A/N: Hey you guys, how have you all been?
I might not be able to make any updates for this upcoming week (I'm in a school performance) so that means I won't have time for updates like I normally do.
Sorasheart281: A Versus/Lightning pair you know I never thought of that. They will kiss one day, when, I'm not sure, it depends on Riku's luck.
N.Neo: I'm glad you like the romance between the two. Heh, yeah I accepted your invitation to the C2 Community.
Dj Diddy Dog: Thanks for the review, yeah that part was funny.
WhiteWolfChickie: Thanks for the review on chapter one, I'm glad you liked it!
Side note, this chapter, and those later on are going to deal with romance/action, except for this one which just boarders on romance. We're almost reaching the end of the line here folks…
On with the story!
Chapter 34: Going Back
"There's two hours left before midnight…" Amaterasu said dangling her feet from the gothic styled clock tower. She looked back at Riku who watched the night sky from this height. Everything seemed untouchable from up here.
"I know…" Riku said trying to forget that she was going to leave soon. Up here their problems seemed so little from when they were on the ground. "I remember once there was a clock tower in London…" he thought back to when he was on Captain Hook's ship. "It was sort of like this…" he said watching Amaterasu, then he looked around the view for a moment.
The two of them just sat there sipping this warm tea that the girl had bought earlier for the two of them. All they needed to say was almost said, and with time passing it didn't really help at all. Each word felt as though it were being pressured by time, there was almost no moment for them.
The girl sighed for a moment and sipped the content of her cup. Her eyes caught sight of a blinking star, and slowly it faded, signaling that the darkness had taken it over. 'One day stars won't go out…' she thought to herself and looking down at the ground below. 'But why do I feel like I'm just dreaming that it'll be like that? Why can't I be positive about it? I mean I'm hoping…'
She placed her free hand gently over the boy's hands and he responded with a slight flinch. He laughed a bit, not really expecting anything at all, and grasped her hand in return. "We'll meet up again some day." Riku said looking at her for a moment. "Besides since you are what you are… You're always going to keep finding me, no matter where I go. We're connected by our hearts, and our destiny…."
"Yeah, a horrible destiny." The girl said apathetically at the fact of what they both were.
"Amaterasu, come on listen…" Riku tried to plead with the girl about the whole deal, but somehow he found his mind wandering into that too. "You said so yourself we'll find a way, okay?"
"Yeah well I was just…" she paused for a moment and nodded taking those words into heart now. "We'll find a way, and when we do it'll be all right… 59 minutes left…" she said checking her cell phone from a small pocket located to the side of her outfit.
"You want to start heading into town now?" Riku asked hoping that she would shake her head, so that they could stay there for a while longer. She shook her head and said that they'd stay here for a little while longer.
King Mickey walked up the steps that led into the clock tower. The steps were a bit narrow, but it was perfect for his majesty's size. 'We really should be leaving now…' the king thought walking up into the clock tower. Gears were turning and little machines were humming, keeping the clock in perfect working order.
From what he remembered Amaterasu had told him that she was going to the clock tower last. Donald and Goofy were waiting for him outside the entrance to the clock tower. At last he finally made it past the noisy gears and big hour signals. He took a moment to look at the numbers on there, they were very well crafted. There from the last step he could see the lights from the city, and he took a moment to enjoy the sight before his eyes.
'I haven't been back here ever since the Keyblade War…' he thought back to that day when he first received Star Seeker, his very first weapon given to him by Yen Sid. King Mickey had arrived once the three Chasers had gone after the Dark Master. It was there he saw the heart shaped moon, known as 'Kingdom Hearts'. From what he knew the Dark Master had found a way to open it, and revealed its true form to the world.
The Chasers went after him and tried to put an end to his plans. He was going to use the power of the sacred moon to plunge the whole universe into darkness, but that plan of course failed, since he was now trapped within a sphere.
King Mickey walked around the little walkway that the clock tower provided and he saw two familiar people. For a moment it reminded King Mickey of two people he had met previously. 'Aquan and Another…' the king thought thinking back to the first time he met those two individuals.
