"His heart is returning. Doubtless he'll awaken very soon," Diz said.
Riku just watched the boy and his friends discuss being branded as thieves. Their pictures were all missing, and had been taken from the digital world by an outsider.
"Where did the pictures go?" Riku stood behind Diz in his chair, the two watching the events play out on the screens as Sora's Nobody went on to challenge the other children of the digital Twilight Town.
A low ranking Nobody zipped across the multiple screens, snatching the camera out of the hands of one of Roxas's friends.
"A dusk," Riku snarled.
"It's the Organization. The miscreants have found us. Namine has to hurry, if they manage to take Roxas out of the digital Twilight Town Sora will never be able to wake up."
As Diz turned to say something to Riku, he was already approaching the light beam that would transport him into the other Twilight Town. His bulky form fit under the light and he felt himself gently tugged, like gravity had switched directions on him. When he opened his eyes again he was in an identical room, though Diz was absent from this one.
--Ever the hero, are we Riku? You'd best be careful, who knows what damage you could do to Sora while his memories are being reconstructed.—
/Don't you have somewhere else you can be/
--And who precisely are you trying to save? Sora or Roxas. You'll have to make your choice soon.—
Riku wouldn't answer the voice in his head, and seeing his reflection in the metallic walls of the mansion he pulled his hood up to cover his face. He hoped he wouldn't have to hide his identity from anyone, but it was best to be prepared.
The similarities between this Twilight Town and the real one where his allies were hiding out were impeccable. Not a book out of place as he ascended the secret staircase.
--I can sense him. One of the Nobodies is lurking outside. He's distressed about something.—
/You're more talkative than normal./ Riku stretched out his senses and brushed against the same darkness that Ansem had mentioned. It was familiar.
--You know that your use of the darkness just brings us closer together. I'm not complaining of course. Frankly it would be boring if I really do take over this body of yours. I'd miss you, Riku.—
/Shut up. Leave me alone already./
After stepping through a wall that had transformed into a portal, Riku emerged in the orange glow of Twilight Town. The mansion was a comforting sight behind him, but the man in the black trench coat ahead was setting his nerves on edge.
Axel turned around, his sweep of hair fluttering in the breeze as he looked like a boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. A lowly dusk huddled at his feet, shivering and retreating behind him. Obviously it could feel Riku's power and felt safer behind its commander.
"Who are you?" The pyro demanded. Riku didn't answer and instead summoned the power of darkness into his hand, forming a ball of blue and black energy.
Axel dropped the ice cream he'd been holding onto and summoned his chakrams.
"I asked you a question! Learn some manners," With that he summoned flames around a chakram and threw it at Riku, who fired his own attack and the two deflected off each other.
But the redhead was fast and in Riku's face before he could recover from the adrenaline-like rush his body felt as the darkness pumped into him. In that moment he summoned the soul eater, but could only force Axel back with it at this close range.
A burst of fire nearly caught him in the face, and the force of dodging it knocked back his hood. Axel's eyes went huge and he stepped back, his mouth working but no words coming forth.
/--Same color I used to have.--/
"What the hell are you?" Axel didn't wait for an answer but disappeared, most likely escaping the digital world to report to his master what he'd found.
Riku just sighed and slumped down against the gate. It clanged loudly, startling birds from their perches in the trees nearby. A tinkling sound came from somewhere to his right, and Riku lolled his head in that direction. His body was still coming down from its most recent high on the darkness.
Green symbols flashed around in circles, and when the lightshow ended Diz was standing in the spot. Riku knew it was just the digital version; after all, it was Diz's job to keep Namine working on getting Sora back. He wouldn't just leave his post.
"Axel is here. He will do nothing but cause trouble left on his own. I think you should stay here for now. Keep an eye on Roxas and make sure Axel doesn't get to him. I'll tell you if he shows up on the monitors," Diz said. As quickly as he had arrived he dissolved back into information and Riku was blissfully alone again.
