Afterdeath
Author's note: Wow, thanks for all the positive response for just the first chapter! I hope you enjoy this next chapter as well.
Chapter 2
Yen Sid's tower chamber was quite crowded. All the keyblade wielders were there, plus the king and several denizens of Disney Castle. The mood was solemn. The old wizard spent several moments studying the Braveheart keyblade with silent intensity. At last he sighed and closed his eyes. "It is an authentic keyblade. And its connection to its wielder has been severed."
Mickey's posture deflated. "So Riku is dead then."
"No..." Sora whispered helplessly.
"Ehhhh... I don't buy it." Lea drew everyone's eyes to him. "I mean, it just doesn't feel right. Sure, that's what Xehanort wants us to think. But why not send a body? Why leave us room to question it?" He shrugged. "Xehanort likes shock value. Mind games are his normal M.O. So why not make us think Riku is dead, and then bring him out later to use as a hostage or something."
"Master Yen Sid. Is there a way a keyblade can be... um, severed... without the wielder dying?" Kairi asked.
Yen Sid pressed his palms together, staring straight ahead as he thought. "It is... not a situation that has been documented. Keyblade wielders are relatively few, you must understand. The keyblade... is born from the wielder's heart. When not needed, or when the heart is too weak, the keyblade returns to the heart. But if in a sudden, violent event, the keyblade is no longer able to detect the heart... that is when the keyblade remains behind in the real world. At least, as far as I understand it."
"'Sudden, violent event,' huh," Lea repeated. "My personal experience with having my heart ripped out would certainly count for that."
Sora immediately latched onto that. "So Xehanort... might have just made Riku into a heartless?"
"That situation is still very dire," Yen Sid reminded Sora. "But yes, as you are no doubt thinking: it is reversible. Potentially."
"Right." Sora completely ignored the qualifier. "So now we just need to find Riku's heart to get him back!"
"Uh, and his body, don't be forgetting," Lea interjected. "I'm sure Xehanort isn't going to make it easy. He'll probably make him another dark seeker, too, while he's at it." Lea mumbled that last bit.
Kairi fidgeted. "Xehanort planned this to distract us, didn't he? We still haven't rescued Aqua, or woken Ventus. And now we have to worry about Riku, too."
"Ack! We don't have time to rescue Riku!" Donald squawked.
"We can't abandon him," Sora countered.
"We're not going to, Sora." Kairi put her hand on his shoulder. "But we can't just abandon all our plans to go after him now. Xehanort almost has everything he needs in place, and he won't wait for us to catch up."
"But we need Riku for our plans!" Sora protested. "I can wake hearts up, but Riku's the only one who can put them to sleep! How else can we seal Xehanort away?"
"We're going to have to come up with a different plan, Sora," Mickey said. "Somehow Xehanort must have gotten wind of what we were planning."
"Are you saying... we have a spy?" Sora gasped. He eyed Lea suspiciously.
"Why are you looking at me?!" Lea sputtered. "I saved you from Xehanort! You seriously still think I'm working for him?"
Sora looked away, embarrassed. "Sorry, Lea. I do trust you. I just..."
"We should not waste time looking for what may not exist," Yen Sid said. "Xehanort has proven himself remarkably canny thus far. He knew the goal of Sora and Riku's mastery exam. He may have simply been able to deduce my intentions from there."
Everyone in the room slumped a bit. Donald shook his head. "So, what do we do now?" he rasped.
"We've got to go ahead with the plans we still have," Mickey said, speaking up with authority. "We need to try again to save Aqua from the darkness. We need to locate and train Sora with the Key to Return Hearts. We need to locate and awaken Ventus. And... we need to rescue your Nobodies from your hearts," speaking to Sora and Kairi.
"But... won't Xehanort know we're going to do all that?" Sora asked, rubbing his head.
"We have no choice," Yen Sid said. "To do nothing will be to hand victory over to Xehanort."
