Chapter 84: Seventeen strikes
The Wielder of Dawn tossed in his bed, clutching his head as he dreamt. Ever since the 'Ruin' attack that Sora had struck on him, he began to dream about a past event back when he was helping DiZ to restore Sora's memory. He dreamt about the deep dive that he went through to receive Roxas, the battle in front of Memory's Skyscraper. At first, the dream went as it did, Roxas would want to free Kingdom Hearts and the both of them would slowly forget about Xion as they fought but every time he dreams about the event, a little detail changes in the dream.
Another dream...
A dream of that day where her voice is within me.
Even though...
What mattered the most was remembered the less.
Remaining a part of Another Life...
Another Story.
The Keyblader gasped as he found himself on top of Memory's Skyscraper, looking down at the view of Roxas taking on a region of Neoshadows with Oathkeeper and Oblivion in hand. This dream again. Riku concluded before steeping near the side more, deciding to play the part of the dream. He watched from above as the cloaked Nobody looked towards before jumping towards the skyscraper, running up it as the Neoshadows following. He struck the Neoshadows as he climbed before throwing Oblivion upwards, towards Riku. Knowing his place in the dream, he jumped off the skyscraper, back first towards the ground, as he grabbed Oblivion as he past Roxas.
He gasped as his memories began to flash through his mind, he guessed that the same thing was happening to Roxas as well. At this point, he should be reminded about the times that he and Xion had shared together but it was more like he was recovering memories instead of forgetting them as Roxas reached the top of the skyscraper while Riku landed at the bottom. Riku looked around once as he was surrounded by Neoshadows. He gasped as more memories of the Nobody began to restore in his mind and heart, inches away from holding his head, inches away from realising the truth. A Neoshadow saw the sudden pause within Riku's actions and took a jump at him, only to be backlash by the wielder. As he fought his part of the Neoshadows, more memories filled his mind, with every Neoshadow that was destroyed. Soon, all of them were gone but the knowledge of Xion's existence remains when it should have faded away.
Just like the event, Roxas stood behind him as the two glazed at each other and jumped away, giving the distance as they began to talk, "Why are you trying to stop me?" Roxas questioned him as he held Oathkeeper tightly.
The quote was one of the first things that had changed in the dream, remembering that he questioned who he was, not his intentions. He ignored the change though as he spoke like he did in the memory, "Because I want back the rest of Sora's memories." Riku told him.
"This isn't about his memories." Roxas spoke with an urgent tone, before disposing Oathkeeper.
Riku raised an eyebrow before realising what was different about the dreams. He disposed Oblivion before taking the blindfold that had been placed over his eyes as part of the dream, seeing the Memory's Skyscraper crack and break back into the Station of Awaking, where the two stood on a mural of him and the King, travelling through Castle Oblivion. "If you are here instead of being inside of Sora, it has to be something important." Both Riku and Roxas' coats shattered as they turned into small golden lights, revealing their normal garments, as well as Riku's hair changing back to its shortened style.
"I've lost contract with Naminé." Roxas said sadly to him.
"What?" He said in disbelief. "How can that be possible? You and Naminé should be able to speak, Sora and Kairi are-"
"Their connection is broken because of the soul's interruptions with the heart's connections. And now, I need Naminé's help to return me to Sora's heart, so I can gain his help to stop him." Roxas explained his intentions.
"What exactly is the soul capable of?" Riku questioned. "And how did you get here when you should be inside of Sora?"
"The soul is the reason that Sora hasn't been himself ever since the Heartless attacked his arm. I'm not sure what his intentions are but he's mainly trying to gain control of Sora's heart so that he could be free. He managed to send me to Sora's forgotten chains, where I couldn't reach him as those were the memories from when he was really young and when he went to Castle Oblivion. If he manages to overthrow Sora in controlling the heart, he would have the Keyblade in his grasp and could possibly rule the worlds." Roxas explained, "It makes things worse when Anti-Sora is released and lost within the darkness."
"Anti-Sora is released and yet it hasn't made an appearance." Riku gathered the information that he knew. He knew that Sora had the virus; he knew that it related to his soul. But what if this 'Soul' has captured the darken part of Sora's heart from his own gain. Many questions still need to be asked but Roxas needs to get back to Sora. "Are you here alone?" He asked him, suddenly feeling a familiar presents.
"Yeah...but." Roxas paused, "We need to carry on the memory."