Lacking a better option he dragged his overexerted body up and slipped through a portal to the white room inside the mansion. It was an exact replica of the real one, right down to the childlike drawings of himself and the others.
He let himself relax against the wall, the room still warm from the powerful dying sun that hung in the sky day after day.
When he woke up he found himself curled up more, and his coat hugged tightly to his body. He was refreshed now, his abilities and powers having recharged during the night.
/Doesn't feel like I slept that long…/
--Perhaps your sense of time has been affected by the digital town. Or it could be Namine's doing.—
/You know, when I'm talking to myself its not an invitation for you to answer./
If a person's own internal demons and darkness personified could pout, Ansem would most certainly be doing so.
Riku stretched and heard joints popping and his neck cracking. Pressing his hand to the wall he felt the darkness flow from him to the portal and back out into Twilight Town, along the alleyway where he sensed something dark.
When he emerged he looked for Axel, but the Organization member must have already traveled back through the portals.
/Where did he--/
A stick hit Riku right in the chest and his eyes were drawn to the blond in front of him. He knew this boy. But he was still different. Fake. Emptier than he had been as a Nobody. But also more peaceful. He smiled nervously at the imposing black coated figure .
Riku didn't want this encounter to go any longer. He was risking too much having any contact with Roxas.
"Oh! Sorry…about that…"
But Riku was gone and had slipped through an entrance into the underground tunnels of Twilight Town. As he wandered the nearly abandoned corridors, a familiar red form turned the corner and crossed his arms imposingly in front of him.
"Ansem," Riku hated the derisive tone that Diz always had when he spoke his false name. "Roxas has used the keyblade. He is being merged faster and faster with Sora. Namine is struggling to keep the memories from melding with the digital world. When he realizes who he once was, the time will have come for us to awaken Sora."
He nodded and Diz digitalized himself out of Twilight Town and left Riku to his own devices again. But he was growing impatient and transported himself through the dark realm to the entrance of the train station. Picking up a stick he hurled it down in front of Roxas causing him to fall on his face.
Riku couldn't help but grin at the boy's clumsiness.
As he was standing up Riku harshly grabbed his arm and pulled him up. The Nobody was so much shorter than him now. He missed being closer in height to Roxas.
"Can you feel Sora?"
But Roxas just had an expression of complete confusion on his face as he looked up into the shadowy face of the man that held him. Riku released him and returned to the mansion, leaving Roxas to wonder if he'd seen him at all.
Riku leaned against the wall and watched Diz watch Roxas.
--There's a lot of watching going on. You feeling voyeuristic, Riku?—
/Maybe./
For once Ansem seemed to have been thrown off his game and fell silent.
"Where's Mickey gone to?" He asked while watching Roxas attack the dusks that had begun appearing in his town.
"Some of the Organization members have been causing trouble again. He's keeping as much peace as he can in the worlds until Sora awakens. He's also searching for the former leader of Hollow Bastion, Ansem the Wise."
/Anyone you know/
--Perhaps. But I don't give away information such as that for free, dear boy./
"I hope he finds him and gets back here soon," he finished and leaned against the wall, hoping to catch a bit of rest. He was tired of all of this. Everything seemed to be rushing up to face him and he couldn't fend off all his problems at once. Eventually they were going to catch up to him.
--You would be much more rested if you let me take over for a while. Remember how relaxing it once was to just let yourself go. It's not I can do much in your current form without drawing attention to myself.—
/I'm not listening…/
With his eyes closed and the voice in his head quiet again, Riku relaxed enough to lose track of time. As he dozed, he heard someone calling from nearby and brought his attention back to the monotony of the computer room.
"Damn her. Namine is talking to Roxas. Stop her, now!" Diz yelled, and Riku obeyed without wasting a moment.
As he appeared in the oddly blue and white room, Namine was currently asking Roxas if he remembered his true name. Again, as he always responded to questions about Sora, the boy just looked confused. Like the thought was just dangling on the tip of his tongue, barely out of reach.
