RIKU'S POV
The beautiful night sky of Traverse Town...god how I loved it. In fact the overall zaniness of this place with it's colourful atmosphere and wacky arquitectures...it felt like I was dragged into one of those cartoons that Sora loved so much.
Dammit can I at least have one inner monologue when I don't think about Sora?
Anyway, of course I wouldn't be able to openly admit that. If anyone asked I'd probably give them a snarky comment about how this place was extremely childish and that it was like a gathering for nerds and weeaboos (I didn't really know what that meant since I didn't speak Japanese). But of course, when you had to spend your life as a protector, as a hero, as a friggin badass, you don't have the luxury to be yourself.
Oh Sora (here I go again, thinking about him), how I admire you...you're always being your cute, adorable and cute self. Never worrying about what others thought of him no matter how much everyone judged him. He was always so carefree and happy, like he was completely detached from the world around him, untainted by the curse of growing up.
It's why I loved him so much.
I mean I'm not one to listen to all that nonsense about the heart, light, friendship, and darkness which is the ultimate source of power and will be the undoing of all of humanity under my command and soon all will submit to it!
Riku paused, his eyes wide with fear and confusion.
...Wait what? Anyway...
Then again I couldn't help but wonder...what actually is a heart? Based on my own personal deductions I think it could be the thing that beats inside someone's chest to keep them alive. But why on earth did it look like an upside down butt? The human anatomy is very strange.
Shame that there's no schools on Destiny Islands. I was certainly sheltered from the outside world, all of us were. Always being Kairi's slave. Really, what could drive such a seemingly sweet girl to be so...evil?
Riku shuddered as he experienced all of those awful memories of Kairi. His only few moments of happiness was when he got to be with Sora, and he was usually busy with those weird computer games and Chinese cartoons.
Of course Sora would care more about fictional characters than the people in the real world who actually loved him...it didn't help that he believed that he was one himself. I was the one who kept him alive when Kairi tried killing him for her own amusement (to her slaves were expendable and that killing a few wouldn't make a difference in the long run). And yet I got no appreciation.
Maybe Sora didn't care about me after all…
Wow. I really was moping too much. It really wouldn't help my whole tough guy image at all. It's why no one on Destiny Islands knows that my favourite colour is pink.
Ok enough with the inner monologues, it's getting old now.
Riku then smelt a corridor of darkness materialize behind him. He groaned as Maleficent walked out of it. To him Maleficent was far too pathetic to be considered the mistress of all evil. Why would anyone even take her seriously at all? Riku knew that he was the far superior villain. He had an edge and an overall badassery that she simply lacked. Maleficent may have destroyed countless worlds but Riku destroyed his home world without giving a damn.
Then again in Riku's eyes, no matter how much of an epic villain he thought he was, Kairi would always be the most evil creature to ever exist. Which gave Riku all the more reason to hate her more.
"What I do you want?" he asked, clearly showing that he was irritated.
"I want you to behave, you little ingrate."
"You're not my mother, you old hag."
"Trust me, if I were your mother I would have disowned you long ago."
"Are you sure? Cause one look at your ugly face and I would have killed myself."
"I would be delighted if you would!"
"Well I changed my mind! I'd stay alive just to spite you!"
"Well how I about I end your life right now you miserable little swine?!"
"It's on, ugly!"
As Maleficent and Riku drew their weapons and were ready to beat each other to death in an epic battle, Squa...Leon intervened.
He jumped off of the roof for dramatic effect, with a perfect and precise landing. He was really starting to get the hang of cosplaying as Squall, it was as if he was actually the real deal.
"Now listen here," he said in a quiet yet commanding tone. "Fighting amongst yourselves is prohibited here."
"But this place is nothing more than a ghost town!" Maleficent argued.
"Well what I say goes. And I say to back off."
"Why you little pest, I'll have you fed to the bloodhounds while being chained up to a-"
"We're sorry sir," Riku interrupted, putting on a look of innocence despite being unable to hide his smugness completely. "It won't happen again, we promise."
Leon growled under his breath. He really wanted to arrest someone today, but he guessed that that wasn't going to be happening. It was only right that he gave this innocent boy and lady (who definitely wasn't suspicious at all) the benefit of the doubt.
"...Fine," he said hesitantly. "But if you act out of line again, I will cut you."
Riku had the desperate urge to give a witty and mocking comeback like "why don't you cut yourself instead, you seem to love doing that" but he repressed it. Instead he put on a fake smile and acted like he wasn't an evil mastermind.
"Understood, sir."
And with that he was gone, which left Maleficent in awe. For once, she was actually proud of her adopted villain...not that she'd ever admit it. The very thought of giving love to another being made her shudder with repulsion.
"Riku...how in the name of me did you do that?"
