Title: 100 Steps To Somewhere
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Claim: Cloud/Riku
Theme: 019. Adventure
Word Count: 2,947
Rating: M
Summary: It was like a waking nightmare. Someone once told him that within darkness, there is always a little light, but he could no longer remember who that was. Riku thought this must be what it was like to lose your heart.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, nor do I know anyone who does. The usual blabber that comes before a fanfic so you can't get sued. I am making absolutely no money off this trifle of a story.
Spoilers: I suppose if you haven't finished the first game, there are some spoilers contained here. Otherwise, not really.
Author's Note: I have nothing to say about this one. It came out exactly the way I wanted it to, so take it for what it is.
Step Nineteen: Imprisonment
It was like a waking nightmare. Riku was frozen, unable to control his body. He watched as the scenery changed; corridors he'd taken to when he met Ansem passed by as his feet traced the path to his bedroom. He tied to stop the movement—if only to prove to himself that he could—but failed. His body traveled independent of his actions and will.
The darkness in his heart was not alone. He felt another presence there, darker than anything he felt before. It suffocated the light he had left—light Riku didn't even know was there until now. Riku felt his heart beat faster, and if he controlled his own breathing, it would have been shallow, but even that was beyond him. He tried to take a deep breath, but it failed. His head felt dizzy; everything spun around him.
He watched as his hand lifted and opened the bedroom door. The Soul Eater dropped to his desk, and his hand picked up the other Keyblade—the one to unlock hearts. Riku struggled, tried to open his fingers to drop it, but the hand held tight.
"Stop that," said . . . something. Himself, he thought. Riku heard his own voice in it, but it was twisted, mixed with Ansem's, and if Riku had control of his own eyes, he'd cry, but instead, he attached the dark Keyblade to his belt and left the room. "You must give your heart over to the darkness."
"I won't let you use me like this," Riku tried to say, but his mouth didn't obey him anymore.
Ansem was in control now.
----------0----------
Riku, unable to talk, move, or do anything physically, found he had a lot of time to observe, and even more to think. Unfortunately, most of what occupied Riku's thoughts depressed, worried, and frightened him. Ansem could kill Sora. Ansem wouldn't care less about whether or not Kairi got her heart back. How was he going to contact Cloud, or even explain what happened? What would Ansem say if Cloud called?
Worst of all, he got the bad feeling that this was what Ansem had in mind all along—maybe even from the second he contacted Riku on Destiny Islands. He didn't have a body, and sharing the body with someone who could bear a Keyblade opened up a thousand possibilities. He felt used and wasted. Maleficent didn't need him to open the door; all she needed was the princesses, and for Riku to grow so hopeless that Ansem could gain the body he needed.
Maleficent never helped him; she showed him Sora just at the right time—when Sora had grown close enough to his new companions, and had enough other things on his mind. She must have known about Kairi all along, but she waited until after Riku met Sora again, when he'd feel most desperate to fix everything. She may have even known about Cloud, courtesy of Ansem, and only allowed him to go because, upon returning from Olympus Coliseum, Riku felt so determined to finish things that he held little qualms about obtaining the Keyblade from Sora.
Of course, he never kept the Keyblade, but losing it had led him here—here at this horrible place where his words and actions no longer belonged to him, and he was forced to stand by and watch it all unfold.
The anger he felt toward Sora drained; Sora had never been against him. Sora had seen Riku fall deeper into the darkness, and cared enough to try and beat some sense into him. Riku wished he would have realized sooner. Sora had tried to turn Riku against Maleficent, and for good reason. Sora tried to befriend Riku on multiple occasions again, but Riku didn't listen—not to Sora, and not to Cloud. He was too lost in his own misconceptions.
Power had never gotten to Sora; it got to Riku.
As the anger against Sora drained, it grew toward Ansem and Maleficent. He swore, whether he could breathe, move, and speak or not, he would not let them hurt Kairi or Sora. Riku would stop it, no matter the consequence.
"So, I see the path has emerged at last," said Ansem, his voice still laced with Riku's own. His anger grew as Riku saw the Grand Hall and the innocent Princesses of Heart, locked away, pawns in this game just as much as Riku was.
"Yes," said Maleficent. Riku took note that she showed no surprise at the change in his voice. "The Keyhole to the darkness."
