Chapter 25: Torrent of Memories

"I thought you went searching, and yet here you are buying potions!"

Riku looked up, finding Namine standing in the doorway of the Item Shop. He shrugged and handed his munny over, and the shopkeeper handed him the potions.

"I ran out," he muttered.

"Well, I think we need to go to Twilight Town."

"What for?" Riku asked, pocketing the potions and walking over to her.

"Here," she pulled out a slightly crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and showed it to him. She had drawn a picture of the Mansion in Twilight Town.

"I recognize that…" Riku said. "Not like, I know it and I don't know why. Like, I've been there before… I just… can't remember when…" He sighed and shook his head. "Anyways, you think we should go there?"

"Well, I've been thinking about other ways into Hollow Bastion, and I drew this…" Namine shrugged. "There's got to be some reason why I drew it."

"Fair enough."

They stepped outside the Item Shop. Riku glanced around, making sure no one was looking their way, and opened up a dark corridor. "C'mon," he said, stepping through, Namine not far behind.

xxx

"Hey, I can actually enjoy this place now!" Namine said, looking around.

Riku laughed. "We'll be seeing a lot of it, if we're going to be trying to find another way into Hollow Bastion."

Namine was watching some kids eat ice cream with interest. "I want ice cream…" she said after a moment.

Riku checked his pockets. "I'm out of munny," he muttered.

Namine turned to look at him. "Well if you hadn't gone and wasted it all on potion!" she laughed.

"I didn't waste it on-" Riku paused. A young boy of about ten walked up to them. He had shaggy black hair that fell into his steel blue eyes. The boy pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to Riku. Riku took it and looked at it curiously. It appeared to be an ice cream stick, and it had the word "WINNER" imprinted on this. "What's this?" he asked, looking at the kid.

"It's a WINNER stick," the boy replied. "You can get a free ice cream if you turn one in. You can have it. I can't eat more than one ice cream at a time, and I tend to forget my WINNERs when I come here. I've got like a million of them at home. I'm really lucky, and tend to get one, like, every time I come here. Even though they're supposed to be hard to find…"

"Thanks…" Namine said slowly. "You didn't have to…"

The boy shrugged. "Like I said, I've got like a million at home." He turned away, finishing his own ice cream, and was about three steps away before he stopped. He laughed, and turned back around.

"Here," he said, tossing his ice cream stick. Riku caught it. It was another WINNER stick.

"Told you I'm lucky!" the boy laughed, walking off.

"That was rather nice of him," Namine said, watching the boy go.

Riku shrugged, still slightly dazed about what had just happened. "Let's go get some ice cream," he said after a moment.

xxx

They walked around Twilight Town, enjoying their ice cream and attempting to find what could possibly be a back way into Hollow Bastion. By the time their ice cream was gone, they had thoroughly searched the town. Well, all of it except the Mansion. They had agreed to check there last.

"I've been here…" Riku muttered, as they walked into the clearing in front of the Mansion. The memories were faint in the back of his mind, and he couldn't pick out which one he had seen this in.

He glanced around, and the more he looked, the stronger the memories became.

"Hold it!"

He turned around.

"You okay?" Namine asked.

"Yeah…" he said slowly. "I just thought I heard-"

"Hmph. You've changed…"

"I'm me!"

"…be nice, being real…"

He gasped in shock, the memories flooding back to him. His eyes went wide as the memories glazed before them.

"…right, I'm a phony! A fake! The way I look, the way I feel…"

"…finding some new strength, I could finally be someone…"

"…you're around, I'll never…"

Flashes of a battle, sharp voices, sharper than ever, stabbing at him like knives. And like knives they hit him, as each stroke of the blade was slowly remembered, each time he was hit with a dark attack, each use of a dark attack. The voices were frantic now, blending into each other, repeating themselves like a broken record. The attacks were quicker, the voices were louder-

A sudden wave of pain went up his wrist in response to the flash of memory. He clutched it in shock, biting his tongue at the pain. Then, like a tidal wave, the memories hit him, and he collapsed to the ground.

"Riku!" Namine shouted.

It was probably her voice that saved him from the torrent of memories flashing before his eyes and the roar of voices in his ears. He slowly blinked his eyes open, and just stared up at the sky. Slightly dazed, he wondered for a second why he wasn't in Dark Mode, and why his essence wasn't slowly fading away.

"Are you okay?" she asked, kneeling down next to him.

"I died here," he said, continuing to stare at the sky.

"You- what!"

"I died here," he repeated. He turned to look at her, noting the confused look on her face. He slowly smiled. "I never told you, did I?" he laughed.

She shook her head.

"Before I was offered the second chance, I died," Riku said, absentmindedly rubbing his wrist. "Well, I was killed."

"Who killed you?" Namine asked, almost expecting it to be an Organization member.

"The real Riku," he replied. Namine was slightly taken aback, but not much so, she had a feeling she already knew this.

"What happened?"

"Do you want the full story or the short one?"

Namine laughed.

"Right, full one," Riku said, laughing. He closed his eyes, memories fresh in his mind as he explained. "It started when Axel instructed me to kill Zexion, convincing me that if I found some new strength, I could be my own self, and not just a copy of the real Riku. However, he lied. I had the strength, and yet I still wasn't any different. I was still- just a copy." He sighed, doing his best not to get angry over this.

"I was angry. Angrier than I had ever felt before. I went to confront the real Riku. I just wanted it to be over. One of us had to die, and we both knew which. What did the world need with a fake Riku, eh?" He laughed bitterly. "Nothing. We fought, and even with all my strength, he beat me."

He paused, thinking. "I don't quite remember what happened next. It's all a bit of a blur. I was dead, or I should have been dead, but I wasn't. Someone offered me a second chance, I took it, and then next thing I knew I was on the shores of Destiny Islands; hurt, bleeding, and unable to remember anything. Kairi found me and-" He stopped, face falling into horror.

"What?" Namine asked.

"We need to go," Riku said, sitting up. He winced, clutching his side. Of course, the wound he had now just so happened to be in the same place as his old one was, so it hurt even worse. Namine reached out to steady him, as he looked like he was about to fall back over.

"I'm fine," he said through clenched teeth, trying to get to his feet. Namine helped him up.

"Are you sure you're okay enough to go to Hollow Bastion?" Namine asked.

"We don't even know if there's a way in from here."

"There might be," Namine muttered. "C'mon, you should get some rest."

"I'm fine!" Riku repeated.

Namine took a step away from him. "Walk for me then," she told him. He took about two steps before collapsing.

"See! You're not fine," she said, bending down to help him up again. "There's no way you'll be able to do anything like this."

"I'll be okay!" he insisted.

Namine shook her head. "You're memory meltdowns may not be as bad as mine," she said. "But that doesn't mean they aren't bad. And you're hurt. We really should head back to Traverse Town so you can get some rest."

"I told you, I'm fine!"

"You just collapsed!" Namine exclaimed. "You know that you can't face Sora like this! He's just going to beat you again!"

Riku muttered something under his breath.

"What?" Namine asked.

"Nothing," he replied quickly.

She raised her eyebrows, and then laughed and opened up a dark corridor. "Come on," she said, leading him through.