Chapter 66: Awake
Riku could feel his mind slipping, slipping back to the memories that held him into the darkness. Memories with Maleficent, falling to Xehanort's control, facing his fear of the darkness and clone in Castle Oblivion, he just wished that he could forget it all. At the moment, he felt the same way as he did when he was falling into the light, the light that was destroying him until Naminé pulled him out. With Naminé returned to Kairi, who's going to save him from the memories that were buried from before. The dark was comforting so Riku didn't take his time to panic in the darkness, he used this time to try and find a way out, back to the conscious world. Riku soon found himself on solid ground or to be more exact, sand. The surroundings began to appear from the darkness, a beach that has the moon as its only source of light and had huge throne branches that hovered above the ocean. The sound of the sea reached Riku's ears as the dark beach breeze bushed Riku's silver hair. Riku knew where he was...The Dark Marian.
Riku remembered coming here with Sora before finding the door to light, thanks to Kairi's letter. He didn't understand why the two of them won't get together; he would have thought that they would have seen it by now. Maybe it was the feeling that he got whenever he was around Sora; he couldn't help but think that something is wrong with him. A sudden presence send icy chills down Riku's spine, making him summon the Way to Dawn. The presence that he had sensed was a person in a black coat, an organization XIII black coat. Riku knows that he's currently in his memories so it could be either Zexion or Lexeaus or even Roxas. Riku waited for the memory to speak before attacking, he rather know who he's dealing with before attacking. Riku watched as a hand appeared from the figure of the memory and signaled Riku that it wasn't a threat. Riku raised an eyebrow at the figure while keeping his weapon in hand.
"There nothing to be alarmed about, Riku." The memory spoke to him. Riku gasped at the sound of the voice, its voice sounded exactly like Kairi. There's no way that Kairi would be here...unless.... "There's not much I can explain in this memory. You must find a way to your chain of memories."
"My chain of memories?" Riku looked at the figure oddly, "Who are you?" Riku was surprised to see that the figure began to fade away. "Wait!" Riku called at it as he disposed of his weapon and went towards the memory. Before the memory faded away, it shone a huge bright light at Riku, causing him to cover his eyes.....
Riku was currently at Beast's Castle, where he had just managed to defeat an Organization member but what was strange was that this member had a Keyblade. Riku walked over to the fallen nobody and kneel down next to it before lifting it's hood up. Riku lifted part of his blindfold up and looked at the face of the nobody. Riku gasped with shock at what he saw and jumped back up to his feet
"Your face....who are you really? And why do you have a Keyblade?" he asked it.
The Nobody placed the hood back on its head before looking at the wielder of dawn. "Tell me first...why you are dressed as one of us?" It demanded.
Riku began to walk away from the organization member. "To make sure my friend sleeps in peace."
Riku started to feel his well being fade away from the strength of the memory, he needs to get out of it.
Riku waited as he heard the Nobody cry with rage as it began to charge at him with the keyblade. Riku simply struck the Nobody in the mid-section, making it fall to the ground and making the keyblade vanish. Riku looked down at the Nobody again.
"Find yourself a new crowd. They're bad news." He advised it before he began walking the other way.
"Why?" It demanded. "You're the real sham."
Riku didn't even turn around to face it as he answered, "Fair enough. You could say I am...the biggest nobody of them all." He continued to walk even after hearing the Nobody scream with anger.
Riku managed to fight his way out of the memory to find himself back on the beach and to find the mysterious figure gone. He started to wonder after finding the will power to break out of the memory....
Nobody...Keyblade...Kairi No, that's not right......
Nobody...Organization XIII...Keyblade...Roxas...Xion...
Xion!!
BOWBOWBOW
"XION!!" Riku shot out of bed as he awoke from his dream. He started to breathe heavily as he took everything in. The first thing Riku noticed is that he was IN BED, last think he remembered; he was on the Endless ship and was fighting against Link. Riku wiped the tiredness out of his eyes before looking around the room. He could tell that he was in a medical ward by the sight of the horrible patterned curtains, the bleached stained floor that reflects the patient's face, the bright white walls that look like they need to get something thrown at them and the multiple number of beds that could be a little more comfortable.
Riku sighed as he tried to get comfortable again, since he noticed that no one was in the room with him. He was about to go back to sleep when he heard the doors open with voices following, "Your Highness, there are patients resting." Aerith's voice called out as she came into the room. From the sound of 'your highness', Riku rose his head to see who had entered. He could see that it was Aerith that had entered the room but his attention was on the person that came bursting in.
