Riku knew something was off as soon as he heard the voice. That soft, playful voice that managed to be child-like and mature all at once. The feeling of hair tickling his chin made him toss his head back, trying to get away from the sensation.
"Wake up," the voice cooed to him in his ear, hot breath sliding humidly along his cheek.
"No," Riku replied.
Hands brushed along his jaw, stroking back and forth, the fingertips just trailing by the corners of his lips. This person exuded heat. Riku couldn't stop himself from reaching out and curling his arm around the body.
Instead he found cool sheets, layered in a film of grime. He felt heavier, his bulky body causing the worn out mattress to dip below him.
--He may not be gone forever you know. Everyone is made of light and dark. Even the keyblade master may not be able to rid himself of the darkness so easily.—
/You don't know Sora. Not like I do. He's tenacious./
In the silence in his mind, Riku left the room that he had taken up residence in for the past day or so. Even after all this time in this world, sleeping while the sun was constantly setting still threw him for a loop. He was tired all the time, but still slept for much longer than he should be able to.
Without really intending to, Riku made his way to the room across the foyer from his. He didn't bother knocking; maybe he felt that pleasantries were out of place in a battle of good and evil. Or maybe he'd simply always been a rude kid.
Diz was sitting in his chair, just as Riku assumed he would be. Sitting in a high backed chair that made him look like royalty. But the splintered table ruined the illusion.
"I want some answers Diz."
"As you wish, Ansem. But now may not be the best time…" He trailed off, his braided fingers held together in front of his lips nervously.
Riku sat down in the chair opposite the glowing eyed man. He refused to be turned away so quickly, and with the only reason being that it wasn't the 'best time'.
"What do you really want?"
"Revenge," Ansem said without hesitation.
"What?" Riku replied, too quickly. He was becoming too interested in this man's own personal vendetta. All that mattered was Sora.
--Siding with a man bent on revenge. You sure know how to pick them, my boy.—
"This will have to wait. Namine is out of control. You must take her out of the situation now. It is time to revive Sora," Diz paused, watching the way Riku's hands clenched as the adrenaline surged through him at the mere thought of what was to come. All the time and effort of searching, and now the chance to see Sora was within his grasp.
"I will send Roxas to the mansion. Guard the gate and make sure to keep the Nobodies out until he arrives. If Axel or the dusks manage to get into the mansion, there is the chance they will discover Sora."
Images of the Nobodies clawing their way into Sora's cocoon, dragging him away into the darkness sparked the rage in Riku.
--"Don't worry, I won't let them through."—
Diz made no remark on the deepening of Riku's voice. He merely watched him leave; keeping his eyes on that all too familiar face with the sweep of white hair curling about his shoulders like feathers.
Riku didn't want to waste time and opened a portal to the clearing of trees that surrounded the gate. A few lowly dusks were walking around in their unsettling and jerky way. The soul eater was in Riku's hand before he had to think about it, and he had cut down the weak Nobodies.
From behind him he heard a strange noise, like cicadas in the summer back on Destiny Islands. When he turned around, an assassin was coming out of the ground, throwing its rows of serrated spikes at him. He managed to block the attack, but when he swung back the soul eater bounced harmlessly off the protective shell.
Circling the creature, he knew that it was watching and sizing him up at the same time. But then it moved its spikes down, preparing to attack, and Riku used the opportunity to rush forward, planting the sharp end of the soul eater deep into the creature's back. It shuddered and spasmed in the air, and with another sharp swipe it disappeared.
The sound of footsteps made Riku retreat to the shadowy corner where the wall and the natural rock of the area met. A little push from the darkness and he was effectively hidden.
Roxas came running into the clearing, looking confused and a little too much like the member of Organization XIII that Riku knew.
--His memories are returning. I wonder how he'll feel about you once he's recovered them fully?—
/How he feels for me doesn't matter. By the time the day is out, he'll be reintegrated into Sora. Roxas shouldn't even exist./
--Such harsh words from such an abomination as ourself.—
Riku focused again on the fight that had since escalated in the clearing. Roxas was surrounded by dusks and assassins, and was using the kingdom key to destroy as many as he could. But Riku knew that Axel was somewhere nearby, flooding this world with his personal Nobody followers.
When it looked like the blond was going to be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of his enemies, he turned around and threw his fist at the gate.
"Why invite me just to lock me out!"
The anger in his voice was definitely familiar to Riku. Roxas was slowly reverting to his true self. Or, as true a self as a Nobody can possess.
As if a light switch had been flicked, Roxas raised the keyblade and a beam of light shot out into the lock holding the iron gates closed. The lock opened and the blond burst through, ignoring the Nobodies that were at his heels.
But Riku leapt into the mass, swinging his blade and sending wave upon wave of Nobodies into thin air. He sensed that some were appearing in the mansion, and knew he'd have to go and protect the laboratory where Sora was kept. A few more slashes to take out the newest arrivals, and Riku slipped through a portal into the mansion.
He could feel that someone else was lurking around inside. But he had no time to chase down the familiar smell of ashes and darkness that Axel left behind wherever he went.
As he arrived in Namine's white room, Diz was telling Roxas something, who again looked angrier and resembled his true self more and more.
"Diz, we're out of time. There are too many Nobodies."
