"Sora... Kairi... I'm sorry..."
Darkness...It was all Riku could see...He could barely perceive his own voice as he spoke. Nothing was clear...everything was...hazy...except what felt almost like large amounts of sand beneath his feet as he walked down the trail he found himself on. His face full of sorrow and regret. Everything that he did, all the bitterness he held towards Sora, all the justifications he told himself to feel justified in his misdeeds...all of that brought him here. He never should have accepted what that robed figure had to offer. All he did was end up being used to hurt the very people he swore to protect. Now he was paying for it here...wherever 'here' was. "Is this the afterworld?" he asked nobody in particular before stumbling more and clutching his chest. His body was covered in that same blue light that that man...Ansem gave him. The...darkness. The pain was growing more by the moment, to the point where his senses were faltering more and more. "I'm not ready. Not yet. Not until I see Sora and Kairi one last time."
He needed to get out of this place. He needed to escape. Perhaps it was too late for him to earn his life back, but that didn't matter. He wouldn't accept not being able to make it up to his friends, by at least apologizing for all he had done wrong. If Riku could just see them and say that, then dying wouldn't be so terrible. At least he thought he was dying. It was odd because even though he was sure he lost his body, there was still some physical sensations. It was very unusual but he didn't have time to think it over. His time should have been focused on walking and finding some way out.
"Riku, can you hear me? I'll be there soon."
Riku stopped where he was when suddenly...he heard a voice. He looked around swiftly, trying to muster a forceful and demanding voice. "Who is that?" All he saw was the darkness stretching eternally along the edges of his current and only path. Not a person in sight.
The voice sounded oddly high pitched, though Riku could faintly make out a masculine tone as the mystery voice spoke up again. "I have the other Keyblade. The one that belongs to this world." Other Keyblade? Belongs to this world? Riku wasn't certain what that meant. "I've been trying to get through to you, but the darkness in your heart kept me away."
The darkness...the thing he foolishly threw himself into just so he could leave home...and that he nearly allowed to consume his two dearest friends because of his foolish pride. But what happened after Ansem discarded him? "Who are you? What's happened to me?" Riku asked.
The voice soon answered with a regretful tone. "Your heart won the battle against the darkness, but it was too late for your body. That's why you're here-in this place of darkness where hearts are gathered."
Riku took a moment to digest this puzzling information. Despite his body being consumed by the darkness, his heart actually won? Was that why, despite how weak, he felt like he was able to hold on? Because of his need to see Sora and Kairi again? "So what do I do?" he asked, looking out along the pale white sand stretching into the abyss.
"The door to darkness will open soon, but it's a door we can't enter." the voice spoke up. The Door to Darkness. He remembered hearing Ansem speak of such things. He'd thought that door was the door on the Island. But...was it something else? If they couldn't enter, then what could they do to stop it? "It must be closed." the voice continued. "To do this, you need two keys and two hearts." Two keys...Two Hearts... "Maybe you're hear for the same reason I am. Maybe it was fate."
"Fate, huh? You seem to know everything, don't you?" Riku said skeptically. Still, the oddly omniscient way this voice spoke made him think...no, hope. If this voice DID know everything...then he had to ask the thing he wanted to know more than anything before Ansem threw him into the darkness. "Then tell me...Are Sora and Kairi okay?"
"Don't you feel the echoes of their hearts? You already know the answer. Look inside your own heart."
Though not entirely sure what the owner of the voice meant, Riku decided to give it a try. Something he remembered when speaking to Sora a very long time ago when they were children. With a breath to calm himself, Riku closed his eyes and stopped all thought or ceased any awareness around him. In that moment, he witnessed what...looked to be Sora, running toward him with an expression of joy. A joy he couldn't remember the last time he saw given their...conflict with one another. More than that, the joy he saw felt...so real. Genuine. As if he truly wanted to reunite with Riku...And with that feeling came relief...from the realization that Kairi was saved, and that they were together. They were okay...That was enough to give him the strength to keep going.
"Okay." he said, pushing past the apprehension he felt toward guiding voice. If they were able to give him the comfort of knowing Sora and Kairi were still alive, that they were safe, then perhaps this voice could be trusted after all. For now he needed to press on and try to escape this place.