AN: Okay I couldn't fit some of the scenes I wanted to in this chapter either lol, OMG. I kinda went nuts and it's now on the longer side soooo...next NEXT chapter will be the actual wrap-up and fallout scenes! xD And then MOVING ON! :D I'm sorry LOL. When the plot rolls up, you gotta just give it time to shine and breathe, you know? :D Can't help it.
End of AN!
Riku leapt forward in a blur of motion, darkness trailing behind him, as he brought his Keyblade down for Ansem.
Ansem brought his arm swinging upward, and a double-bladed staff weapon - comprised of twin, dark swords on either end of a long pole - manifested to block Riku's strike. The man twirled the weapon in a swirl of dark energy, and a stream of flames and winds flew out to push Riku back!
Riku skidded back on the ground, throwing himself into a backwards flip before landing again. He thrust out a hand, sending twin blasts of Dark Firaga for Ansem!
The man slashed his staff before him, then raised his own hand; a dark barrier burst in front of him, blocking Riku's attack completely with a fiery explosion.
The flames cleared...and then a barrage of a half dozen Dark Firagas came flying for Riku in return. Homing blasts, curving and aiming for his chest - dead center!
Riku squared himself, preparing to conjure a barrier wall-
Cognis - in that Heartless's body - appeared in front of him instantly.
A shining barrier flashed before her, taking Ansem's attack...like it was nothing!
"Hey - I had it!" Riku protested.
"No you didn't," she responded. "Yours would have broken."
Riku shook his head, then ran at Ansem in a burst of darkness-enhanced speed.
Ansem waved a hand as he lifted up into the air, and a dozen fiery orbs of dark energy appeared around him.
They flew forward across the arena, and immediately began firing off thin, concentrated laser beams at Riku!
Riku leapt right, teleported to the left - threw himself into a backwards dive that saw him pass between four separate beams. He came up and raised an arm to cast Barrier, blocking a rapid fire barrage from the beams in front of him still. To his shock, the force of the beams hitting his barrier sent him sliding back several feet.
Cognis was there again, hovering in the air, twisting and punching with fists of dark energy, bursting the orbs and causing the laser onslaught to cease.
Ansem appeared above Riku, bearing down on him with his weapon poised to stab him through the top of his skull!
Riku threw himself to the side and spun around, bringing his Keyblade slashing for the man - but Ansem landed with a powerful shockwave and lines of flames that caused Riku to pull back from his strike. Pillars of fire rose up all around Riku in random places, one after another! Riku went into a high backflip to avoid it all, coming down to land far outside the reach of the chaotic mess of energies.
Ansem straightened up, and lifted up into the air once more. He held his arms at his sides, and a dozen or more orbs of fire arranged themselves in a halo above his head - and below him. They all fired off their beams, connecting to each other in cross-cross patterns, forming a burning wall of beams around him. Or a cage. Then he turned and glided forward - toward Cognis.
"Hey-!" Riku tried to call out to her.
Too late.
Ansem slammed into the Heartless's backside, the energy burning and ripping into it, pushing it across the arena forcefully. Tendrils and chunks of dark energy were flying off the Heartless's body. Ansem yelled, and then a fiery curved wall of energy flared in front of him, and he surged forward with sudden speed and power to slam Cognis right up against the twisted, sinewy wall!
"SINK INTO THE DARKNESSSSSSS!" he roared, pushing more and more power into it!
Shockwaves flew out across the wall, and a powerful light burst around Cognis's temporary form!
Ansem drifted backwards, letting lasers and energy fade, giving his bladed staff a spin in a strong hand.
Cognis's Heartless form was peeling away, evaporating...melting. A low roar was heard, those strong arms reached up to the heavens...and then the monster fell down in the air and disappeared in a burst of smoke.
A light flashed briefly, and then Cognis was left floating there, a formless dark cloud in the air.
