Chapter 53: Lost Virus, Lost Memories
Rai and Fuu both waved their claw in front of them to summon Unbirths to add them in the battle, some taking Riku and Max's attack. The Unbirths that Rai summoned were yellow and black and had sparks surrounding them; symbolising their similar element to its master. Fuu was different as she had managed to summon Unbirths that were grey and black with rapid winds around them; symbolising that their element is aero.
Riku turned his Way to Dawn into energy once again as he turned his hands into stone and started to smash the Unbirths with his fists. Riku countered an unexpected attack from Rai and punched him in the gut, leaving Rai winded. As Rai gained his balance, Riku noticed that Rai was now wielding a shadowed form pole. Where the hell did he get that?? Their weapons seem to be forged from darkness. Riku considered the event ahead and quickly began to fight of the thunder Blinks before Rai began to attack again.
All of the Aero Blink were placed in a defensive line in front of Fuu and started to blast strong currents of wind in Max's direction. Max tried to spin the wind into another direction by using his two swords but the force of the wind was too strong and it started to push Max back. Max stopped his attack and quickly slammed his swords into the group to keep him in place. Max gulped when he saw Fuu summon a shadowed form chakram as he was completely defenceless. "Riku!" Max called.
Riku quickly looked over to Max's direction, seeing that Max was holding on to his swords tightly while the rest of his body seem to be floating or lifted from the Unbirths' Aero. Before Riku could help his friend, Rai managed to strike him in the face. Rai was about to strike him again when Riku grabbed Rai's shadowed staff and crushed the staff in half, despite being shadowed. Rai backed away and charged his claw before striking Riku again with multiple punches to the gut and face, causing Riku to fall out of his element.
Max, who was still stuck in position, forcefully placed his feet on the ground with all of his strength and pushed his swords out of the ground, making him go flying due to the wind and dodging Fuu's attack at the same time. Max took his advantage of heading straight into a wall by bouncing off the wall as he headed upwards, away from the current of wind. Max quickly turned his swords into his bow again and placed seven arrows in his bows. All of the arrows turned blood red and started to gain some sort of energy around it. Max fired all of his arrows in a straight line, taking out Fuu's Aero Unbirths. Max didn't notice Fuu casting haste on herself and Rai while he changed back into his swords.
With the Haste spell active, Rai quickly summoned another shadowed pole and strike at Riku again. Riku managed to intercept the attack with the Way of Dawn and the two carried on strike each other. Rai was the only one getting hits as he had the haste spell. Riku flipped away and changed back into his element, "Lets see if you can intercept this!" Riku closed his eyes and summoned a huge boulder that was covered in a dark aura. Rai chuckled as he knew that the boulder was too far away and it wouldn't hit him since he would just be able to walk to the side. Unexpectedly, Riku teleported in front of Rai's face with the dark aura boulder that was the size of a car above him and threw it right at him, causing Rai to crash into the barrier that was holding the others back and lose control of his shadowed pole.
Fuu began to charge her chakram as the wind began to make it spin faster and faster before she let it loose as the chakram speeded as quick as light to hit Max's chest. Max fell to the floor and grasped his chest tightly as he panted and tried to get back up. Fuu looked over to Rai and cast cure on him, making him get up and fight Riku again. Fuu quickly aided Rai as they both worked together by Fuu throwing her chakram upwards to let Rai charge it with thundraga before striking it at the unexpected Riku.
Riku ended up flying next to Max, Max looked back at Riku, "They're too strong." He said with pain.
"W-we're not done y-yet." Riku said as he and Max struggled to get up.
"Decision." Fuu said, "Join or die."
"Neither!" Riku and Max shouted before charging at the two again.
Fuu and Rai just looked at each other before Fuu waved her claw and the room went dark. This wasn't a problem for Riku but Max had no idea where he was going. Riku carried on charging towards the two when a huge meteor came out of a black portal, unseen by the two, and struck Riku right into Max. The two got up again but was quickly hit by the rest of the meteors that Fuu had summoned. When light came back into the room, Riku and Max was lying on the floor, feeling like their were going to pass out any minute as they breathed heavily for air and tried to move their bodies.
