Riku heard the palace guard shout "Catch him!" and was unsurprised to see Aladdin run right by his little alleyway, the Princess of Heart in tow, followed by the palace guards. Behind him, paralleling the group, Riku heard the click of staff on stone, and saw Jafar rushing after the boy, muttering under his breath about a diamond.
Riku followed at a distance, and saw the scene he had been in not a few days ago repeat itself, word for word. Aladdin was arrested and Jasmine taken back to the palace, all followed by Jafar, the clack of staff on stone.
None of this makes any sense.
Riku sat on the rooftop, looking down over the city, trying to understand, wincing at the pain in his arm.
The bond sent me here to fix something. And that whiteness is either the symptom or the cause of the problem. If it is the cause, then it comes from Aladdin and Jasmine. Is their marriage the problem? If Aladdin is supposed to die in the cave, or in the prison, or fighting Jafar, then there wouldn't be a marriage. I can stop that. Between me and Jafar, Aladdin wouldn't stand a chance.
Working with Jafar, though, sent a wave of nausea through Riku. Could he do it? To save some bond that he didn't understand, could he kill Sora's friend?
Probably. But not if it helped Jafar. So the whiteness wasn't a cause, it was a symptom. What was a symptom of? And in a flash it came to him. The pressure was just like Kingdom Hearts!
Riku stepped out of the portal, his mind clear on his goal. He was surprised, though, to see that the Cave of Wonders' chamber was not empty.
"Who are you? How did you get in here?" Aladdin asked of the keyblade wielder, surprise but no fear evident in the young thief's countenance.
Riku shrugged. Repetition sucked. "Riku. I can get into places pretty easily."
"Aladdin. Nice to see someone alive down here. Are you here for the treasure?" Aladdin relaxed, extending a hand to shake.
Riku smiled and shook the thief's hand. "No, I've got something else to do. The lamp is that way." Riku pointed down the hall, away from the keyhole, toward the lamp chamber.
"How did you—?"
"Don't you have a lamp to get?" Riku cut Aladdin off. Get going already. This between-worlds stuff is supposed to be secret.
"Right, I'll talk to you later," Aladdin said, and picked up Abu before the monkey grabbed hold of a large diamond. "Not yet, Abu." The thief and his pet disappeared around the corner, and Riku strolled up to the keyhole, sealed shut with Sora's magic.
Riku raised the keyblade, pointing it at the keyhole, and a tip of light emerged from the golden key, right through the middle of the keyhole. Riku twisted the keyblade, and there was a loud click before the stony center fell away, revealing the endless void of the keyhole with a pinprick of light in the center.
Riku felt a rush, and the world became thinner, lighter, as if there were a torrent of thoughts and ideas and pressure that went from the world into the keyhole. The pinprick of light Pulsed, and Riku felt the bond clearly. He had an odd sensation of falling, like part of him was being subsumed wholly into the bond, and then the bond spoke to him.
"Thank you." The voice was deep, so deep Riku did not hear it, but felt it throughout his whole body.
The pinprick of light Pulsedagain, and then again, faster and faster, ending at a stable beat, exactly in time with the beat of Kingdom Hearts. And then the whole cavern began to shake.
"Abu!" Riku heard Aladdin's shout from around the corner, and the cavern shook again.
Riku stepped back from the keyhole as Aladdin rushed toward him on the flying carpet. "Quick! Get on!" With the cavern shaking, Riku didn't want to risk shadow hopping; who knew where he'd end up trying to get through an unstable shadow. He jumped onto the back of the carpet.
"Thanks. You get the lamp?" The carpet jerked and dove, and Riku clung to the fabric.
"Yeah. So what were you doing back there?" Aladdin asked, gripping with two hands on the corners of the carpet, keeping himself low.
Riku couldn't suppress a smirk. He had done something Sora hadn't. He had protected this world. He had been the hero, even if no one else knew.
Riku held loosely to the carpet, wincing at the pain. Healing magic might hurt like hell, but at least it fixed the problem. He rolled up his sleeve, seeing that the burn from Jafar was getting worse, not better. Once they got out he'd have to see a doctor about it.
Unfortunately for Riku, Aladdin had the right idea staying low on the carpet, and Riku wasn't able to dodge the falling sandstone. The hit dislodged him from the carpet, and his arm was agony as he used all of his will to squeeze the carpet, hoping to get out alive.
"Riku!" Aladdin called back, as the carpet was pinned by another rock. It propelled Aladdin forward and he caught on to the ledge, while Riku fell back into the abyss.
"…liiiiiiike meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
Riku blearily woke to the sight of Genie doing some odd dance, while Aladdin and Abu watched with slacked jaws. All three turned to look at him as he pushed off the rocks obscuring him.
"Riku! You're okay!" Aladdin called out.
"Yeah. Ow."
