straight, laughter escaping his mouth. The darkness escaping his body blackened and began to grow, stretching over everything Riku saw and coating the Destiny Islands in an inky blackness.
"Ever the fool, boy," Ansem said as the last signs of the island vanished, leaving a black void in place of where they once were. "And forever a pawn of the darkness!"
A wave of black magic flew out from Ansem's body, sending Riku flying backwards. He crashed onto the nonexistent floor and stared up to see Ansem, so very far away, surrounded by an organic-looking sphere. The Guardian rose atop it and bat-like wings extended from behind. Had Ansem merged with the Guardian itself?
Streaks of blue light lit up the pitch black darkness, forming shapes and patterns as chunks of earth rose out of the black ground. Glowing rock formations, like Riku had seen in the Realm of Darkness, created a vast canyon. At the other end was Ansem inside his orb of darkness, floating before a void of purple energy.
The battle was not yet over.
"Now show me what your precious 'light' can do!" Ansem shouted. The wings of the orb flapped, calling up a violent gust of wind. Riku jumped behind one of the rock formations as the attack passed, then jumped out into the canyon and made his way forward.
But as much as he ran, Ansem never seemed to grow any closer. The pitch black canyon walls were oppressive; the glowing pattern on the floor seemed to stretch on forever. What was this? In the distance, Riku heard Ansem roar and saw the Guardian begin to move. A black sphere, outlined in purple, manifested and began flying down the canyon toward Riku. Rolling out of the way to dodge it, Riku found him facing yet another one, and even more trailing behind that.
Riku rolled out of the way of the next orb, and as he came out of his roll tried leaping up onto the wall of the canyon, hoping that by scaling it he could avoid Ansem's attack. Unfortunately, when he was almost clear, one of the orbs passed through his leg. Immediately Riku was pulled back, like someone had grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and tugged hard. Thrown inside the orb, he hung there suspended in the darkness as the Guardian waved its arms out in front of it at the end of the canyon. Blasts of energy formed around the orb trapping Riku before all flying into him, causing a massive explosion that sent Riku flying high into the air.
But hurt as he was, Riku wasn't out. Righting himself in the air, he brandished Soul Eater and dived downward. Soul Eater dug into the Guardian's shoulder, and then Riku jumped off of the fleshy black orb and landed in front of Ansem inside of it. Up above, the Guardian swung its mighty fists. Riku jumped out of the way, but explosions rocked the earth where its fists hit. Dodging the flames, Riku jumped forward and struck Ansem across the chest.
"Do not deny your fear!" Ansem roared as he gripped the gaping wound across his chest where the Heartless emblem had once been, now torn off by Riku's blade. The wings on the sides of the orbs flapped and it moved backwards, out of Riku's reach. The Guardian's fists glowed and it thrust them forward, sending shockwaves out toward Riku. A well-timed barrier blocked the first round, but more kept coming. Riku was flung back with a cry.
"You will kneel before me!"
"Do you ever shut up?!" Riku shouted, sending both Firaga and Dark Firaga forward. Red and blue explosions assaulted the Guardian, who in turn sent out six energy blasts toward Riku. Riku backflipped away, but they followed him. Homing strikes! As the blasts struck Riku, he grit his teeth and endured the pain. The instant the smoke had cleared, he jumped forward again—not to Ansem, but two the cliff. Rebounding off of it, he came at Ansem from an angle and swung his sword, striking him across the chest once more. Without missing a beat, Riku landed on the black earth and spun around, unleashing a combo attack on his nemesis next.
The orb's wings flapped, calling up wind again that sent Riku flying down to the other end of the canyon. Running once again, he watched as the distant figure of the Guardian glowed a bright blue. Bursts of light flew from its body into the pitch black sky like a meteor shower. The temperature around Riku spiked, and he glanced up to see dozens of Dark Firaga balls raining down on him. Holding his hand up, Riku formed a barrier that served as an umbrella as he ran, the blue flames exploding harmlessly atop it.
More of those black orbs came flying down the canyon next, but Riku was ready for them this time. Going with his plan from before, he jumped up onto the wall of the canyon as the first orb passed harmlessly under him. Then, with all of his strength, he jumped clear to the next wall at a diagonal angle, moving slightly forward as well. Repeating this process again and again, Riku made it to Ansem once more and dived down to attack him.