"We've just got to play it Xehanort's way," Lea mused. At the shocked looks he got, he awkwardly flapped his hands and clarified. "We need to think through how we expect Xehanort to react in each case. And then prepare ourselves for it."
Yen Sid nodded in agreement. "How do you suggest we proceed first, Lea?"
"Me? Uh..." Lea rubbed the back of his neck and looked off to the side. "Well, we can't wake Ventus without Aqua. Since we don't know where he is and all. So we need to rescue Aqua first. But also, we're getting short-staffed here, so we'll need Roxas back. But to get him back, we need the Key to Return Hearts..."
"So, it sounds like we have two missions now. Rescuing Aqua. And finding that key." Mickey turned and studied everyone in the room. "Both will be dangerous, but we can't afford not to split up. Otherwise we'll have no chance to be ready in time. We need to make two teams."
"Agreed," Yen Sid said. "Mickey, you select the team you feel best to confront Aqua."
Mickey deliberated for a long, tense moment. His tail twitched rhythmically as he thought. "Riku and I were no match for Aqua. But we were caught off guard. We know better what to expect this time. Even still… I think I'll need both Sora and Kairi with me. Kairi can help me reason with Aqua, try to get through to her. And Sora can dive into her heart to help her push out Xehanort's influence. It's our best bet."
"We will come with you, too!" Donald exclaimed, and Goofy agreed.
"No, guys," Mickey said, shaking his head.
Donald threw a fit. "Your Majesty, we're supposed to protect you! It's our job!"
Mickey waved his hands defensively. "Donald, I know! I understand! But we can't leave Lea unprotected."
"Hey! It's not like I'm defenseless, you know."
"Neither was Riku, but they managed to defeat him anyway," Mickey countered grimly. "Please. Donald, Goofy. Make sure nothing happens to Lea. We can't lose anyone else."
"Uh, aye-aye, your majesty!" Goofy agreed. Donald just groaned, but that was usually as close as he came to changing his mind anyway.
"Very well then." Yen Sid took over the conversation again. "Mickey, you and your team will go to recover Aqua. Meanwhile, Lea, you will lead a team to locate the Key to Return Hearts."
Lea shifted uncomfortably. "You guys keep talking about this special key… Where would I even start looking?"
"The same place it was last seen. Master Eraqus was the last keeper of that key, in the Land of Departure."
"Uh… I'm pretty sure I've never heard of that land before."
"Its name has been changed, in recent times. You would remember it as Castle Oblivion."
Lea's face went through the full range of expression from confused to horrified to resigned. "Ugh. Didn't think I'd be heading back to that place any time soon."
"Is there a problem?" Yen Sid asked.
"No…" Lea said. Then he mumbled under his breath about 'icky jobs.' "No, I'm good. When do we leave?"
"As soon as possible. Oh, and Lea? You may consider recruiting some others to assist you in your search."
Lea flinched at that. "No, no. We're good. We don't need anyone else's help."
"Gawrsh, Lea," Goofy said, in his charmingly oblivious way. "It's a big castle! Don'tcha think we'll need all the help we can get?"
"Eeehhh…" Lea groaned. "I'll think about it."
"Lea," Yen Sid said firmly.
Lea gesticulated wildly. "I don't think you understand. I really don't think they like me!" He shook his head. "But fine! If we need help, I'll go ask the others."
"Wha–? Who?" Sora asked, feeling like he was being left out of something.
"Don't worry about it," Lea summoned a chakram, fidgeted with it, then banished it back away. "It's fine. I know some people I can ask. Who knows? They might even agree to help us."
"Then it is all settled," Yen Sid said emphatically. He might even be smiling, if he ever smiled. "Go at once, all of you. And be safe. If you feel you might be outmatched, do not hesitate to retreat and try another path. We cannot afford to be reckless."
"Or we can't afford not to be," Lea mumbled, to himself. He didn't make eye contact with the others. The others pretended that they hadn't heard him.
