Ria slowly regained consciousness after riku had placed her on his bed. She felt incredibly light headed and woozy, every part of her body felt sore and it was difficult to move.
"easy, don't be so quick to get up, give your body some time to regain itself" riku said, coming into her field of view.
"riku? What happened?" she asked.
"you kinda… died"
ria's eyes shot open in shock, she died? But how was that possible? She was still breathing, she could still feel.
"when the replica killed you, your darkness reacted, it revived you but also gained complete control of your heart, if sora didn't stop you then you would have been overcome by the darkness." he stated.
"the darkness…" she said.
"i know how you feel, ria. the same thing happened to me once, you'll be fine" riku said.
ria sighed.
"did I kill her?" she asked.
"the replica? No, she got away"
"good. So now what?" she asked.
"now you rest, wait until you can move again"
she sighed and began to close her eyes, waiting for sleep to take her.
Sora was in his room, laying on his bed. He still couldn't believe that after everything he had told his mother, she still didn't believe him, but now wasn't the time to focus on that. He was worried about ria, he saw first hand what the darkness had done to her, he remembered when darkness overcame him once too, whenever he was forced into anti-form, as he called it. Ever since then, sora had always held a hidden fear of anything that remotely resembled what happened to him, it was one of the reasons he wanted to protect ria from darkness… it was also why he was somewhat afraid of her. He was kind of perplexed as to how the organization was able to make complete copies of people, it sounded like something that could only happen in a video game, but oddly, It did feel familiar to fight the replica, he felt like he had fought one of those before, yet he couldn't really place his finger on it.
Riku walked back into his room, ria had just woken up and stretched while yawning.
"feeling better?" he asked.
"a little… my head still hurts"
he let her be and grabbed a random book off of his shelf. His father soon came into his room, ria said nothing and just observed him, he seemed to be fairly interested in her.
He had short black hair and blue eyes, he looked almost nothing like his son.
"um… hi there." ria said.
"hello. forgive me for saying this but you look a lot like my wife" riku's father said.
"really?" she asked.
"yes, you're from another world, aren't you?"
"yes, why?" she said. He then saw the locket that she had hidden under her turtleneck, he took it.
"hey, that's mine!" she shouted. He looked at the locket and gasped in shock.
"dad, what are you doing?" riku asked.
"i remember this, I made this for your mother a long time ago" he said returning it to ria.
"you knew my mother?" ria said.
"yes, I did, i made her that locket… before I asked her to marry me"
"marry?" riku asked in shock.
"but that means…"
"i'm your father… ria" he knew her name. so that ment riku and ria were also brother and sister.
After a small explanation, she began asking questions about her mother, her father answered them all, and now ria knew the truth… she wasn't happy.
Vexen was in his lab running a few tests on Xari, she had suffered very heavy damage, but it was nothing he couldn't fix, she just needed a few advancements and then she'd be able to get back to working properly. She could still walk and run, but combat and fast paced movement seemed to cause her great joint pains, whatever happened to her must have been devastating.
"i see you've returned from your little trip" said Xehanort who had silently entered the lab.
"good evening, lord xehanort, what may I do for you?" vexen said.
"vanitas told me of your replica's little adventure, and what happened to her."
"you are not angry with me, are you?" vexen said.
"angry?, of course not. I'm here to thank you. thanks to the replica, ria has successfully allowed the darkness into her heart. you may not know this but you have done an incredible service for me."
"is that so?" vexen asked.
"yes. unfortunately, we still have a problem." xehanort said.
"is that so?" vexen repeated.
"at no point, did I tell you or the replica to cause harm to the girl, you have disobeyed me, and you shall both be punished." xehanort said as he quietly summoned his keyblade from behind his back. He swung it at vexen, who quickly blocked the attack with his shield and then bashed xehanort, causing him to fall to the ground, vanitas then appeared out of nowhere and slashed the shield in half with his keyblade and then kicked vexen onto the ground. Xari was watching the whole time.