"It's too bad this genie here can't heal you and get us out of here. He's too weak."
"What?" Riku asked in confusion, as the genie simultaneously shouted indignation.
"Yeah. He says he can grant me almost any wish, but I don't even think he can do those two things." Aladdin said with that confident swagger.
"You do know he's the most powerful being in the world, right?" Riku asked, not getting what Aladdin was playing at.
"You bought it too? He's just a windbag," Aladdin smirked.
"Windbag? WINDBAG! I'll show you windbag!" They were all engulfed in a blue light. "Prepare for liftoff." The genie's voice echoed all around them, as Riku found himself holding on to the side of a rocket, surprisingly without any pain from the broken rib or concussion from the fall, nor the burns from Jafar's magic. There was just a rapidly fading excruciating pain of all of his wounds rapidly healing.
And then Riku, Abu, and Aladdin screamed as the feeling of liftoff accelerated them out of the cave.
"Remind me why I'm doing this again?" Riku asked as he walked in front of Abu-in-elephant-form.
"Because Genie said a prince needs a Bodyguard. And don't you want to see the palace? It's supposed to be beautiful. And the princess is there." Aladdin got the dreamy stare, and for all intents and purposes vacated the premises.
Well, really, I've never been in a parade before; it should be kind of fun. My own celebration for fixing this place.
The parade strutted through the center of town, with Aladdin showing off to the crowds while Riku strolled in front, knowing that if they knew, they would be doing the same for him.
"You know, Genie's right. You really should tell her the truth."
"What would you know?" Aladdin countered.
Riku winced at the verbal barb. Kairi was still too sore a subject, it seemed. She and Sora were surely dating now, forever taking her out of Riku's reach. But it was alright. Sora might have saved the worlds from the heartless, but he had screwed up doing it, and it was Riku's job now to fix it.
Even though he told himself that over and over, he still felt something was missing.
Riku sat with the palace guard captain, wondering what the hell he was doing here, and why they wanted to talk to him.
"You say your name is Riku. For palace security, I'm going to need any other aliases and your full history."
Even Riku, who had believed Maleficent to be a good person, felt there was something else to this questioning. "What are you really after?" He answered back.
"Look, kid, you are really too young to be in this bodyguard business. How about this: I'm gonna offer you a job in the palace guards. We'll help train you, get you better. What do you say?" The guard captain smiled a crooked smile.
Riku was insulted. This captain, who had chased him twice in this world and had been so comically evaded, was offering him advice? "If you'd fought what I've fought, seen what I've seen, and been where I'd been, your job offer would make sense. But you haven't. The most dangerous thing you've seen is probably a mugger. I've fought ghosts of mad scientists; I've fought the Light itself. So please, don't think you have anything to teach me."
Riku got up and the captain looked at an hourglass, the sand almost gone. "Alright, well, just remember the offer's always open."
Riku shut the door without responding and heading back to Aladdin's suite of rooms. The bedsheets were all disheveled when he arrived, and Aladdin was nowhere to be found. Riku sighed. Apparently the thief wanted another late-night rendezvous with the princess. He yawned, and went to sleep.
The door banged open and a soaking wet Aladdin strolled into the room, smelling of fish and salt.
"Some bodyguard you are!" Aladdin shouted at Riku, who woke up blearily. What time was it? Why was it still dark outside?
"What? What happened?"
"Jafar had the palace guards kidnap me. They threw me into the ocean. If it wasn't for Genie, I would have drowned." Aladdin tossed off his soaked hat, a fish and the lamp falling out.
"I thought you had gone to the princess.." Riku trailed off, realizing what the guard captain had really been interested in. "Oh, that bastard."
"Yeah, well, obviously I wasn't with her at the beach," Aladdin cut back, but Riku had already displaced the blame onto the guard captain.
"I got drawn away by the guard captain, who wanted to do some security checks. It was obviously a distraction to get me away from you. I'll be right back."
Riku strolled into a shadow, emerging in the captain's office. The man was shouting at his guards. "How could you let him get away? The orders were clear! We were supposed to get rid of the fake prince so that the princess doesn't come to harm." The guards shook. One of them noticed Riku glaring at them from behind the captain, who hadn't yet noticed the keyblade wielder. The guard's eyes widened even more, and his trembling in fear became more pronounced. "You are all spineless cowards!" the captain roared. "Did you even tie a knot in the ropes? Or did you just wrap them and then get distracted by a passing butterfly?" But the guards were all looking past him at Riku.
"You all are nothing! Worthless!" The captain paused, noticing that his guards' attention was elsewhere. He turned, found Riku not two feet behind him, jumped, and shrieked.
Riku wondered what to say, all five of the guards still staring at him. Maleficent's admonishments not to let the darkness into his heart swam through his mind. His thoughts then flitted toward his betrayal of her, how he had opened his heart to darkness, and opened her heart, which she had kept so closed.