"Heh. Did you think I didn't know the weaknesses of my own creation as well as its strengths?" Ansem's voice echoed out with satisfaction, with malevolence and contempt. "You will use nothing I have given you against me! Now submit to me, boy! Save yourself the pain of this, of what is to come..."
"Never!" Riku retorted strongly. "You're just a shadow, Ansem, and I'm casting you out of my Heart - for good!"
"Really? And then what?" Ansem responded. "You think you can be a 'Hero of Light?' Where there is light, there will always be...shadows!"
"Heh," Riku scoffed quietly. He "looked" to Cognis. She teleported herself back to his side, hovering next to him once more. "A hero of light? Nah, that's not my style. I'll be a Hero of Darkness."
Ansem laughed, loud and mirthful. Not even sadistic, or cruel, or mocking. Just plain amused. "A hero of darkness? You are more naive than I ever could have imagined you, boy! You think these worlds, these shining people in them, would ever accept a Hero of Darkness?!"
"I guess we'll find out," Riku said.
"Stupid boy!" Ansem barked out another laugh. "You waste your time and efforts on this World and its people. I can put your Heart and body to far better-"
Cognis disappeared, and reappeared in front of Ansem, surging forward at him with her entire "being", becoming a streak of dark energy.
She passed through Ansem's chest and emerged out of his back - leaving a large, burning hole in him, straight through. Like that Heartless of his.
Darkness poured from the wound, flowing out into the arena, as Ansem's voice roared with pain and fury.
Cognis took on that humanoid shape again, standing behind Ansem. A shadowy hand raised, and swirling dark energy flowed up around Ansem, a cyclone of power that shot up to the high, inky black ceiling.
"Riku - strike now!" her voice called out firmly.
Riku nodded, then raced forward, blade held at his side. He kicked up dark flames with each step, speeding across the distance in seconds! He lunged forward to close the last few feet's gap, stabbing his weapon forth into that dark cyclone!
Ansem's voice erupted, echoing, shaking the dark arena; the cyclone grew and flew outward, carrying Riku backwards and sending his Keyblade flying from his grasp!
Riku hit hard, skidding on his back and rolling to a stop.
The arena suddenly began to disintegrate around them, falling apart into dripping liquid and black goo.
Until all that was left was the pure, dark void itself.
His Heart Station wasn't even there anymore - it was lost to all this darkness, to the infinite depths...
Ansem was gone, too, now - Riku couldn't sense the man anywhere!
What he did sense, next moment, were the dozens upon dozens of fiery orbs that appeared all around him in the void - lighting up his senses like stars in the night. They surrounded him in a sphere, pulsing and swirling...
Then they began to fire off at him.
Cognis was there in front of him, suddenly expanding and moving to envelop him in a cocoon of living, swirling energy; Ansem's energy beams assaulted her formless mass, burning into it and causing ripples across it...but they never pierced it, never reached Riku. She was either straight up blocking them, or...more like dissipating and absorbing the energy somehow? Taking it into herself...
The beams intensified and fired one after another, in great sweeping patterns across the interior of the sphere - bottom left to upper left, upper right to bottom right, from below and above together, from left and right, alternating...and then they all charged up, and fired off as one, from all directions at once!
Even with Cognis blocking it all out, the heat was still insane to Riku, heating his skin, causing sweat to break out in his hair! And the light...well, "light"...it was like staring at a sun. It was blinding. He couldn't have sensed anything beyond it if he'd wanted to!
Was it ever going to let up-?
"TIME STOP!" a deep voice shouted, echoing in the void.
And then the omnidirectional assault of laser beams suddenly stopped.
Instantly.
Cognis's formless...form melted away from around Riku, and he extended his senses out into the void again.
