nysalogs | [open]

Entry tags:

[open]

Who: Riku (

guidetoblivion) & Open
What: Riku has a breakdown, gets a permanent job and other shenanigans
When: first prompt is backdated to Christmas Day, the rest take place during January
Where: Thesa station, Wyver
Warning(s): Sadness, overuse of the word "Darkness"

[ A – Stasis Unit | Christmas Day, backdated to more or less right after this thread | open ]

[Riku would have come here anyway, he will figure later, to visit Sora and Kairi and spent a moment on thinking about everything that's transpired to get them to the point they are at now (a year past, at Christmas, he had sat at the foot of Sora's pod in the mansion of Twilight Town and done exactly that too).

Now, he tries to keep his thoughts in order as he races a long the corridors of the Stasis Unit, head turning from side to side as though he was searching faces, looking for someone familiar. It's been over a year and a half since he's last seen them, since he left the Islands behind… but he knows, he'd know his parents anywhere.

Would surely recognizes the sense of their hearts the same way he'll always recognize Sora or Kairi.

He doesn't find them.

Hours later, he finally stops looking when he stumbles across one particular person in stasis – slightly out of breath, disbelieve open on his face; he's heard that sometimes even people who are supposed to be dead were rescued by the Natha, but–]

Of all the people-

[His hands clench just at the scent of Zexion's darkness, he can feel bile rising in his throat as memories replay before his mind's eye ("And who threw away those friends? Maybe it's your own actions that you've forgotten. You destroyed your home!") – and maybe it's not his fault this time; nobody has been able to do anything about the Storm, but–

The smell of Darkness is so thick around him, the shadows darkening around him, a noise of rage and despair strangling in his throat – he hardly notices the way his left hand pulls back, black-blue fire sparking at his palm–

Then abruptly, he extinguishes the flame and lets himself sink to the ground, one knee drawing up before he drops his forehead against it.

It would be so easy, a faint buzz in the back of his heart whispers, to become somebody else. To shed 'Riku' for a different face, that nobody knows yet, for powers that are stronger than his owns, that might even help put an end to the Storm if he just were to use them to their full extend… and maybe then all the thoughts, the pain will end.

All he has to do is to slip off the damn blindfold and give himself to Ansem's Darkness for good.

Riku doesn't.

Instead he tries to let his breathing calm down, in spite of the anger he still feels at the unfairness of it all – he's known that there had to be many lives lost despite the Natha's attempts to save as many as possible, but it hadn't felt personal until now, until he's realized that he hadn't been able to find one single familiar face from the Islands aside of Sora and Kairi.

After a moment he reaches into his coat's pocket, pulling out a spherical object and turning it in his hands.]

…Maybe I have a use for this after all.

[ B – Altar of Volkkra | mid-January | open to visitors and other employees ]

[Admittedly, when Riku had decided to sign up with the Altar he hadn't quite expected the cleaning chores coming his way, but ultimately he has to admit that it makes sense… he is the lowest on the ladder as far as workers go and he can see how a vast labyrinth like the main temple would need constant upkeep.

He does his work without complaints, coming in during the early morning and immediately reaching for his broom while he makes his way through the endless seeming corridors. Maybe in a few weeks he'll stop getting lost all the time, he thinks. Hopes, really.

In the late afternoon, he always makes sure to put an hour or three into studying the old scrolls the shamans allow him access to, fingers carefully running across the scripts as he tries to deceiver the dusty language used by the Wyver. Magic theory is a dry subject, but it's something he's certainly never been taught… and just maybe, that will be the key to helping him grow better

Whether you come across him while he's busy with either task – he'll always be up to showing any visitors around (hopefully without getting them lost too badly)… or for a chat with a fellow co-workers.]

[ C – Wyver/Wildcard | January | open ]

[When he isn't cleaning or studying, Riku can sometimes be caught on small errants around the North End, or sitting on top of the hut he's rented in the Old City, watching the night sky... perhaps come by to say hello?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Sid knows his kind when he sees one. It's so easy to proclaim hells with it all and get swallowed up by the abyss once one hits the bottom of true despair, even those who are apt to wield it. And while he's thought about it more than once while here, he's never succumbed to the situational rage required to try and reduce the entire damn unit to scrap.