"Why is that?" Riku asked, "Can't I just think of the part when we would talk about remembering Xion and how you were thinking like an idiot that you would be able to free Kingdom Hearts to free her?" He smirked as Roxas glared angrily at him before he thought about Xion.
A few seconds later, a bright blue portal appeared, throwing Xion to the ground before disappearing again. "Owww, that took longer than I thought." She groaned as she picked herself off the floor.
"Xion..." He looked deeply at Xion before snapping himself out of it. She's just a memory. The thought reminded him on one of their meetings at Destiny Islands, making him think about her origin before looking at Roxas, who was helping her up. I wonder if he remembers her origin... "How did you guys get here?" He asked again.
"Don't you remember Riku?" Xion turned to him with a smile, "We're part of your memory."
"If you're my memory. You would be transparent." Riku looked over his old friend, the one he had guided to go to Naminé, even if that's the case once more. The aura around Roxas seemed the same, a nobody with attitude, but the aura around Xion seems different to when he had first met her. "How did you get here?" he repeated with an impatient tone.
"Through the connection that you and Sora have." Roxas answered. "But we couldn't enter your heart until Sora had made some form of contact with you."
When Sora was choking me. The memory of the fight back in Little Devon flashed through his mind, and the 'ruin' spell. He remembered that he felt some form of pulse run through him before Sora had cast 'Ruin' on him. "You need to get to Naminé so does that mean that I would have to make some form of contact with Kairi."
"Just hug her." Xion suggested.
"You make it sound soo easy." Riku sighed before walking towards Xion as he examined how her hair has grown to the same length that Kairi has her hair now. He looked at her, seeing if she knew anything before looking at her sadly, "Why did you make us forget about you?" he said to her.
"I had to." She looked away, "My existence would have only hurt my friends." She looked at Riku before looking at Roxas with the same sad expression, who was looking at her sadly. "You would have just got yourself hurt, trying to bring me back to life. I wanted you to carry on living without the worry of me. I just didn't think that I would see you in the forgotten memory. I'm the forgotten memory of Xion...nothing more." She told the both of them.
Riku shook his head as he tried to talk some sense into her, "Xion, you're-"Some parts of the darkness in the distance began to turn white, making Riku sigh. "Looks like its morning. I'll try to help you get to Naminé." He closed his eyes, ready to wake up.
"We need you to do something." Xion quickly said as he grabbed him around the arms, making him open his eyes again and look at her with question. "We need you to open the path to Kairi's heart."
"How do I do that?" He asked them.
"Think of a memory that you and Kairi have shared together." Roxas explained, "Something that has created the bond that you have with each other today." Riku nodded as he closed his eyes. As the memory began to form around them, the light brightened as it engulfed the mural, leaving Roxas and Xion on the mural. "Damn it!" Roxas cursed as he summoned Two Across for safety. Since Riku wasn't in his mind, any memory could appear and strike them and Riku has been through hell and back, if any memories appeared, it wasn't going to be pretty.
"Roxas! The memory" She shouted to him as the memory continued to show, the memory of when Kairi had found him in the World that Never Was and didn't look at him with fear or disgust when she took off his hood, only with understanding and forgiveness. "Even after everything that he had done, Kairi was the first to see him through what he had become. I guess a strong bond is between them." She smiled at this.
"Yeah." Roxas before looking up into the darkness, "Thanks Riku!" he shouted to the black-pitched sky.
"Just get through the portal before I think of something else." Riku's voice echoed through the station just as a crystal heart appeared.
Roxas quickly changed Two Across to Oblivion and pointed the keyblade at the crystal heart, shooting the beam of light to create the portal between hearts. "Let's go." Roxas smiled; glad that he will be able to see Naminé again before going through the portal.
"Looks like Naminé kept her promise." Xion smiled sadly as she began to head towards the portal.
"Xion. I can sense something different. Like something is wrong. Does Roxas know of your origin?" Riku's voiced echoed.
"He doesn't need to know. I just need to play my part." Xion said quietly before going through the portal.
BOWBOWBOW
Xion? Xion! Riku groaned as he sat on the side of his bed, looking over at Sora's side of the room which was covered with bandages and different type of armguards that the Devon brothers have handed over to him since Brian's armguard didn't fit him anymore. Why won't she tell Roxas? She has nothing to hide...What happened to her in Sora's forgotten memories. He lay back on his bed, thinking on whether he should tell Sora or not, whether it would affect the process of the virus. After thinking about what might happen for a couple of minutes, he decided to discuss this with Kairi, Roxas is going to enter her heart after all.