So, she had lied about that, too. There was no wisdom there—no way to save Kairi's heart. All that lay beyond was more darkness. Riku's anger grew a little more.
"Unlock it and the Heartless will overrun this world," said Ansem.
"What do I care? The darkness holds no power over me. Rather, I will use its power to rule all worlds."
"Such confidence," said Ansem. Riku watched as his own hand raised, and the dark Keyblade appeared there.
"Oh," said Maleficent. Ansem directed the Keyblade toward the Keyhole. Nothing happened. Maleficent's smile fell. "Impossible! The Princesses of Heart are all here!" She turned and her eyes fell on Kairi. "It must be her."
Her? Kairi? Riku watched as Ansem joined Maleficent by Kairi, but his mind raced. Kairi was the last Princess of Heart? And Riku had brought her here, straight to Hollow Bastion without knowing that he put her fate in their hands. Shame overcame his senses as he forgot his anger, and he, too, looked at Kairi.
"I'm sorry," Riku thought—words he was now unable to say.
"Without her heart, she will never be able to release her power," said Ansem.
A noise—signal of movement nearby—caught Ansem and Maleficent's attention. Kairi was ripped from Riku's sight as Ansem turned his head toward where the sound originated.
"The King's fools are here," said Maleficent. "I'll deal with them myself. You stay here and guard the princesses."
Riku and Ansem watched as she left. Riku didn't try to struggle against Ansem's hold just yet. Sora would finish off Maleficent; Riku had no doubts about that. Right now, he had to wait, gather his strength, and when it was needed, push with enough force to save Kairi and Sora from whatever Ansem tried to do. Until then, Riku would just wait, observe, and think.
----------0----------
"Do you need some help?" said Ansem. Riku would've smiled if he could as he stood in the Castle Chapel, staring down at Maleficent dying.
"Riku," said Sora.
Ansem turned to face Sora.
"Is that—" said Donald.
"Yes. A Keyblade," said Ansem.
Riku's heart sank. Ansem was in Riku's body, still looked like him, and Sora thought . . . didn't Sora notice? Couldn't he hear the difference in the voice?
"But unlike yours," Ansem continued, "this Keyblade holds the power to unlock people's hearts. Allow me to demonstrate . . . Behold!"
Ansem directed the Keyblade toward Maleficent.
"No," Maleficent said, gasping. A purple-blue light appeared around her heart.
"Now, open your heart, surrender it to the darkness!" said Ansem. "Become darkness itself!"
The green light Riku was so familiar with, that had sunk into his heart so many times before, engulfed Maleficent.
"This is it! This power!" said Maleficent. She laughed. "Darkness . . . The true darkness!"
Ansem took a step back, and then another, exiting the Castle Chapel just as green flames erupted and Maleficent transformed into a large, looming dragon. Riku tried to push his body forward and rush back in; Ansem held him back.
"I won't let you kill Sora," thought Riku.
"I told you to stop that," said Ansem.
Riku heard the sounds of battle through the door as Ansem waited for one to finish the other off, and then it seemed just as soon as it started, it stopped. Ansem pushed open the door to reenter the Castle Chapel. Riku felt the pressure in his heart lessen upon the sight of the dead dragon, and Sora stood there with his Keyblade, bruised, but alive.
Ansem walked over to Maleficent and knelt beside her.
"How ironic. She was just another puppet after all."
"What?" said Donald. Sora said nothing, didn't even glare, he just looked at Riku. Riku wished he could tell Sora that for the first time in a while, he was really looking back.
"The Heartless were using Maleficent from the beginning," said Ansem. "She failed to notice the darkness in her heart eating away at her. A fitting end for such a fool."
Sora disappeared from Riku's vision as Ansem stepped back through a dark portal.
----------0----------
Riku looked down at the princesses, and Kairi in the center. Ansem, Riku discovered, was more powerful than Riku, and brought more dark powers to pair with his abilities—abilities that were there far before this adventure began, and abilities that darkness bestowed upon him along the way. One of these new abilities Ansem brought to his body was the power to fly, which was how Riku ended up on this pipe above the Keyhole to darkness in the first place.