The Guardian assaulted him once more with exploding punches. Riku did get hit by more than one, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. Not when he was so close! Jumping back from the Guardian's latest dark magic assault, Riku raised his sword and cast Curaga.
Nothing happened.
Have I used too much magic?!
Riku's momentary surprise was enough for the Guardian to take advantage of. Its mighty fist slammed into Riku's back, knocking him into the earth as it exploded. Pieces of black stone rained down around Riku while he rose to his knees, panting.
Ansem crossed his arms and smirked. "The darkness could protect you."
"Maybe it could," Riku admitted with a struggle as he climbed onto his feet. "And you know what, maybe it will."
Ansem's smile widened. "Are you ready to give in? To bow to darkness? Bow to me?"
"No…" Riku shook his head and held his sword vertically in front of him. "I have another idea."
A pale blue glow wrapped around Soul Eater and expanded around Riku, enveloping him in its faint light. Riku felt his feet lift up off the ground and watched Ansem's face switch from confusion, to recognition, to maybe a bit of fright. The Guardian reacted as well, roaring and bringing both fists down on Riku like a hammer. But Riku had already vanished into the shadows.
A corridor of darkness opened up behind Ansem and the Guardian's black orb. Riku flew out of it, still glowing and with Soul Eater pointed forward. The two of them had just enough time to turn around before Riku ran right through them. Ansem let out a feral shout and the Guardian released bolts of darkness, but Riku had already vanished again.
He attacked from a separate direction this time, repeating his motions from before and piercing Ansem, then vanishing into a corridor of darkness only to strike again from a new direction. Again and again they repeated this process, the darkness propelling Riku along, but under his own power, not Ansem's.
When Riku had completed a circle around Ansem, and he and the Guardian were wounded badly, he emerged from the last corridor and leaped high into the air, Soul Eater held above his head.
"Ansem!" Riku roared, glaring down at his nemesis. Light began to flicker at Soul Eater's tip. "Darkness is my ally as much as the light. But you are not!" The light expanded around his sword, breaking the darkness with its blinding radiance. Around Soul Eater a new blade of solid light formed, white and gold and oh so very bright.
"It's over, Ansem!"
Riku brought his sword down on Ansem and the Guardian, finishing Dark Aura with a massive eruption of both light and dark. The conflicting energies became one, a swirling explosion of purple and gold. But even still, Ansem did not scream.
"Is this…the answer…?"
Ansem leaned forward with a groan, his eyelids drooping and his arms falling limp. Around him the black orb began to dissolve, with specks of shadow breaking off and falling into the swirling void below. Wisps of smoke rose up from both Ansem and the Guardian as the Guardian let out a low, rumbling groan.
Even as its body began fading away into the darkness, the Guardian lifted one of its strong, yet shaking, arms. The muscular black hand inched forward, moving to Riku in a desperate attempt to finish him off. Riku, locking eyes with Ansem's shadow, didn't flinch. He didn't move an inch away as he raised Soul Eater up to the Guardian in defiance.
The Guardian's arm fell to its side. Its shoulders lowered and its back arched as it tilted its head upwards. Finally giving in to the darkness taking it, it vanished…and Ansem's body vanished along with it. Both were silently consumed by the purple void, taking their taint from Riku's heart forever.
Riku let out a held breath and lowered Soul Eater to his side. Finally, it was over.
Light pierced the darkness below him. At his feet, a circle grew ever outward, eating away at the shadowed terrain and filling in the void. As the ring expanded ever outward, shapes began to form in the space inside of it. It was unrecognizable at first, but soon Riku recognized his own face. And when the ring had finished expanding, he found himself standing in the middle of a massive stained glass picture.
The background was blue, featuring both the oceans of his home and the waterfalls and blue stone of Hollow Bastion. Framing the circular picture was a ring made up of the Heartless symbol, only minus the red X in the middle. It was decorated with the faces of familiar faces in Riku's life—Kairi, Sora, Xion, Maleficent, Naminé, Mickey, Ansem…and that man he had met so long ago. And along the side, sleeping calmly with his eyes shut tight, was an image Riku himself.
The light had faded from all but one place. Riku looked to his sword as the last few sparks fell from it. It was Soul Eater no longer. The blade, while still resembling a bat wing, had straightened out, and near the tip a silver-blue angel's wing extended. The hilt had a new hand guard, and a chain dangled from its end.
Riku held the Keyblade—his Keyblade—in front of him and smiled softly.
"Strength, to protect what matters."