He frowned as he felt some strange...still energy hanging in the air, in the void. The energy orbs were all just...gone? Then he reached out further, and found...a familiar, fuzzy, blurry mess of- energy and matter, around a small, tight little Heart. That Chirithy thing...uh - girl? of Ven's...? But Chirithy wasn't the only thing there; there was a glowing, spherical shape with spikes sticking out of it, and then there was...the other Heart. It wasn't a Heart Riku thought "felt" familiar to him, unlike Chirithy's... But at the same time, it sort of felt like-
"Fascinating," came a young man's deep voice, casual and curious, echoing in the void. "Such tremendous darkness - inside as much as outside of your Heart - and yet, for all of it...for all that you're practically drowning in it...you remain. Present and strong within its deepest depths. You're practically untouched - yet your Heart is not a beacon of light, as a Princess's is... I'd like to find out how that's even possib-"
"Hey! Stay focused, kid! You know what Amaya said-" came Chirithy's voice. But she? sounded different from Ven's. Not that the voice was different, but the...tones, the sentence structures, that was all different. Like the difference between listening to Kairi, and Xion or Namine. Same voice, way different manners of actually speaking.
"Hmph," the other, male voice gave a soft, suppressed laugh that might have been more like a snort. "I know. We'll take care of the problem at hand, first."
"Alright, who are you?" Riku spoke out, drifting up into the air, his weapon held at his side. Cognis came flying up next to him, rippling in flames.
The light and power of a Keyblade burst in the darkness, flashing against Riku's senses. A solid, simply-shaped weapon was held by the newcomer. A guy, whose voice actually sounded kind of familiar - as familiar as his Heart, in a strange way he couldn't really...
"The one here to save your life-"
"It's Xehanort," Chirithy's voice interjected. "The one from your era's past."
"WHAT?" Riku exclaimed, raising his weapon and going to his battle stance. "Why would he even be here? Let alone to- save me?"
"Because Amaya asked him to-" Chirithy spoke again.
"Because this piece of my future self's Heartless is threatening to take away some of the only people in this World I care for," Xehanort- the younger Xehanort's- voice cut across, with an outright huff. "Dealing with it at the source will free them from his grasp. Now, are you finished asking time-wasting questions, or can I deal with the problem now for you? Since you obviously failed to do so yourself...inability to die to it or not."
"Do you have to be an ass about it?" Riku responded, flying forwards.
"If you can't handle the simple fact-"
"HEY! Stop it!" Chirithy's voice erupted. "You've got a job to do here, remember?! Jeez! Focus a little! I really don't like it here; I don't want to be here longer than I have to be, okay?"
"Of course," Xehanort (fucking Xehanort's) voice came, cool and controlled. "So: Heartless - why don't you show yourself to me. It will save me the trouble of tracking you down, myself."
"I'm not out of this fight yet," Riku said sharply, giving his weapon a slash, and flaring a hand of dark fires.
"Not that it will mean much - you didn't seem to be making any headway."
"Alright, you-" Riku started, annoyed.
"So the weak boy and his little pet come to join the fight for this body, do they?" Ansem's voice rang out. Darkness swirled in front of Riku, Chirithy, Cognis, and...the time traveler Xehanort, and Ansem appeared.
A light flashed, and suddenly they were all in a solid space again. It wasn't the same, round arena like before; this was a vast, four-walled chamber, a few hundred feet by hundred feet wide, and tall. The walls were shifting, dripping darkness, like waterfalls. The floor was a rippling solid darkness, like the surface of water.
"You will all lose - FALL - to my all-consuming DARKNESS!" Ansem shouted out at them.
Xehanort...strode forward, and raised his Keyblade up - in what Riku realized with a start was a battle stance strikingly similar to his own. "I don't think so," he responded to Ansem, in a voice of confidence. Smugness, more like. Riku could hear the smirk in the guy's voice. "All that this battle needs to come to an end...is me."