There was a young male, who looked two years older than Riku, holding a staff with a grey dragons wings reflecting off of his white orb. His face seemed familiar to him as well as the dirty blonde hair and his dark violent eyes. The top layer of his hair was the same length as Riku's short hair with the locks pointing in their own direction while the bottom layer was much shorter. There were three huffs of hair at the front of his head while the rest of his hair was pushed back. While both of his arms were covered in armour on the top with a silver chainmail underneath, he wore a dark black and white sleeveless jacket with the silver zipper going to the size of the jacket instead of the bottom as wear as wearing black slacks and silver armoured boots. Riku thought that he was trying to dress up like a Nobody or some sort of the mage.
"What are you talking about, Aerith? There is only one patient in here and he seems awake enough to me." The young mage said.
"Oh?" Aerith looked past him to see Riku trying to sit up, "I'm glad that you've finally woke up, Riku. We're starting to get worried, including the young prince."
"Prince?" Riku looked at the young boy in disbelief.
"Believe it or not, Wielder of Dawn. I am the prince of Radiant Garden by the name of Kasper." The mage introduced himself. "I must make my leave though, so much to expect." Kasper turned to leave the medical room when he bumped into Cid at the doorway. "Watch where you are going, peasant." The young prince said in a dark manner before heading out of site.
Cid muttered under his breath as Prince Kasper left before noticing that Riku had woken up. "You take your sweet time to wake. We thought that he would have to bury you alive." Cid joked as he quickly rubbed his nose.
Riku ignored Cid's joke as he wondered about the prince, "I didn't know that Ansem the Wise had a son." Riku faced both Aerith and Cid.
"Not son. Nephew." Cid crossed his arm, "Been a pain in our backsides ever since he returned. Acting that he was the one that spend the last year repairing the place."
Riku nodded as he understood before asking his next question, "Am I in the castle?"
Aerith nodded, "Donald told us that you collapsed while fighting." She said with concern.
"How bout you tell us what we might be up against in case they come here." Cid grabbed a wooden chair and dragged it towards Riku's bed. "I mean, we know that the Unbirths are back but that's all we know."
Riku brushed part of his hair out of his face, "The Unbirth follow a group of Elite Unbirth or Endless that call themselves the Endless Order." Riku said, "Each member has their own ability and emotion." Riku started to think about his encounter with Link, "The one that I fought could get into my memories because of my regrets of the past."
"Well, my only regrets are finding the prince." Cid muttered. Cid flinched when he found Aerith glaring at him. "What I say?"
"What's the deal with this prince anyway? I thought the Restoration Committee were in charge of Radiant Garden." Riku questioned.
"Shortly after you departed to Little Devon, the trio from Twilight Town found him unconscious deep in the castle that we had just discovered." Aerith began to explain, "Me, Yuffie and Leon recognized him as Ansem's pet since he would follow him around and Ansem didn't mind since they were family. Ansem the wise adored Kasper that he announced shortly after his mother's death, Ansem's sister, that Kasper will be his successor of Radiant Garden."
"Of course, the Heartless changed all of that and the little brat disappeared with his father." Cid added. Aerith glared at the gummi engineer again, "What? It's true."
"Anyways, the Restoration Committee decided that we should leave the decision to the residents whether they want us ruling or want Prince Kasper to take over to follow the way that Ansem the Wise did." Aerith finished off.
"Why did he want to see me then?" Riku asked.
"We had to show the kid around the castle when Merlin and Donald walked by. He, at first, wanted to see Kairi but we told him that only you were here." Cid answered. "I don't get why he would want to see her though."
"He knew Kairi?" Riku was confused by this.
"He said that he used to look after her." Aerith answered. "The questions will have to wait though. There's a chocobo that needs my attention." Aerith turned and left Riku to rest.
Riku looked at Cid with surprise, "The chocobo egg hatched?!" Riku caught on.
"No. Our chocobo egg did and Merlin is the father." Cid said with sarcasm, "Of course, it's your chocobo egg. We can't just get chocobos out of thin air."
"Where's the chocobo at the moment?"
"Back at Merlin's house. That's where Donald is." Cid answered. Cid's eyes turned curious as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a walkie talkie. Cid quickly pulled it to his ear, "Cid here." Cid listened to the other person on the line before bursting out of the wooden chair, surprising Riku. "What?! They shouldn't even be here." Cid listened to the person on the other line, "Okay, I'll head there now." Cid placed his talkie back in his pocket and began to head out.
"What was that all about?" Riku questioned.
"Nobodies." Cid answered, "A new kind of them, meaning that the defense system won't be able to attack them." Cid turned back around to see that Riku was getting out of bed, "Oh no! Aerith would kill me if I let you outta here."
"I've been doing nothing for the past week or so. I can't sit around and do nothing." Riku shot back, Cid didn't seem convinced though, "Look, I've been on enemies lines. I know about Organization XIII like the back of my hand. Just let me help out. Make up for old times."