Fuu and Rai looked over to Seifer and summoned more Unbirths to push him in the battlefield. Seifer ran over to where his gunblade was supposed to be but found that his and everyone else's weapons were just a hologram. Seifer then turned around only to have Rai shove his claw into his chest. Vivi cried out Seifer's name as Vivi, Angelo and Rinoa watched Seifer drop to the ground. Rai began to chuckle evilly while Fuu looked down at Seifer's body regretfully. Both them then turned to a purple portal, meaning that Link was going. As the two bow for their commanding officer, the two didn't suspect to suddenly get slashed. The Endless lowered his weapon as Rai and Fuu both dropped to the ground and faded away along with Seifer.
The Endless pointed his weapon at the barrier and destroyed within one slash. Rinoa went up to Riku and Max and revived them from their battle. Max and Riku had never felt so much energy burst through them so fast or feel their wounds heal so fast. Angelo ran up to them and licked their faces so they would get up. Riku and Max applied to Angelo's actions while Vivi looked at the Endless. Vivi started to approach the armoured Endless as the Endless looked at the Heartless look a like, "What's happened to them?" Vivi quietly asked it.
The Endless turned away from Vivi and diposed of his weapon before answering, "They're in a more peaceful place. A place I wouldn't mind seeing." The Endless answered from behind his helmet. Vivi headed lowered from the meaning of that reply and started to wipe his eyes. The Endless seem to notice and kneeled down to face Vivi, "Your friends may be gone but they will always stay in your heart." It said as it placed its claw on Vivi shoulder, "Along as you remember them, they will remain there. That's what I do."
Riku stepped forward slightly and quietly as he was curious of this Endless. Why is this one being so nice and why did it help us?? Riku looked at the colour of the claw to see that it was thunder blue. Riku's memory clicked after seeing this. Of course. Riku disposed of his keyblade and walked towards the two, "Here to help us again, Nikolai?" Riku questioned while crossing his arms.
The Endless faced Riku and stood up before replying, "Would you rather me be against you like any other Endless?" He questioned himself, mimicking Riku's actions.
"That's what the bad guys are supposed to do." Riku replied.
"But I'm a Neutral so I can be on both sides." Nikolai replied cockily.
Max was confused that Riku knew this Endless and was talking to him casually like any other person. Max disposed of his weapon as well before walking up to the two as Vivi ran over to Max, "You know him?" Max asked Riku.
"Kairi and Hikari said that he has been helping time an-"Riku then paused when he realised that they still had to recuse OH CRAP! We need to get to African Depths." Riku said urgently.
"There's no way you can get to African Depths." Nikolai informed them, "It's in the Endless border line; the Order would easily find you and destroy you."
"Endless border line?" Rinoa repeated as her and Angelo approached the group. While Rinoa checked to see if Vivi felt any better, Angelo went over to Nikolai and started to check if he was safe.
"When the Order collects a number of worlds that are near each other, the barrier that surrounds that world expands and joins with other world barriers, creating a huge barrier that block of the worlds from other worlds." Nikolai answered while doing hand actions that would help explain.
"Like the world barrier then." Riku stated.
"Yeah. Only difference is that the world barrier was created to protect other worlds from the darkness within people's hearts, something that can never be taken but the Order just want to hide their business behind close doors." Nikolai explained, "If the Keyblade Master and the others escape then they will be about to uncover many untold secrets within those worlds."
The ship started to rumble again, making Nikolai sigh. "You were heading towards the engine room." He said as he created a portal. Rinoa and Vivi looked at the portal strangely, thinking whether they should trust him or not. Angelo barked happily at Nikolai and went through the portal; Rinoa soon followed knowing that Angelo can tell from good and bad and then Vivi. Riku was about to follow when he noticed that Max wasn't following.
Riku looked at the masked Nikolai, "Can you keep the portal open?" he asked.
"Make it quick. Abroc and Link will be able to sense it soon." Nikolai replied before going through the portal himself.
Riku turned away from the portal and went over to Max, "Come on, Max. We have to go." Riku said. Max didn't move though, he was still in his thoughts. "What's wrong, Max?" Riku asked.
"What if..." Max started, "What if one of us gets the virus or one of our friends and we don't get the cure in time? What if we have to kill them just to keep everyone else safe? What if we ended up killing our friends, our family-"
"Max! Don't think like that." Riku forcefully grabbed hold of Max's shoulders, "I know what thinking and I'm worried too but none of us will become Endless. If one of does then we'll try and gather as much world's items as we possibly can and that if one of us did get the virus then we can hope that they would remain neutral." Riku slowly let go of Max while Max looked at his shoes, "Fears would only lead you into darkness, Max. It's best that we'll face them."