"Y-yeah. Yeah!" Sora forced some artificial optimism into his voice and pumped a fist into the air. "Riku and Aqua are counting on us. Let's go!"
X-X-X-X-X-X
Riku had no idea what to expect Xehanort's heart to look like. Vanitas just said "follow me" and then directed Riku into a dive down, down, down through a corridor full of red-eyed, shadowy monsters. Luckily, Riku had no trouble summoning his keyblade here, and he was able to dispatch the monsters without too much trouble. Much sooner than he had expected, Riku passed through the final portal and landed in… an unfamiliar place.
The air was dry, and the ground was dusty. And clouds of dust obscured any view of the distant landscape. But the dust didn't obscure the hundreds and hundreds of spikes sticking out of the ground. Riku cautiously moved closer.
They weren't spikes. They were all keyblades. All different, at least subtly. Most were severely rusted or corroded.
"The Keyblade Graveyard…?" Riku murmured to himself. "No. A representation of it." Yen Sid had told them briefly of the place. Even knowing what to expect didn't really prepare him for how grim it was.
Distracted as he was by staring at the rows and rows of abandoned keyblades, Riku didn't realize that the ground beneath his feet was growing unstable. His next step sent him plummeting down into a deep pit. But soon it was no longer a pit he was falling into; rather, he was now falling down from the sky. Below him a castle appeared. Riku landed on an upper parapet and looked around. Something about this place struck him as familiar, but he couldn't place it. No one seemed to be around. Riku wandered the grassy plaza until he found a doorway and made his way inside.
Inside, the castle was strangely warped. Riku wondered at the significance of it. The mostly white walls seemed generally intact, but in a few places, it looked like they had started to melt and decay. Like darkness had seeped into the walls? The corruption didn't seem active, so Riku moved on.
As he descended levels, the amount of corruption rapidly increased. Wispy, dark monsters started appearing. They didn't appear to be heartless or nightmares, though the hostile intent of them was similar to both the former. Riku's keyblade jumped easily to his hand and he dispatched them without thought.
It seemed strange to Riku that his keyblade took the form of the Braveheart blade, rather than the much more familiar Way to Dawn. It seemed that even in his heart, where memories and dreams could live forever, he had already fully accepted the new keyblade and moved on. It didn't feel wrong – it just… surprised him.
The number of hallways were increasing, but Riku simply picked the paths that showed the greatest concentration of the strange, red-eyed monsters. At last, Riku found himself in a large, important looking chamber. The corruption of the room was almost complete. Every wall, floor tile, and ornament were oozing with a toxic darkness. Riku tried to tread cautiously, remembering his earlier fall, but it was difficult, since he also had to dispatch another monster with nearly every step. At least they were all smaller creatures.
The center of the room had distinctive sinkhole-like sagging to it. With a corresponding sinking in his heart, Riku made his way toward it and reluctantly let himself be swallowed up by the gelatinous floor.
As before, the falling transition brought Riku to a new location. This one made him tense up in a combination of fear and anger. This seemed to be a narrow tower, reminiscent of Yen Sid's, but done in the decorating style of Maleficent. Even the aura here felt similar to Maleficent. Riku tried to push aside the fury he still felt for that deceitful old fairy. It was extremely unlikely to actually be her. He forced himself to press forward, as that sense of oppressive darkness was most likely his target.
At the top of a twisting, crumbling stairway was a locked door. Riku whipped out his keyblade and unlocked it in an instant, allowing himself a grim smile. Then he dashed inside, anticipating a fight and not wanting to be caught off guard.
His instinct served him well. An ugly old man with an uglier smile was waiting for him with a keyblade. Riku was able to completely dodge Xehanort's initial attack and land a fierce combo of blows on him before he was ready to strike again.