"It's nothing, really. You just gotta act nice when you're around losers like them so you don't blow your cover. You might want to take notes there, lady," he said cockily, which made Maleficent even angrier.
"I would be careful there, Riku. I don't think Sora would fall for your act very long."
Dammit. Sora. My one weakness…
"Look, I know Sora better than anyone."
"Sora doesn't care about you anymore though," Maleficent taunted.
Riku didn't show it, but her words hit him hard. Based on what he had seen, spying on Sora from behind the scenes, Sora seemed to have forgotten about him completely. Which did upset him since Riku was always there for him, defending him from Kairi, and yet he didn't show any sign of gratitude at all. Not to mention that he was off flirting with creepy cosplayers. Oh how he despised them so.
"Maybe not, but...I have to try and get him back. He's the love of my life," Riku said, breaking out of character by blushing a bright red. Which made Maleficent almost puke.
"Ugh. Love. How repulsive."
"Hey you're just mad because no one wants to date your ugly-"
"Enough! Proceed with the plan and find Sora. We must have the Keyblade wielder on our side so that he will not interfere with my glorious plan!"
"Yeah yeah, whatever," Riku replied, not caring about Maleficent's dumb scheme which was obviously bound to fail anyway.
…
And so, on Riku's quest to find Sora...he had no such luck. He ran into a bunch of strange people on his way though, even weirder than that guy who cosplayed as Squall from FF8. He found another cosplayer too, Aerith from FF7. She looked like the real thing but her voice was...definitely not convincing. And there was a ninja girl who tried sexually assaulting Riku, which he didn't appreciate at all.
To think, Riku didn't even know what Final Fantasy was until these weird cosplayers started hanging out with Sora.
He was way too busy to waste his time with silly computer games. He was way more focused on developing his muscular body. He hoped that one day he would be as attractive as that man who came from another world to visit him one day. He didn't remember that day well and fragments of the experience only came to him when it was convinient to the plot. What was his name? ...Earth? Or was it Te-
Wait.
It was...him.
Riku couldn't believe his eyes.
Sora was there, in front of him. Although something seemed...off. At first he looked rather depressed, like he just saw a world be destroyed right before his eyes. But once he saw Riku his face immediately lit up and he had the same goofy smile on his face that he always did. Riku smiled too, he was finally seeing Sora again.
His Sora.
"Riku!" he cried out happily.
And then, the two ran towards each other in slow motion for dramtic effect, like couples do on the beach when they're reunited in movies. Sparkles were all over the screen, and sappy romantic music was playing.
"Riiiiikuuuuuuu!" Sora cried out once again, prolonged by the slow motion of the scene.
"Sooooraaaaaa!" Riku cried out in response.
Riku knew what this slow motion romantic scene meant. They were finally gonna kiss and hold each other like lovers do!
His heart was pounding in his chest. His face became flustered. He swore that he was going to jump around like a fangirl squealing like a dying pig. He felt like such a teenage girl finally getting together with her one true love.
They were getting closer and Riku wanted nothing more than to hold his adorkable future boyfriend in his arms.
This was it...Sora's getting closer….he's finally going to touch me in a special way!
The slow motion ended and the music stopped as the two finally met, and Sora did indeed touch Riku...by playing with his cheeks. Which caused Riku to sweatdrop like they do in the Chinese cartoons.
This...this wasn't what I had in mind.
"Hey, hey, cut it out!" said Riku playfully, pushing Sora's hands aside. Yet from his tone he did seem rather dissapointed that there wouldn't be any smooching. Riku's fantasies of them lying together on the beach, holding each other as the sun sets, seemed to be slipping away from him.
Sora then eyed Riku up and down, which made Riku blush again.
"I'm not dreaming this time, right?" Sora asked skeptically as he continued eying him.
Wait...Sora dreams about me…? Riku thought to himself.
Sora then looked directly at Riku, who seemed to be in a daze. But then, a smile formed on Riku's face, which soothed Sora's heart as well as his own.
Maybe...maybe he does still care about me after all. Maybe Maleficent was wrong. Maybe I acted rashly…
Sora poked Riku to make sure he was alive, but he wasn't really doing anything other than standing there and smiling.
"...Riku?" Sora asked, starting to get a little worried.
For once, Riku decided to take the iniciative and follow the thing that beated in his chest instead of his head. He held Sora close, like they used to do when they were kids. The two boys embraced each others warmth in the heartfelt moment, both of them smiling and blushing like two lovesick goofballs.
Speaking of goofballs, even Dolan and Gooby teared up a little at their reunion, which was odd since they were incapable of feeling anything.
"We're back to together again…" said Sora quietly, relieved that he had finally found his friend again.
"...Yeah," was all Riku could muster.
And so, after what seemed like forever, they separated.
