Sorry this one is late, I've been getting ready to move into a new place. But anyway, onto the chapter.
Re: Inverted Sky - Kingdom Hearts I
Chapter 6: Separated by Worlds
Riku groaned softly in a mixture of aching pain and exhaustion. Even with his eyes closed, he felt the solid, yet rough surface he was laying face-down atop of. But even more telling, was the deafening sound of water falling all around him.
Was he still on the raft after it drifted off a waterfall, or something similar?
The raft...the island...Sora and Kairi!
The boy's eyes immediately snapped open as he leapt to his feet in a rush. His limbs felt weak as he wobbled slightly, but he quickly looked around in an attempt to find his friends. What he saw instead however, was a large body of water around him. While he was right about the waterfall-like sound, the water itself was streaming upward and outward. He was standing in the center of some reversed gravity phenomenon, none of which the silver-haired teen could make sense of.
Magic, perhaps?
Riku's gaze shifted around slowly before eventually tilting down at where he had arrived. The area of ground that the water was being cleared from appeared to be purplish-blue rock, which stretch out almost twenty meters in diameter. On the smaller platform he stood on, there were strange carvings etched into the stone. All of which formed a perfect circle of sorts, with him being directly in the center. Noticing this, Riku narrowed his gaze in suspicion.
This wasn't an accident. He was intentionally brought here. But who did it? And why?
Turning around, Riku's attention shifted back to observing his surroundings once more. Again however, he felt quickly overwhelmed when seeing a massive, yet twisted castle not far away. It appeared broken, unfinished, but also strangely artistic in its own way. Though the biggest feature was an odd heart-shaped symbol on the front, one that the boy felt like he had seen before not long ago. Particularly, on a creature he saw rising out of the ocean...the last thing he remembered before that...voice.
The teen rubbed the side of his head before shaking it, trying to focus elsewhere. Not simply for his current situation, but out of a sense of protecting himself. There was something he deeply wanted to forget, even if he couldn't remember what it was, nor why.
As he gazed up and toward the castle, he quickly lost his sense of scale. It was difficult to tell if it was close by, or simply large enough to appear close. 'Looks like that's my best option at the moment.' Riku mused to himself.
His eyes swiftly noticed a the stone ledge roughly ten meters up, just out of the way of the water flowing upward. Being surrounded by nothing but rapid moving water and stone though, the boy couldn't see any visible means of climbing out. Save for one.
"Guess I'm swimming." he muttered in a sigh, taking a step forward.
The moment he had, a faint glow emanated from the ground ahead, causing parts of the stone to begin lifting into the air. Riku immediately took a few steps back, untrusting this sudden and clearly magical occurrence. Having a reverse waterfall was already weird enough, now there were floating stones very rapidly forming a set of stairs leading to the ledge.
Despite the suspicion he held, Riku still didn't see anyone else. 'Maybe it's automatic?' he thought, not sure how such things worked just yet.
With a deep breath, Riku headed up the rock platforms and to the ledge, sometimes having to leap in order to reach the next one. Even after a sudden shift in weight, the stones never moved, as though they were fixed in place. An impressive trick to say the least, one he would have to remember.
But as he made the last jump onto the ledge, he finally saw her. A tall woman with long black robes, and similarly colored horns on her head. These, paired with her beautiful features and pale skin, all told the boy that this person was not to be trusted. In contract, the woman herself was simply gazing at him with a soft smile, almost appearing as if she already knew who he was. Once he landed in front of her, Riku took several steps to the side, making sure he was on equal ground and couldn't be pushed back into whatever hole he had arrived in.
"Who are you?" he demanded firmly, both eyes narrowed as the horned-woman gradually turned to face the boy.
"It's quite rude you know...to ask for ones name, yet not offering your own first." she spoke, her voice calm and beautiful with a slight accent that Riku didn't recognize.
"But you seem quite frightened, so allow me to allay your fears, I am Maleficent." she continued in an almost soft manner.
The silver-haired teen let out a huff, his right eye lid briefly twitching in aggravation from her insinuation. "I'm Riku...and I'm not scared." he declared through slightly gritted teeth.
Maleficent merely stared at him with her smile, to which she nodded ever so slightly in acceptance. "Very well, Riku. But you certainly do look as though you need answers." she began, turning to the side and gesturing toward the castle while continuing on.
"Come and join me at my abode, I'll answer any questions you might have." the woman invited before slowly walking toward the castle, her stride appearing methodical and non-rushed.
Riku didn't move for a few seconds as he glanced around the area, now that he was higher up. The platform they stood upon seemed to be in the middle of a vast lake or ocean. While there were other areas of land around or beyond the castle, the structure looked to be the only sign of actual civilization. But as the teen turned toward Maleficent once more, she was simply walking up to a broken archway. Which held a single, low hanging lantern, and no pathways to the castle across the water.
Once she stepped up to it, the woman turned around and held a hand out, as though to the boy himself. "Are you coming?" she asked softly, yet Riku couldn't shake the feeling she was leading him into some kind of trap.
'So be it.' he thought, walking forward to join her.
'Whatever magic stuff she has up her sleeve, I'll be able to handle it once I've got a sword.' he continued inwardly as he stepped beside the woman.
