Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This storyline is mine. Woohoo! I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, it might be a little rushed at the end, sorry. Reviews are love!
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Chapter Thirteen: Awakening
I found Sora talking to Dr. Young when I approached Riku's room. I immediately became defensive. Dr. Young wasn't high on either Sora or my list of favorite people right now. The doctor looked grave and Sora looked irritated.
When I drew near enough, Dr. Young looked over at me, "Kairi, you're here now, good. I—I trust you'll want to be alone."
"You trust correctly." I hissed.
Not missing the dislike in my voice, she forced a smile and walked on down the hall.
"She wants me to fill you in. She's fine with ticking me off, but I think you scare her." Sora muttered, staring daggers into Dr. Young's back.
I rubbed the side of my head, "Maybe she saw me slap you. Fill me in on what?"
Sora exhaled so that his bangs fluttered, "Just the usual: Riku's nuts and will never recover. No, she was just updating me. She said he's been getting violent. 'Really?' I said." He gingerly prodded at the bruise on his head. They'd removed the stitches, now just covering it up with a thick pad of gauze.
"What did she mean 'violent'?" I asked.
"She said he tried to escape or something, attacked a few attendants." Sora said, peering into the chamber beyond the glass. "He—She said he's started becoming self destructive."
I turned too. Riku was pacing the width of the room. My heart ached with a fresh pain. His arms were constricted by that horrible straight jacket. His hair was matted and unkempt. His eyes were swollen and bloodshot. The circles under his eyes had deepened and there were four red scratches down either of his cheeks.
"What happened to him?" I asked, appalled at the marks.
"He did that to himself. They've had to sedate him three times in the last six hours." Sora shook his head, "Dr. Young said people with schiz—people who have—are like Riku, are rarely violent like this."
"So…what are they saying now? Riku's being violent, Schizophrenics aren't violent, thus Riku may not be Schizophrenic. So why is he being violent?" I thought aloud.
Sora shifted, watching me dance my mental circles, "Maybe he's just one of those rare cases. I don't want to believe that, but—"
"I've been thinking." I interrupted, "What if we're going about this the wrong way?"
Sora tilted his head at me, "About what?"
"This whole Schizophrenia thing. This whole time the doctors have been looking for the problem in his head, but what if it's really…in his heart?" I looked into the room.
"What are you talking about?" Sora asked.
I looked into the room again. Riku was still pacing, squirming his arms restlessly, his lips moving soundlessly, repeating that phrase that haunted my nightmares.
"We've both been banging our heads against the idea that Riku was seeing Xehanort, hearing Xehanort." I looked at him.
Sora lifted a hand, "And you're saying what exactly? That we were wrong? Kairi, he's—"
"Dead, I know, but remember what Riku told us right after we got back? About how he can never get rid of his darkness and how Xehanort would never truly be gone?" I chewed my lower lip.
Sora ran a hand through his hair, "Then how come—"
A dull thud from inside the room made us both turn. Riku was on the floor, wrestling against the jacket and for all appearances looking like he was having a seizure.
"Riku!?" I yelped.
"Hey! We need some help over here." Sora yelled down the hall.
Riku rolled over and maneuvered back onto his knees. I became aware of two things immediately then. One was that Riku's arms were free, the clasps unraveled, the sleeves bunching at his wrists. Two was that the window glass under my fingers was shaking.
Footsteps clacked down the hall and Dr. Young ran towards us, Andy just behind her.
"What happened?" She asked.
"Sora—" I stammered, grabbing at his sleeve.
Riku was quivering violently as he got to his feet. He swayed and staggered.
"How did he get loose of those sleeves?" Dr. Young asked. "Get a sedative."
Andy nodded, heading back down the hall.
"You can't cure him with sedatives. When are you going to start helping him?" Sora snapped.
"Sora—" I said again, choking.
Something wasn't right here. Something was wrong…very wrong. The glass was now shuddering more persistently. The lights overhead flickered once and then died. Emergency lights replaced them, illuminating the corridor again. Dr. Young looked around.
"You two should go. We'll take care of him." She said, beckoning them backwards.
"We're not going anywhere." Sora said aggressively.
"Sora!" I barked.
"What?" Sora turned, finally.
Riku had steadied suddenly. He stood, arms at his sides, staring at the right adjacent wall of the room. His lips weren't moving anymore, and his eyes were impossibly red…no, not red…orange.
As I looked closer, he turned. A wave of energy emanated from his gaze, sending ripples of black and purple tendrils rushing towards us. This wave hit the wall. The glass shattered, sending thousands of jagged shards at us. I screamed and threw my hands over my head.
"Kairi, get down!" Sora grabbed me, dropping on top of me on the floor.