"Hey ya two!" Mickey called out in a friendly voice.
"Your Majesty!" Amaterasu said joyfully. "Are we late?" she asked biting her lower lip for a moment. He didn't really want to say that they were late, but he had to.
"I hope I wasn't interrupting anything," the royal mouse noticed that the two of them laughed nervously, but they both shook their heads. "We're sort of late, but…"
"Sorry…" Amaterasu said standing up and bowing slightly. "It was my fault we're a bit late, I wanted to stay here a while longer…" she said watching Riku stand up now. "We really should get going then, I mean I don't want to throw you off schedule."
"I trust you understand your mission?" he asked her as they all walked back down to the city's ground.
"Yes, sir!" she said nodding slightly. "While Lightning and I are there, do you want us to get the other sphere's she has?" the king nodded and the girl made a mental note of that as well. They all walked down the steps past the noisy gears and managed to make it outside in a very quiet and orderly fashion.
"Heya two!" Goofy said looking back into the entrance, he waved at the two younger looking people. The two of them waved back and the shield soldier laughed in his simple manner.
"Hey!" the mage said in his own manner. Donald waved at the two and Amaterasu picked up the duck and hugged him for a moment before Donald ran out of air.
"How late are we?" Amaterasu asked looking at the back of the King's head.
"About twenty minutes late…" and with that the two teens laughed nervously. "I know you two are going to miss each other, but we can't let this ruin our plans too. It's better we do work before pleasure, do you understand?"
"Yes sir." The two said in a respectful tone to the King of Disney Castle. Amaterasu looked back at Riku and smiled at him, and he did in return. "King Mickey…" Amaterasu paused for a moment as they walked through the city. King Mickey turned around and looked up at the girl. "The Keyblade War, you were there weren't you?" she asked in a timid manner.
He nodded and continued walking, "But I don't know why you asked, Ansem the Wise already told you a long time ago…" King Mickey said pausing for a moment. "Well I don't remember much about it myself, I mean I was still just a kid back then." The king said jokingly. "It's in one of the memory spheres."
"It's probably in Maleficent's pile." The girl said looking up at the night sky for an answer of some sort. "I'll just bring it back with the others then."
"Keyblade War?" Riku couldn't help but ask. The other two individuals stopped and looked at Riku for a moment, and then back at him. Amaterasu scratched the back of her head and smiled nervously.
"It's kinda hard to explain…" she said resting her arms on top of her head. "There are a lot of versions written in ancient text, and not all of them are creditable. And I've come across of a lot of them over the years," she paused for a moment and then started walking alongside the turquoise eyed teen. "But anyway, from what I know, because of Ansem the Wise, was that King Mickey here," she looked at the royal mouse, "was part of it too, but I don't remember a lot of the details, I mean I was still just a kid when he came to visit our world, that's why he knew so much about the Keyblade. Yeah," the five of them kept walking down the sidewalk as the night still filled their senses. "Once I come back, I'll show you the memory sphere of the Keyblade War because I have feeling Maleficent might have it."
"That was WAAYYYYY before we knew the king." Goofy said using his hands to describe the length of time. "Back when he was still causing trouble as Yen Sid's student."
King Mickey laughed recalling once how he had started to flood one room with a possessed broom that turned into a hundred water caring brooms. "Hey, we're almost there!" Mickey said pointing to the gummi ship that was still quite a couple of miles away.
"Hey come on, Riku, let's go!" Amaterasu said pulling the Keyblade wielder's hand. The two of them started to run back to the ship leaving King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy behind.
"You really think this is a good idea?" Donald asked King Mickey.
The king nodded, "Just trust me on this Donald. Amaterasu still hasn't adjusted to this era yet, darkness still eats away at her heart. I think it's better that she stays with Maleficent for a while."
"Don't tell me you're just gonna leave her there?" Goofy asked worriedly. He didn't want the girl to be all alone. King Mickey shook his head, that wasn't his style, to leave a friend like that.