"I'm declining your offer," he said, and walked past them through the door. Let them wonder how he got in.
Riku dove for the lamp that the red bird had stolen, but it was too late. He rolled from his dive as the bird flew overhead, the Genie's lamp dropping into Jafar's hands.
"Genie! For my first wish, I wish to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world!" It all happened just like before. Even knowing what was coming next, Riku was unable to get to the sorcerer, his dark fire deflected by a twirl of the staff before he too was forced into bowing before the new sultan. He and Aladdin were wrapped in the magic and sent careening off to that distant corner of the world.
"I am going to kill you!" Riku shouted, stepping out of a portal into Jafar's prisoner chamber.
"Ah, yes, the bodyguard. Your magic was most unexpected, and your swift return is surprising. How would you like to work for me?"
"I am not puppet for the darkness!" Riku shouted out.
I am done working for evil! I am done working for darkness, for villains. I fight now to make my own name, and to save the worlds from the repetition that Sora trapped them in.
"And you are In! My! Way!" he jumped, deflected Jafar's green fire, and avoided the danger of the floor by constantly launching himself into the air before the ground could capture him. He didn't focus on flinging about fire, or keeping his distance. Jafar was weak up close; two duels had already shown Riku that.
Jafar was pressed, spinning his staff to deflect Riku's keyblade, throwing fire to push the boy away. But Riku dodged and ducked, even before Jafar had finished casting his spells.
"What sorcery is this, boy?" Jafar hissed out as Riku scored another hit. The sorcerer was bleeding now from several wounds, his arm hanging limp at his side, many of its tendons severed.
Riku didn't answer, but pressed his attack, always leaping high, jumping side to side, never letting himself rest on the floor to be trapped. His keyblade snapped out, cleaving off Jafar's arm. It fell to the floor, still clutching the staff.
Jafar hissed in pain, and the hiss expanded and deepened as the sorcerer changed his form to that of a giant snake. Fire launched from its hissing mouth, and Riku jumped out of the way.
Okay, this is new.
Riku jumped onto the spine of the snake as the floor twisted. He ran up toward the head, intent on decapitating the transformed sorcerer. But he was surprised when the whole snake rolled and he found himself facing Jafar's face as a stream of fire launched forth. Riku jumped, but it was no use. He would miss the flames, but the teeth would catch him on the fall down. He readied his keyblade to try to minimize the damage. Maybe he would only lose an arm.
His descent was abruptly stopped as he felt his long shirt snagged by something. Looking up, he saw Aladdin grasping hold of the shirt, riding the carpet.
"You're lucky I've got great timing." The thief grinned, and Riku nodded. He shouldn't have over-committed to that attack. Aladdin helped him onto the carpet, which dodged and weaved to avoid the bursts of flame.
"He controls the ground," Riku said, before jumping off the carpet and hopping from pillar to pillar, slashing at the sections of snake that filled the room, coating the floor with the beast's blood as it thrashed. Aladdin struck from the air, the carpet dodging the fire as the thief cut Jafar's face and neck.
"Ha! You may be the most powerful sorcerer in the world, but you're still not all-powerful!" Riku taunted, as a cut of the keyblade exposed severed ribs to the air.
"Genie!" The snake called out, and Riku winced. Crap, is he going to wish for invulnerability? Dammit, Riku, why did you have to screw things up? "For my third wish, I wish to be an all-powerful genie!" The blue light struck, and instantly the wounds on the snake healed, even as the golden scales turned to a blood red skin. "Yes! Yesssss!" Jafar cackled as he grew in power.
"But you have a genie's weakness!" Aladdin called out, holding aloft the black lamp.
Riku stepped into the sun behind Aladdin, clean native clothes on him as he followed the thief. He would see the world move on from its repetition, and then it would be time for him to move on.
He hadn't made ten steps onto the parapet before a horrific scream cut through him, sending him pitching forward in sympathetic agony.
Help me!
A call, deep, echoing, and painful, rebounded in his skull.
The keyhole. Someone was messing with the bond. Dammit.
Riku got up, the pain fading as he shuffled forward, ignoring everyone's concern. They weren't important now. He stepped into a shadow, focusing on the keyhole.
"Riku!"
It was a voice Riku didn't want to hear, but he was really the only one who would be here, and Riku knew it. Did he even have a reason, or was stopping Riku enough?
"Sora. I thought I told you to take care of her." Riku admonished. I know where it hurts you, Sora, because that's where it hurts me.
"I am. She's with the gummi ship. What are you doing here? Kairi said she could feel that there was a Princess of Heart in danger, that there was a keyhole open. We got here as fast as we could. You didn't...do anything, did you, Riku?" Sora asked, with that expression of futile hope.
