Hello :D
Thought I'd get this up before I go on a trip to check out some colleges. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making the last chapter the most reviewed of the whole story, and for getting me up over my goal of 100 reviews! I'm so incredibly pleased at the response to this story. You're all making it extra-special for me. :D
Anyways--major bombshell dropped at the end of last chapter. This one is interesting, and very long. I couldn't find an appropriate place to end it. I tried to make it less cliffy than other chapters, because I know how you all hate cliffhangers. I especially like the end of this chapter, it was a lot of fun to write. Please enjoy :D
The tension of disbelief in the room rose to an unbearable height as red burned on Yuri's cheeks. "I'm sorry… Leon came along, and the opportunity to tell you never really presented itself," she timidly explained.
"You might have told all of us when the meeting started," Riku pointed out indignantly.
"Sorry," Yuri said again, voice growing stronger. "It seems you knew either way, though."
"True," Riku admitted grudgingly.
"Needless to say, we're really glad to have you back," Aerith smiled as the others still gaped. The Yuri they had known was not exactly Queen material, but ever since their return to Hollow Bastion, she had been nothing but serious and desperately attempting to help them devise a way to outwit the Adherence.
"We can finally get something done," Leon added, grateful.
"Surreal," Naminé murmured. She and Roxas shared a light, humor-filled glance that caused her to drop her eyes to the ground in embarrassment.
"How have things been here?" Yuri asked Aerith.
"Not very well, I'm afraid," Aerith answered, frowning. "I'm sure you'll be able to help us fix things, though."
"I'll certainly try," Yuri smiled, turning slightly to survey the faces of her companions. "We should depart for Akiko's immediately, using—"
"You'll be going nowhere," Riku interrupted her. "You're needed here, aren't you? Roxas, Naminé, and Sora can go to Akiko."
Yuri sighed, immediately realizing that Riku was right. "Okay, then, but I'll only feel safe if four of you go."
"Kairi?" Riku turned to her expectantly.
"Of course," she nodded.
"I'll be ready to go tomorrow," Naminé announced. "Tomorrow morning, we should leave."
"Tomorrow morning," Yuri agreed. "My suggestion would be to take the passage that leads from the library into the mountainous area just above the Great Maw, as Ivy Pass is now caved in."
"I guess that was our second choice," Leon shrugged. "It'll be a little more walking…"
"No transporting, or they'll sense the magic, I suppose," Riku mused.
"Precisely," Yuri nodded. "No magic whatsoever, unless it's very basic or in battle." Naminé and Sora both looked disappointed.
"I'd recommend all of you head to the armory, and pick something to use," Aerith suggested. "Assuming you all remember where it is."
Sora and Roxas both scowled, arms folded across their chests. "We can take anything?" Sora asked a bit eagerly, though he still looked offended that Aerith didn't think they'd remember something like that.
"Anything," Aerith nodded.
"Practicing with each other might also be a good idea… you know, get back into the swing of things…" Leon let his voice trail off.
Naminé smiled to herself. Her fingers had been all but demanding that she pick up some sort of weapon again; it had been so long…
It seemed everyone else felt the same way. Sora, Kairi, and even Yuri and Riku filed out of the room and began towards the armory, even though they weren't going to retrieve the weapons from Akiko. Aerith and Leon zipped off to set up a meeting for Yuri with her new board of advisors, and Roxas lingered, watching Naminé carefully.
"You're not going to get a weapon, too?" she asked, eyebrow raised.
Roxas looked down at the ground to avoid her blue eyed gaze. "I was thinking… would you like to come along? I know you're still probably sore and everything, but I could help—"
Naminé threw back her blankets, revealing her baggy white pajama pants and white tank top, and stood up. "I'd love to! Thank you for thinking of me, nobody else did…" she smiled.
Roxas could feel his face coloring. Naminé's diary was in his bag in his room… she knew, she would find out… No. I'll give it back… soon. He thought.
"Here…" he gently took her arm and put it over his shoulder. Delicately, he hooked his arm around her waist, and they started slowly walking.
Naminé knew her face would give away what she thought of this whole situation. She didn't need the help walking—she was fine, after all—but didn't want to break the news to Roxas. "You'd think they'd have wheelchairs around here," he commented. Was it just Naminé's imagination, or did Roxas look mortified?
