Riku and the Pink Beast

Pete wandered through the Market Street. He kicked a ball up and down, trying to see if he could keep it in the air for more than ten minutes, at the urging of a few local kids. Now he was worried about finding Sunset Station to go to Yen Sid's Tower. The barriers between reality and the Dark Realm were particularly thin in that place, so he wouldn't have as much trouble as he usually did when he created a Corridor. "This has got to be the worst mistake I've made" he muttered to himself. His quest was barely started, and already he was having second thoughts about it. Maybe he should have let Maleficent fire him. Then he would be free. Then that old greedy sense came back, telling him that if he did that, then he wouldn't get a piece of the pie when Maleficent's race of darkness imbued creatures overran the Keyblade Masters of the worlds. He would capture Tine, she would be reprogrammed, and then Maleficent would create others like her. It was now nearly nighttime. He could see the stars coming out in the sky. He wondered if he would see them start to wink out one by one. That was a disturbing thought. Number Thirteen could be destroying worlds right now. He could see it happening now. He picked up the pace.

"Tine! Tine, where are you?" Riku snarled. He had been searching for Tine for over four hours. It was getting late, and his stomach rumbled with hunger. This didn't add to his cheerful mood. He wondered where Tine had gone. She was very weak, so she couldn't have gone far. With his darkness powers temporarily gone he couldn't sense auras, so he had to rely on his eyes and ears to help him. Riku had been taken by Hayner and the others to the Twilight Home hospital. He seemed to be alright; he had regained his sanity. Riku was horribly ashamed of himself. He had lost his mind and become useless at a crucial moment. Kairi and the others could have been killed! He agreed with Kairi, it was only that the member was weak that they had been able to defeat him. Hayner, Pence, Ollette and the others had to get home to their parents, and Kairi was exhausted from the battle. Riku had volunteered to look for Tine himself. It was his way of making up for being absent while they kicked Demyx's water using butt. He remembered being drained by Tine, but he hadn't seen where she had gone. He had been unconscious. Riku jogged up the steps to Sunlight Hill to the park. I'll just rest here he thought to himself. He walked up to the bench---and was surprised to find Tine sitting on it! The red haired girl was sitting with her face in hands. The particles of darkness leaking out of her had slowed to a sluggish flow. Her shoulders were shaking. Riku blinked. Maleficent's top experiment, Roman Numeral Thirteen, Tine, was crying! Not sure what to do, feeling uncomfortable beyond measure, Riku walked over to her.

"Are…are you alright?" he asked, feeling like an idiot. Of course this girl wasn't alright!

Tine gave a tiny shriek of surprise and fear as Riku walked up to her. She tried to get up away from the bench, but stumbled and fell. "Oh…no" she groaned. Then her tearstained face hardened. "Well, I guess this is it" she said. She sat up straight. "If you're going to kill me, then just get on with it. Don't play with me."

"You were going to do that to Sora, weren't you?" Riku asked, drawing Way To Dawn. "I could kill you slowly and very painfully" he said. Tine began to shake. It was horrible, but Riku persisted. "Yes, I could make it a very painful way to die. After all, you're completely helpless."

He raised Way To Dawn and brought the Keyblade smashing down---a few inches from Tine's sneaker. The experiment closed her eyes.

"But I'm not going to" he said. "Because I have a little bit of mercy. Because I'm not that kind of person. We're not those kinds of people. Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy."

"Why?" Tine gasped through her tears. "Why are you letting me live? Why did your friends fight off that man with the sitar? Who was he?"

"A long story" Riku said. "But, I'll tell you the reason we let you live. It's because we saw that you were…well, brave. Bad people can be brave, but maybe…maybe, even though you were created by evil, maybe you could be given a second chance."

"What right do you have to judge me?" Tine said. "I saw what was inside you! Your heart is scarred with darkness! You're as filled with it as a human can be and maintain their form!"

Riku said nothing. The moonlight cast shadows on his face. "That is true" he said. "If you see that, then you have to know the story of what happened to me, and how I got to be like this."

"No, I don't, but I don't need to!" Tine said. "You probably threw yourself into the dark, just to gain power and wound up a Heartless! Sora had to rescue you probably!" immediately she regretted saying that. A look of pain crossed Riku's face.

"It…wasn't…like…that…" he gritted out. His fists clenched. "It was a matter of hearts. I was trying to help someone! If anyone is to blame for that, besides me, it is your creator! She tricked me!" Tine felt Riku's dark aura flare with the escalation of his rage.

"Jeez, don't have a heart attack" she said. Then, realizing the joke of what she'd said, she burst out laughing. Riku stared at her for a minute before laughing himself.

"That's a good one, Thirteen!" he laughed.

Tine's face immediately hardened. "Don't call me that. I'm not some number that everyone calls, and it follows orders. That's what that hag wanted for me!"

"So you too" said Riku quietly.

"What?" Tine asked.

"So you too have been wronged by her. She is a manipulative hag who snares anyone she can in her web of evil. It's like she has a cloud of malignant power around her" Riku said. "What happened?"

"I don't know" said Tine. "I woke up, and I was in a lab. See, I knew where I was and stuff, because it had been downloaded into my brain while I was asleep and developing. But the thing is…when I looked at Maleficent…I knew she was bad, bad and loving it. I hated her instantly. And Pete…I don't know what to think about him. He was just an idiot who dumbly went along with whatever Maleficent said. He has no spine. So I wanted to get away from them. I had this drive, this desire to kill Sora. I guess it's what the hag put in my head, but I had to follow it…it was like the urge to breathe…I had to do it." Tine stopped. "I still do" she said, looking up at the sky. "I have the urge to kill all Keyblade Masters, and that includes you, Riku. But it's not so strong now. I almost died back there. Sorry about the draining" she said.

"It's alright" Riku said. "After all, my heart is 'scarred with darkness' right?"

Tine blushed. "I guess" she said, giggling a little.

Riku looked at Tine a long time as she sat, looking at the moon, the light mingling in her red hair and green, wild eyes. No he thought. This will not happen. I will not allow it to happen. It can't happen. It's an abomination. She's only four days old for crying out loud… His mind said these things, but his body and heart---what was left of it---argued differently. Riku had thought of Tine as a beast when he got to Twilight Town, a beast that he must slay. Perhaps it would have been better to have slain her when he had the chance, for now the beast was showing itself. And it was not a black beast of darkness and terror…but a pink beast of blossoming love.