Riku was in a strange suit that seemed to glow. He looked around wearily. He appeared to be in some sort of ship infested with Nightmares and soldiers alike. He wondered what the outside looked like seeing as this ship was so high-tech.
He peeked around a pillar to see a young woman fighting a hoard of Nightmares by herself, seemingly losing the battle.
"Let's help her out, Kou!" Riku exclaimed. The bat gave a screech before swooping into the hoard.
The woman was surprised but thankful for the help, throwing her identity disks into the creatures while Riku blasted them away with his light powers.
Once they were all gone, they hadu time to take a breather and introduce themselves.
"Hello, my name's Quorra." The woman said friendly. She could tell he wasn't from The Grid originally. "Are you a User like my friend Sam or mentor Flynn?"
"Oh, um, I think so. It's my first time here." Riku shrugged helplessly. Kairi had explained to him the ins and outs of Radiant Gardens security system. But whenever she wanted to show him, he always found some excuse to avoid the Gardens…."But my name's Riku. Why are you fighting the Nightmares alone? Shouldn't your friends be helping you?"
Quorra shook her head. "No. I left them so they would be safe while I searched Clu's ship."
"What are you looking for?" Riku asked.
Quorra opened her mouth to answer when she suddenly slid in front of him to block a blow. "Look out!"
Riku summoned his keyblade and blocked another, seeing one of the orange-lined soldiers walking towards them.
"Rinzler. Just who I was looking for." Quorra muttered. She looked back to Riku. "I'll be alright, but you should run."
"And let you fight that guy alone? I don't think so." Riku grunted.
He ran forward but then slammed into someone. He looked up to see a dark coat. Another Organization member. "Get out of my way!"
Quorra was too preoccupied fighting Rinzler to notice his absence from the fight.
"No. I think it'd be better if you just stay away from the fight, where your pure light is safe and sound. You're used to that, aren't you, Riku?"
The boy took off his hood and Riku felt his heart drop, his blood run cold.
"No… No, stay… stay away!" Memories hit him in sharp and painful flashes as he backed away from the boy, keyblade trembling. He couldn't even parse the memories swarming in his head, all he knew was that he was scared of the boy. He looked like Roxas in the face but Riku could only see the boy who'd tricked him into fleeing his world.
He suddenly hit someone and looked up to see the young man that had been following him throughout the worlds. He had the same golden eyes as the other boy. The man smirked down at him, placing a hand on his shoulder and casting a sleep spell on him. "Will this be the moment you succumb to despair? Oh, I wonder…"
Riku floated in the dark void once again, hearing Auxdrgn and the boy he'd been so terrified of.
"Poor little Riku, still the scared little boy from all those years ago." Auxdrgn giggled.
He winced in worry, wondering if they knew he was there.
If they knew, they didn't acknowledge him.
"Yes. And soon enough, he'll be a pawn once more." The boy whispered. "Just like he was back in Radiant Gardens."
Right, Radiant Gardens. The home he was too ashamed to visit.
"Wakey, wakey, your highness!"
Riku slowly opened his eyes to see a dashing man who looked upon him with an unsettling smirk. He noticed the darkly-clad guards behind him including Rinzler.
He walked forward only to run into a wall of glass.
"Yeah, you won't be getting out of there, little man." His captor smiled. "Your friends in the black coats told me all about your power, you see."
"Who are you and what do you want?" Riku growled.
"The handle is Clu. And all I want is to use your power to open a particularly difficult door, a portal, rather." Clu motioned to a beam of light in the distance. "They said you had experience, using your power to open a portal."
He must mean when the other princes and I opened the path to Kingdom Hearts…Would it even work here or did they just bring it up to make fun of me…? Riku wondered, feeling his anger grow as the Organization seemed to find every sensitive subject he had to throw in his face. As if they were trying to overwhelm him with despair.
"With your power to open the portal and Quorra's to reshape the world, I'll be able to take over Flynn's precious home, expanding the perfection of The Grid to everything I see."
Riku turned to see Quorra was indeed passed out beside him, he hadn't noticed her until now. He crawled over to her, shaking her slightly.
"I'll be back for you soon enough, just have to finish preparations for the army." Clu said, walking off to do just that.
"Riku…" Quorra muttered, opening her eyes. "Rinzler got you too?"
"Let's say that." Riku nodded, knowing she wouldn't understand the truth. "Are you alright?"
"I think so… I'm sorry, Riku. I only meant for myself to get captured." Quorra apologized at once.
"Wait, you wanted to get captured?!" Riku asked in disbelief, standing up.
"Yes." Quorra replied quickly, as if there was a logical way to explain things. "It's the only way to find Flynn's disk. It's the one thing that can open the portal back to his world and Clu has it somewhere on this ship."
"Clu has a different plan now that he has me..."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know if my power will work on this portal, but it has on another." Riku explained. "That time, I failed to keep the bad guy from using it, using me. Not this time."
"That's the spirit!" Quorra grunted, rising to her feet. She looked around then to see if their prison had any obvious exits. "I won't let him use my power either."
Just as Riku was about to ask what she meant, he heard a sudden squee.
They looked up to see Riku's Spirit flying outside the glass box before flying back in, revealing there was no roof to it. A way out.
"Nice job, Kou." Riku grinned, giving him a scratch before they fused. He unfurled his wings, shocking Quorra. "You're gonna want to hang on."