"It would be helpful," Naminé agreed. "Not that I mind this or anything…"
"Of course not…"
Awkward silence.
The shuffling of their feet along the marble floors bounced off the walls and back at them, continuously reminding Naminé of her current state—hanging all over Roxas while he pulled her along, even though she didn't need it…
"Do you remember… saving me?" Roxas asked carefully. This question had been stinging at the back of his mind all day, as he sat waiting for Naminé to wake up. He knew that the subject might be delicate, but the silence had been so inviting that the question had just slipped out.
Naminé surprisingly smiled. "Yes, I do. And I'd do it all over again, if I had to."
Roxas was so thrown off by this that he almost completely stopped walking. "Korin won't rest until she kills you… she's so dangerous, you'd risk provoking her again for… me?"
"Korin won't rest until I finish her, you mean," Naminé corrected, eyes shining. "Of course I'd risk that again. You must think I really don't like you, or something, you idiot."
Roxas flushed, embarrassed. "I'm not an idiot, am I?"
Naminé smiled playfully. "I don't think so. But I could be wrong."
Roxas smiled back. "No, I think you're right. You're smart, I'll trust you."
"If you trust my judgment, then you're definitely not an idiot."
Laughing, Roxas ruffled Naminé's hair. "Okay, glad we could come to an agreement. I'm not an idiot, then."
"Hey!" she exclaimed in surprise, immediately reaching up and rearranging her perfect hair. Roxas mentally kicked himself for messing it up, and felt an odd internal urge to reach over and fix it himself.
"Sorry about that," he mumbled, humiliated.
Naminé merely laughed. "It's okay, don't you worry at all about it."
The sharp awareness of their close proximity had dulled a bit for Roxas, and he felt more comfortable with every step they took. A grin breaking onto his face, they took a left and continued to the basement armory.
"I don't know… what do you think of this one?" Sora asked Riku uncertainly, handling a long, ancient-looking sword.
Riku wrinkled his nose. "Doesn't that one seem old?"
"They're all sturdy and well-kept, though," Yuri called to them from across the room.
The armory, a large, brown room with walls completely covered by weapon cases, was located in one of the many basements beneath the castle. The tracks of lights set into the ceiling shone off the glass at the front of the cases, brightening the room considerably, though the general hue of brown from the dull russet floor and the tan colored wood of the weapon cases wasn't dissipated. A whole case of shields was situated against the north wall, and the remaining three cases were devoted to other types of weapons of all shapes and sizes. The rest of the room was a wide, open space, most likely left that way so that anybody who was looking for a new weapon had room to test it if they wished.
Kairi was surveying a handsome bow while Yuri was eyeing her family's collection of katanas, none of which seemed to fit her standards, since she had previously used one of the best katanas ever made.
Riku had already chosen a sword: long and silver with a plain black scabbard. He combed through the rest of the swords, helping Sora to choose a nice one.
When Roxas and Naminé slowly entered the room via the staircase, everyone seemed to light up at the fact that Naminé was out of bed. They all dropped what they were doing to cheer and clap, and, grinning widely, Naminé broke away from Roxas's support and curtsied. "Feels great to be up!" she happily declared.
"Glad to see you're feeling better," Sora smiled, moving towards her to give her a hug.
"Yeah, we'll be all ready to go tomorrow, assuming I can find a nice weapon to use," she said, eyeing a line of spears to her left.
"There's a lot to pick from," Roxas noted as Sora returned to Riku, who was still helping him find one. "What're you—"
Naminé was already across the room, surveying a black and silver, lethal-looking spear. "I think I'll take this," she murmured, lifting it from its hook. "What do you think of this?" she immediately asked Roxas.
"Looks positively deadly," he assured her, attention turning toward the case of swords that Riku and Sora were standing near. He wandered over, Naminé sticking close by him, though not clinging to him as she previously was. It seemed she could, for now, at least, walk on her own.
Roxas made his selection almost as quickly as Naminé had, and as everyone else cleared out of the armory, Roxas and Naminé spent the next three hours practicing.
"Listen, I need to make a last minute addition to the advisors here," Yuri said hurriedly in Aerith's ear. "Do you think they'll mind…?"
