"I don't like this plan. You shouldn't just run in there again, Riku."
Riku ignored Mickey and continued down the curving stairs of the mansion, pulling his coat securely around himself and zipping it up. The king trailed after him.
"It won't be like last time. I'll have you for backup if anything goes wrong. And I know not to underestimate Roxas this time," he said over his shoulder as he opened the door to the courtyard. Hidden under a grove of trees and a camouflage tarp was the gummi ship.
It had taken Riku a few weeks to recover, and even after that time he still felt the buzzing of his dark power in the back of his skull. It was a noise only he could hear, and was really starting to annoy him.
"Alright, but remember, if anything goes wrong, head back to the ship," Mickey said, perking up with his usual amount of optimism.
They boarded the gummi and once again flew to the World That Never Was. They landed in the same alleyway as always, and disembarked.
Riku turned around to put up a dark shield around the ship when he noticed Mickey carrying a large black bundle.
"What's that?" He asked, trying not to laugh at the small king struggling under the weight of his burden.
"Well, I figured we could just cover the gummi ship with this, what with how dark it is here. And since I'll be guarding it this time."
The king stood proudly in front of the now covered gummi ship. Even Riku had to admit that it did blend in well with the dark walls of this world. With a quick nod the two were back to being professionals on a mission.
Riku made his way quietly through the tall buildings, hiding in the shadows were the neon lights couldn't reach. He wasn't sure where the Nobody he searched for could be, but he wasn't in the castle. Ever since absorbing more darkness into himself, he could sense more accurately than ever.
Roxas was somewhere in the city.
He had to duck down into a nook to hide from some neoshadows as they went by on patrol. Riku decided it might not be the best decision to stay on the ground where the heartless seemed to be more active. He approached the memory skyscraper but couldn't find an entrance.
While he ran his hands over the front, hoping he would trigger something to open and let him in, he heard and smelled heartless approaching. Hoping it would do no harm he opened a small portal and transported himself up to the top of the tower.
The air up there was much clearer, and lacked the stench of the heartless that hung in the alleyways like fog. He went carefully over to the edge, looking around at the streets down below, searching for Roxas. As his eyes swept over the edge, he saw his reflection in a pool of rainwater, rippling in the current light rain.
--It shouldn't be a surprise to you by now Riku. You're a smart keyblade master. It should be easy to figure out then every time you use the darkness you slowly become what you truly are. Me.—
Riku ignored Ansem, and just looked at his reflection, using his hands to shield the puddle from the rain. As the image stilled and cleared he could see that it was just his eyes and the small area of skin around them. He had the opposite tan of someone who sleeps in the sun with sunglasses.
Had his eyes not been orange it would have almost been funny. But as it was, this development made Riku even more self-conscious during this mission. He couldn't fail again.
/I don't want Roxas to see me like this./
Using the soul eater he cut into the bottom of his coat and pulled off a long strip of fabric. He wound it around his eyes, practically blinding himself. He knew he couldn't fight like this.
--Let me help you. You could see in the world of darkness where there isn't a speck of light. Control your powers, focus them.—
As much as he hated it, Riku did as Ansem suggested and soon found himself able to see through the blindfold, as if it were made of thin material.
--What? No thank you?—
/Go away. I would have figured it out on my own./
Riku stopped arguing with himself when he finally caught sight of a blond running through the streets below. Dusks flanked him, moving in their own twitchy way. Riku followed him around the edges of the skyscraper, standing and waiting for the right moment to reveal himself.
As Roxas entered the area in front of the skyscraper, the heartless that had been awakened by the prospect of eating Riku's heart turned on the other keyblade master instead. His dusks attacked the smaller black creatures, but were outnumbered by droves of the shadows and neoshadows. He drew both his keyblades and began cutting through them like they were nothing.
Riku watched carefully, the boy was truly fierce in battle. He was fast and didn't give his opponents a minute to retaliate. When it looked like he was getting tired, Riku whistled down to him.
Even in the heat of battle Roxas heard the noise and looked up, his hood having fallen over his head in the middle of the fighting. He raised a hand to hold the edge up, and finally recognized Riku standing on top of the tower.
He dispatched a few more neoshadows and took off for the front of the skyscraper. Riku had to wonder how the boy planned to make it up to where he was without using a portal.
Roxas leapt up and ran up the front of the building, spinning the oblivion and oathkeeper in front of him, slicing through anything in the way. He was obviously not in a good mood.
When he was close enough to Riku he pulled his arm back and flung the oblivion forward in a move Riku had seen Sora use a dozen times. Without missing a beat he leapt forward and grabbed the hilt of the blade.
The feeling of a keyblade in his hand again gave him a surge of adrenaline and the desire to destroy. But he held his hand as he passed Roxas on his plummet downwards. Twisting his body around so that he was falling feet first, he slammed the oblivion into the wall of the skyscraper and caught on a ledge, stopping his descent.
Gravity seemed to have caught up with Roxas and as he fell he braced his feet against the wall, trying to slow as well.
Riku figured he'd waited long enough and leapt out, impaling a neoshadow on the black blade before even landing. He felt Roxas land next to him, their backs pressed together.
/I guess now I've fought alongside all the keyblade masters./
As it was with Sora and Mickey, the keyblades harmonized with each other and the two boys dueled their enemies and protected each other like it was a natural instinct. The hoards were lessening and soon the few survivors dashed away into alleys or returned to the darkness.