He's a fair distance away when he calls out to Riku, barely even casting him a glance. His eyes are fixed on the pod of a young girl.]

Take it outside if what you see is going to move you to try and trash the unit.

[Riku flinches when so suddenly spoken to, his mind had been so occupied that he hadn't even noticed that someone else entered the corridor. His hand is tight around the memory ball, his lips pressing together as he snorts.]

If it comes to it, I'll keep it contained to just one pod.

[Not that he thinks that he's going to lose it, or that he'll even succeed in pulling apart the pod to kill Zexion… but well, he knows himself well enough. He isn't going to target anyone but that Nobody.

(He won't do even that much – because there is absolutely no point in going on a tantrum now, when he should have already noticed this months ago.)]

Revenge?

[Certainly, Sid's seen faces that a pettier man might want to take revenge on. People who had snubbed him and his family, once upon a time; thrown drinks in their faces, pulled on their horns, spat at their feet. Faces he remembers in passing, but that don't elicit enough of a response to be worth getting uppity over.

He does wonder, though, if he might be tempted to do the same to Ystride's pod, had she not already been dead. His eyes wander, down the row of pods to eye the man that has him so worked up, and then to Riku himself.]

If you've got a bone to pick, it won't mean a damn thing unless he's awake.

[Riku just shakes his head.]

It's not about that. Revenge doesn't do anyone any good.

[And it's not like there is really anything to avenge himself on Zexion, given that he's beaten the other once already.

Taking out Zexion again… that would be an attempt to keep the worlds safe, probably. Or so Riku tries to tell himself at first, before he admits:]

I just don't get it… why he is here, when my… when others are gone in the Darkness.

[What's so special about a dead man that he deserves to be rescued?]

[He's quiet for a moment. He agrees on principle, though in practice, things can be a little different. The bottom line sounds like he's just bitter he's lost someone important. Perhaps multiple someones, from the sound of it.]

I don't claim to understand the nature of those they save. Even faces who were supposed to have died long ago, I have seen reborn within as if it never happened. Aside from their consciousness being stolen, that is.

[And yet, apparently others who have died are not worthy enough of being afforded the same treatment. Fray wanted to live so badly that his soul crystal exuded that powerful energy at the end, and still... it isn't fair the way they choose.

But perhaps that's the point, that they can't -- or won't -- rescue everyone for the sake of charity.]

Who have you lost, then?

[He just listens to the other, to words that make sense in his head… but to his heart? Not so much.

He keeps silent for a while longer before he answers that question, his head sinking to touch against his knee as he admits:]

My parents… and everyone from our Islands. Everyone but my two closest friends.

[And well… Riku himself. Thinking about it, it's not hard to figure out just why they are the only three that are left – Sora is the Keyblade Master, Kairi a Princess of Heart… and Riku? Maybe just his potential to wield the Keyblade was what made him special enough to save.

There are others he knows rescued here – the King… Donald and Goofy… but also so many members of the Organization. Apparently even those that have died.]

[He can't help it; the admission strikes a chord in Sid, harder than he's probably willing to admit aloud. It moves him enough to at least draw a little closer, to look over the pods Riku seems so drawn to. At least those who were saved have a chance to perhaps wake up one day, but those who are unaccounted for aren't so lucky.

He has been through this song and dance before, but hells if he knows what to tell someone who hasn't. He sets a hand on the railing and looks away.]

...And yet, it's cold comfort, isn't it? Take care not to fall into the abyss without a guiding hand to lift you out.

[Riku keeps his head where it is, hands clenching. A cold comfort indeed – three of them rescued from the Storm, the rest of their world (home) utterly lost. He huffs at those words, the shadows around him growing darker.]

At least the abyss is a familiar place. I'm not afraid of the Darkness.

[No, he's not afraid for himself, not anymore and never again – he knows what the Darkness does to him, what he will become should he ever be forced to use that last resort…

He is afraid of what happened to those that had been lost. Have they been turned into Heartless? Have they become some other unknown creatures that lurk in the endlessness of the Dark World? Light only knows… it almost makes him wish he was there with them. He certainly would deserve it.]

