Chapter 8: Harsh Memories

"So why haven't you gone home in the past three months?" Joseph asked, jumping over the back of the couch and sitting down next to Riku. Riku didn't answer, just continued staring at the piece of paper he was holding. Joseph frowned, not quite liking being ignored. He quickly grabbed the piece of paper from Riku's hand and then jumped to his feet, standing on the couch.

"Give it back!" Riku shouted, also jumping to his feet. Joseph just laughed, managing to just barely hold the piece of paper out of Riku's reach.

"I just want to look," Joseph said innocently, and then proceeded to look at the paper (while still managing to keep it out of Riku's grasp). It was a picture of Namine and Riku. They were holding hands, and both grinning.

"Did Namine draw this?" Joseph asked after a moment.

Riku nodded.

"Woooow, she's good at drawing!" Joseph exclaimed.

Riku snatched the picture back from him, his cheeks hot. He very pointedly did not look at Joseph, and very carefully folded the picture back up to return to his pocket. Once that was done, he sat back down. After a moment, Joseph sat down too.

"You must miss her," he said, turning to look at Riku. Riku didn't say anything, staring off to the side, hands slowly clenching into fists. Finally, he nodded.

"Yeah."

"Then why haven't you gone back before now?" Joseph asked, though instantly wished he hadn't due to the glare Riku sent him. Riku's glare almost immediately softened though, and he shrugged.

"Because if I went home, it would be like I had stopped searching for Sora. And I promised that I'd find him," he explained. "If I stopped searching for him, it would be like I had broken that promise."

"That's silly!" Joseph laughed. "It wouldn't be like that all!"

Riku scowled. "Well, that's what it would feel like."

"So you wouldn't have gone home, even if you missed someone you cared about?" Joseph pressed, trying to wrap his head around what Riku was thinking.

"Finding Sora was more important," Riku replied.

"Why can't you go home now?"

Riku sighed. "I just said, I can't really go home without Sora. And Sora's not ready to go home."

"So you wouldn't go home no matter how much you miss Namine?" Joseph asked again.

Riku frowned, and shot another glare Joseph's way. "Would you leave her out of this?" he snapped, voice rising slightly with anger. "Unless you want me to just go home and leave the Rebellion for Saix to destroy."

Joseph quickly shook his head. "Hey, that's not what I meant and you know it!" he protested. "I only meant you going home for a bit and taking a break, geeze."

Riku rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he said.

There was a second of silence—a blissful second—and then a Vexen Replica walked up. If Riku remembered correctly, this was Number 2.

"Riku, you should see this," 2 said. "Sora's regained his memory."

Riku immediately got to his feet and followed after number 2.

xxx

"I don't TRUST that… that WITCH, Sora!" Kairi shouted. Familiar words. "WHY are you listening to her!?"

She and Sora stood in what she knew was supposed to be the castle of Hollow Bastion, though in this distorted dream, it looked almost nothing like it.

"Didn't you hear her?" Sora asked, turning to Kairi, a manic glint in his eyes. "She promised me the world. The entire world." His face twisted in a smile more crooked than it should have been, and there was darkness all around him, darkness swimming in golden eyes. "I could have all that, Kairi. All of that. Mine!"

He sounded awed. Hungry, even.

Terrified—of the sight, of him—Kairi staggered back.

"What's wrong? Why are you so scared?" His voice started distorting, and then his face, and, she thought she heard Ansem. That thread of another's tone beating behind his. "Don't you recognize your B-E-S-T friend?"

Her heart was pounding. She felt like she was going to be sick.

"N- NO!" she screamed. "I don't!"

(And, that hurt, that scared her worst of all.)

xxx

Kairi woke up in a sweat, warm tears burning in her eyes. She didn't scream—wouldn't scream—but she did let out a gasp. Chills went up and down her spine. That dream…

She drew her knees to her chest, buried her face in them.

Crying came easily, too easy, and it was awful. She tried to tell herself it'd just been a dream, just a nightmare, but, that wasn't true. As much as it had been a nightmare, it'd had been real. In those last days, when Sora was the deepest in the darkness's clutches, that had been real.

It had been real.

Or, it might as well have been.

"Kairi?" came Namine's voice. Unsurprisingly. She was a light sleeper. "Kairi, what's wrong?"

"I'm- I'm just- I'm so scared," Kairi choked out, between sobs.

"Scared? Of what?"

"What if he- what if he hasn't changed?" She felt like she couldn't breathe. "What if he hasn't changed back? What if I still don't recognize him?" That scared her most of all. "What if the darkness is still just using him, what if he isn't Sora anym—"

Her words broke off as Namine wrapped her in a hug, throwing her weight into her.

"It won't happen," Namine insisted. Her arms were around Kairi's neck, face pressed into Kairi's hair, as she held on.

"How- How do you know?" Kairi demanded.

"You just gotta believe."

Kairi let out a sound between a sob and a bitter laugh. Namine held her tighter.

"You just gotta believe in him, Kairi," she said. "You just gotta believe."