The battle went on just like any other, much to Riku's amazement. For all the talk he and the others had heard about this ancient, dangerous man… Riku had honestly expected that fighting him one on one would have been much harder. Or at least, as difficult as Riku's fight against Xehanort's younger self had been, back when he had been fighting to save Sora's heart. And so it seemed rather unreal, and too easy, when Riku was able to counter the old man's last attack and send Xehanort tumbling against the wall in a heap. Riku stood there, staring and breathing hard, watching the old man and waiting for a trick. After the count of three, Riku cautiously aimed the point of the keyblade at Xehanort and called a keyhole into existence. Then, willing with all his heart for this to work, he used Braveheart to put Xehanort to sleep and lock the heart in place.
Everything seemed to work just as it should. It still seemed too easy, but Riku couldn't deny that it seemed to be done. The image of Xehanort faded slowly to a monochromatic gray, and as he faded, the color seemed to seep back into the world. The tower remained as rundown looking as before, but the stone brightened from black to gray. And the oppressive sense of darkness disappeared. A buzz of darkness remained in the background, but Riku suspected that might come from Vanitas himself.
"Can it really be that easy?" Riku muttered to himself. "How could Xehanort himself be so weak?" But then, as his mind recalled back to the two occasions he had seen Xehanort before – during the mastery test, as Xehanort had tried to claim Sora; and at the ambush in the City of the Bells, where Riku had been bested – suddenly Xehanort's strategy made more sense. Xehanort's heart was durable but maybe no longer particularly strong. He had not accidentally chosen his various lieutenants to be persons of significant combat ability. There was a reason Xehanort had sent all of his dark counterparts after Riku. Xehanort was afraid of the power of those who fought for the light. Xehanort knew that alone, he would lose. And so he was going to great extremes to be sure he was never alone.
It was time to get back to Vanitas. Riku needed to be sure Xehanort wasn't going to get wise to what Riku had just done. But then, if this had really worked… This was just one small blow against Xehanort. Riku wanted to do a lot more.
X-X-X-X-X-X
"What's in there?" Donald rasped, poking at a large, glass-paned tank. It was full of a thick, murky, gray liquid that mostly concealed something floating inside.
"A-hyuck, yeah that looks kind of like one of those sleeping pods that we all woke up in!"
Lea finally turned to look and blanched. "Uh… Yeah… You guys don't really want to see what's inside there. Let's move on."
"But there could be a clue!" Donald insisted.
"No, no, no, there really couldn't be. That's Vexen's stuff. Way too recent. Okay, nothing else to see in here!" Lea forcibly pushed the protesting duck and dog out the door. "Let's move on! Next floor!"
X-X-X-X-X-X
"Wow, Kairi, I wouldn't have believed you could brighten up even the Realm of Darkness!" Sora exclaimed.
Kairi giggled, self-conscious, and more than a bit nervous. She had her keyblade out and knew not to lower her guard. Sora and Mickey were similarly on alert. But so far, the attacks on them had been few. Mickey had expected a Princess of Heart to attract more attention, but Kairi's very being also repulsed the heartless who came close to them. Only the largest, strongest ones would dare to attack.
Sora was fine with that. He really didn't like the idea of Kairi fighting, even though she had shown herself capable before. "So, uh, your majesty? How much longer until we reach Aqua?"
"I'm afraid I don't know, Sora. Time and space are inconsistent here. It could be minutes or… It could be hours."
"So, we might even be just going around in circles?" Sora groaned.
"Don't give up, Sora. We can do this," Kairi said.
Sora straightened up. "I… I wasn't complaining. I just meant… I wish we had something to go on."
"We have our hearts. We just have to trust that they'll lead us right," Mickey said.
Sora nodded very emphatically. "You're right. Our hearts must know the way." He placed a hand on his chest and closed his eyes. "And my heart tells me we're going the right direction."
"Mine does, too," Kairi said with a smile as she came to stand right beside Sora.
Mickey paused and took a bit longer to check in with his heart compass. His ears twitched as he focused, and Sora had to stifle a giggle. "It won't be much further now," Mickey finally said, then strode confidently ahead the direction they'd been going. "Let's hurry. We're almost there!"