Max looked at Riku in disbelief, "How can we face our fears if we can't defeat the ones causing them?! Look at what happened to Rai and Fuu, they were always loyal to Seifer but now because of the virus, they killed him; their own friend. We couldn't even defeat them! If it wasn't for Nikolai appearing out of nowhere like he normally does, we could've been killed or even turned into one of them to be sent to kill our own friends." Max argued
"Endless still have hearts and even if the Order members have their life set on one emotion, they still contain other emotions like any other being." Riku pointed out, "Fuu's expression was full with regret after Rai had killed Seifer, meaning that a part of her was still loyal to him."
"Okay, I agree on that." Max sighed, "But we need to think this through. If we can't even fight beings that had just gotten use to the virus and their element; what make you think that we can take on any of the Order members?! Heck, the only reason we were able to defeat Sergeant Mako two years ago was because the Devon brothers had fought them before and had gotten use to their fighting style."
"Max! Riku grabbed his attention, "I'll tell you what Sora told me after we defeat Xenmas. He said and quote: 'You gonna try and think positive'. I kept that in mind since that day to help me keep out the shadows of my memories. As long as we think positive, they will be a way to defeat them." Riku then chuckled, "How do you think your old man does it?"
"Yeah." Max sighed before looking at Riku again, "You're right. I have to think positive and try to face my fears."
Riku looked over to the portal before looking at Max again, "C'mon let's catch up with the others." He said. Max nodded in agreement as the two went through the portal.
BOWBOWBOW
"I wonder what's taking them." Vivi wondered as he tilted his head to the side.
"I don't know but I have to close the portal soon or the others will find us." Nikolai said as he held the portal open. Nikolai sighed with relief as Riku and Max FINALLY came through the portal and quickly closed the portal before falling to the ground.
Angelo jumped at Riku happily as Rinoa approached Max and Riku, "Hey, what took you so long?" Rinoa asked kindly.
"Just some things we had to discuss." Max answered.
Max and Riku took the chance to look around the room. It seems that Nikolai had taken them to the engine room after all as they saw a huge bronze generator with green energy within the generator as well as a few huge engines with one of them having a description saying 'metal horses'. Max and Riku were confused by the description but just shrugged it off and walked back to Nikolai as he got back up.
"What do we do?" Vivi asked Nikolai.
Nikolai quickly fixed his helmet before continuing, "If I remember correctly, we have to shut off the generator in a certain order for the engines to overheat, giving you enough time to get back to your gummi and fly out of here."
"What about you, Nikolai?" Rinoa asked.
"I-I have to stay. I have no choice." Nikolai sighed as he looked down at his metal armoured boots that he could now see his face in. Max was about to say something to Nikolai but Riku stopped him, he knew that they wouldn't be able to help him. That's properly the way of being an Endless, he did wonder if it was worse off fate than being trapped in the darkness.
Max looked over to Vivi and Rinoa to notice that they had their weapons again. While Vivi had a small wand that set him off as a black mage, Rinoa had a blaster edge that seems to be in the style of angel feathers. Max was bewildered by this, "When did you guys get your weapons?"
"We have no time for that, Max." Riku interrupted before facing Nikolai, "Where is the main system?" Nikolai pointed to the side of the room where a computer can been seen, Riku walked over to the computer and sat in the computer chair. Rinoa came over and watched Riku's actions on the computer as he went through the files to find the control settings to the ship.
As Riku worked on the computer with Rinoa's assists every now and again, Max realised that there should have been at least guards or even engineers in this room since it was soooo important. Max started to look around the room when Nikolai spoke up, "I got rid of them before I came to find you guys." Nikolai answered.
The generator began to slow down and soon completely halted, making some of the lights flicker. Everyone looked over at the engines to see that they were started to ratter, "You better make a move to your gummi if you want t-"
"TRAITOR!!"
Link and Abroc appeared through their portals and started to strike at the group. While Riku dived from the computer with Rinoa and Max and Vivi went flying into one of the overheating engines; Nikolai reflected their attacks and quickly went through his portal. Abroc growled angrily and went through his own portal, following Nikolai's trail while Link looked at the damage done. "Who knew one that suffers can cause so much trouble." Link said out loud.
"You won't win." Riku said as he got up and summoned the Way to Dawn, "You and your Order members will fall."
Link slightly chucked at this, "The day the Order will fall is the day you hold no regrets in your heart and your decisions isn't based off your remorse." Link raised his claw in front of him once again. Riku's expression changed as he felt his heart create a sharp and deadly pain and fell to his knees while clenching onto his chest, similar to went Xehanort tried to free Kairi's heart within Sora when he was in control of Riku. Riku's entire body dropped to the floor as his other hand held his head as he felt Link search through his memories...