"I opened the keyhole. The world was dying. It needed to be fed by Kingdom Hearts. Now get out of my way so I can open it back up." And quickly! There are probably only a few more minutes before the reset happens again, and I don't know if relieving the pressure will be enough to prevent a reset with a closed keyhole.
"NO!" Sora jumped between Riku and the locked keyhole. "Then the heartless will come and eat this world!"
"Its better that they have a chance to fight instead of the alternative. The people here weren't living, Sora, they were just acting the same story out again and again. I don't know how many times the story repeated, but it must have been many." Come on, I don't have a lot of time. Understand me!
"Riku! You gave in to the darkness. It's tricking you! The keyholes have to stay closed! That way the heartless can't destroy the world, like they did to our home!"
"No, Sora. It's not the darkness, it's not Maleficent, it's my own thoughts. My own actions. I own my choices, Sora—don't take that away from me by saying they were someone else's. I lived through Kingdom Hearts, I have traveled the bonds between worlds, I understand how this universe works, and the keyholes must stay open." Otherwise the bonds scream in pain, and pain is damage. They will break.
"Then I'll have to stop you. I'm sorry, Riku." Sora's ultima keyblade appeared in his hands. It was like he wasn't even listening.
"I'm going to beat you, Sora, and then I'm going to fix that keyhole."
Keyblades flashed against each other, and Riku had a better understanding of Jafar, as Sora charged forward heedlessly, swinging his keyblade like a maniac. Riku parried as best he could, and his few counterattacks were deflected by Sora's maelstrom.
Riku threw black fire, which Sora hastily attempted to deflect.
"Don't give into the darkness!" Sora called out, as he cast a cure on himself, healing the fairly mild burns.
"Out of my way!" shouted Riku, as he charged forward, flinging more black fire, driving Sora back and stabbing over and over again, the two keyblades a blur as they parried and bounced off of each other. Riku hopped back and blasted more dark fire, and Sora couldn't deflect it all.
"Is that all you've got?" Riku taunted. His rival was weak. Where was the self-assured confidence of doing the right thing? Maybe Riku's speech had gotten Sora to question his understanding after all.
Sora charged back in, his keyblade swinging and swinging, and Riku felt himself hard pressed to keep up. Blood stained Sora's keyblade, and Riku's side flamed in agony, but the set-up was complete.
"Riku!" Sora called out, trying to get his friend to stop.
"Time's up," Riku replied. This had gone on too long. He turned away from Sora, and faced the now-exposed keyhole. He pointed his keyblade at it, and the beam of light connected the two.
"No!" Sora jumped forward, but Riku's fire flung him back with concussive force. The keyhole clicked open.
Too close. Thank you.There was no doubt, he understood the bond more now, with each time he unlocked it.
Sora stood up, and raised his own keyblade to seal it closed again.
Riku's hand flared, and dark fire exploded against Sora, sending the young hero bouncing into a pillar, his keyblade clattering to a stop.
"No matter what you do Riku, Kairi and I will stop you. Every keyhole you open, we'll close. And once she gets here, you won't be able to beat both of us." Sora coughed, but grinned the cocksure grin that he wore every time he bested Riku. When he won a race, when he got Kairi to kiss him, when he showed off his keyblade. Every. Damn. Time.
"Not if I break it first." Riku gave his own grin, not as well practiced, but gleeful in its chance to usurp Sora's dominance.
Sora's eyes widened as Riku jumped, bringing his keyblade down upon the keyhole, severing it in two. There was a clash of light.
"Riku!" Two voices echoed. One was becoming tiresome. The other he didn't want to hear at all.
"What have you done?" Kairi shouted at him. Her keyblade was flowery, with a wicked edge at the end. She didn't carry it like a sword. More concerningly, she carried it like Sora did his. Had he been teaching her?
"I'm saving the worlds from the problem Sora started. The keyholes must stay open. If you two won't help me, then don't stop me, or I'll keep breaking them."
The wound in Riku's side ached. Sora had gone quite deep. Riku started feeling lightheaded, blood loss making it hard to concentrate.
"What are you talking about? You beat up your best friend, burning him, and then you open a keyhole, and then you BREAK the keyhole! And you want me to go along with this? Hell no!" Kairi held the keyblade in Sora's ready stance, anger and determination in her eyes.
Can I fight her? No. I can barely defend with this wound, and I can't just blow her away with magic. I just can't fight her like Sora. She's...she's Kairi, and I love her too much.
"Kairi, the worlds are repeating—"
"No! I don't want to hear it, Riku! This is just some stupid attempt to get attention. You believed the first person you came across, and now you've gone and done something completely crazy! What's wrong with you? Didn't you learn the first time?"
"Yeah. That's why all of these are my decisions. There was no one giving me guidance. This is my choice. Goodbye. I hope you will come to understand." Riku clutched a hand to his side and fell back into the shadow of the pillar, then fled, cloaking himself in darkness as he sped along the bond toward another of the locked worlds.