Glass clattered across the floor around us. There were a few yelps of pain and Sora hissed and straightened. From my position sprawled across the floor, I looked up. Riku was climbing out of the now empty window pane, glass cutting into his hands and bare feet as he landed in the corridor.
Sora stood up, glass having lighted on his shoulders and in his hair, "Riku, take it easy." He lifted his hands, "We're your friends, remember?"
Riku turned sharply, eyes glowing orange. I cried out, getting up from the floor. Dr. Young groaned on the floor. I could see that several shards of glass had cut into her arms and up her shoulder. I scrambled over to her; she was unconscious.
"Sora, she needs help." I said, my voice high pitched.
"Riku, listen to me, man." Sora was saying, "Why don't we calm down and then we—"
A small, unpleasant grin spread across Riku's lips. "Don't bother." His voice had dropped an octave, now low and metallic and heartless. "Your voice can no longer reach him where he is."
Sora's eyes contracted and I saw that several small pieces of glass had cut into his arms and neck too, though not nearly as large or deep as to Dr. Young.
"What?" I asked, rising, "What is it?"
Without another word exchanged, Riku turned and sprinted down the hall. I just stared after him. Andy rounded the corner just as Riku reached him. His eyes widened for a moment, but then Riku had lifted a hand. More furls of darkness flowed obediently down his arm and blasted the paramedic against the wall. Riku continued around the corner.
"Come on!" Sora pulled me to my feet and we ran after him. Sora skidded to a stop in front of Andy, who looked winded but not injured. "Are you all right?" Sora asked.
Andy shook his head to clear it, "Been better. How did he get out?"
"We'll take care of that. Dr. Young's back there. She's unconscious, but she should be okay." Sora turned and ran around the corner. Wordlessly, I followed, ignoring Andy's yells to wait.
I had never been a contender in Sora and Riku's races across the beach. They left me in the dust so to speak. So I guess it was pure adrenaline that pumped my legs hard enough to keep up with Sora as he ran down one hall, turned this way, ran some more, turned again, and finally burst out into the lobby.
Riku's involvement here was present. Papers flew in all directions. People were lying on the floor as though they'd been flung there, and Myrtle was cowering behind her desk. The glass doors were shattered, leaving glass and bloody footprints in Riku's wake out to the parking lot.
"Sora! Kairi! What was that?" Chris was scrambling to his feet.
We ran by, not even slowing. He continued to yell after us, but my ears were too clogged with Riku's low, metallic voice to hear anything. Riku was out of sight of the parking lot.
"He can't have gone too far. Get in!" Sora barked.
We had reached Sora's new red car. Without preamble, Sora flung the driver's door open and climbed in. Without hesitation, I followed on the passenger's side. Chris and several Indigo security officials were spilling out onto the sidewalk.
Sora jammed the key into the ignition and turned it. The engine roared to life and Sora threw the stick into reverse. "Hold on." He snapped, turning to look through the back window.
Tires squealed as the car shot backwards, spinning on the asphalt. I hung onto the dashboard as the car straightened out. Sora jerked the gears into drive.
Chris was waving his arms, "Wait, guys, stop!"
The rest of his words were lost as tires squealed once more and the car thundered away from the Indigo. My fingers were clenched in a vice around the arm rests, but I looked around, scanning the area.
"Do you see him?" Sora asked, barreling the car out onto the open road.
"No, he's gone. Where did he go?" I asked.
"That's not Riku. It's Xehanort."
"What?!"
"I know that voice anywhere. Xehanort's back, and he's possessed Riku again."
I looked at him, "How—Why—"
"I don't know. We need to find him." Sora gritted his teeth, "Dammit!"
I bit my lip and thought hard, "Where was Xehanort last time he possessed Riku?"
Sora glanced at me, "Our island."
"Do you think he—" Something sparked in my mind, "The Secret Place."
"What?"
"The Secret Place, where the door to the heart of the world is! Where else would he go?"
Sora swung the car sharply onto an on-ramp, depressing the accelerator until the car groaned in protest, shooting forward onto the merger. "Then that's our best bet."
My pulse raced as Sora hammered the pedal. He weaved around the traffic as if the other cars were idling. I didn't look at the speedometer, but I could tell it was dancing across the far right side of the dial.
"I would prefer to be alive when we get there to help Riku." I managed.
Sora offered a strained grin, bucking the car onto the off ramp and back onto the local street. Several other cars swerved and blared their horns as the red car cut across traffic. We had to be going over ninety miles an hour.
"Shouldn't we have seen him? Riku can't run this fast." I yelped.
"Right now he's Xehanort. I bet he's already in the Secret Place, somehow." Sora suggested.
A light snow was beginning to fall again, oblivious to the commotion around it.
"Oh, Riku, hold on." I murmured, "We're coming."