"Like that flower, the one in her hair. It'll slowly die if it's taken away from its environment. Up until a while ago the lock on her heart returned, but that was because of what Versus did. If she's out of her 'comfort zone'," this being the darkness, "she'll react in the only way she can, by breaking the lock, and then just wait. I don't want her to do that, and I know she doesn't want that to happen. Besides she still has a promise to keep."
"You mean with that memory sphere?" Donald asked. The King nodded. "You never did tell us what was in it."
"The Keyblade War…" the king said waking alongside his two trusted individuals. "I want to remember what that was like, it's fuzzy now."
"Aw, you're just getting old King Mickey." Goofy said looking down at his good friend the King."
"Gee thanks Goofy." The royal mouse said laughing at his taller friend.
Lightning watched from outside, noticing the two people running towards the ship. In the distance she could see the King and that was her cue to start the gummi ship. She went back into the flying transportation and went into the cockpit. She noticed several lights blinking signaling fuel and the engines. 'Everything seems stable…' she thought going through the readings that appeared on the screen.
She walked back once she heard the engines roar as the fuel combusted into flames, and the gears started to move into motion. "Sit tight you." The Heartless said looking back at Gabriel.
"Where the hell are we going to go with chains on us, Heartless?" Gabriel asked cocking his head to the side for a moment. The Heartless threw a cold gaze at him and Gabriel growled at her for a moment.
"You know I should just take your heart right now." Lightning said pulling her weapon from the violin case that sat on one of the seats. "But then that would be an insult to the Heartless if I turned you into one of them." The tip of her weapon loomed dangerously close to his neck, at the very vital area. Her urge to just rip his heart out was a bit stronger than usual but she was able to fight the Heartless nature back.
"Just dispose of him for all I care…" Yomigami said walking back from the upper deck of the gummi ship. King Mickey had taken the chains off of him as well, but Gabriel was the only one "Amaterasu probably won't mind." He sighed and looked out the window from the ship. He noticed that all five of the other people were starting to walk closer to the ship now. "I'll just get rid of him while you guys are gone."
"She's not going to be happy with that though." The Heartless said thinking back to how her 'client' worked. She placed her weapon back down as the door the inside of the ship made a loud swish sound.
"We're leaving now." King Mickey said looking at the three people within his view.
An hour into the voyage
"How long till we reach Radiant Garden?" Amaterasu asked looking at Lightning. The Heartless sat next to her. For some reason the Heartless looked a bit distant today. "Hey, Lightning, are you upset or something?" she asked noticing the Heartless respond to that question.
"Something like that, Amaterasu." The Heartless said still fuming at the fact she could've ended Gabriel's life. "But don't worry." She said in a rather soft tone. "Anyway it'll take us a while before we get there. Probably about two days, so don't worry about it. You have time to spend with him."
"I really hate goodbyes." The girl said rubbing the side of her head. The pressure of it all was starting to get to her, somehow making her feel a bit sick. The back of her head was pounding a bit for a moment, but it soon went away. "Oh, yeah," she remembered a little event that had taken place a while before they actually left Sunset Horizon. "What did Versus tell you?"
"Versus…?" Lightning broke out of her daze for a moment thinking back to what had happened an hour ago. "Oh, that…" the girl looked at the Heartless with a confused gaze, and it made the Heartless a bit uneasy now, "Don't look at me like that."
"Something happened between the two of you, so spill it!" the girl said feeling full of life now. She smiled and leaned out of her seat ready to give her full attention to Lightning. "Come on…" Amaterasu said starting to whine a bit. "Please?"
"You're begging." Lightning said confused by her action now. One moment she was upset, feeling almost physically sick, and now she seemed a bit bouncy, acting really curious. "Why do you want to know, Amaterasu?" the Heartless asked curiously. The girl didn't really give her a definite answer. "I don't think that's a good enough answer."
"Just because… I'm your good friend." The girl said a bit confused, but other than that it seemed like a good answer. "So please?" she asked again putting her hands together.