"Say no more, Namine!" Riku said as he roughly pulled her up. This girl cared for Roxas. He knew what she was doing, and why it was taking so long to awaken Sora.
"But if no one tells him, Roxas will…"
As she said this Riku tightened his grip on her and she stopped talking, but the twinge of pain in her face caused him to release her immediately. She looked so much like Kairi sometimes.
There he stood. Next to the shadows of the two people he loved most in his life. They were shells of his two best friends, but he wasn't even that. He was something worse.
With the usual flick of his hand, Riku opened a portal behind Roxas. Foolishly the boy spun around to look at it and Riku took a firm hold of the blond spikey hair and pushed the smaller boy through the opening.
He returned to the mansion again, and felt the heaviness slowly creep into his borrowed body, worse than before. All this travel wasn't good for him, and he knew that Ansem felt the weakness growing. He would wait for his opportunity. Riku had no question about that.
But as he appeared in the computer room, the witch he thought he had alongside him was missing.
"Was that Namine made of data?" he said as he flexed his fingers, contemplating the girl that had felt so real.
"She hijacked the data herself," Diz said, and in anger he slammed his fist into the monitor. "She's completely beyond my control."
"Calm down. She likes Roxas, it's obvious. Probably just a feeling left over from Kairi."
--She isn't the only one with vestiges of emotions in her.--
Diz nodded, and watched again as Roxas returned to the children of Twilight Town. Riku had noticed that the mysterious man in red had gone through the effort to input the exact likenesses of the people who lived outside their mansion, in the real Twilight Town.
"As long as she does her job and awakens Sora, we'll be fine. And she can go free to do whatever she wants."
/--I don't believe him. Namine's too powerful to be left on her own. What is Diz planning?--/
"If you don't need me anymore, these cat naps aren't cutting it. I'll be in the spare room trying to sleep."
Diz excused him with a nod of his head.
Slowly but surely Riku made his way down to the first floor of the mansion, sparing a glance to the carved unicorns at the foot of the staircases, and the family crest flanked by two more of the creatures above him. He pulled open the door that was almost jammed shut and went into an ancient guest room of sorts, which was little more than a window, desk, and a bed covered in an old tarp.
He pulled it off and tried to relieve the mattress of some of its decades of dust by beating it with his fist, but that only seemed to make the situation worse. So he settled for climbing onto the overly soft bed and ignoring the layers of dust that remained.
As he drifted off to sleep he found his arm curling in front of his stomach, wishing for something he had adjusted to sleeping without. Someone who never betrayed him, nor questioned his trust. Someone who would call him 'Ku' in the middle of the night, and press into the heat of his stomach and chest with a little squirm.
/Shadow./
Before Riku fell asleep, he could feel Ansem stirring in his mind again. And though he didn't voice it, the keyblade master sensed what his alter ego was thinking. Thoughts of gaining a body through bribery.
Riku didn't want to think about the choice between having Shadow back, and giving his body to Ansem for good. The line was too indistinct and kept his mind awake when his body just wanted to sleep.
And for some reason he now saw bright blue eyes framed with blond hair, imagining the soft skin and hard muscles of a keyblade wielder held tight beneath leather and a dark hood.
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So yeah, I just want to remind everyone that I try and stick to the story of the game, during the scenes that Riku takes part in at least, but I'm not going to be exact. Scenes or lines that I don't particularly like, or feel like they don't fit with the fic either get altered or cut altogether.
Soon people….soon we shall have some fun and hopefully the story will pick up. Having played the game through a few more times, Riku is really only in the Twilight Town scenes, the brief moment in Mulan, and the ending in the World That Never Was. So the story is probably going to jump dramatically from Riku-moment to Riku-moment.
Only one more chapter till Sora wakes up. I can't wait. Sorry for the delays…damn college education….