X-X-X-X-X-X
Riku tried at first to retrace his steps back to where the avatar of Vanitas's consciousness resided, but soon had to just give up and use his keyblade to open a path. He was worried about finding the right layer of Vanitas's heart, considering he had dropped down several levels lower from where he had started. And he also worried about reaching out too far and exiting Vanitas's heart entirely. From what he presumed, he no longer could call his body his own. He had no desire to deal with possession again. But more importantly, he couldn't risk Xehanort learning what he was attempting.
His first attempt to jump back out of the depths of the heart only landed him back at the keyblade graveyard. Riku spared it only a brief glance before aiming his keyblade at the sky again and jumping up one layer more.
Riku's aim was precise, and he arrived back at Vanitas's heart station. But Riku was the only one there. "Vanitas!" he yelled into the void. "I'm back! Vanitas?!"
No response. Riku waited a while – how long, he couldn't say. He had no way to track the time passing, save counting seconds, and he had no desire to do that. That was something Sora would do.
I hope Sora's okay. Have they noticed my absence yet...?
At last, Riku gave in to impatience and made another jump, aiming up one level more. He was truly anxious about jumping so close to the upper edge of Vanitas's heart, but it seemed it couldn't be helped. He needed to reconnect with his unlikely ally, to find out if Xehanort had gotten wise to them...
Riku could feel himself being pulled upward quickly – too fast. His heart was being pulled back to his body! Riku had to fight the natural pull with all his strength so that he could continue in the unnatural direction. The void around him was brightening rapidly, but Riku finally saw the portal he was seeking and dove through it, veering sideways instead of up.
Riku skidded awkwardly across the ground and slammed into a wall. He groaned and lay there a moment, feeling weirdly conflicted about being relieved about successfully resisting his body's pull to recomplete itself.
Finally he got up and took a look around. He didn't recognize the dark brick buildings as any place he had been, but guessed he was back in the place where he had started out stuck in a cage. "Vanitas?" he tried calling out again. He was tired of randomly wandering. "Vanitas!"
A swirl of darkness preceded Vanitas's reappearance. "Don't go yelling around here! It's not safe!"
"Xehanort's heart is asleep. And he shouldn't be able to hear us in here, anyway!"
"Xehanort isn't the only dangerous thing in my heart." Vanitas looked downright smug at the declaration. But he quickly let it slide. "So, you managed to do it?"
"Yes. It seemed... surprisingly easy. I thought he'd be stronger," Riku confessed.
But Vanitas didn't seem surprised. "Of course he's weaker. He's always been fighting me for control of this body. Yeah, I mostly obey him – or he'd destroy me. But I don't like being yanked around. I like to remind him from time to time that I'm not his loyal dog!"
Riku stared back at Vanitas a moment. "He's got to be even more desperate than I thought to keep you around."
"Hey!" Vanitas exploded – darkness literally burst out of him and formed itself into a dozen monsters.
Riku quickly backpedaled. "I didn't mean it as an insult! I mean – you're constantly fighting him. And yet he puts up with you. Even though you said you've lost your intended role."
Vanitas glared at Riku, then slowly absorbed the monsters back inside himself. "What's your point then?"
"I don't really have one... I'm just thinking aloud. Have you seen any signs that Xehanort has noticed that anything has changed?"
"I haven't been able to sense anything. I guess I should test it to make sure his control has really been broken."
"Right. So, what's something Xehanort has forbidden you to do?"
"Kill people," Vanitas said with a terrible grin.
"Not that!" Riku snapped, even though he was half-sure Vanitas was just baiting him. "Something else, you psychopath."
Vanitas grinned at the label, then scowled as he thought. "I'm not supposed to talk to other people. Or tell them what Xehanort is planning."
"Okay, fine. So we go to a random world, and you tell someone that an evil old dude is going to destroy the universe. Does that work?"
Vanitas brightened again, which made Riku worry he'd made a mistake. "Yes, my little pet. That sounds like a wonderful idea! And I know just the place!"
