Riku kept on his mission, watching Sora from the shadows. Sora was making progress as best as Riku would have expected him to do. Along the way he even started defeating some of the remaining members of the Organization, dwindling their already cut numbers even smaller.

Eventually, Riku found himself sneaking around The Castle that Never Was. A while back he had overheard a conversation between Sora and those kids from Twilight Town. Apparently some time earlier Kairi had been kidnapped by Axel.

"I still can't figure out why Axel would do that. Unless he was being forced too by Xemnas, but I thought he was going to get away from all of that."

'Hmm, there must have been something that cause him to do it. Whether it's because of him or not, Axel must have some reason. We haven't seen him since anyway.'

Riku sighed. "Yeah I know, and it worries me what he could be doing."

'First, we should help Kairi. With Sora nearing the castle himself, things will only get harder,' Terra offered.

Riku nodded. "Right. And finally, once this is all over, maybe we can talk to her and see what she remembers."

Terra hummed in agreement. 'Yes, that would be good to see when we finally have time to breathe again.'

Riku made his way down a hallway, trying to locate where Kairi was being held. Before long, he sensed her as well as a fainter heart that was similar to her own. No doubt it was Namine, and she was helping Kairi escape from whatever prison she had been held in.

He found them moments later, stopping at a staircase with Saix, and several Berserker Nobodies, before them. Without any hesitation, he summoned the keyblade he had as Riku, and started to strike each of the Nobodies, causing them to crash to the floor and disappear.

Saix turned around and glared. "You… Didn't Roxas take are of you."

"You can take it from here, Riku," Namine said, nodding her head.

Kairi's reaction was as Riku had expected. She was shocked, completely caught off-guard by the name drop. "Riku!?"

Riku didn't have time to talk yet, he still had to try and take care of Saix. He tried to fight him, using whatever magic he could throw, but Saix managed to block it with ease. Even when he grabbed him and slammed him against the wall, he easily made a portal to step back into.

Sighing deeply, Riku was about to step in and follow him when he heard Kairi shout, "Wait!"

Riku started to back away, even as Pluto excitedly came out of nowhere, running at him.

'Don't run away, Riku.'

"But I-"

'I won't hear any of it! Don't run away from her. You're better than that.' Terra said to him before adding a quick, 'Ira.'

"Riku… You're really here…" Kairi said with relief as she reached up to the hood of the cloak.

Riku gritted his teeth, knowing now it was too late to escape and also he knew he didn't want to disappoint Terra. There wasn't much else he could do anyway as Kairi pushed the hood of the cloak off, her eyes widening as she saw just how he looked now.

"Riku… what happened? You look… that face…"

Clearing his throat, knowing how the voice would sound, Riku began to speak. "I'm sorry, Kairi. It's a long story."

"But are you okay?"

"I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me. This is… it's my own fault I'm like this."

Kairi frowned. "Oh Riku. But you're here! And Sora's here too, right? We can be together again!"

"We can," Riku said with a nod. "But first, we need to find him and help him. This way. He should be in the area soon."

Riku started walking in the direction Sora would most likely be, and soon he heard Kairi following right behind him.

"Wait! What happened to Namine?" Kairi asked.

It was apparent that Namine had vanished. She hadn't run away during the small fight with Saix, but instead just vanished from the area entirely. Riku had a feeling what it meant, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to explain it to Kairi properly.

"I don't know, but maybe we'll find her somewhere else. She can handle herself though, she has courage," Riku replied.

"If you say so," Kairi said.

It wasn't long before they came to a balcony, seeing Sora below, fighting off Heartless. Kairi ran up to the edge of the balcony, looking down at the fight below.

"Sora!" she shouted "Sora! It's really you!"

Sora looked up after slicing through a Heartless. "Kairi!"

Before he could look back, another Heartless jumped on top of him. Kairi breathed in deeply as she started to step away from the ledge.

"You leave Sora alone!"

Before Riku could even ask what she's planning, she ran to the ledge and leaped over it. He watched, dumbfounded in the moment, as she landed on the ground near Sora. Immediately, Heartless started to swarm her, one piling on top of another.

'Did she just…?' Terra asked.

"She did," Riku muttered before jumping off the ledge.

He was about to bring out his keyblade to clear the Heartless, and a flash of light appeared near Kairi. Suddenly, the Heartless were knocked back, tumbling to the ground. Kairi now stood up, holding an old but familiar pink and yellow keyblade.

'Ava's keyblade! I wonder if her memories are awakened.' Aced exclaimed.

Kairi started at the keyblade, eyes wide with surprise. She then shook her head and held the keyblade in a better position. "I'm going to fight this time. Come on, Riku! You know Sora's completely hopeless without us!"