"You disappoint me," Ansem spoke, stepping forward himself, crossing the dark distance. He stopped a few dozen feet away, and raised an arm - a palm facing upward. "Why commit yourself to this course of action? Why defy me, fight me, instead of aiding me against these misguided heroes of light and their allies? You are young yet; alone, we cannot succeed in our goals. But if we were to work together...you, myself...and even our Nobody counterpart..." He paused, clearly waiting for an answer. But Xehanort didn't give one. So Ansem continued on. "Side with me, boy, and I'll release your beloved mentor from her chains, and leave her unharmed. We will leave this world together, and we will-"
"All of them," Xehanort's voice cut across, low and cold.
"What...?" Ansem said, puzzled.
"You have all of my friends bound in chains," Xehanort spoke. "Hermod, and Urd, and Vor...and Eraqus. Even as we speak, you squeeze the life out of them. And you expect me to just let bygones be bygones? To accept the promise that you won't hurt them...when you've already hurt them?" His voice rose at the end, that cold, tight control slipping into a near shout. An angry, contemptuous shout. "No...I'm going to destroy you - and I am going to enjoy doing it."
"...Very well," Ansem said, hard. "Then you truly are just as worthless as the rest of them!"
Ansem flew up into the air, huge, intense, swirling orbs of dark energy appearing on either side of him that dwarfed his own body in size! His double bladed staff appeared in his hand again - and in the other, a dark, sinewy shield, large and curved, with spikes and tendrils along the edges. There was also a large...mouth in the middle of it, with sharp teeth, and dark fires shimmering inside its maw. Oh yeah, and one, big, blinking eye above that mouth, near the top of the shield.
Well, that's disgusting, came Cognis's voice, to Riku alone. A quiet, unbidden whisper of a thought...? From her?
But Ansem wasn't done yet; darkness rippled over his form and burst outward, and then the man was suddenly wearing...armor. Dark, heavy armor. Hard shells and sinewy tendrils, spiked shoulders, pulsing energy cores on the chest, shoulders, and embedded into the knee guards. He wore a twisted helmet with an open back, letting his long hair flow out of it. The visor of the helmet was open, too - it looked like a mouth as well, teeth surrounding his face, and a big blinking eye on the front, as well as on the back, behind his head. From out the back of the armor hung a half dozen tendrils of darkness that glowed with energy, and were shrouded in a miasma...like plasma or gas.
"Interesting, but worthless," Xehanort's voice came, with a small laugh of amusement. "Let's see if you really can keep up - Riku, isn't it?" the young man addressed Riku directly, idly. Then he flickered forward in a teleport, slinging his weapon up over his head; a dozen huge icy masses formed, and they flew forward toward Ansem, homing in on him.
Riku raced forward, holding his Keyblade in front of him and sending out a barrage of a half dozen Dark Firagas, pushing his power into it!
Ansem raised an arm, and a huge wall of sinewy darkness rose up between him and them - blocking their attacks, solidly and firmly. He let his arm fall, and the wall melted away into the floor again.
Then the two huge dark spheres flew forward and rose up into the air, and suddenly unleashed a rainstorm of deadly dark projectiles in scattershots.
Xehanort flickered and vanished, reappearing a dozen feet ahead, far past them - going straight for Ansem.
Riku dodged to the right, then left with a handspring; the scattershot attack hit the ground, leaving fiery streaks and exploding on impact!
The outburst of power Riku sensed in that moment from them made him glad he hadn't gotten hit.
Cognis suddenly flew past him, straight for one of the giant spheres. She flew into its core, tendrils stretched out from it...and then it began to shrink and shrink until it disappeared with a flash, leaving only her there in its place.
The other orb darted forward in the air, getting right up above Riku - and unleashing its attack again, several times in a row, right down onto him!
Riku threw himself forward - then rolled left - then jumped to the right again. The explosions went off on the ground around him, missing him by inches. He blew a breath and cloaked himself in a dark aura, and sped forward furiously, lightning crackling across his body.
Cognis went for the other sphere, to do the same thing to it that she'd done to the first. Destroy it, or...absorb it? Whatever she was doing! All Riku knew was that it worked, and so he wasn't going to complain about it.