Ansem sat there, waiting for Sora. He didn't speak of it, but the darkness that weaved its way into his heart through Ansem grew stronger, and Riku didn't need to hear words anymore. He knew Ansem's emotions without being told—limited emotions that so far consisted of anger and sick amusement. Upon feeling Ansem invade his heart, Riku realized he was more twisted that he ever would have guessed.
It was hard, though, to sit here and wait. Even though Sora ran through the door to the Grand Hall no more than five minutes after Ansem's departure, it felt like years. Riku tried to maintain his sense of self, but like Ansem invaded his body, the darkness in him invaded Riku's heart. He grew weak; he thought this must be what it's like to lose your heart to the darkness. This was how the Heartless were created, and soon, Riku feared he'd become one of them.
Images grew fuzzy as did the sounds around him. His thought process became disjointed. He tried to picture Cloud, but the effect wasn't as it had been in those long corridors of darkness. It felt like months, but it was mere seconds that passed when Riku realized he could no longer remember what Cloud looked like. He had seen Sora minutes ago, and though he knew Sora's name, he couldn't picture him, either.
Riku sat there on the pipe with Ansem as he took over his body, voice, and heart. He looked hard at Kairi, because she was still there, and her visage was the only one he could still see. He tried to remember the Islands, what it had been like before, and he clung to last bit of will inside.
Someone told him once that even in darkness, there is always a little light, but Riku could no longer remember who it was. Still, he tried to find the last light left.
"Kairi!" a voice shouted, and then Sora came into view. So that's what Sora looked like. He kneeled by her and lifted her upper body into his lap. Riku felt his last shred of light push a little of the darkness away. "Kairi! Kairi! Open your eyes!"
"It's no use," said Ansem.
Riku would have liked to tell Sora not to listen to him, but everything was spinning again. Sora looked up to where Riku and Ansem sat on the pipe.
"That girl has lost her heart," said Ansem. "She cannot wake up."
"What?" said Sora. He laid Kairi back to the ground. "You . . . You're not Riku."
The light in Riku's heart grew a little more. Sora did notice.
"The Keyhole cannot be completed so long as the last Princess of Heart still sleeps," said Ansem. He leapt from the pipe, descending slowly in front of the Keyhole to darkness.
Sora's eyes widened and he broke his gaze to look at Kairi.
"A princess . . .? Kairi's a princess?"
"Yes, and without her power, the Keyhole will remain incomplete. It is time she awakened."
"Whoever you are, let Riku go! Give him back his heart!"
Riku wanted to hug Sora right now and never let go. Sora noticed. Riku tried to stave off the darkness attempting to overtake his heart again. The light inside it grew.
"But first," said Ansem, "you must give the princess back her heart."
Ansem lifted the dark Keyblade and pointed it at Sora, making contact. Sora fell to the ground and clutched his chest as Donald called out his name.
"What's—" said Sora.
Riku tried to push the dark away, tried to separate from Ansem or regain control of his body. Nothing seemed to be working.
"Don't you see yet? The princess's heart is responding," said Ansem. He walked down the staircase toward Sora, his companions, and Kairi. Riku pushed harder against Ansem's pull.
"Kairi . . ." said Sora, touching his chest. "Kairi's inside me?"
"I know all that there is to know."
"Tell me. Who are you?"
"It is I, Ansem, the seeker of darkness."
In his head, Riku snorted. A bit of the darkness receded.
Ansem walked closer to them, and Donald made that annoying noise Riku hated again. He ran toward Ansem and tried to attack, but failed. Ansem stood over Sora and pointed the dark Keyblade at him for the second time.
"So, I shall release you now, Princess. Complete the keyhole with your power. Open the door, lead me into everlasting darkness."
Ansem swung the Keyblade. Sora blocked it with his.
"Forget it! There's no way you're taking Kairi's heart!"
Riku couldn't break free of the grip, not even as Ansem battled Sora. Sora beat him before, though, and Riku hoped that with this incentive, he could do it again. Ansem had more powers, different tactics, and Sora took a beating, but it was with relief that Riku fell. He felt no pain, but the dizziness came back from such swift shifts in focal points. Still, he cheered inside for Sora and Kairi's safety.
"Sora! Sora, look!"
"The . . . The Keyhole."
Donald. Goofy. Riku, though he wished he didn't, knew those voices.