"I don't believe she remembers, but there are instincts there. No doubt it was some hidden instinctually muscle memory that pulled the keyblade out," Ira replied before jumping into the fray. "But maybe we can discover more after."

Once everything was cleared out from the area, Sora, Donald, and Goofy ran up to Kairi and Riku. All three of them were staring with wide eyes at the keyblade that was still in Kairi's hand.

"Kairi, you were great!" Donald shouted.

"Yeah Kairi!" Sora added. "But where did you get that keyblade? That keyblade it…it's…"

Kairi looked down at it in her hand, still looking rather perplexed. A moment later it flashed away, leaving her to blind a few times. "I don't know. It just kind of came to me when I wanted to get the Heartless off…"

Riku found Kairi looking to him for answers, but he knew now would not be the time to try and explain it. If she didn't remember now, then it wasn't the time to try and bring up reincarnation. It was clear though Sora, aka Ephemer, was a little curious about what he had seen from Kairi.

"We can talk about it later. We have other matters to discuss," Riku said, speaking in a tone that was much more like Ira's. He wasn't doing it intentionally, but as far as he knew, Sora had no idea it was him. Speaking more formally would continue to help keep that guise up, until it was time to finally drop it, whenever that would be.

"Well it has been a while," Sora offered. "Maybe we all learned something in that time! You have changed a lot, Kairi, but I'm just glad you're here!"

"You and Riku never came home, so I came looking for you," Kairi replied.

Sora looked away. "I'm sorry."

A moment later the two were hugging, and Riku decided to give them some time alone. He started to step back, when Sora pulled away from Kairi's hug and ran over to him.

"Hey wait! Ansem! I mean, Xehanort's Heartless… I never thought for a second that I'd ever see you again. Just thinking about all the things you did makes me really mad. But... But you saved Kairi, right? I have to be grateful for that... Thanks."

'I think it's about time you dropped the facade. No point in running away anymore,' Terra offered.

"But how would I even say it?"

Kairi cleared her throat, giving Riku a look. "Riku, you weren't thinking of leaving us, were you?"

Sora gasped. "Kairi, what did you say?!"

'Well, that's one way to go about it,' Terra laughed.

"Riku," Kairi repeated.

Riku sighed, closing his eyes. "I, uh… I don't…"

Rolling her eyes, she reached out for Riku's wrist. She then reached out for Sora's hand and pulled him closer. Together, she had both of their hands resting on top of Riku's.

"Now close your eyes and focus. You'll see," Kairi offered.

"Is it something a Princess of Light can do?" Riku asked as he watched Sora close his eyes.

'Perhaps, though if she is trying to have him sense by your heart, I wonder what he will see.'

"Are you trying to imply he may see something resembling me as Ira?" Riku asked.

'It's possible, but we won't know until he says something.'

"Riku… It's Riku. Riku's here…" Sora said, his voice shaking. He dropped down to his knees as he still held out to Riku's hand. "I looked for you."

"Guess he didn't see anything other than me, well Riku me," Riku replied.

He cleared his throat, knowing how his voice would sound. But he had to try to give it as much of his own tone as he could. "Come on, Sora. You've got to pull it together."

"But I looked everywhere for you!" Sora retorted.

Riku shook his head. "I didn't really want anyone to find me. Not until I felt ready."

"But it was you who was helpin' us, wasn't it?" Goofy asked. "Those clues we kept finding. That musta been you."

Riku nodded. "I knew I had to do something. I wasn't just going to stand by and watch. Besides, I was starting to worry you guys weren't ever gonna catch on. Sora never did pick the brightest friends."

Donald crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes. "What do you mean by that?!"

"So why didn't you let me know you were okay? Why did you want to keep this to yourself? I could've helped or something!"

"This was something I had to deal with on my own," Riku answered. "I fought against the darkness in me, and soon I let it overpower me, and this was the price."

"Does that mean...you can't change back? There must be some way! Your heart is still yours!" Kairi stated.

It had been something Riku wondered. He wasn't sure if it was possible, knowing how clingy darkness could be to a person. But having hope did sound nice, and he could tell that Kairi and Sora had that in them. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have a little hope once again.

"Maybe… but not until the battle is over. As much as I'm not a fan of using the darkness like this, it may be needed."

"Then let's finish it quickly! So then we can figure out how to get you back to normal! Think we can all handle one last rumble together? The King's waiting anyway! We should hurry!"

The rest of the group nodded in agreement. Riku followed alongside the group now, knowing he couldn't run away and hide at this point. He wouldn't think of that anyways now, knowing Sora wasn't going to look at him differently. He should have expected that perpetual kindness from Sora, it had always been there. From when Sora was a young boy, to even back in the past when he had been Ephemer. He was always trusting and understanding in both lifetimes, and Riku was thankful for it.

He only hoped that they could have time to talk afterwards. About everything from now and from then.