[It takes Terra close to a half hour to find Riku after sending his last message. Teleporting back to Thesa is lightning fast as usual, but the stasis unit is such a huge space to have to search. He thinks to try and open his heart to his surroundings, reach out and out and out until he can pinpoint his successor's location by the feel of that lurking darkness inside him, or if he can't manage that, at least get a general idea of what direction to head in... But it turns out his sensing abilities are neither particularly long-ranged nor fine-tuned. There's only a confusing blur of light and darkness all around him, glowing and whispering in the thousands of hearts slumbering in those pods.

Eventually, he just happens to turn into the right row and there's the familiar head of silver hair (complete with that black blindfold cutting through it) he's looking for in the distance. Terra slows from a jog to a hurried walk and then comes to an abrupt stop nearby.

He backs up a step in a sharp recoil before he can stop himself. There's a faint twinge and then a stirring deep in his chest.

The darkness here...

Riku's darkness again... Terra hasn't felt it like this since that day at the beach, when they fought. Is he imagining things or is it... worse? It doesn't look like Riku's lost control of it, but it almost feels like he has... Or did and it's just abating now? Did something happen? Something from looking for his parents and not finding them? He must be thinking the worst... Or maybe Riku's darkness has been like this all along and he just... didn't notice, stopped noticing... Maybe his own darkness is--

Never mind all that.

Shaking his head firmly, Terra closes himself off from those feelings as best he can and focuses on the 'task' at hand. He needed to be here and now he is, so... now he's got to say something, do something to help... but what?]

... Hey.

[Wait, is he holding something there...?]

[Riku doesn't know how much time has passed since that last message from Terra came in, how long he's just been sitting here and let that one memory replay in his head again and again and again as he clutches the memory ball – he remembers now with crystal clarity how he approached Kairi's memory, how she disappeared when he got close, the despair that rose within him before Zexion had appeared behind him (Surely you knew this would happen.).

He is just torturing himself, he is aware… nothing can change what happened then, what he had done to the Islands, even if it had been fixed, nothing can changed that Riku was the one that lead to their destruction, that he sacrificed an entire world and its people to the Darkness for the taste of freedom.

Even knowing that the Storm certainly isn't his fault, he can't allow himself to forget about that mistake.

He forces his hands to relax a bit before he sets down the memory ball, but that is all that he does to acknowledge the other's presence before he finally asks.]

…What do you want?

[Please don't let this be about Santa again – Riku has no patience for that particular argument right now and he's not entirely sure if he wouldn't just end up attacking Terra, if he brought it up. Santa isn't real and the people that taught him so (his parents) are lost in the void of the Storm.]

[Terra just stands there, watching Riku, waiting for him to say something back or turn his head or look up. For a long couple of moments there's just nothing.

He briefly wonders about the orb (maybe a keepsake?), but the little object doesn't seem to be too important right now. Or at least it's not as important as what they need to talk about.

Terra's considering speaking up again when Riku's voice at last cuts through the silence... with a question that stings. For a split second, some frustrated, defensive part of Terra wants to snap at his successor. What do you think I want? Why do you think I keep reaching out to you? Don't you understand what it meant when I passed the Keyblade on to you all those years ago?

... But it wouldn't be fair and it wouldn't be right and it wouldn't do anyone any good at all. Especially not now, with Riku dealing with... this.

Terra breathes out slowly, his eyes falling to some spot on the floor between them.

A dozen other possible answers flit through his mind before he decides to just come out with it.]

I want to help you.

[To be honest it would probably help if Terra actually said those things out loud – maybe not now, but at some point… because that's just thing; Riku doesn't understand. He doesn't know what Terra wants with him, a failure by any account as far as anything concerned wielding the Keyblade goes, he doesn't know why Terra passed it down to him in first place, especially when history has shown that the more worthy choice was an the very same island.

But well… that may be a conversation for another day, if it ever happens.

For now Riku keeps his head right where it is, a hitched sound that's right between a laugh and sob escaping him at that answer.]