"Well...." Cid thought about, "Alright, but don't get caught by Aerith or get killed, kid."
Riku nodded before summoning Way to Dawn and began to run out of the room. Before Riku left the room, he turned back to Cid. "I'm no kid. Sora is." Riku then left Cid alone in the medical room.
BOWBOWBOW
"Yo Roxas, wake up." A voice called to him, "Times are wasting. We need to get going." Roxas groaned as he started to wake up to see the twilight light above him. Roxas guessed that he was in Twilight Town. "About time you woke up, I was believing to think that you was a gonna." Roxas turned to the source of the voice to see a familiar nobody. The nobody had thick, shoulder-length, bright red hair styled into slicked-back spikes. His eyes were a sea-green color and he had two purple reverse-teardrop shaped markings under each eye, he also wore a black Organization XIII cloak.
"Axel?!" Roxas gasped, "I thought you were dead."
" C'mon Roxas, I thought you would be happy to see me." Roxas held out his hand, waiting for Axel to help him up. Roxas ended up pushing himself up since Axel didn't help. "Besides, I am dead. I'm just a memory."
"What do you mean you're just..." Axel answered Roxas' question by sticking his arm through Roxas' shoulder, making Axel transparent. "Oh." Roxas realized what he meant as Axel took his arm away, making him look whole again. "But Sora remembers you." Roxas pointed out.
"True he rememorized me, but not in Castle Oblivion." Axel revealed to him. "Naminé would be here too if it didn't cut the connection."
"What? We can't get in contract with Naminé?" Roxas' eyes widened.
Axel shook his head, "We need to get to Naminé if we're going to get you back to talking to Sora."
"Can't we just go through my memory to where I met Naminé?" Roxas suggested.
Axel shook his head again, "That was the connection I was talking about. Everything that is linked to Kairi has be broken, including you're meetings with Naminé." Axel turned to face the station that was in front of them.
"Is it the soul's doing? Why would it do that?" Roxas' temper started to get the best of him.
"Because it knows that Kairi has the strongest bond with Sora, meaning destroying to connection between you and Naminé as well but it properly couldn't do that with you around." Axel replied.
"It did send me to Sora's nightmares." Roxas said to his transparent friend, "Who knew that Sora used to have nightmares about the monster in the secret place." Roxas noticed Axel walking into the train station, "Where are you going?"
"To watch the sunset." Axel answered, "There's someone you have to meet." Axel continued to head inside of the train station. Roxas raised his eyebrow at this, wondering who Axel meant, before following the Nobody.
BOWBOWBOW
Riku ran to the re-paired bailey to see lots of Nobodies approaching the castle. He could see that the Nobodies had the appearance of a Dragoon Heartless with extra small wings and was white and blue. Riku had never seen these kind of Nobodies before, who could be making them. Riku shook the thought away and started to cast thundera on the Nobodies. As soon as one of them vanished, the other 'Seekers' turned around and began to charge at Riku. Riku closed his eyes, focusing before quickly dashing past all of the nobodies. Riku knelled down with the Way to Dawn by his side and stayed in that position. The Seekers turned around and was about to strike when the pain struck them and they disappeared into darkness.
Riku checked behind him to find that they were gone, "Well, that was quick." Riku shrugged as he disposed of his weapon. Riku quickly made his way through the bailey, disposing of any dusks that he saw on the way, until he reached Merlin's house. He could see Donald and Vivi getting rid of the remaining Seekers that managed to get into town. Riku quickly ran to their aid as he summoned dark firaga and shot them at the flying Nobodies. As soon as they were gone, Riku started to walk up to Donald, "Guess I'm here to save the day." Donald casted a thunderaga spell in Riku direction all of a sudden, making Riku duck to the ground. "What are you playing at?!"
"You got him! You got him!" Vivi cheered, "You got the Nobody!"
"Huh?" Riku looked over his right shoulder to see that there was a Seeker dropping to the floor, falling into darkness. Riku pushed himself up, dusting any dirt that remained on him, before looking at Donald, "Looks like I own you one." Riku said to the duck.
"Yeah. Yeah" Donald shrugged it away, "Let's just get inside before more come." Donald and Vivi quickly rushed into the house. Riku started to follow them but stopped when he noticed something. He looked around the area, on the roofs of houses, on the wall bridge that lead to the catsle and the bailey, the entrance to the marketplace, he couldn't help but feel that something wasn't right in Radiant Garden and that something was the cause of these Nobody appearances. "Riku! C'mon!" Donald shouted, Riku continued to look at the rooftops before walking into Merlin's house.