"I'm so glad that you're here Riku!" said Sora happily. "I knew that you would never fall to the darkness...you're such a great guy after all! And you're really brave and strong and huggable and handsome and intelligent and courageous and…"
As Sora went off into a ramble, Riku started to panic inwardly. How would Sora react if he found out he worked for the bad guys? How would he react if he found out that he was the one who destroyed Destiny Islands? Sure he did what he had to do. The only reason he even considered doing those things was that he needed to eliminate Kairi, who was a threat to the universe as well. He even had to hurt Sora that day and go behind his back to do it...but it was all for the greater good.
Sometimes you had to hurt the ones you love to save everyone.
But of course Sora seemed to have developed a black and white mindset where good is good and evil is evil. Where darkness is darkness and light is light. One time when Kairi forced the two boys to make a feast for her, Riku made a fruit salad even though he hated fruit. And because Sora didn't like oranges he assumed the entire salad was tainted by darkness and tried to destroy it.
And Kairi was still nowhere to be found...Riku's mission was not done.
But maybe...maybe he didn't need to ally himself with the bad guys anymore. After all, Sora wielded the Keyblade. Sure it was an oversized toy that didn't work as a blade at all, not to mention it was incredibly dumb-looking and must be very impractical to wield even when compared to the weird stuff those cosplayers used as weapons...but it seemed to be important somehow, and had greater significence that one would be led to believe.
After all, the thing was one of a kind, right? It's not like everyone could have one or anything.
"...not to mention that you're so cool and amazing and godlike and mesmerizing and atractive and powerful and hot and I lo-"
Riku silenced Sora's rambling by placing a finger on his lips. He was used to Sora's rambling and constant praise towards Riku back at Destiny Islands, but now was really not the time for it.
"So...what are you up to these days?" Riku asked casually, acting like he hadn't been spying on Sora's actions throughout his adventure at all.
"Riku my journey's been so cool! I've been travelling to Disney worlds and I met Alice in Wonderland and I fought against a lamppost and then a guy called Not Clayton...uhmm...t-that's not important...oh and I have new FRIENDS!" he said, pointing towards the two figured who had been standing behind him the whole time, doing nothing.
"Hyuck!" said Gooby, while Dolan's face turned red at the sight of Riku.
"Y-You're a pretty girl…" Dolan muttered while drooling at the sight of Riku's beautiful body.
Riku felt like he was going to be sick.
He felt like he was going to throw up.
Not only because Dolan and Gooby looked completely repulsive, but he felt betrayed too.
It hurt enough that Sora seemed to like Kairi and the cosplayers, but now he's friends with...those?
He would not have it. Sora was is, and only his.
Sweat dropped down Riku's forehead and his eyes grew wide with fear.
All these people...they're trying to take Sora away from me…
Why did the world have to present him with so mny obstacles to get to Sora? It was just so unfair. He had to do something, otherwise he could lose Sora forever. And Sora was his whole world, without him he had nothing.
As the fear and panic inside him worsened, he had the strong urge to drown the worlds in darkness and extinguish all light from the universe!
...Which then immediately passed.
"How about I join you guys?" asked Riku. He couldn't trust Sora with those...things. He needed adult supervision. Then again Sora was over 13 so he technically was an adult, but still.
As soon as Riku asked that all-important question, Sora jumped up and down gleefully like a child who had gotten everything he wanted for Christmas.
"YAAAAAAY! RIKU'S GONNA BE A PARTY MEMBER!" Sora screamed joyfully at the top of his lungs, for no one to hear.
Dolan however was not happy with the current turn of events.
"Hey, there's not enough room on the Gummi Ship!" Dolan complained.
Sora then turned his head to glare directly at Dolan, and told him in a possessed demonic voice that not even Sora was aware he had:
"You will not take Riku away from me."
Dolan stepped back in fear, shivering uncontrollably, while Riku tried to hold back his blush but failed.
"Fine! Fine! He can join us, just don't hurt me!"
And with that, Sora went back to his goofy self, and pulled him, Goofy, and Riku into one massive group hug.
"I'm so glad that we're all together again!"
Riku meanwhile was very conflicted with this hug. He was overjoyed at Sora's embrace but repulsed at coming into contact with whatever these two abominations were supposed to be.
Oh well...maybe this won't be so bad. If these two act out of line, I can just kill them.
…
Meanwhile, at Hollow Bastion...
Maleficent was pissed. Beyond pissed.
Riku...he betrayed her. He came into her home uninvited, made a fool out of her in front of her allies, and this was how he repayed her?
Maleficent was the most powerful villain in all the worlds, people would shudder at the mere mention of her name. She has conquered hundreds, thousands of worlds. She has spent millenia crafting a villainous empire.
She doesn't get betrayed. She does the betraying.
Riku...Sora...soon, both of you will fall.
And I, Maleficent, will acquire Kingdom Hearts, and become the most powerful being of all!
All will cower before me!
Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!