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"If we ever go on real adventures, we'll be a team and protect each other, right?" The four year old Sora asked.
"Yeah." Riku swiped his sword in a positive way. "We'll stick together."
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"Sora, what you doing out here at the crack of dawn?" Riku asked his 4-year-old friend, not noticing his father going towards the sea.
"I found the star that was shaped like me." Sora said cheerfully, pointing behind him. Riku looked behind him, as well as Sora turning around, to see Riku's dad carrying the girl. Where did she come from???
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The two friend's eyes fell upon a large brown door on the far wall. Riku ran over and tried pushing it."It won't open. Is it a broken door?"
"Geez..." Sora sighed, "It's that really all that's in here?"
Riku shrugged, "What do you expect in a boring place like this? But don't worry, when we grow up, we'll get off this Island!" Riku looked up at the skylight, "We'll—we'll go on REAL adventures, and not this kid stuff!"
Sora nodded emphatically with Riku's plan. "Sure! But isn't there anything fun we can do now? Hey! What if we go see that girl we saved!"
Riku nodded and they both walked from the cave. As they left, Riku wondered to himself why Sora suddenly brought up the girl, the one his father took to the Mayor to see just a couple of minutes . Suddenly, Riku felt something cold touch him from behind and he looked back to see a golden Keyhole sitting in the middle of the oaken door.
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"W---what are y-you d-doing??" Riku gasped in pain as he screamed in agony as his chest felt like a huge sword had cut through him and his head felt like it was about to explode.
"Seeing what causes you so much pain." Link answered as he twisted his claw, searching through more of Riku's memories as well as making Riku feel much worse.
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"Sora! Did you let the new girl into our secret base?!" Riku demanded as much as a five year old could.
"Noo..." Sora trailed off.
"Oh, you would not mind if I go in then." Riku tried to push in.
"You can't." Little Sora stood in the way of the entrance to the secret cave.
"Why not?"
"Because it's mine and Kairi's secret cave." Sora admitted before covering his mouth. Riku had heard enough and decided to leave Sora as he tried to figure out why this girl was better company for his best friend than him.
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"Do you remember anything yet?" Sora asked the seven year old Kairi, making Riku eight as the three sat at the Paupo tree.
"No..." Kairi said sadly, "I like it here though."
"Another world." Riku suddenly said, receiving confused looks from Sora and Kairi, "I know it sounds strange but it would all make sense. Falling from the sky, no memory about it...
"That would make sense..." Kairi agreed.
"Let's go to other worlds." Riku suggested.
"Yeah! We can have real adventures." Sora stood cheerfully on the trunk of the Paupo tree before losing balance and fell into the water
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"I've always wondered why we're here, on this Island. If there are any other worlds out there, why'd we end up on this one?" Riku continued with his deep thoughts as Riku, Sora and Kairi watched the sunset back when they were building the raft, "And suppose there are other worlds....then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"
"I dunno." Sora shrugged as he flipped over the tree.
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"The door has opened, Sora!" Riku repeated, glancing at Sora. Annoyance laced the edges of his words like poison. "Now we can go to the outside world!"
"What're you talking about? We've gotta find Kairi!"
"Kairi's coming with us." Riku shouted at him, making Sora freeze. "Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back" he continued on with a sudden renewed vigor, "But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"
"Riku....?" Sora began, unsure what was happening to Riku.
At that moment, a pool of darkness snapped open beneath Riku's feet and began to snake tendrils of darkness up Riku's body.
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"Stop!" Max shouted as he summoned his bow and changed it into his swords once more. Max began to charge towards Link and began to strike. Link looked at the corner of his eyes and summoned his scythe with his left hand and began to defend against Max's attacks while searching through Riku's memory.
Riku clutched his head harder; forgetting about the pain in his heart as the memories rushed threw his mind. When he found himself in Radiant Garden after the Islands were destroyed, when Maleficent took him and used him by making him believe that Sora and forgotten about him and Kairi and had moved on with new friends, like when Sora would be with Kairi more than him. When he encountered Sora, Donald and Goofy in Transverse Town to ending up believing Maleficent. When he had found Kairi in Neverland but as a empty shell, aiding Sora in Monstero, learning to control darkness, escaping Sora with the comatose Kairi in his arms, the list when on as Link looked at his darkest sercets.