The door burst opened to reveal a panic looking Max, "Riku!" Max called with urgent call.
"What is it?" Riku jumped off his bed and landed in front of him.
"It's Sora. He's having another Outburst and he has Hikari to the throat." Max told him. Riku quickly rushed out of his room with Max behind him as he rushed into the bridge.
"SURPRISE!"
The Wielder of Dawn halted and looked at his friends with confusion before smirking at the trick that he fell into. Around the bridge were colour paper made decorations, air filled balloons that remained on the floor and a huge card banner that said 'Happy Birthday Silver' in huge bold letters. Most of his friends were in the room, cheering and laughing at his expressions, the only one that seemed to be missing though was Hikari. Riku chuckled slightly as the cheering and clapping faded away from his friends, "Aren't we supposed to be heading to the Land of the Dragon?" He reminded them.
"We are." Brian stepped toward. Since leaving Little Devon, Brian had placed his armguard back on his inflected arm, saying that he shouldn't hold hatred for someone that he can hardly remember. "But that doesn't mean that we can't organise a party."
"Yeah!" Max smiled as he slung his arm around Riku's shoulders.
"I never mentioned that my birthday was coming up thought." Riku said before looking towards Sora and Kairi, who were trying to act like they were in a conversation. "I did I tell you guys the day before we left home. I said not to worry about my birthday. And what do you do? You tell everyone else."
"You shouldn't forget the day you were born." Sora told him, "Besides, what's more important than your 17th birthday?"
"My 18th" Riku quickly answered.
"C'mon Riku, the party is already set up. We're just above of Land of the Dragon and this is the first time since leaving our islands that we have been able to have a proper party for our birthdays." Kairi told him. "And besides, we got you something." Kairi brought her arms forward to show a small packaged wrapped in silver wrapping paper.
"You got me presents?" Riku excitedly said before coughing, "I mean you didn't have to get me anything." He said modestly as Kairi handed the present over to him, the guys were chuckling to themselves at the fact that Riku's serious nature was dropped just then.
He untied the red ribbon that was holding the wrapping together to look at the gift with awe, "I made it for you before we left the Islands since I thought that we would be adventuring for a while." Kairi explained as Riku lifted the gift out of the wrapping paper. It was an island necklace that had five thalassa shells going across the left side as the centre piece of the necklace was a shark tooth with a black string holding it all together.
"Kairi...I don't know what to say...I...thank you." He struggled to speak before giving her a grateful hug. If you're going to move, move now.
Thanks for your help, Riku. Xion spoke to him before feeling their presents leave him.
As the two friends hugged, Brian looked at Riku's new necklace with wonder, "That's strange."
"What's up?" Sora asked casually as he sipped his fizzy drink.
"Riku's present. It looks...familiar." Brian continued to look at the necklace with wonder as he tried to search his broken memory.
"The shells are the same as the shells from Kairi's Oathkeeper charm." Sora explained to him before approaching Riku and Kairi, who had broken out of their hug and as Kairi was helping Riku place the necklace on. "Here you go, Riku!"
Riku took the gift with cautious, "Should I be worried?" Riku smirked as Kairi stepped away from him.
"Ha ha! Very funny." Sora said childishly, making Riku and Kairi laugh, "I got it while we were at Radiant Garden."
Riku tilted the present to it side as he looked at it, "You don't mean that-"
"NO!" Sora stopped him, earning a questionable look from Kairi, "Not that one." Riku smirked before he began to unwrap his present.
Kairi looked at Sora with a questionable look, "What do you mean, 'not that one'?"
"Errrr..." Sora tried to think of an excuse.
"When did you have time to get this?" Riku looked at the Cosmic Belt that was in his hands.
"All I did was gave the guy the mummy." Sora replied honestly. "Normally, it's a quick process when you pay upfront."
Riku laughed alongside Sora's comment as he fist bumped his hand, "Thanks man." He smiled before pulling Sora into a headlock, "I didn't think you cared."
"Ahhhh ah no problem." Sora struggled under Riku's lock.
"C'mon guys." Kairi quickly broke the two up, "It's not over yet." Riku raised his eyebrow before looking over to the others.