"So, where's this disk supposed to be?" Riku asked after they escaped, running alongside Quorra.
Quorra shook her head fervently. "I don't know. That's why we have to get to the control room and take a peek at the maps."
"Got it."
Riku took out a few more Nightmares as they snuck around, eventually finding the control room.
Quorra knocked out all the guards with a single arc of her disk, leaving the computer unoccupied.
While Quorra scanned the entire ship for the disk, Riku couldn't help but ask: "Quorra, earlier you said you wouldn't let Clu use your power either… What did you mean by that?"
Quorra paused in surprise, turning to him. "It's sort of hard to explain… I guess the first thing I should mention is I'm not a User like you and the others, or a program like Clu. I'm an ISO."
"What's an ISO?" Riku asked.
"It was a section of devices with special powers, enough to shape any world they came across… Clu feared our ability to create change and had the ISOs wiped out of the system, for good. I was the sole survivor."
"….I'm so sorry, Quorra…." It was all he could say. Riku had no idea if what he was feeling related to Quorra's in the fact they'd both survived the mass destruction of their people. Why should I be feeling sorry for myself when Quorra has it worse? She lost everyone, she's the sole survivor of her people. Meanwhile I just avoiding returning to Radiant Gardens…
"Is something wrong?"
He looked up to see Quorra and shook his head. "It's nothing compared to what you've been through."
"But it's still something." Quorra reminded him firmly, as if to say she wouldn't relent until he told her.
"It's just… If, hypothetically, another ISO survived and hide themselves from you for a long, long time before finally revealing themselves, would you be upset at them?"
Quorra thought for a moment, understanding he was dealing with a situation similar. "… I don't think so."
"But I… But they hid from you, even with the threat long gone! Sure, it wasn't on purpose while the danger existed but now, they- I don't know how to return, especially when they might be disappointed in me!"
"Riku." Quorra suddenly whispered, bending down to him.
He glanced away, not wanting her to see his expression.
"You can't let fear or guilt hold you back from meeting your people. If I had that chance, I'd take it in an instant. We'd make up for lost time, and rebuild our home together."
Riku nodded understandingly. He'd never revealed that to anyone before, not even Sora or Kairi. Maybe that was because he never met a person who could relate before now.
It was the worlds that were dreaming, wasn't it? If so, why did each world help him work through or at least begin to process a issue of his Oweyyyyyn? I guess it is up to Kairi and Sora to save the. worlds as usual, and as for why I'm here…
They heard a sudden ping from the computer and looked up to see the disk had been found a few sectors away.
"We better get going. It's time for me to help you." Riku smiled.
"There it is."
Flynn's disk floated on a small pedestal, now forgotten and unguarded.
The two walked up slowly and were about to reach the disk when they were suddenly shoved away.
Rinzler hadn't forgotten about his old friend's disk, a treasured possession of his. Ever since he heard of Flynn's son entering the Grid, Tron slowly began to regain himself and his true loyalties. Unfortunately for them, his new warrior programming was harder to shake. He didn't care who wanted the disk anymore, if they weren't Flynn, they couldn't have it.
"Quorra, get the disk! I'll deal with him!" Riku called, summoning his keyblade while Koumori appeared at his side.
Quorra nodded, dodging a throw from Rinzler before running up to the pedestal.
Riku and his spirit split up so Rinzler would lock them as targets for his two disks instead of Quorra.
Kou caught the disk with his little claws, sending him tumbling back before he sent it flying back at the program.
Riku hit his own disk back, causing Rinzler to catch it, only to be hit in the back with the disk thrown at Kou.
He rose at once, pouncing at Riku. The boy used his keyblade to block the two disks as Rinzler tried to take him in close combat. He knocked one disk out of his hand before he heard Quorra seemingly grab Flynn's.
They both turned to see Quorra raise her hands, stepping away from the disk in the pedestal.
She leapt to Riku's side before nodding to Rinzler. "I'm sure Flynn will be glad to hear you're breaking out of Clu's control, Tron."
Riku looked between Rinzler in surprise. He used to be Tron… The same program that'd befriended Kairi and took over Radiant Garden's security system. I should go meet the real one, once the exam's over.
"You're defending the disk without any orders to do so, none but the ones engraved in you from friendship." Quorra smiled before motioning for Riku to back out of the room with her.
Rinzler waited for them back out of the room before he glanced at the disk left there.
"Didn't you need the disk so Flynn and Sam could go home?" Riku asked in confusion outside the room.
Quorra nodded. "Mhm. That's why I got it."
The boy stared at the disk she displayed for a moment and then smiled. "You switched Flynn's for your own."
"Yes. And hopefully, my disk can help Tron just as much. Flynn told me all about their past adventures. Since they're part of my memory, they should be on my disk as well. It may be the final push Tron needs."
Riku suddenly saw the keyhole appear and two beams of light strike it. It was time to go.
"Is that a portal to take you home?" Quorra asked in surprise.
"Not quite. Both my homes will have to wait til I'm done with my mission." Riku answered, feeling a strange comfort now that he was able to call Radiant Gardens home again alongside Destiny Islands.
"Well, good luck to you, Riku." Quorra smiled.
"Thanks Quorra, for everything." As Riku floated up, he could suddenly feel a sadness from his friends' hearts that he hadn't felt in the other worlds.
It seemed they were sad to leave friends behind too.