The journey trying to make their way through the rest of the castle still was no easy feat, even if they were all together. It didn't take long before they came across Luxord, who managed to play with his abilities of cards and dice to try and skew the battle towards him. But even with his love of games, it wasn't enough to win against Sora.

Before long, they found their way to where Saix was, staring out of the window that let him have a view of the giant heart shaped moon. Once again Sora had proved to be victorious, but as Riku approached him after battle, he could sense there was some annoyance in his friend.

"This is starting to get frustrating. Why won't they listen and stop calling me Roxas? Don't they know I'm not him?"

After everything that Sora had gone through, Riku figured it was probably time to finally let him know the truth. "It's because, Sora, Roxas is your Nobody."

"My Nobody… Oh yeah," Sora replied, seemingly spacing out for the moment.

Kairi waited a few moments as Sora seemed lost to his own thoughts. Then she stepped forward, coming closer to him. "It was when you came to rescue me, remember?"

"Huh? What?" Sora asked as he snapped out of his thoughts. "Oh, right! Yeah, I think I got it now!"

"You sure?" Riku asked skeptically, knowing how Sora didn't always get the bigger picture right away.

"Yeah! I get it! No worries! Now come on, we gotta keep going!"

It was a little surprising how easily Sora took the information with ease, but then on the other hand, maybe part of that had to do with his origins as Ephemer. Or maybe it was just the natural part of Sora being himself. It was hard to tell for Riku, trying to reflect on the past while also keeping his mind focused on the now.

When they made it up to the area of the castle where Ansem was, his machine was already failing. It didn't take long before the machine grew more unstable, growing with far too much power.

It was only a matter of seconds before the machine finally exploded with a brilliant light. Riku turned himself around, grabbing onto Sora as he tried to run towards Ansem. He held on for as long as he could until the force from the explosion knocked him away.

The light was bright. Completely encompassing everything around him, so much so that he could feel it nearly consume him. But it faded just as quickly as it came, and Riku let out a long sigh as he laid on the ground.

'Riku, are you okay?'

"I'm fine," he replied in thought.

"Riku?" Sora asked as he came closer.

He groaned, pushing himself up to his knees. He stopped halfway when he noticed something felt… different.

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed.

"Wow!" Donald and Goofy whispered in unison.

"Riku!" Kairi chimed in.

"Ansem did say "anything could happen…" Mickey added.

"Anything could… Wait a minute…"

'So you sensed the change too? The change in you?' Terra asked.

"I didn't think it was possible… to go back to how I was before."

"Riku, you gonna take that off?" Sora asked, snapping him away from his thought process.

It took him a few seconds before he realized what Sora was referring to. "Oh…"

He was almost hesitant to reach for the blindfold, something in him afraid of what would happen.

'It'll be okay, Ira,' Aced whispered softly.

With a deep breath, Riku pulled the blindfold off, blinking a few times as he truly let his eyes truly see for the first time in a long while. He waited however, waiting to see if anything would happen to him now that he had removed the blindfold, but as the seconds passed, nothing changed.

'See? It's alright now.'

"Doesn't change what cause it in the first place."

"What was that?" Sora asked as he came to Riku's side.

"His eyes couldn't lie," Mickey answered.

"Lie?".Sora echoed before he stared crossley at Riku. "And just who were you trying to fool? Huh? Huhhh?"

Riku knew there was no denying the truth of the matter. He had come so far and yet he didn't feel like he was far enough.

"Myself," he said as he lowered his head.

'Riku. You don't have to be so hard on yourself anymore,' Terra replied.

"Riku... C'mon, man! Why did you try to do so much on your own?" Sora asked.

Riku didn't have a chance to respond to either of them in time as he watched Sora run over to the others.

"You got friends… like us!" Sora cheerfully stated.

Seeing that warm and happy optimism was enough to shake away any of the lingering negativity. Sora was always one to help him pull through when he was the hardest on himself.

A smirk slowly curled up onto Riku's lips as he stood near Sora. "Have you forgotten? I'll tell you why. 'Cause I'm not a total sap like you."

Sora narrowed his eyes in a playful manner. "Say that again!"

Before they could break out into their old banter, hearts were floating up towards the large Kingdom Hearts in the sky. Heartless were also starting to storm the castle, following the energy that the hearts were giving off.

Fun banter and tease would have to wait. For now, Riku knew that they had to resume their mission to go and defeat Xemnas.