Not sure, if there's anything to help here. You are no more capable of stopping the Storm than I am.

[And isn't that the bitter truth… they've both been here for months now and they aren't any closer to stopping the Storm and restoring the lost worlds than they were when they got here... and maybe that would be fine, if there weren't people lost, if there weren't so many lives that the Storm had taken, that it keeps taking…

It takes a moment until Riku manages to say anything more.]

I thought… when I got here, I thought, it would be fine. That it's essentially the same as when the Worlds fell… there'd be some kind of door to close, a way to banish the Storm and the Darkness. And I was so glad that I found Sora and Kairi sleeping here… I never considered what else being here meant.

[His hands clench again, because honestly that he's in this situation now is only on him. He should have thought it through sooner, but well. Ignorance is bliss indeed.]

[A grimace works its way through Terra's features. His gaze moves to a spot a little farther away from the both of them.

The worlds fell? What does he mean some kind of door to close? Does any of that have anything to do with what he said about that Xemnas and Ansem causing chaos in the worlds?

... More thoughts for later.

When Terra answers, his voice is firm but soft.]

I know. [He does.] It's a lot. [More than a lot.] I'm sorry.

[He starts forward and, without chancing another look at Riku, sits down about an arm's length away from him. He settles with his legs crossed in front of him.]

The Storm... It's got to be the greatest threat the worlds have ever faced. And it's been destroying everything in its path for... for so long, maybe you could just say forever. I thought the same as you did when I first got here. I was going to put an end to it and see that everyone got their worlds back, but I didn't... understand the situation. I didn't fully appreciate how awful this Storm is.

[He finds the edge of one of his hakama's pleats and picks at it. The question flits through his mind often enough: What if we can't stop the Storm at all? And doubt seizes his heart in a vise and he has to just stop himself, for a minute or two. But he was chosen by and for the Keyblade to protect and to save and to fight. This can't be it, this one world and all these people stuck sleeping. He can't give up. They can't give up.]

This is a force that's destroyed countless worlds. That's not an easy fight. It's going to take a long, long time to stop it. We're going to need a lot of people and a lot of power and a lot of preparation to even get started.

[His attention lifts to the pods. There's one unhappy thought he has to acknowledge.]

And then it's possible we may not be able to bring everything back, once we do destroy it.

[Everything or everyone. Terra's head finally turns toward Riku.]

But... I wasn't talking about any of that when I said I want to help you. I don't mean I want to help you with the Storm or help you fix as much of this as we possibly can, even though I do and I will.

I meant I want to help you, Riku. I've wanted to help you... all along, I guess. From the day we met on your small world and from the day you found me here.

[His hands still on his bent knees.]

I want to help you. I... need to help you. With something important.

[Riku lets those words wash over him, listening and hearing exactly what Terra says… and he can't find much that he disagrees with about the Storm, about their situation. It probably shouldn't be a relieve to hear that Terra has been underestimating the Storm as well… but it kind of is.

Sometimes it's hard to remember that he isn't entirely alone here after all.

There is a sinking feeling in his stomach when Terra admits that they might not be able to save everyone. (It hurts to think about, because Riku has had this thought himself before, when he had first arrived… before he had realized just what, who is at stake. 'We may never see our parents again.', he had said with such certainty during that night, and he believed it even now because there is no way he can return to the Islands while the Darkness holds so much of his Heart… but this is different.)

Still… that doesn't mean they shouldn't try, or that they should give up. Riku knows that too.

It's harder to grasp what Terra continues with, and Riku can't help but look up abruptly, confusion playing over his face. What the other is saying and what he isn't… the offer that he's making, that was made over ten years ago as far as Riku's memory goes… and still he can't help but ask:]

…Why?

[He doesn't understand… not what Terra wants with… from him. He doesn't understand…]

Why did you choose me?

[Because that's what it comes down to, doesn't it? That moment on the Islands… why him? Why not Sora?]

[Terra considers Riku for a moment then nods and looks straight ahead again. He supposes that's a fair question.]

I was traveling between the worlds when I found a bright, warm light. That light led me to your world. To you.