Meanwhile, Ansem was engaged in a fight with- Xehanort - Young Xehanort - up ahead!
Xehanort slashed his Keyblade, and in an instant it had become an energy whip - a cord that lashed out sharply for Ansem, striking him on the chest. It came back, then flew out again! Ansem took it on his shield, then leapt forward and slashed his staff weapon for the younger man.
Xehanort teleported behind him and sent out a quick barrage of a dozen energy bolts; they slammed into Ansem's back and burst. Ansem staggered and turned, but...he was moving in slow motion now? Xehanort flickered away again, reappearing in front of the man and reforming his Keyblade. He did a swift backflip and slashed his Keyblade; a burning "X" of fire magic flew out and slammed into Ansem's chest, sending him flying backwards off his feet in that slow motion state. Xehanort suddenly burst with magic, and then there were...a half dozen copies of him surrounding Ansem?
The copies carried narrow beam sword weapons in their hands - which they all used to immediately start just beating the hell out of Ansem! They were all over the place, slashing and stabbing, teleporting and casting out with that burning X attack!
The real Xehanort, the one with the Keyblade, teleported up into the air, then lashed his whip down for Ansem - the end glowed as it pierced the man's body, hooking him, and then he was yanked up high into the air. Xehanort darted forward and began attacking the man himself, directly, with his Keyblade in mid-air.
"Out of my way!" Riku yelled as he leapt up high into the air, soaring forward and turning his Keyblade around in his grasp, pointing it down. He came down on Ansem's floating form with a yell, and stabbed his blade down into his chest. The end of his blade glowed and swirled with light...and then a beam exploded out of it, piercing the man's body and shattering the armor.
Ansem's slow motion state ended, and he flew straight down and slammed into the ground, gasping, a hand reaching for his chest.
Riku let the beam fade, and dropped to his feet before the man, letting out a tired breath.
Ansem's armor burned away - his weapon vanished from his hand. Wispy tendrils rose from him, as fragments of his dark form began to disintegrate off of him.
The man's deep laughter suddenly came, low and chuckling.
"I wouldn't be laughing," Riku told him. "You lost. It's over, Ansem."
"Over?" Ansem responded, in pained, malevolent tones. "This- is hardly- the end of me, boy... You think you've destroyed me...? As long as you hold darkness in your Heart, that darkness...will in turn always hold me. I...will always be here inside of you...waiting for the day when I've gained the strength to return. And on that day...I promise you, boy...I will take away everything and everyone you love. I will destroy your island, I will thrust my blade through your friends' bodies, and I will burn away your family in darkest flames - all while you are helpless to stop it! And then...I will do the same to you and yours: 'Xehanort.'" He paused, satisfaction and sadistic glee in his voice.
Riku turned, and found that Young Xehanort standing nearby - facing Ansem, Keyblade in hand.
"I will make you watch as I crush the life from Hermod, from Urd, from poor little Vor! She will die a second time - by your hands! I will burn your Land of Departure to the ground, and then I will return to obliterate Scala Ad Caelum simply because it is your home! I will bind you, and I will strike down Amaya while you watch! And then, boy...I will find the greatest weakness of your Heart - that mother of yours - and I will enjoy every moment of her suffering-"
The glowing cord of an energy whip flew out in the blink of an eye - the air rippled strangely - and then Ansem screamed as a dozen or more strikes burned into his face and chest almost simultaneously.
Ansem gasped as the assault ended, falling back to the ground...and bursting into nothingness.
"...I'll remember that," came Xehanort's flat, emotionless voice.
There was a noise and a puff of "visible" smoke to Riku, and that fuzzy Chirithy's form was standing in front of them.
"Look at that, you did it!" Chirithy said. "Nice job, kiddo! I knew you could do it. Now let's get outta here. This place is still creepy."
"Yes," Xehanort said, in that same, flat tone. "Let's go."
It was honestly unnerving to Riku...not that he would have said it aloud to anyone.