To Riku's surprise a third figure appeared out of a portal of darkness, Namine. But this wasn't the data based Namine that had been sneaking into the world and talking with Roxas. This one had really transported herself here using her own dark abilities.
She began to yell something to Roxas, about how he wouldn't disappear, and that they would meet again, but Diz grabbed her and hauled her back through her own portal.
"Wait!"
As he was about to escape through his own portal, Riku turned and looked into Roxas's confused face.
--The boy wants answers. His memory is coming back, so he knows that you two had…interactions.—
/We don't know that he remembers me./
"Riku?"
/Okay, so its possible he remembers me./
"What's going on? What did Namine mean, that I'll be someone different?"
He stood there, unsure of whether or not to answer the boy's questions. Those pleading blue eyes were tempting. It was impossible for Riku to even lie to himself about the attraction he still felt for the shell.
"Go to the library, you've seen the missing symbol in your dreams," Riku said.
Stepping through the blackness of the portal Riku left Roxas as well as the digital world. Arriving in the computer room he found Diz commanding Namine to do something, and it didn't take much to know what this argument was about.
"Sora is the savior of the worlds—" Diz began, before Namine boldly interrupted.
"Or the destroyer. He is merely the keyblade master. For all we know Roxas could be the wielder to save the worlds," she pleaded.
"Do it Namine," Riku said and her attention shifted to him. "Please. We need Sora. I need him. Please."
There was no hint of Ansem's deep voice blending in with Riku's. And his begging, though awkward coming from a man twice her size, seemed to strike a chord in Namine.
"Fine, get him into the pod room with Sora, and I'll take care of it," she said with a resigned sigh.
"Thank you, Namine," Riku said, reaching out and patting her gently on the shoulder. She smiled up at him, and he knew that she saw the real Riku, not the disguise he had been forced into.
As he was about to exit the computer room and head to Sora's pod, a familiar voice piped up from the stairs leading up to the library.
"What's going on? There are Nobodies all over the place!" Mickey cried out, throwing his hood back from his ears.
"Mickey, we're being over run. The Organization found us, we have to keep them from getting to Sora before Namine can assimilate Roxas."
Riku realized he had said everything in one quick breath, and wondered if Mickey understood his hurried directions.
"Right. I'll keep the Nobodies in the data town from crossing over, you hold down the fort on this side," the king called out, barely stopping in the room before he reached out and touched the beam, disappearing into a stream of data.
--The king has been keeping the rest of the Organization under control in the other worlds. No doubt he is tired and weak. Are you sure he's capable to handle the other Twilight Town on his own?—
/He has to be. He's Mickey./
Riku heard a faint noise inside his head that he guessed was a less-than-amused snort from his alter ego. Diz rose from his chair and pulled Namine out of the room, heading for the pod room. Riku lingered for a moment, until he glanced up at the screens and saw that Roxas was battling with Axel in the data town.
He held two keyblades now, the oblivion in one hand and the oathkeeper in the other. It still surprised Riku to see him do this. If Sora and he himself were the true keyblade masters, and neither of them could duel wield, how was it that this Nobody seemed to do it naturally?
The pyrokinetic eventually fell under Roxas's onslaught, and Riku saw on the screens that he was heading towards the light beam. He was about to turn and leave when he saw a shot from the lobby of the mansion in the digital Twilight Town. Mickey was surrounded by assassins, and was being beaten back and forth between them.
--Told you so.—
/Shut up./
Riku pressed his back flat against the wall and summoned the darkness into himself. He faded gently into the walls, the same way that Shadow had once fazed through solid objects. Not sparing his observer a moment to stroll down memory lane, Roxas came flying out of the beam of light.
The blond's eyes swept through the room, and Riku held his breath, worrying that the Nobody's powers over the darkness had grown enough that he would be able to sense him. But the blond was so distracted by the computer, and the screens that fed into the Twilight Town he had been kept prisoner in.
Screaming in frustration he summoned the kingdom key and destroyed the console. Riku just knew that Diz was going to somehow pin the blame on him for that.
As the boy ran out of the room, heading for Sora's pod, Riku stepped towards the beam of light. Then he looked down the hall.
Sora's going to awaken. Namine's going to finish it now.
/Which do I do…/ Riku debated.
Ansem had no opinion, or at least decided not to make it known.
Riku turned, looking around the room as if it held the answer he was seeking. His eyes met his shattered reflection in the computer screens, and reached out and touched the beam of light.
/Not yet. I can't do it yet./
As he arrived in the digital Twilight Town, Riku knew that Sora had been awoken. He could feel it. Tugging at the back of his mind. An annoying itch he couldn't scratch.
Ignoring the buzzing presence of his fellow keyblade master, Riku wondered briefly what had happened to Roxas.
--You really had grown fond of that blond.--
Riku ignored the voice in his head, as he so often did, and drew his soul eater, briefly thankful for the increased size of his body, and the strength in the muscles that did not belong to him.
/He was just a stand in./
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:::Hides::: Okay, yeah, that was long. And the chapter was….not so long. College sucks, people. I had my major writing requirement this semester.
So, question for anyone who reads this!!!!
Would you guys mind if I switch to first person POV? I find it more fun to write, easier and faster to write in, and halfway through this chapter I started slipping into it. So yeah, leave a comment, lemme know what you guys think.