[The edges of his mouth turn up in a small, bittersweet smile. The last good memory... before everything fell apart.]

After I talked to you, I felt certain you were meant to be a wielder of the Keyblade. A protector of things that matter.

[It takes a moment until Riku feels able to answer, until he's processed what he's just been told… it should make him happy. It might have made him happy, if he'd been told at another time, or at least flattered. The idea that he's been so bright, that Terra had been certain that he'd be able to wield that power one day…

Now though, knowing that the Keyblade rejected him and that it was right to do so, given the things he's done…]

I guess you were wrong. I haven't been a protector of anything.

[His head shifts until he looks down at the small sphere by his side. His memories, the proof that what he's saying is fact. A protector would never have caused his own world to be destroyed.]

[Terra's smile doesn't waver in the slightest. If anything, it's widened a bit.]

I wasn't wrong.

[Not about that, anyway.]

If I'd been wrong, you wouldn't have been able to take hold of my Keyblade that day. The Keyblade chose you as much as I did.

[Maybe on another day Terra's assurances would have been enough… but Riku's current mood doesn't really make him inclined to believe that. Or in anything aside of his own potential to mess up.]

And it unchose me for a reason.

[His gaze stays on the memory ball, lips pressing together before he pushes it to roll up to Terra. He might as well show the other what exactly he is talking about. Why he doesn't have the right to even think about protecting anything or anyone.]

[Terra's got an answer ready for that, too. He opens his mouth to argue... only to reconsider when Riku rolls the strange ball thing over to him. He frowns down at the ball but doesn't pick it up right away.]

What's this?

[Riku doesn't look at him, hands clenched tightly as he stares ahead.]

It's a memory ball. It's got one of mine.

[A memory he's let himself relive plenty of times before Terra got here, so it might as well have been yesterday for him. If Terra really wants to keep arguing with him about this, he should know the truth, he figures.]

[Terra's mouth thins into a taut line. For a second, it looks like he might just roll the memory ball back across the floor. Refuse to have anything to do with it, insist whatever memory it contains doesn't matter.

But it does matter, he knows. It matters a lot. Here is the reason the Keyblade left Riku and went to Sora. That's something he needs to see and understand... Even if it's difficult. Even if it changes things.

With considerable reluctance and another uneasy glance at Riku, he picks the ball up.

In the first few moments that follow, there's just... nothing. Terra studies the memory ball intently, turning it in his hands this way and that, waiting for some image to unfurl beneath or across its glassy surface. It occurs to him that he might be doing something wrong with it, but before he can voice that thought, there's a sudden, disconcerting prickling in the center of his chest. White light seers across his vision.

Then he's on his feet again. He's been transported from the stasis unit to... some empty white space? Terra looks around to find that Riku and the memory ball are gone, too.

... And this isn't his body.

Color begins to bleed into his surroundings, shaping a world around him. A bright blue sky, an ocean stretching to the horizon, a sandy shore and rocks and trees, a bridge under his... very large shoes. A bird sings somewhere behind him and a warm breeze brushes against his skin. The salty smell of the beach reaches his nose. This is that island, Terra recognizes with a twinge of dread. This is Riku's home and he's seeing all of this through his successor's eyes.

The memory plays out before and around him. It feels so real, he can almost lose himself in it. He-- Riku runs across the bridge only to stop and turn back and see a girl standing where he'd just been. Kairi, Riku's other friend. Riku calls out to her, but she doesn't answer. She doesn't even really react. Then light engulfs her and she fades away.

(Distantly, he feels his heart lurch under his ribs.)

Then there's another voice. He pivots back around to face... an Organization member? An Organization member with a lot to say. Dark memories, dark beings...

'Maybe it's your own actions that you've forgotten,' the cloaked man threatens, but nothing that's been said inside or outside this memory prepares Terra for the next cutting words out of the Nobody's mouth:

'You destroyed your home!'

Darkness swallows up everything in an instant.

(Outside the memory, sitting there on the floor of the stasis unit, Terra's breath hitches. Hints of what might be pain or what might be anger show in small lines around his eyes and brow and mouth.)