Chirithy turned and raised a stubby arm - there was a strange flash and a swirl of fuzzy energy wisps...and then that glowing orb with spikes on it appeared again.
Xehanort stepped forward, raising his Keyblade to it.
A glowing stream of energy flowed out from him, into the orb...
Riku startled as he realized the same thing was happening to himself.
It flowed off of him, a light shined from the orb-
And then Riku was gasping upright on dirt and rocks, air around him, scents hitting him, and the sound of gentle lake's ripples filling his ears.
"Riku!"
Terra's voice.
The man was there beside him - grasping his shoulder tightly.
"Are you alright?" Terra asked firmly.
"Yeah - fine," Riku said, turning his head and extending his senses. He found the fuzzy Chirithy again, and the other Hearts...more than a few around him, honestly.
He recognized all of them, after a moment.
Terra's Master, Eraqus, those other kids - Hermod, Urd, and Vor - that Amaya woman, Xehanort, and-
"Sora?" Riku jumped up to his feet, turning toward his friend. "I thought you guys were all up at the castle? What are you even doing down here again?"
"While you were fighting- Xehanort's Heartless on the inside," Terra began. "my Master came down to try and fight him out here. But he ended up caught in those chains, the same way I was - and Amaya was. And the same thing happened to the other kids when they tried to come and help, too..."
"I know we didn't really stand much of a chance," Sora said quickly. "but we couldn't just sit around up there and do nothing! Not with everything going on out here."
"Well, I think it's the thought that counts," Terra told him kindly. "After that, Amaya's Chirithy showed up with Xehanort, who...somehow broke the binding lock on his Heart, and fought Ansem one on one. He couldn't win, either, though - not with Ansem holding Amaya and the others hostage. That was when Chirithy stepped in and made a...strange portal. They disappeared together, into it...I guess into your Heart?"
"Yeah," Riku nodded, as he put the pieces together from Terra's story. "So you guys got your butts whooped out here," he remarked. "We did a lot better on our side of things, thankfully. Cognis and I - and..."
He turned his head, toward the Heart of- Young Xehanort.
"Hey," Riku called out to the guy.
"What?" came the simple, neutral response.
"Thanks for the backup," Riku said, honest. "I really don't think we could have won that one if you hadn't shown up like that."
Silence, for a long moment.
He heard a little thump, then Xehanort's voice clearing its throat.
"You're...welcome, I suppose?" the guy said haltingly, quiet. "Do try not to make a habit out of attacking those I care for in future, though; Should this happen again, I can't promise you'll come out so miraculously unscathed."
"Right back at you," Riku stated.
More silence.
Another little thump, and a little gasp of either annoyance or exasperation from Xehanort. Then-
"...I cannot control my other selves, obviously - but no harm will come from this me."
"Good enough, I guess," Riku said with a small grin.
"Yes, well...I'll be heading back up to the castle, if no one minds? I'd like to spend a little time with the friends I almost...lost again," Xehanort went on, his voice holding a near imperceptible tremor at the end.
The guy was shaken, Riku thought. But holding it together scarily, really well.
Nobody called the guy on it, though, either way.
That Amaya woman spoke up, but all she said was, "I'll go with you."
"So, did you beat the guy?" Sora asked, giving Riku a one-armed hug.
Riku sighed and pushed Sora's arm away, ducking his head. "No...not for good. He's still there, somewhere deep inside of me..."
"Where are we going?" Cognis spoke, her shimmering form manifesting beside him, as Riku walked the halls of Land of Departure alone, in dead of night.
"I don't know. Anywhere but here. I just...have to leave."
"Again. Why? I thought you liked being around your friends."
Riku sighed. "I do, but this isn't about...what I like to do. It's about what I have to do."
"You're still feeling guilty for what you did before."
