Riku's feet clamored loudly against the floor, so if ever the thought of a subtle entrance entered his mind, it was quickly eclipsed by the ruckus his shoes were instigating. The noise made him grimace, for he was pretty damn sure he'd been nowhere near this loud in his dream. Yet he walked casually, not appearing perturbed by the foreign everything, not showing an ounce of surprise as he emerged into a grand atrium, and expressing nothing in the way of fear as his eyes fell upon the golden-eyed creature of shadows dancing a few feet away from him, monitoring his entrance with quick cocks of the head and fiery rubbing of his hands (if the spindly stubs could be referred to as hands) together.
This all was exposed, but deep behind his cool blue eyes, he studied the monster with a feral loathing, and his hands clenched, but it was all he could do to remain composed in the gaze of the witch who stood tall beside the thing. She must be a witch, he concluded, because no one had such a hairstyle as black horns, and no one wore such draping cloaks anymore that ran past their shoes and were reminiscent of a crow's thick feathers. She turned slightly to face him head on, and he was faced with her empty yellow eyes. If met with the opportunity, it was without a doubt that she'd throw her head back and bellow the ugliest laughter that, Riku could only imagine, would freeze him straight to his core.
Thus, she began to laugh, but it was of a different breed from the maniacal howling that he'd predicted. It was more of a titter. And she brought her long claws to her chest, where they met happily, and opened her mouth.
She taunted, "Quick on your feet, boy, aren't you?" in her low, cruel voice.
But Riku wouldn't play the fool again by asking naïve questions. He crossed his arms and kept his face wiped clean of any visible thoughts. Nonchalantly, he slowly glanced about the large room, eyes pausing on the water fountain set between the winding stairs to the upper balcony. They stayed there, staring at the water falling correctly down into the small pool below.
The monster was now restless, and it began scurrying on all fours around the base of the witch's robes, head never ceasing its disgusting twitches and jerks.
Not giving her the courtesy of his gaze, he replied, "If Kairi's here, I wanna see her." He continued watching as the water fell peacefully from the spigot, barely making a sound as it pushed and rolled into the lower basin.
"Kairi?" Her tone grew slightly musical. "Oh my, but there are so many more important things to be worrying about!" Her smile widened, and her eyes froze on his face.
This stare provoked Riku's interest, and as the goose bumps trickled down his arms, his eyes reluctantly flashed to hers and the fear seeped back into his soul. With much tension, he said "What could be more important than Kai--"
But immediately as he breathed out the first syllable of her name, the blade of a sword plunged through his back, and it twisted itself around his insides, and the silver tip emerged out his chest with his eyes, suddenly wider and whiter than the glaring sun, clapping down upon it. His world was thrust forward with the movement of the weapon, and his breath would not come, would not fill him, would not obey his dying wish of greeting him one last time. His arms thrown out at his sides, the atrium exploded and the witch continued staring at him with the same complacent smile and stare.
His head fell back, and his hair slipped down his neck and tickled the top of the blade. He stared up and his eyes caught the life leaving him, and it was oh-so abrupt how his heart left his chest, being pulled up by wisps of white and violet. His mouth was slack, the faint whisper of final breath lingering at the edge of his lips. He watched as his heart raised into the sky, watched as it disappeared into the darkness, and the sight left his eyes and all he watched then was black and white swim together as one.
A large hand gently pushed against the back of his shoulder in the act of removing the sword, but his appearance never entered Riku's vision, for his mind had escaped him once more. It floated after his runaway heart, longing to rejoin with it, but the plea was denied and his soul rebounded to the cold, hard floor. His eyes finally shut, nothing left inside him, no thought, no mind, no heart.
And thus, death came once again.
Oh, death… How you've always been there, waiting to catch the poor child as he launched himself back into the land of the living. How you knew he'd gone up without enough air, held on by weak strings, and the darkness, it had tampered with it. The darkness: his fatal flaw, the force that had pulled him right back down into its mouth.
The walls of wriggling black built themselves back up, one by one, gravitating about the orb of light. But in this circumstance, the peace was gone. In fact, this death was most certainly nothing like the "death" Riku had experienced last time. Was it that his conscience came with him? The fact that his body was present with his mind, the way he held control over himself unlike when, before, the two forces had drifted apart and left a wide emptiness between that quickly allowed false bliss to seep in and fill the gaps between power and serenity?