"When we get there…" was all the Heartless said. Amaterasu protested again, but she had spoken. "Or I won't tell you at all." She said sternly, and Amaterasu sat back down grumbling under her breath. "You know you should take some time to talk to your brother, we don't know how long we'll be gone for." With that the girl took off the seatbelt and walked over to the back row of the seats within the ship, locating her brother.
"Hey…" she said weakly looking at her brother. He seemed lost in thought, staring out into the dark abyss of space. "How have you been?" she asked plopping down on the seat next to him.
Yomigami chuckled and patted his sister on the head. "I've been all right." He said looking at her for a moment. "It's just you and me now, kid." The girl looked down and didn't move for a while. "Prosapia mos subsisto vobis exaro terminus of vicis."
"Family will stay with you till the end of time…" Amaterasu said looking back at her older brother. "It doesn't feel like that anymore." She said looking at the slight hurt etched on her brother's feature. "But I mean we'll see them again someday. The heart doesn't really die, its just transfers to a new life. Vita est rotundus," which meant 'life is round'.
It means life is like a cycle, and a cycle goes around in a circle meaning that it is round. It was something Ansem the Wise had once told them a long time ago, when they studied under him. It had been a while since either one of them had heard the little saying. Their Latin was a bit rusty, but they could remember how to say a couple of phrases. Yomigami agreed with the little saying and just stayed quiet for a couple of seconds.
"We're going to Twilight Town when we drop you off at Radiant Garden. You're to go straight to Maleficent's hideout." He said instructing his younger sibling. "And be careful, you'll have to be crafty again, no one is going to be with you."
"That's where you're wrong, I have Lightning with me." She said sounding a bit pleased with that fact. "I'll be fine, besides the heart keeps us all tied together, so don't worry, Brother."
"All right," Yomigami said displaying his affection with a slight noogie to the head. Amaterasu protested trying to wriggle out of the chair, laughing slightly. "Anything new you want to tell me?" she shook her head and he sighed for a moment letting his grip relax. "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely." She said looking back at him. He didn't believe her one bit. "I'm telling the truth, really…" he still wasn't buying it. "really." She said again, this time trying to con it off.
"It's all right if you like him, I 'm not going to get mad." He noticed the blush on his sister's face. "I knew it. Well I can't really stop the heart, still I mean, it's a bit weird him being the atrum keyblade vinco." What he meant, was that he still didn't like the idea of Riku being the Dark Keyblade Master.
"Oh hey, Sora's in Twilight Town, isn't he?" Amaterasu asked thinking back to the Keyblade's 'Chosen One'. "You know I hope it doesn't take him that long to finish his training, but knowing Yen Sid he's really tough. Sora's probably getting his ass kicked."
"Our fate rests in the hand of a 16 year old." Yomigami said not really sounding that pleased with the outcome. "You know sometimes I wish Riku did pick the light, and then maybe we'd have some peace for a while longer."
"Ut est vita," the two of them said sighing heavily and looking down for a moment. It meant 'that is life'. "Oh yeah!" Amaterasu remembered something, "you are right we have made too many promises." She said referring to the other promise she had made to the king. "The sphere, the one with the Keyblade War."
"Out of all the promises, you forgot that one?" her brother asked in a rather serious tone. She nodded and apologized. "Well…"
"I mean I'm getting old, we're getting old." She said including her brother this time. "Ok, so I mean we don't age, but I mean come on we're old."
"I get it." Yomigami said laughing for a moment. "How is the Heart…? I mean Lightning."
"She's doing fine. I'm really beginning to think it is almost possible to give her a heart."
"Almost possible?" Yomigami couldn't help but reiterate the last couple of words she just said. "You telling me you can't really give a heart to one of the Heartless?"
"I mean… Remember those old reports we found in the World that Never Was? That man Axel, he was able to awaken his heart, and he was a Nobody. I don't know if it works on Heartless."