"Great. And don't you call me your pet again, or I'll give you a firsthand demonstration of what I did to Xehanort's heart."
"Sure thing, pet." Vanitas winked at Riku and dissolved into darkness.
Riku knew this was going to be a thing and there was nothing he could do about it.
X-X-X-X-X-X
"Gawrsh, Lea. So who were those other people Master Yen Sid wanted ya to bring?"
Lea stopped abruptly in his attempt to shoulder a stuck door open. He turned to look at Goofy, and saw Donald glaring at him, tapping a foot on the floor.
Lea groaned. "Fiiiine. Yen Sid meant the other recompleted Organization members. You know, others. He must think he's so funny…"
"What?!" Donald sputtered. "But they're the bad guys!"
"Hey." Lea pointed at his chest. "Former bad guy right here." He took a couple steps back, then charged at the door with all the force he could muster. The door was unimpressed. Aeleus could pop this open one-handed, a traitorous thought flickered through his mind. "It doesn't matter anyway, though, since those guys don't really like me. And you don't trust them, besides, so..."
"Aw, but if Master Yen Sid thinks we should get them, don't you think we should give them a chance?"
Donald looked back and forth a few times between Goofy and Lea. He was clearly unsure who he wanted to side with. At last he gave up and sighed loudly. "I don't like it. But haven't we run out of rooms we can get into?"
"I... can... get into... this... room!" Lea insisted, while simultaneously proving himself wrong. His shoulder was starting to hurt. He kicked the door. That did nothing, either.
"Have you tried your keyblade?" Goofy suggested.
Lea carefully struck a pose – he had found it helped – and on the second try got his keyblade to flash into being. He pointed it at the stubborn door. "Open!" he yelled.
Nothing happened.
"Gee, maybe the door isn't locked," Goofy observed.
"It isn't locked!" Lea snapped. "It's just stuck! That's why I've been... aw, forget it." Lea gave the keyblade in his hand a long look, then he let go and let it dissolve away. He gave the door one more dirty look, and threw a fireball at it for good measure. The door remained unaffected. "Okay, fine. Let's go see if you can convince the others not to kill me."
"Gawrsh, Lea. I thought they were your friends!"
"Friends… uh yeah, about that…"
X-X-X-X-X-X
"We're here, pet!" Vanitas declared in a singsong voice.
"Where's here?" Riku countered coldly, determined to not let Vanitas get to him.
Vanitas summoned his keyblade and tapped it on a darkened store window on a darkened building. "Take a look."
Warily, Riku stepped forward and peered into the glass. As he drew closer, the darkness inside whirled and gave way to a bright seascape with a brilliant sun high overhead. Vanitas had given him a way to see what he was seeing in real life. And what Riku was seeing was... unmistakably Destiny Islands.
Of course.
"Any suggestions?" Vanitas asked brightly over Riku's shoulder as the view in the window approached a cluster of people.
Riku recognized Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie. Nobody on the island knew the truth about where he and Sora had been or what they had done. Mickey had suggested it needed to be that way. Allowing Vanitas to do this would mean Riku breaking a promise, but...
"Any of them are fine. Just don't you dare try attacking them. Xehanort watches this world, you know. He might get word."
Riku could feel the flare of darkness that likely meant Vanitas was scowling at him. But Vanitas did nothing this time. "Fine, pet."
The real Vanitas in the real world sauntered up to the trio of youths. "Hey there, kids!"
"Where did you come from? Who are you?" Selphie sputtered.
"They don't think you look like Sora?" Riku asked.
Heart-Vanitas countered, "I have my helmet on. I'm not stupid."
Riku had to resist with all his might to not make a dig there. "Okay. Carry on."
Heart-Vanitas growled as though Riku had actually made a snide comment anyway, but then did nothing more.
Meanwhile, real-Vanitas said, "Listen up! I have something super secret to tell you, so be sure you never tell anybody about this!"
Riku groaned.