Sora pointed the Keyblade toward the Keyhole, but all it did was sputter.
"It won't work! The Keyhole's not finished yet!" said Goofy.
"What can we do?" said Sora.
"Maybe we gotta go wake Kairi up," said Goofy.
"I think you're right. If we can free her heart . . . But . . . But how?" There was a long pause. "A Keyblade that unlocks people's hearts. I wonder."
"No!" Riku tried to say. He tried to lift his body to stop him, but it was no use.
"Sora?" said Goofy.
Riku watched Sora pick up the Keyblade. Everything went dark. When he could see anything again, he realized he was no longer in his own body, but in Ansem's. His voice was gone; Ansem's alone was in its place. Riku's heart felt so weak. He couldn't see anymore.
"So, you . . . awakened . . . Princess," said Ansem. It sounded like static, but the few words he could make out caused alarm to rise within the little left in him. "Keyhole . . . served your purpose. But . . . over."
Riku saw Ansem approach a very blurry image. No, it couldn't be. Where was Sora? Kairi? She was . . . awake?
Riku pieced together what he heard, and expended all energy to stay focused. He could die after this, lose his heart, whatever was happening to him, but he wouldn't let Ansem have the last word. Kairi was awake. Sora picked up the dark Keyblade. He must have freed Kairi's heart, but where was Sora? Was he dead? Had he killed himself to save Kairi? And Ansem . . . Ansem said Kairi had served her purpose for the Keyhole, and something was over . . .
Riku would let his heart be taken—much less his body—and have it end in Ansem killing Kairi. He put all his light left into pushing against Ansem's pull.
"Don't make . . . move!" said Donald.
The voices became a little clearer.
"Do you think . . . can stop him . . . ourselves?" said Goofy.
Ansem stilled as if no longer able to move forward. Riku pushed harder.
"I don't know!" said Donald.
"Impossible . . ." said Ansem.
Riku's vision cleared, his heart detached from the darkness, and he stood before Ansem, arms outstretched. He took half a second to observe his transparent figure—that he no longer had a body, but was reduced to whatever Ansem had been before—and then he cast the thought aside.
"No," said Riku. The relief at hearing his own voice without Ansem's laced into it was indescribable. "You won't use me for this!"
He blocked off Ansem. His will was giving.
"Riku!" said Kairi.
"You've got to run! The Heartless are coming!"
Gaggles of shadows appeared around the room. Kairi looked at Riku, determination in her eyes, and then she ran off with Donald and Goofy.
Riku's strength gave out. Instead of returning to Ansem, though, as he had thought would happen, he fell into nothingness. Everything was black—darker than the corridors of darkness. His mind fell into haze.
When Riku was little, he and Sora talked of great adventures. They pretended to battle evil, but they—the heroes—always came out victorious. It was Riku's last thought before everything became nothing.
That's it for this installment.
To my two little reviewers:
seiza: Yes. 100 Chapters. Which I why I titled this fic '100 Steps to Somewhere.' You'll find out all about why Leon called Cloud in the next chapter (or step, as I'm calling them for the purpose of this story).
ChibiFrubaGirl: Yes, ma'am, I will be following this through KH2, and I already have a good idea on what I'm doing with this story for KH:CoM. So, you know, I know you said you didn't care if CoM was included, but it's going to be, so I hope that isn't a bad thing. I already played all of Reverse/Rebirth again, writing down all the dialogue and stuff, for this story, so it's going in. I only plan on this ending in the aftermath of KH2. As for your concern about dropping this story, I hope I don't. I picked it up because I dropped a lot of stories two years ago and I wanted to get back into a series I would actually finish. So of course I decided to pick a challenge with 100 prompts. I made completing this a New Year's Resolution (one of the few). It may be the first resolution I actually keep.
To everyone else:
Thanks for being dears and giving this a looksie. I hope you enjoyed yourself. I know I like this story, but who knows how credible my opinion is? I also like this pairing, which seems to lack fans.
I have nothing original to say to encourage feedback. I also won't stop writing this story if you don't leave one because I write this story for me first and foremost, so I'm not even going to leave a threat. I like reviews, okay? It's nice to know that something I put a lot of my thought, time, and effort into is being read and enjoyed by someone other than me. Because like I said, who knows how credible my opinion is?