"And then when all of this is over we talk to Sora… to Ephemer," he thought to Terra.

'And we may find out what he knows before we try to talk to Ava, or to see if she remembers that,' Terra-Aced added

"Right. We'll have time to figure it out… or at least try to."


What Riku had hoped for to be an easy final confrontation turned out to be something a whole lot longer. But in the end, it was down to only him and Sora, and together they were able to finally end Xemnas's plans.

Now the two of them were back home, on their island alone with Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey.

Everyone spent time rejoicing, glad that the worlds were saved once more, but after some hours the sun was setting. Mickey and his friends had to go back to their world, but they all knew it wouldn't be the last time they would see one another.

But now that it was just Riku, Sora, and Kairi, it was time to figure out other things. Riku now had his chance to confront his friends, to see just what past memories they may or may not have remembered.

'Who are you going to talk to first?' Terra asked.

"Don't know, I guess I'll talk to Sora first," Riku whispered as he walked towards the smaller island where Sora was.

Sora sat down next to the paopu fruit tree, staring off at the sunset on the horizon. Clearing his voice, Riku came and sat down next to Sora.

"Hey."

"Oh! Hey Riku! What's up?"

"Just wanted to talk, you know, now that everything's over."

Sora grinned. "Okay! So what did you wanna talk about?"

"Well…" Riku rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, I guess to start, do you remember anything? Like… Stuff not from now?"

Tilting his head, Sora started, blinking slowly. "What?"

'You should summon your keyblade, Ira,' Aced advised. 'It would be easier than trying to explain it without sounding too far-fetched.'

"Right… You have a point."

"I think it's best if I just show you," Riku said before he summoned his old keyblade.

He watched as Sora's eyes widened, staring in awe at the keyblade before looking at him. "But that's… You have Master Ira's keyblade!"

Riku nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"If you have that keyblade, then…" Sora started to say before humming thoughtfully. He quieted down for a moment, looking deep in some internal thought.

"I can remember a past life. My past life as Master Ira," Riku answered.

"You do?! That's great! And, I guess if you're telling me that, I can tell you I remember a past life too."

"Ephemer, right?" Ira asked.

Sora gasped. "How did you know?"

Riku almost was going to tell him that Namine saw his memories, but then he recalled Sora wouldn't remember that. He only had a basic idea of who Namine was, so there wasn't really any point going to explain all of that.

"Long story," Riku answered instead. "But I know that much."

"Wow, Master Ira! That's amazing," Sora, or technically Ephemer stated. "I didn't know that there were any Foretellers here as well."

"It wasn't something I expected. I haven't remembered for very long, not even a year."

Sora looked shocked. "Really? I've remembered that I was Ephemer since I was… I think four or five?"

'He's remembered for so long?' Aced gasped. 'That feels far too much for a child to bear for that long, especially with what happened during those olden days.'

"Maybe so, but this still is him, whether as Sora or as Ephemer, he is strong. But since he's remembered that long, perhaps that's why he seems so well adjusted… compared to myself."

"Do you know about any others? Like Kairi, she… you saw what keyblade she summoned."

Riku nodded. "I was going to talk to her next. Don't know if she remembers, but we could ask."

Sora jumped up to his feet, holding a hand out for Riku. "Then let's go, Master Ira."

Riku chuckled softly. "You don't have to call me that."

"But you were my union leader, it feels kind of fun to say that again," Sora replied with a wide grin.

Taking Sora's hand, Riku was pulled up to his feet. "Guess if you want to, but I'm still Riku too."

"Heh, at least now it makes sense why you've always been so awesome. Come on! Let's go talk to Kairi, I think I saw her go to the secret area!"

Sora ran ahead, leaving Riku to follow slowly behind.

'When will you inform him that I'm here as well? I think it would be important.'

"Once we talk to Kairi and see if she remembers. At least then, if she does, we'll know of three Fortellers that are around."

'Right, that sounds like a plan. Though. I have been thinking. We've wondered about the others, but I hadn't considered Luxu.'

Ira hummed. "Luxu… I almost forgot. He vanished so early after The Master left… but are you trying to imply he could be here too?"

'Anything at this rate could be possible.'

"Even for The Master to be alive as well?"

Taking in a deep breath, he shook his head. "I don't know… the way The Master used to phrase it made it seem like he would be gone for good. But on the other hand things are different from what we read in the book… I guess we will have to wait and see…"