"Don't look at us." Brian said, "We only found out yesterday and we just got stuck in Hikari's planning." Max, Donald, Goofy, Jiminy and Steve shook their heads in agreement.
Riku halted as he looked around the room once more, "Where's Hikari?"
"As much as I hate the disaster that is destined to come, Hikari is in the kitchen baking." Brian warned him darkly.
Sora froze with realisation as he slowly turned to Kairi, "Wasn't it my job to tell Hikari?" He slowly whispered to her.
Kairi's head shot in Sora's direction with a shocked expression, "You didn't tell her?"
"It must have slipped my mind while we were decorating." Sora smiled nervously. The two watched worryingly as Hikari appeared from the kitchen with a huge island shaped cake with icing on it for decorations, wearing an apron as most of her garments and hair was covered in flour. "Should we try and head to the world before this disaster begins?"
"You get Donald and Goofy. I'll turn the teleporter on." Kairi instructed.
"What about Brian and Max?" Sora asked.
"Someone has to make sure that no one gets hurt." Kairi told him before the two began their mission to gather the others and head down to Land of Dragon.
"Happy Birthday Silver!" Hikari said cheerfully as she placed the birthday cake on the table before dusting her hands. "I made it just for you."
Riku looked down at the birthday before looking up at Hikari sadly, "Didn't Sora and Kairi tell you?" He began to say in an apologetic way. "I hate cakes."
Hikari laughed at his comment, "Ha ha. That's funny. I though you said that you hated cakes. That's rich, Silver." She stopped laughing before looking at him seriously, "Now have some cake that I put Brian blood, sweat and tears into."
"I'm more of a pie person." Riku shrugged, "I'm sorry that you went through all that effort for-"He quickly jumped back as Hikari had drew Eternal Blade and slashed at him. "Ahhh, I get it. Your part of the cake union."
"YOU DAMN RIGHT I AM YOU CAKE HATER!" Hikari shouted with her weapon ready.
Brian groaned as he watched the scene in play, he hates it when he's right about this sort of stuff. He looked to the side to see the teleporter start up with Sora, Donald and Goofy standing at the side. He watched as Donald and Goofy teleported down to the world below while Sora stood guard, waiting for someone to join them. Ohhhh hell no! I'm not being left here to deal with this battle. He looked back to see Kairi join Sora before both of them headed through the portal. This is my chance. Brian snuck away from the others as he jumped through the teleporter before it shut down.
"Cakes are only for demons that live in the darkness." Riku smirked.
Hikari gasped at the insult, "You take that back!" She demanded.
"Uh huh." Riku shook his head, "Lies have been told to you my friend as the pie warriors are the deziens of light to all of the worlds and to kill all evil cake demons." Riku proclaimed as he summoned Way to Dawn.
"Guys! Let's not fight in the brigde." Max told them as he tried to calm the two down.
"The cake is not a lie!" Hikari told the 'Pie Warrior'. "The pie steals human souls and makes them slaves to the darkness. But one thing is clear..." She paused, "The crusade of cake and pie has already begun. The truth can only be found in the shadows of the light."
"In this case, going down to the new training system to have a full-on cake vs pie war." Riku translated.
"Yeah. Pretty much." Hikari nodded casually.
"FOR THE BANANA CREAM PIE!" Riku yelled bravely as he and Hikari raced down to the battle simulator.
Max gulped at the battle that was to take place before looking around to see that he was the only one in the bridge. He was going to question everyone's presents but decided to take the cake that Hikari had made for Riku and hide in his room before the war of the cake vs pie was over. "I wonder if Riku will get his seventeen strikes." He said to himself as he ate a bit of cake.
A/N: Yay! One day to expo! ^^ Quickly do messages before I head out.
Kisdota- The Freak Gamer: I don't mean to do spoilers, I'm actually guessing as I don't know lots about Birth By Sleep. Anyways, sorry about them.
Transitions End: I can't tell you. It will ruin the story.
Van Pat: Yes...Daniel has nerve. He should be shot.
Grey vs Ale: I like it took. It gives me a smile when you guys say I'm evil hehehehehe
Future Keyblader: I listened to 'Simple and Clean' with it and randomly goes well with it. It fits and anything. ^^
Artism: Birth by Sleep should come out around September in US and UK ^^ can't wait.
See ya next time.
Kingdommad