Riku didn't know what to expect, but he had hoped that Roxas wouldn't spin around and try to severe his head from his shoulders. Sadly, Riku's hopes were dashed.
"Roxas, wait! I'm not here to fight you!"
The two keyblades locked together but Roxas pushed him away. They met again, and Riku could feel the hatred pouring off of the other. Considering that they had left on good terms, this just confused Riku more.
With a forceful strike Riku ended up on his back, with the oathkeeper hanging dangerously in front of his face.
"I won't listen to your lies anymore. Xemnas told me what happened between you and the other keyblade master."
Riku stopped completely, unsure if he had heard the blond right. His mind immediately assumed that Roxas had to be jealous of his feelings for Sora. Perhaps Xemnas had finally caved in to the young organization member and told him the truth.
"What did Xemnas tell you?"
Roxas didn't seem inclined to answer and instead began the fight again, trying to get his second keyblade back from Riku by summoning it. But to his surprise it stayed firmly in the other's grasp. This gave the older boy the opportunity to get back on his feet and back on the offensive.
He swung hard at Roxas's unprotected side, and his body spun from the hard impact, leaving him on the cold ground.
Their positions were now reversed, and Riku waited patiently for the answer to his question.
"He told me all about the dark keyblade that you can summon. And that you killed the other keyblade master, turning him into a heartless and making me. Its your fault I'm here. Its your fault I'm not real."
Riku dropped the oblivion, which disappeared into the air before it struck the ground. Even if Xemnas had left out some of the most important facts, especially that Sora still lived, Roxas was right. It was his fault that Sora had ever gotten his hands on the dark keyblade.
"Lets see how you like being a Nobody."
Roxas had leapt up while Riku was distracted and once again wielded the dual keyblades. Riku tried to summon the soul eater, but didn't have enough time. Instead he managed to dodge the first of Roxas's attacks, but the second pinned part of his coat to the ground.
He could see the pure rage in Roxas's eyes as he pulled back the oathkeeper, ready to plunge it into Riku's chest.
Everything slowed down and Riku felt his body go lax. There was the ringing sound of a blade being met by a barrier, and he saw Roxas flying back again. Everything was turning darker, and with his hazy thoughts he assumed the blindfold was to blame. When he pulled it off though, the dark film around the edges of his sight remained.
Roxas just looked at him confused and possibly afraid. Riku didn't care.
He extended his hand and summoned a ball of darkness, hurling the thing directly at the boy cowering on the ground. It struck him dead on and burst like water, the black tendrils wrapping around him and forcing him unconscious.
Riku pulled the boy's body up, cradling it like an infant and let the darkness take him to the alley where the gummi ship waited.
As soon as he was free of the darkness, Mickey was standing before him, his golden keyblade held out. But after one look at the sleeping keyblade master, and searching the now orange eyes of the boy, no, the man before him, Mickey released his weapon.
"Riku? What have you done?"
--"We have to get Roxas to Sora. We have to wake him up."—
"Riku, this isn't right. It wasn't worth doing this to yourself. You…what if you can never go back to the way you were?" Mickey pleaded, but Riku passed by him, only sparing a glance into the reflective cockpit of the ship. His long white hair reached his waist, and his skin was the orange tan of his worst enemy.
He didn't respond to Mickey, not wanting to hear that man's voice coming out of him. They boarded the ship, but when the king went to take off Riku batted his hand away. His own hands were so large now. They felt weird, and too long.
Mickey squirmed uncomfortably in his chair as the ship was soaked in darkness, slipping down in the concrete like it was air.
"Riku…"
"Don't worry, the damage has been done. One little portal isn't going to make any difference now," Riku said, noticing that his voice was his again. He much preferred the sound of his own voice, and not the deep voice that was Ansem's.
--Yes, but you just look silly with my body and your voice. Its embarrassing.—
/I've had enough of you for today. You got what you wanted alright. Now leave me the hell alone./
Soon golden orange light was beaming into his eyes, and Riku recognized the sunset tint of Twilight Town. In silence the two went into the mansion, and headed for the room with the horse head statue that led to the secret basement.
"Diz is here," he said quietly to Mickey before they reached the computer room.
Indeed the man in his red bandages was sitting in front of the computer, engrossed in his work. He seemed quite surprised by Riku's appearance as he entered, but was then completely distracted by Roxas.
"You captured number XIII. Excellent. The computer is ready for him. Set him down over there."
Riku did as he was told, putting the limp body of the Nobody on a platform with a small beam of light above it.
"What are you going to do to Roxas?"
"I've set up a digital version of this world, Twilight Town, within this computer. Roxas will be kept in this digital world, and his memories will be fed by the computer directly into Sora's pod. Until then, he shall have no memory of his life as an Organization member, and when all of his essence has been transferred to Sora, he will disappear. He will rejoin with his original body."
Riku looked down at the blond, who had bested him twice and learned how to dual wield the keyblades, something none of the three current masters had achieved.
"The poor thing."
With sparkles and cracks of electricity, Roxas disappeared. Riku knew it was for the best. That he would have Sora returned to him faster now. But his heart still ached as he watched Roxas live out his pretend life, trapped in the computer, with only enemies watching over him.
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So…yeah…my computer died. So it'll be a while before I can scan and upload the picture for the last chapter that I did, or any more in the future. I'm able to write now on another computer, but updates still might be a little slow. Rejoice people! We're now in the cannon part of KH2! The fun starts. At least I think its fun..hopefully you all will too.