Death, how you've been overestimated. Without such a bliss, it's obvious that power dominates.
The monster that played innocently at Maleficent's feet turned its large eyes towards the corpse of the sweet boy as it was flung forward to the ground. Jutting its head out slightly with wonder, it followed the boy as he hit the ground with a loud smack, head bouncing off stone, gashing the forehead, but not otherwise injuring him any further, for it was obvious Riku was gone.
The second after the child fell, the kingdom keyblade clattered against the ground behind him, yet its owner was unseen. There was no blood staining its wonderful sheen. The dark creature froze its twitching and witnessed the pool of swirling black lick its way around the body, confining it to its being and absorbing it into its depths, and it then witnessed the event of the evening: The swirling mass did not retreat, but strengthen, and as the body disappeared, so came in its place a hulking creature. Great and lean, the small shadow on the ground tilted its head back to see to the top of its new friend's head.
The Invisible gazed down upon his Shadow inferior and clutched its huge sword in his right hand, raising it back, power visibly coursing through its body, the wisps of black still clinging lovingly to his arms, legs, and torso, and then he whipped the weapon at Maleficent's head.
Death was gleaming with a new light, and the hand of the boy being passed through to the dark raised wearily toward it to snatch it out of the void. All began spinning faster as the energy thrived and pumped.
The shell blinked around Maleficent's still body and immediately reciprocated the sword, flinging it away where it collided with the fountain. Water spat every out of the smashed stone, hitting the Invisible through the hole where its heart may have claimed to once rest.
The water poured in at all sides of the death, and it was quite obvious then that this was hardly a death at all. Riku's being pushed back against the water, and his eyes were wide open, wide not with fear but with strength, and with ease, he pulled himself to his feet. The walls did not crash, but back away, and the light did not fade, but it grew. It grew and Riku ran, he ran from the light, he dived into the darkness, the walls that eyed him ferociously. He launched himself into their confines, and he felt himself regain his breath. He looked down and he saw his hands; he looked up and saw the light clearing out the dark. No matter what, it was moving away from him, and the confusion, how it tore at him!
Such a small body standing at the pit of eternity's struggle. His body was anything but unable, and it was, at last, his strength, above all else, that saved his life again.
The Shadow slunk away from his friend, the Invisible, as the larger of the two monsters began ripping at his heart, water leaking from the hole, with horrid rage. His heart was returning to him, and thus the replacement, the creature of darkness felt this and knew this. He ripped, ripped away at his empty heart, head thrown back, knees buckling. The witch raised a thin brow and drummed her fingers on her staff once, allowing the lesson to be taught.
The Shadow, scared senseless, it would seem, absorbed itself into the ground and swam back towards its master, hiding behind her elegant outfit. The witch herself bore her eyes emotionlessly into the eyes of the monster, and she watched as those empty yellow sockets returned themselves to the sea of beautiful cerulean.
It was darkness that rose from his newly returned body, however, and this sight was as Maleficent had wanted, yet her interest never once wavered as she watched the birth and demise of Riku's heartless.
"Your strength…" the words came at Riku's ear, breath at the back of Riku's neck, and his sharpened senses allowed him to place the deep, delicate voice. The Seeker of Darkness.
"Your strength, my sweet boy…" Those soft words were different and met Riku at his front, for they came from the old witch's mouth. There was no one behind him.
"… desirable, at the very least." She took very carefully crafted steps toward him, then stopped and raised her arms into the air. Yes, this was the laugh that he'd heard in his thoughts, and the witch certainly belted it. The laughter rose near the end, resembling the caw of a crow with its edge.
Riku was shaking. Darkness was still rising from his skin, and, while he could still breathe, it was hard for him to feel his heart in his chest, for it felt cold. "That… that wasn't death, was it?" he spoke, voice quivering.
Her laughter cut off abruptly and she composed herself with a flourish of her staff in the air. "Anyone who could ever imagine returning from the realm of darkness and reclaiming their soul from their personal heartless twice, let alone successfully accomplish such an impossible task…." She held her palm out in the air, laying horizontally parallel to the floor. Many more shadows, at this silent command, generated around her and the original, smaller shadow. "Anyone with such expertise… belongs under my command."