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Ansem began to approach Donald, Goofy and Kairi when he was suddenly halted by a transplanted Riku appearing in front of him. "No! You won't use me like this!" Riku shouted as raised his arms, preventing Ansem from passing. Kairi was about to say something to him when Riku cut her off, "You've got to run." He warned them, "The Heartless are coming."
Riku watched as Kairi, Donald and Goofy ran for their lives.
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Riku helped Sora, Donald and Goofy close Kingdom Hearts in the realm of darkness with King Mickey while the others were in the realm of light. Before the door parted the two, Riku said four finally words to Sora, "Take care of her."
Sora nodded and the two closed Kingdom Hearts before Riku watched the door disappear right in front of them.
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Max backed away from Link as he nearly made his life short but was soon hit by one of Link's gravity spells as he, Vivi, Rinoa and Angelo were forced to the ground. Link smirked at the information and secrets that came through his mind, the beginning, Castle Oblivion, The road to Dawn even his time with Xion that Riku can just remember, all of it, including some important information that Riku had discussed with Brian at some point. Link finally realised Riku from his death grip on his mind and heart, watching the Wielder of Dawn suffer with amusement before summoning a portal a leaving.
Riku heard Max call his name and felt him trying to pick him up along with Vivi and Rinoa but he couldn't move, his thoughts, his mind, his heart was trapped in his memories. The last thing Riku saw was a blind looking light coming from Rinoa and some angel wings. At least there's a angel on our side now....
Mad: AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *blinks of madness* i NEVER KNEW RIKU HAD SO MANY MEMORIES!!!
Shadow S: Didn't you play chain of memories?
Mad: No, I couldn't find it. I just watched the cut scenes on either youtube or . I never liked the card system anyway.
Shadow S: Okay, now since you forced me out of bed during the summer holidays to come and reply, where's my chocolate Cloud cookie you promised!
Mad: I thought you be happy with just HSM blowing up.
Readers: YAY!
Shadow S: I was, I just want my Cloud cookie.
Mad: How bout a Roxas cookie?
Shadow S: Prefer Cloud but Roxas cookie is good too. *mad hands over cookie* YAY COOKIE! XD
Mad: Since all of the characters are either captured, half-dead or asleep, I'm making Tidus write for me.
Tidus: WHY ME! I'M ONLY IN ONE CHAPTER.
Mad: Because Wakka would just go ya at the end of the reply and Selphie would go on about romance stuff and would properly give them spoilers and the gang would still be going to Destiny Islands, it's like the best world ever.
Tidus: Fine! Now for messages...
Future Keyblader: Rinoa is from Final Fantasy VIII (8) the same as Leon/Squall, Angelo, Seifer, Rai, Fuu (rest in peace) and Selphie. Here's a blitzball. (Mad: TIDUS!) Fine, here's a cookie. (::)
Shadow Sylph: Since you busy eating a Roxas cookie that Mad gave you two seconds ago over the internet even though it's completely im- (Mad: Don't make me swing you out the chair) Sorry, Mad researched about Angelo and found that the dog gender was a girl. Do I have to give shadow more co- (Mad: Yes or she will get me with her compass of doom.) But it's summer holi- (Mad: COMPASS OF DOOM) Fine! Cookie. (::)(::)(::)
Topaz Tsubasa: (Mad: I'll answer this) Thanks for the help, mate. Everyone can learn new things and we can all agree that schools are very bad at teaching people since teachers don't care anymore and can only learn yourself through hobbies. Thanks for reviewing. (::)(::)(::)
DarkAngel555: That sounds like a brilliant idea. Hey, thanks, I'll do that now. BWAHAHAHAHAAHA. (::)(::)(::)
Kisdota-The Freak Gamer: Dude, you didn't review first. What's going on? Anyway, hope you enjoy Rinoa in the story and hope your laptop gets fixed soon. They're a pain. (::)(::)(::)(::)
Sailor Winx: Thanks for the review and hope you carry on enjoying the story. (::)
Starlight: Welcome to the club of readers that enjoyed me destroying HSM. Thanks for your review, it made me happy that I'm writing the characters right since i was afraid that I would get Riku and Kairi wrong. Review any time and if you have any stories then I'll read them since I've read all of the SoraXKairi and I can't be bothered to go over to RoxasXNaminé since I still read them it the other stories. (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
Night everyone...
Tidus: By the way, Xion is *Gets knocked out*
Last time I'll use Tidus. See ya next time.
kingdommad