What a familiar sight, those shadows churning wildly around him, that dark orb looming overhead, the world tearing apart piece by piece...

There's a whisper just beneath the memory, too, 'You won't need a home anymore where you're going!', but then the Nobody is speaking again. Terra pays close attention as that man, whoever he is, details exactly what happened to the islands. Exactly what Riku did... so he could leave the world.

He opened the door. He let the darkness claim his world, steal away the hearts of the people living there... He was himself taken by the darkness and now... belongs to it? The darkness has changed him, too, made him into something else...? Something monstrous...

The memory can't end soon enough for Terra, but at the same time, it feels like it ends too soon, too. He parts ways with it with another sharp and shuddering breath, his eyes clearing and focusing back on the memory ball in his hands.

He finds the prickling in his chest has become more of an ache.

Slowly and stiffly, he sets the ball back down on the floor. He turns his head away after that, staring off at the row of pods while he absorbs everything. What he's just experienced, what he now knows, what it means. What Riku thinks it means.

He almost certainly shares some of the blame for what happened. He promised Riku a way off that small world and then never delivered it. Still, what Riku did...]

So, should I put an end to you?

[His voice is quiet when he finally finds the words he wants to (needs to) say. There's no venom or tension in either his tone or expression, though. It actually looks like he's starting to relax again, just a little.]

[Riku holds onto his knees, hands clenched tight, and desperately tries not to look towards Terra to gauge his reaction. Whatever he gets he deserves, he knows. What's done is done, and even though they (Sora) managed to restore everything to what it once was again, the fact that it happened in first place is undeniable.

If Terra wants to argue with him about suitability, about worthiness… he should have all the facts.

The question that follows once Terra is done watching the memory and has set down its container, startles him… though maybe it shouldn't... It's hypothetical probably, because if Terra really meant to put him out of his misery, then he could do without much difficulty, given how vulnerable Riku feels right now.

He isn't up for a fight, much less what he knows Terra to be capable of dishing out since fighting him at the beach.

Finally he answers, one hand clenching over his heart:]

Sometimes I wonder, if that wouldn't be for the best… if I did that myself.

[He still carries Ansem's fragments in his heart and that alone makes him a risk. If he ever is forced to use that power, if he ever loses himself to the Darkness while he is too exhausted to put up a fight… He is more than certain that Terra could take on Ansem, but it's better to be certain and never allow that situation to come up.

Even so…]

But… if I give up, there won't be anyone left to protect Sora while he sleeps. So, I know that I can't.

[Because even after all he's done, even though he is the last person that deserves to make such a statement – this is what he wants most. To protect Sora. To protect Kairi.]

[Turning his head a fraction, Terra listens in silence to his successor.

He can't help his small smile coming back when Riku tells him that he can't give up, end his troubled life or let it be ended, because he has to protect his friend.

Yes. That's the right answer.]

Hmm.

[With that thoughtful sound, Terra pushes himself up to stand. He resists the urge to give the memory ball a good kick and instead nudges it with the side of his shoe, rolling it back to Riku.]

Could have sworn you just said you haven't been a protector of anything...

[He's not giving Riku time to respond to that, though, no sir.]

I don't think the Keyblade rejected you. Not... permanently, anyway. I think you weren't ready for it, so it found a heart near yours that was ready.

[Or something like that. Hearts can be awfully mysterious, can't they?]

But I think that power is still inside you, just waiting for something... Maybe that same important something I want to help you with.

[Even though Terra doesn't really give him the time to protest, Riku can't help but mutter:]

I'm not.

[He isn't, no matter how much he wants to be... it's just there are so many dangers that Sora is blind to, that he would and has walked into without a thought... and after what that's cost him in Castle Oblivion, Riku refuses to let it happen again, no matter what it's going to cost him.

He listens to the rest of what Terra has to say… even if he doesn't look like he is really inclined to believe it.]

Waiting for something… huh? I wonder what that is supposed to be.

[He pulls his hand away from his chest, looking down at his palm. He can feel the Soul Eater's murmur beneath the skin of his palm... it's supposed to be good enough for him.]