Whom offered him a nod before reaching up to the lantern and tapping it with one of her long finger nails. This caused the flickering light within to blaze brightly and instantly fill the teen's vision, causing him to close both eyes to avoid being blinded. As Maleficent watched this, her soft features ever so briefly dropped into a devious and scheming one. However, it instantly reverted the moment the pair were teleported to the front gates of the castle, by the woman's own command.
"Follow me." she said in a gentle tone, just before the doors opened all on their own to allow entry.
Watching Maleficent go, Riku's reopened eyes narrowed heavily. The realization of how out of his depth he truly was, sank into his mind like swift kick to the stomach. There was no way he could defeat this woman, she was in a league of her own. She even reminded him of children's stories of the evil witch whom only the hero could defeat.
'In that case...I'll just have to become the hero of this story.' he declared inwardly, steeling his mind while following after.
Weaving through large halls, long corridors, and up many winding staircases, the pair arrived in what appeared to be a library. Off to one side, there were several seats and a table, where a tray of tea and two cups already sat waiting. Riku's eyes briefly glared at Maleficent, now having his prior thoughts confirmed that she knew he would be here. But she merely took one of the seats and gestured for him to take one of the others.
"So then, may I ask where you are from?" she questioned curiously, slowly pouring some tea into both cups.
Though the boy accepted the tea, he didn't drink from it, nor even pretend to. He had to turn the tables and learn all that he could, while not offering nearly as much information in return. "From an island no one has probably heard of." he answered with a shrug and sigh, exaggerating his actual feelings of exasperation toward his home.
"You might be surprised." the horned-woman commented, a faint smirk tugging at her lips before she took a sip of her drink to hide it.
"So where am I? And what is this place?" Riku asked quickly, looking around for a moment.
The strangely firm and cold gaze that came to Maleficent's eyes for a split second showed her annoyance at the boy. She wasn't finished with her own questioning, and his immediate attempt to gain control of the conversation was something she usually didn't tolerate. However, she swiftly calmed her emotions once more and even offered a pleasant smile. She did promise to answer his questions after all.
"This place is known as Hollow Bastion, one of my many castles." she explained with another sip of tea, exerting her own dominance in a more subtle manner.
"Is that the name of this castle, or the world itself?" Riku demanded almost instantly.
If he was intimidated by the woman, he wasn't showing it at all. A feat that Maleficent herself found to be quite commendable, though she soon gained a small smile to hearing the question itself. He knew about other worlds, despite appearing so ignorant about how to travel between them. A strange duality, but one that made her quite curious to find the answer to.
"Both. The world was mostly destroyed after all, so this place is all that remains." she said in a studious manner, though her tone held a 'for now' statement toward the end.
"What caused its destruction?" Riku asked, a tightening sensation welling up in his chest and throat.
"Beings known as Heartless." came her answer, which caused this tightening to grow, the word echoing in the silver-haired boy's mind over and over.
Heartless...
"Have you too lost your world to them?" Maleficent continued with a concern that almost sounded real, yet she already seemed to know the answer, even if the boy didn't.
Said teen just arched a brow slightly as his expression took on hints of annoyance. The tightness lessened heavily, as his mind and focus shifted to a defensive one. What kind of question was that? Of course his home wasn't destroyed. There was just a storm on the way, that's all.
"No." was all he stated, but there was an ever so slight tremble in his voice.
There was something he didn't want to admit to her, nor to himself. Perhaps if he didn't acknowledge it, it simply wouldn't be the case. But Maleficent could see straight through his farce, forcing her to hold back the evil smile threatening to form on her features. She had found her way in.
"I'm glad to hear that. So what will you do now? Return home?" the woman asked in a tone that sounded genuinely curious, once again being in control.
"Of course not." Riku began instinctively, his immediate reaction to the question nearly letting on his true goals.
"I'm...I'm gonna explore." he continued, far more guarded than before, and even more than he intended to sound.
"I see. Well, if you need a place to stay, my castle is entirely open to you." the woman claimed, making a wide gesture to the area around them to further this offer.
Riku's eyes narrowed once more in suspicion, feeling even more like he walked right into her trap. But there were few traps that couldn't be turned on the one who set them. Something he managed to do all the time during his spars against Sora and the others. He could and would do it here too.
"Thank you, I'll take you up on that." he said in a polite voice, a strange and noticeable shift.
"Though, would you be willing to give me one more kindness?" Riku continued, obviously leading into a polite demand of sorts.
Maleficent looked at the boy silently for a brief second, studying his features and tone. He clearly wanted something from her, and she could tell what it was going to be. But was it really going to be 'this' easy?
"Could you teach me some of that magic of yours? At least so I can defend myself in this strange new world I've found myself in?" the silver-haired teen finished with a soft smile, almost like he was taunting the woman's own false exterior.
Said witch just gained a soft smile of her own, but it wasn't faked in the slightest. "I would be happy to." was her response as she nodded.
Looks like it was going to be 'this' easy.
Riku's journey is now set, lets take one more look around before moving forward shall we? I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and will let me know what you thought of it and the story thus far. Until the next one.