Vanitas turned to Xari and smiled wickedly.
Xehanort got onto his feet. "kill the replica, we have no use for it anymore" he said.
"with pleasure" vanitas said as he walked closer to the replica, he was about to slash at her until he was randomly frozen solid by vexen.
"go Xari!, RUN!" he shouted while opening a corridor of darkness behind her, she ran threw it and vanished.
Xehanort let the replica escape, he didn't need to waste time tracking down a useless copy.
"lexaeus!" xehanort called, lexeaus soon entered.
"you called, lord xehanort?"
"escort our friend vexen to the dungeon" he said while walking away. "oh, and get someone to thaw out vanitas" he then left to his quarters.
His plan was unfolding, the girl had accepted darkness and now it would be much easier to gain control of her, once you get a taste of the power darkness can offer, you become obsessed with it.
"you lied to me"
xehanort quickly turned around and saw the replica… no, it wasn't the replica. It was ria! She was here!.
"ah, I see you have learned how to travel through dark corridors. Well done, my dear. Your abilities have improved greatly" he said with admiration in his voice, ria reminded him of himself when he was young. Willing and eager to learn the power that darkness had to offer.
"you lied to me, my mother didn't do anything to you! You killed her because you felt like it!" she shouted.
"i see you have met your father, I should have killed that fool, but no matter"
"why?! What gave you a reason to do that to her!?" she asked. Xehanort could feel the anger in her voice.
"i needed a pure heart" he said simply "there are only two places to obtain pure hearts, from a princess of heart, or a child. Children have almost no amount of darkness inside them, so they make the perfect vessels for pure darkness. do not think you were my first choice, there were many other children I used before I found you, but alas, they did not have the fortitude you had for such… strenuous trials"
"why? What would filling my heart with darkness do?" she asked, her keyblade pointed at him.
"all you must know is that I require a heart of pure light and a heart of pure darkness."
"for what?, answer me!"
"no… you are not ready to know my goal" he said bitterly.
"then I'll beat the answer out of you!" she shouted.
"yes… savor that rage, let your judgment be clouded by your emotions, let anger and hatred be your guide… anger and hate are rawest of human emotions, fuel the fire that feeds your rage" he said.
"no…" she said. Dispelling her keyblade. "i'm not like you, im better than this" she opened a corridor of darkness, what was she thinking, coming here? This was a horrible idea. she was angry, but she knew that was what he wanted her to feel.
"you know…" Xehanort said, stopping her. "your mother bled quite a lot, you watched the whole thing, yet you barely reacted. What kind of daughter dosen't cry at the sight of their dying mother?
"shut up!" she charged toward him and he guarded and grabbed her by the neck, he then tossed her halfway across the room, she collided with a table.
"your emotions betray you. if you cannot control the way you feel, then you will never be able to control your power, it will consume you. But that will be nothing but a benefit to my plan. Do you know what happens to people who are consumed by the darkness? They do not become feral animals who kill and destroy anything that stands in their way, they become docile, mindless servants to whoever is superior."
"i hate you… so much!" ria said as her eyes began to glow.
"good, savor that hatred, you are far to nice for your own good, my dear"
she threw a dark fireball at him which he reflected back at her, it hit her in the stomach.
"a good try, but you cannot hurt me. you think darkness is your ally… you merely adopted the dark, I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I became a man, until then it was nothing to me but blinding, and it will be the same for you as well. until then, I shall spare you, mainly because you still have much to learn. So go, pickup whats left of your pride and leave this old man to himself" he said, sitting in his chair. Ria did soon leave his presence. even though he wanted her here, she still wasn't ready, she was still weak, and being locked in a cage wasn't going to make her stronger. Patience was the key to this game.
A/N: so, i'm going to be taking a short break from this story for awhile, not because i'm running out of ideas for each chapter, I just feel like I need to try something different and perfect my writing for a bit. I am not abandoning this story though, I will still update this story while also working on another that will allow me a little more creative freedom. Thank you for reading, you guys are awesome.