"Not at all," she assured her. "Proceed… introduce whomever it is, and we'll begin."
"Excuse me," Yuri said, voice carrying over the twenty some men and women, plus Leon and Aerith, that had crowded into one of the many audience chambers found in the castle. "I know that you all know each other, but I wanted to add a great friend of mine, who has led me through a large portion of my life…"
Riku stepped into the chamber, looking, for once in his life, timid.
"This is Riku, and he's now one of you. That is, one of my advisors. Anyway, let's begin. What's first?"
"The prophecy," one old, grizzled man said shakily. "Shall we abide by what it says, or not?"
Yuri looked thoughtful for a moment before answering. "Yes, we shall, but that shouldn't stop us from allowing others to help in any way possible. Our five newly-returned warriors will do everything in their power to save us, and so will I."
Leon and Aerith were both nodding in approval, and she gave them a quick, nervous smile.
"Aid possibilities," a fairly young, attractive woman said loudly. "I firmly believe that we can't do this alone, your majesty, and there is one particularly good option to get help from others."
"Oh no," Riku said immediately. "I know what you're thinking, and I don't think that's a good idea at all…"
"Oh, at least let me say it," the woman snapped. "Majesty, there is a prince just one year older than you in a world not far from here that has already asked us to consider his proposal of marriage."
Aghast, Yuri's eyes immediately darted to Riku, who looked a few degrees past furious. "Marriage?" she repeated wildly, voice cracking. "Whatever for?"
"You see," Leon stepped in, much to the annoyance of the woman, "if you were to marry this prince, his world would bring thousands of fighters to aid us in ridding ourselves of the Adherence. I realize this option may not be the most appealing to you, but it would be quite helpful—"
"Of course," she said sadly. "The best option is to have me married off before I'm 18, to a man I don't even know. I definitely don't support that idea."
"I know this must be hard for you," Aerith said apologetically. "But, really, he's right—this is the fastest, easiest, and most painless way to get the help that we need."
"And what makes you all doubt that our warriors can do this without help?" Yuri demanded. "The prophecy tells us that—"
"I think," a middle-aged, squat man began, "that we can throw that prophecy out the window. Never once did it mention our fighters disappearing for seventeen years after they failed their task the first time around, so I think it's safe to say that it was never meant to be accurate. We should disregard what was told to us through the prophecy."
Yuri chanced another glance at Riku, whose expression of fury had dissipated to more of a morose, defeated look. "Riku?" she said expectantly. "What do you think?"
"What do I think? Well, obviously, I think it's a horrible idea to marry someone you don't love. You don't think that's okay, I know you don't."
"But… Riku, if I do, they'll help us," she said, softening as she realized that her advisors were, most unfortunately, correct.
"Fine, do whatever," Riku mumbled, folding his arms across his chest. "Just know that I'm disappointed in you." He spun around and forcefully shoved open the doors to the audience chamber. In a clatter of closing doors, Riku had gone.
Riku sat, brooding, on the same perch he had been earlier that day—overlooking the peaceful, healthy gardens. His mind was twisting itself into a knot as his memories pounded relentlessly against his skull, lighting up his vision with pictures of he and Yuri from the past. Before they left, marriage talks had begun for Yuri, but Riku never imagined that they'd come to pass… he always thought that brave, strong Yuri would tell them she would only marry for love…
He couldn't remember what he felt for her, but he knew that it was strong. She probably could remember less than he could about what their relationship exactly was. For some reason, however unexplainable, the thought of Yuri marrying a stuck-up prince from a foreign world was siphoning away at his insides, making him upset, and making him angry all at once.
That was it—he had to find out what had gone on. The first person he thought to talk with was the ever-observant Naminé. Just as he was about to leap off the wall and head to the armory to talk with her (somehow he knew that she was there, though he wasn't entirely sure how), he came face-to-face with the person he least wanted to talk with at the moment.
"Come here often?" Yuri asked.
Riku half-scowled. "Only when I feel down, I guess."
"I think maybe we should talk…"
"About what?" Riku immediately demanded. "You've made up your mind, and I don't know how anything I could say would change it."
Taken aback, Yuri stammered, "But—Riku, I value your opinion—"
"Not as much as that old man's, apparently."