"Yeah. I am. I did some messed up stuff, alright? And I still feel so terrible about it all. The guilt, the shame, remorse...it's all still here. I can't let myself just get stuck hanging around on my butt again, like I did back on the islands! And now that we know there's no easy way of just getting Ansem out of my Heart, either, it's- it's more important than ever that I stay away from everyone. If he takes me over again, he's going to go right for them. He'd make me hurt them...or worse. You heard him! You know what he promised to do! So...the best thing I can do is to keep doing what I've been doing. What- what we were doing. We were doing good, Cognis! We were really- really helping people. I was...I felt like a real hero for once in my life. I felt like...I was finally starting to make up for it all."
"Riku-"
"No. Look, I've made up my mind - and my Heart. I'm doing this. You can come along, or not - just don't...don't try to stop me. No throwing me through any more portals!"
"I was trying to help you by reuniting you with your friends!"
"I know. And It was good to...see everyone again - your Heart was in the right place - but that's not the right place for me. Not yet. That's not the...road I have to walk." Riku brushed at his hair. "Look, Cognis, you say your whole thing is that you want to help people, right?"
"Of course it is."
"Then help me. Help me do this. Help me fix these feelings in my Heart, help me ease the guilt, the pain. Help me be a better guy than I have been. Help me to help other people. Because I can't do this without you, alright? You were right. I need you, I need to trust you, and I need you by my side for this. I need you to be my eyes, and my- my partner. Okay? So, help me to do what I need to do...to find peace with myself. To make amends with the people out there that I've hurt. The worlds I've ruined. You said I made you to be a better hero than I could ever be - right? So help me to be as good as you! Please... And help me keep my friends and family safe..."
"...Alright," her voice came, soft and simple. "If this is what you need, I'll help you...for now. But you should at least leave a note this time before running off."
"Okay. Yeah. That's smart. Thank you..." Riku said with relief and gratitude. "Let's do that."
"You're welcome." She paused. "You're going to have to let me take control of your body in order for me to write the note for you. Do I have your permission?"
Riku froze, for a long moment. Then he breathed. "Uh...yeah. Sure. I trust you, Cognis. You wouldn't make me do anything weird..."
"Of course not. Just tell me what you want me to write - or think it, if that's easier for you."
Riku stopped, and began to think.
Hey, guys. If you're reading this, then I'm gone again. Is it that much of a surprise? The reason I'm gone is the same reason I left the first time. The reason I have to get back out there again: I was a terrible guy, I did a lot of bad things, helped worse people do worse things - and I need to make it all right now. At least, as much as I can. And I need to do it on my own. Well, not on my own: I'll have Cognis with me, every step of the way. And it's better that I do this, too, with her, because she can keep Ansem in check until we find a way to safely get rid of him for good. This last, final piece of him. It's the best way I know to keep you guys safe from that. You know he'd use me to hurt you - probably try to stab you guys in your sleep or something like that. And there's no way I'd ever let that happen. So I'm gone. I'm getting back out there. I have to, alright? For my own peace of mind. You guys don't understand what it's like to have this weight in your Heart, always there. You're all good, you're heroes, you're better people than I am. You don't have anything to worry about. But me...
Look, I'm just going to ask this once here: please, don't come after me. Don't come trying to drag me back. And don't ask Namine to track me down, either. That's creepy. Seriously.
I can't say when I'll be back, or if we'll run into each other again, but I can promise you guys this: I WILL come back. When I'M ready - not when someone else tries to force me to. So just accept that, please, and LET ME DO THIS. This is MY PATH, MY CHOICE. This is the road I HAVE TO walk.
Just...I guess I just want you to know that it's a road that WILL lead me back home again, to you - someday. But that day isn't today. Or tomorrow. Or next week. I can't say when. But I'll know it when I've reached it. When this weight, these feelings, are gone from my Heart.
Signed, Riku
P.S: If you guys happen to get Kairi back before I see you again, tell her I said hi, and I'm happy for her, and I'm glad to have her as a best friend. I don't deserve her. Or you, Sora. Keep being the heroes I know you are - and maybe one day I'll catch up.