His breath quickened and his fists clenches, ready for anything to happen, anything to jump at him. "Are you gonna stab me again, old hag?!" he spat at her. He scanned the place for anything that would aid him in a quick exit.
Her brows rose again. "Are you thinking about running away, Riku…?" The monsters surrounding her all bobbed back and forth in unison, their heads rolling like a sea in a storm.
His glare was tangible. "I don't even know where the hell I am or who the hell you're supposed to be!!" he retorted, now backing up slowly towards the large door at his back.
"My name, Riku, is Maleficent," she said as her chin raised proudly, "and I'll be called as such whilst you remain here with me in Hollow Bastion. Now," she paused, "I can see the fear in your eyes. And I'm hoping that the great talent you displayed in working your way back to your body wasn't just… a ruse, a panic-induced spurt that'll never be seen again." Her tone, which had gone black, suddenly turned lighter. "I can also see your sad attempt at leaving, and I'll have you know there are heartless behind every door of this castle, lingering behind every turn. While you may be thinking you're safe from harm, be quite aware that if you ever defy me--"
He broke her off, pointing warily at the army of Shadows. "That's called a heartless?" Their eyes… their long fingers… choking him, gripping him, licking him…
"Oh yes. Can you not identify with them? After all, for a few moments, you'd joined their ranks as one of them!" And she threw her head back and howled her laughter again, the Shadows stirring excitedly at the noise, the waves in the sea gaining height in the gusts.
A thousand pairs of yellow eyes were upon him as he stood dumbfounded, at a loss for words. One of them? Instead of death, he inferred, he'd been… one of them. A heartless. Shooting his gaze downward, he lifted a hand and placed it over his heart. There, it was beating, but still cold. And the black wisps that rose from the army, they rose from his skin like a low fire, consuming him. He had to escape. But then--
"Riku?!"
Oh, that voice! He spun around, and there he was: Sora, his best friend in all his glory, standing there casually at the entrance of the grand hall.
"Where've you been, Riku? I've been looking all over for you!" His childish cheeks pushed his mouth into a small pout and his arms crossed, but it was all good-natured.
Riku's thoughts were suddenly replaced by excitement, and doubt never entered his mind pertaining to why Sora would ever be here in this pit of hell. Still, he couldn't help but take a step toward him, face alight, but as he did so, as he blinked, his friend was gone.
"The new keyblade master. He is your friend, is he not?" It was Maleficent in Sora's place, smiling down at him, eyes gleaming. Riku choked back a gasp and, instead, let out a low growl.
"What have you done to him?! Where is he? Where's Kairi? What do you WANT with me?" And with a final frustrated cry, he charged straight toward Maleficent, fists raised high, and slugged her square in the face. Her cheek was forced to the side, and she stumbled backwards, arms out to her sides, but he'd have hurt her more if it wasn't for the heartless that converged.
They jumped him, swarming over his body and pushing him to the ground. They emitted odd swishing noises that he could only assume was their battle call as they lashed at him, all on top of him A loud blast blew them away quickly, however, and the witch was standing above him, glowering down at him with a horrid expression.
"I'll forgive you this time, you little brat!" At that, she turned with a swish of her cloak, and marched toward the curving stairwell on the opposite side of the room. "But for now, get OUT of my sight!"
His opportunity: Riku hopped to his feet stealthily, and, without giving the old hag a backwards glance, rushed from the room. He sprinted back down the long stone corridor from which he'd first came though, and, while blindly turning, for speed mattered more than thought at a time like this, he fortuitously and foolishly threw himself straight into the mouth of a waiting portal of darkness.
Hee~ I'm philosophical. :B
So this chapter was a bit of a doozy to write. I wasn't sure where to end it, and I had a list of things I wanted to happen before the end, and I almost made it. You can probably tell I'm straying from the canonical story since (according to the KH wiki) Maleficent was supposed to be very friendly towards Riku when they meet. But hey, I hate friendly, so I'm declaring artistic liscense and making Maleficent and Ansem (yes, that was Ansem) nearly kill Riku. It's one of those "proof of strength" things. :D