"Oh, would you just stop it?" Yuri all but yelled. "This is the most immature I've ever seen you act in my life! You come back here and realize that you have amazing powers, so you use and abuse them to read people's minds and act like you can do anything, when if you really remembered the past at all, you'd know that you just can't, Riku! Every ounce of intelligence you have is cancelled out by arrogance, and—"
"Are you finished?" he murmured tersely, their eyes locking in an explosion of furious electricity.
"No, I'm not!" she snapped harshly. "You can't remember two of the most important people in your life, and you can't remember how many of us almost died, and yet, you think you know everything. You definitely, definitely don't!"
"Okay," he said in a low voice. "So, do you want to know what I think of you, then?"
"Yes," Yuri said shortly. "Lay it on me."
"Well, first of all, there is definitely no need to shout."
"Just get on with it, geez."
He raised his eyebrows in surprise, but didn't comment on her completely evident anger. "You are a Queen, and you make basically all the executive decisions in this world, with some help from your advisors, of course." He rolled his eyes. "Your parents died when you were young, leaving you to master the magic of Hollow Bastion by yourself. You foresaw the coming of the Adherence. You did everything you could, magically, to keep them out. They found the loophole, and entered, polluting and poisoning our world… killing innocent people, and trying to kill us. Forcing us to kill when we didn't want to."
"Your point?" she said impatiently.
"We were great friends," he said quietly. "You and I. We never spent much time apart, and you'd always ask me what I thought you should do. We practiced fighting together, but you'd always cheat and use your magic, and I'd lose. I told you that I could use my magic to see what other people were thinking, but I never told anybody else. Something about you was trustworthy… something about you told me that you wouldn't get mad or try to sensor your thoughts when I was around."
"So, wait—"
Riku shushed her. "I'm not finished. When Hana and I became friends, you got angry at me, just like you are right now. You told me I was immature, and arrogant, and that you'd never trust me or ask me for advice again. When we left here, you were still angry at me, because you thought that I loved her, even though I didn't. Your advisors back then were always pestering you to get married to some prince or king, but you'd always laugh it off and tell them that you already had someone in mind, but you never said who."
"Seriously, Riku—"
"You always had someone in mind," he said again, raising his voice slightly to talk over her. "I knew who. And that's why you got so angry with me when Hana and I became close."
Tears started gathering in Yuri's eyes as Riku spoke. "What is the point in telling me all of this?"
"You said I couldn't remember two of the most important people in my life," Riku told her in a hushed, flat tone. "I was thinking about why I was so angry at you, and now I know."
"Riku, I…"
Shockingly, he half-smiled. "I know. You have to do what you have to do. That doesn't mean that it doesn't suck, though."
"That wasn't what I was going to say."
His eyebrows shot up. "Oh?"
She smiled wryly, quickly brushing away a tear. "You must be getting rusty."
He returned her smile. "Maybe."
"I was going to say that I really wish I didn't have to marry somebody that I don't love. I wish I could marry the person I always planned on getting married to."
"And if he's any kind of person at all, he probably wishes that he could marry you, too."
After a moment of silence, Yuri extended her hand to him. "Friends?"
He slapped her five instead of shaking her hand. "I think I can handle that. Sorry for making you angry."
She looked embarrassed. "Sorry for—you know—yelling at you."
"Sometimes, I deserve to be yelled at."
"Sometimes, you don't."
"Well, we'll have lots of time together for practicing and catching up, since everyone else is leaving tomorrow," Riku changed the topic instead of arguing with her.
"Right… I'll try not to cheat," she stuck her tongue out at him.
"I'll get you if you do," he teased. "I'm smarter this time, I know all your tricks!"
"We'll see about that!" she quickly dashed away, dress rustling against the wind. Riku hopped off of the wall and chased after her, feeling much better about knowing what had actually happened. Somehow, though, he felt like he still ought to pay Naminé a late night visit before she left.
He sighed inwardly. Always, he had gone to Naminé for advice. Some things just never changed.
Mhmm. Lots more information :D Well, in the next chapter, more big things will be happening as Sora, Naminé, Roxas, and Kairi head out to get their weapons, and Yuri's suitor pays a visit to Hollow Bastion...
Thank you all so much for reading, please review :D
Thank you,
Lulala