"That document wasn't filed in any of the reports, so we can't really use it for creditability. You know that." Yomigami said thinking back to the report. "Besides remember deception born of ignorance. If you do think like that…"
"I know I'll be just like Xehanort and go all crazy trying to rule the world with supreme darkness."
"I was just going to say you would go fanatical, but that's good too." Yomigami said looking at his sister with a bit of confusion. "Ah, yeah…" Yomigami reached down into his pant's pocket and pulled out a little bracelet. It had a small Heartless emblem on it. "It's the Shadow Hound's summoning amulet."
"So you found the dog…" she said laughing looking at the bracelet. "You know I still haven't figured out where they come from."
"Should be obvious where they're from, the End of the World." Yomigami said thinking back to where all the worlds fallen in darkness end up in. "You never did pay attention to King Ansem's lectures."
"Yeah well I was tired when we'd finally stop walking up all those stairs." She said remembering the fact that his study sessions were located in the west hall, about ten floors above the research facility that Hojo had back when it was still the Radiant Garden Castle. She placed the amulet on her arm for a moment and then paused. "Hey give it to Sora he needs it more than I do. I've got the Heartless on my side for now, so it's no big deal, but our little friend here is going to need all the help he can get, you know?"
"He's going to have Riku's help."
"Yeah but can Riku rip the limbs off of a human in less than ten seconds?"
"You're missing the point, Sister." Yomigami said smacking her upside the head. She growled and rubbed her head gently.
R i k u
It'll take probably two days or so before we reach Radiant Garden, and then we'll be off again. I mean I know it wasn't going to be easy but still can't we just take a break once in a while? 'I just took one a couple of hours ago…' that's the only thing that came into my mind.
"Lux lucis procedo…" that was Amaterasu's voice.
I looked in the back row and noticed she was singing something like a children's rhyme of some sort.
"Obscurum progredior," she moved her head side to side while her brother shook his head smiling for a moment. "Permissum dies floccipendo, you want to know what I'm saying, Riku?" her head rested on the seat in front of her.
"It would be nice." I said in this little upbeat tone.
"You know Latin?" she asked and excused herself from her brother and made it over to the front row. She sat down next to me. "Okay… I said 'light come out, darkness go out, let the day take the light,' something like that, but anyway it's been a while since I spoke it."
"Hmm… All right then how do you say this?" I whispered it in to her ear and she smiled a bit.
"That's going to be a bit harder… I'll try and give you a good translation." She sighed and spelled invisible words in the air and paused halfway through a word. "Oh, I think it's um… Basium mihi hic quod habitum meus manus, which means, 'kiss me here and hold my hand'. And no I'm not going to, Riku."
She figured me out, but I mean it wouldn't be fun if she wasn't being herself. "Still…" I said noticing her smile again. "You know you want to," I said whispering it into her ear. I heard her laugh in a soft tone and she looked at me directly in the eyes.
"I'm not really going to say anything about that." She said looking around the area for a moment. Amaterasu sighed for a moment and rested her head for a moment on my shoulder. "I really wish I could take you with me, Riku." She meant everywhere word of it too.
"I know…" I whispered kissing the top of her head. She sighed contently and pressed her body against mine. "So I'm a human pillow now?" I asked. Amaterasu laughed in response at that question.
"If you say you are." She said closing her eyes for a moment. Amaterasu muttered something that I couldn't hear. "Stay like this with me, until I leave." She asked me in the same soft tone. She sounded nervous for a moment. "Please…" she asked again holding on tight to me.
"Don't worry…" I said in my own tone, and she relaxed for a while. "Now I'm banging on the door of an angel/The end of fear is where we begin/The moment we decided to let love in…" I carried out the little melody.
She had sang it once back on the islands once when we were getting to know one another. Her breath tickled the side of my neck as she whispered something. I loved feeling this close to her, it just made me feel complete, but I know that it wouldn't last for that long, so I'd have to learn to keep hoping for moments like this.
"Let love in…" she said happily nudging her head against my neck for a moment. "I haven't heard that song in a long time." Amaterasu said in a slightly distant voice. She was probably thinking back to those first weeks we had getting to know one another.