"What the-" The first thing that Riku saw when he entered was a small chick jumping onto him and staying on the top of his head. The chick would give a little 'kweh' before hiding it's head in Riku's hair. Riku pulled an annoyed face at this, "Okay, does anyone want to tell me why Brian's Chocobo is hiding in my hair." Riku looked around the room to see Merlin, Aerith, Hayner, Pence and Olette in the room as well.
"Pence joked about having the Chocobo for lunch and the little guy must have tooken it seriously." Hayner explained, "We're glad to see that you're okay though."
"Yeah." Pence jumped in as he sat at Cid's computer, "Hearing the story from Vivi and Riona just makes my spine shiver."
Riku noticed that Riona or Angelo wasn't here, "Where is Riona?" He asked.
"Riona went to have some quality time with Leon." Donald started to joke around by making kissy faces, making Riku, Hayner and Pence laugh.
"I think that it's romantic." Olette glared at Hayner and Pence for laughing.
"You also think that the stories that Kairi told us was romantic but the two of them are just friends." Hayner pointed out. Merlin would chuckle along with the boys while Aerith and Olette didn't seem impressed. The boy's laugher prevented them from hearing the door open.
"Sora can just be hopeless sometimes." Riku sighed while calming himself down.
"Well, that sounds a bit like Donald when it comes to Daisy." Merlin commented.
"What?!" Donald quacked.
"Yeah, Daisy said that she can get you to do whatever she wants." Pence agreed, remembering the times they had met Daisy.
"Whenever she wants." Hayner added.
Donald feathers began to turn red, making the boys laugh again, "She doesn't control me. I'm the boss and she does what ever I say." Donald said dementedly. The boys looked at the doorway before laughing even more. "Stop laughing!" Donald raged as his temper started to get the best of him.
"Donald Duck!" Donald froze his actions before turning around to see Daisy Duck looking at him with an irritated expression. Donald started to laugh nervously before Daisy pointed outside, so that they could have a more private talk. Donald hung his head low as he went outside with Daisy. As soon as the door shut, Riku, Hayner and Pence started to laugh again.
Aerith went over to Riku, who managed to stop laughing, and received the chocobo from his head. Aerith quickly checked his temperature, "You still seem a little warm. Maybe you should rest on Merlin's bed."
"Now my dear, there is very important research on that bed." Merlin reminded her.
Riku looked to see that the bed was covered with books, "I think that I'll be fine." He quickly responed, "Besides, we need to meet up with the others. Just tell me where Max and Goofy are and we'll get going."
"Not so fast, Riku." Merlin told him, "You've just woken up from being trapped in your memories. You still need time to rest. Max would say the same thing."
"That still doesn't tell me where Max and Goofy are." Riku replied darkly.
"I think Donald mentioned something about Little Devon when he was talking to them on the communicator." Olette answered.
"Riku. Take this time as a break." Aerith advised, "Gather some supplies. Look around the castle. Clear your mind for a bit." Riku sighed as he leaned against the wall. He wished that he wasn't taking this break; he needed to find Sora and Kairi.
"Oh!" Olette jumped slightly, "I just remembered something I saw in the castle."
"What is it?" Pence asked her.
"Well...do you remember that guy in the black coat that beat Hayner at grandstanding during the summer holidays?" Olette mentioned. This seemed to grab Riku's attention.
"Ohh, don't remind him." Hayner groaned.
"Oh! I remember. He was at Twilight Town one time, looking at the seven wonders as well." Pence chimed, "I think his name was...Roxas, I think?" Roxas? Riku was now focused on the conversation.
"Roxas? Why would he be here?" Hayner asked.
"Maybe his world was taken too." Olette suggested. "He was heading to the south part of the castle when I saw him." Olette looked towards Riku, "What do you thin-"
Riku was already out of the house.
A/N: Will Riku confront Roxas? Will Roxas find out what's going on in Sora? Will Donald survive Daisy's wrath? Tune in next time for Kingdom Hearts: Balance of Worlds.
Hey people, I just gonna skip to messages cause I'm too lazy to talk...
Kisdota-The Freak Gamer: The chocobo is growing nicely. A bit of Radiant Garden fun shouldn't be too bad and I'm gonna try bet you personal best. =p
Artism: Glad people are starting to review and I have planned boss battles so no worries there.
Celticskyedancer: The first of a Riku chapter. I didn't hurt him this time.....at least, not yet.
Grey vs Ale: I like the ending you've come up with but alas, you will never know how the battle went. BWAHAHAHAHA!!!
Razgriz1: Riku is in...Axel is in....there's some nobodies around...everything seems nobodish =P
Noami.G: Riku is alllllll yours.
Future Keybearer: Demyx isn't useless. He's actually really annoying to fight in Kingdom Hearts 2. He just seems useless to fit with his personality.
That's all folks and remember to review since they make me happy and will let me post faster.
Kingdommad