I missed those days, but in a way I'm thanking the present since we've gotten to grow that close to one another. 'The darkness… I never thought it'd be the thing that brought us together, well sort of anyway.' I thought to myself thinking back to various little issues we faced together.
A m a t e r a s u
It was the day after we boarded the gummi ship. I noticed the King and Donald, and Goofy sleeping on these little seats. The ship had been set to autopilot, so it was being guided by the designated course set by King Mickey. From the outside I could see the sun shine brightly, but still everything was covered in the vast darkness of space. I knew it was morning, but outside it didn't look like it at all.
My hand ran through my hair, and it stopped short when I felt this strange item lightly graze my fingertip. I pulled it out from my hair, and noticed the blue petals around the flower. 'The blue rose…' I thought to myself thinking back to yesterday. I was still amazed that nothing had changed from it at all. The petals still looked fresh, and the change in environment didn't seem to affect it, for now at least.
Riku was still dead to the world, leaning his body against the side wall of the ship. I had been using him for a human cushion and he didn't seem to mind. He had his arm around me, so that I wouldn't lean forward or anything like that. Everyone else was in deep slumber. Yomigami leaned against the side wall, and Lightning had her body elegantly spread out against the neighboring seats of the ship. Gabriel was sitting somewhere in the back snoring lightly.
I nestled against him and sighed again in content at the warmth I felt from being next to him like that. 'Enjoy it while it lasts…' that's the thing that went through my mind. Even the darkness in my heart would say that. It probably feels sympathy for me, but I don't know if darkness can do that. The silver haired teen groaned slightly shifting his body slightly, to get a bit more comfortable. I closed my eyes and relaxed for a while, letting the minutes pass by.
A lot of things ran through my head, what would I do next? Where would I go once I go back? How could I help the others against the darkness? Would I see Riku soon? When? Why was all of this happening? A lot of questions that would be answered with time, and I have all the time in the world, according to Riku and to many other people who know me.
And about time, what ever happened to the people I met when I was young? I still wonder from time to time if they're still alive, and if they remember me. They probably do from time to time, but that's in all probability once in a while.
"Amaterasu…" I heard Riku speak softly in his sleep. "I love you…" I just wanted to feel sentimental for that moment. His voice, I was going to miss it terribly. Not because I'm his friend, but because he means much more to me, as I do to him. "Don't go yet…" and with that he continued with his sleep.
"Morning…" I whispered resting a hand on his arm.
Riku's turquoise eyes appeared slowly and he looked back at me for a moment with a confused gaze. "Amaterasu…?" he said, or rather he asked if it was me.
"I hope you didn't think I was someone else." I said in a soft tone of my own, I was laughing for a moment. "Did you sleep well?"
"Next to you, who wouldn't?" he asked, his brain finally waking up.
"I can name a couple of people…" I said jokingly, resting my head on his shoulder for a while. "Ah, yeah listen do you want to go with me to the upper deck?"
"There isn't anything there except for a couple of windows…" he said sitting up slightly. "Oh I get you… Privacy." Riku said thinking about it some more for a moment or two.
It took awhile after stretching and yawning, but somehow the two of us ended up making it up to the second floor deck, without waking anyone up. From the second floor the stars were in full view and the sun was off to the side, several planets moved about, beginning their new day. From this view it seemed that nothing could disrupt us, nothing could touch us but time.
"It's quiet up here." Riku said looking around the room. It was fairly small, but the view from there made up for the lacking room space. "And the view's good." We walked around the area and sat up against one of the empty walls of the second floor. Riku sat in back of me, and I used him against as a pillow.
"Since I'm going back…" I started to say what I wanted to say. "I want to tell you this, even if we might see each other once in while. I love you, Riku." I felt his arms wrap around my waist.
"I'm not letting you go…" he whispered burying his head on my back. "I don't want to let you leave… Not yet."
"We both know it's not that simple…"
A/N: You know what to do one review please!