[Terra watches Riku for a moment longer before reaching a hand out in front of him. His Keyblade appears with the usual ringing sound and burst of spinning light gears.

He turns the weapon, taking hold of the length of the blade and dropping the hilt down in front of Riku, right next to that open palm.]

You... knowing who you are.

[Knowing who he is, huh? Well, Riku knows for one…]

I am me.

[He turns his head towards Terra, then knocks away the handle of the Keyblade light, but firmly enough that it isn't a mistake.

Because Riku may know that he's himself, but he also knows…]

And one day I'll be someone else.

[He's already told Terra the almost exact same words during their first encounter, and they aren't any less true now.]

[Terra huffs at that and takes Ends of the Earth back, letting it swing down to its place at his side as soon as he's got his hand around the grip again.]

What does that even mean? 'One day I'll be someone else'?

[Sorry, not sorry, Terra – your successor is a stubborn mess.

For a moment, Riku considers the cryptic answer that he wouldn't have thought twice about giving a few months ago at the beach… Terra has earned better now though. (And since Riku is already airing out his dirty laundry, he might as well tell him about this too.)]

There is Darkness inside my Heart. My own and someone else's. That guy… I had sealed him for the most part, but some fragments of him still remain, and they are growing stronger.

['Someday... I will return!' Ansem had said, and he was right. Even if his return hadn't quite taken the form that Riku had feared initially… so far.]

If… when I truly give into the Darkness, I won't be me anymore. I'll be him.

[And then, there'll be no going back.]

[If there's anyone who can engage Riku in a battle of wills, it's Mister Future Angry Suit of Armor here.

Those words cleave right through the frustration and hurt welling in Terra's heart and he's left staring openly at his successor. Disbelief and something akin to horror war on his face.

Did Riku really just say that? Did he really just say...

When Terra finally manages to drag his eyes away, he's silent and still for several moments longer.

Someone else's darkness in his heart. And he's going to succumb to that shadow, become that someone. Where did that other darkness come from? Was it... another heart?

(Light, but he can still see that bright flash, that gnarled key protruding from the old man's chest and-- no. No.)

Terra sucks in a quick breath through gritted teeth. His own darkness roils in his chest.

Fighting off the urge to turn and walk away and get himself to somewhere where he can hit something with his Keyblade, he mutters another question.]

Who is he?

[Riku can sense Terra's Darkness spiking, but he doesn't quite know what to make of that… is it anger or fear? Something else? He'd certainly deserve anger at least, given that he's brought this upon himself anyway…

But well… who is Ansem? Even Riku can only give pretty vague answers to that, at this point at least.]

It's Ansem. Or well… his Heartless. He is… was a scientist and the ruler of Hollow Bastion who experimented with the Heartless until the Darkness took him over.

[At least, that's what Riku got from what he read in the fragments of the Ansem's reports in the library of Hollow Bastion and then put into context later, after Castle Oblivion. And anyway, Ansem isn't that much of a threat now… at least not compared to…]

His Nobody is in charge of the Organization.

[Ansem. That Seeker of Darkness guy.

(That guy Riku said he looks and... smells so much like...)

And the Superior's his Nobody?

... Terra finds he doesn't care to let that new information sink in right now. He shakes his head slowly. His next words come unbidden and there's a new, hard tone in his voice.]

I won't let you lose yourself to him. To his darkness. To any darkness.

[Riku doesn't flinch at that tone that Terra takes, but it's a close thing. (He wants to ask how, what Terra thinks that he can do? Because the answer to that… is probably nothing; there is no way of stopping the growing corruption in his Heart. At some point, Riku will need that power… and then there will be no stopping it.)

Still, maybe he can ask of Terra the one thing that Mickey had not even let him finish asking him for.]

…I don't plan to go down without a fight, but. If I do lose, if this stops being me… I need you to destroy me.

[That gets a startled look. Terra stares at Riku's face for a moment, until he's able to push past the shock of hearing that kind of 'request'... again. He glances away then, his jaw clenching.

He does consider Riku's appeal, but it doesn't take long for him to decide how to answer it.]

I won't let the darkness have your heart.

[He (pretty much) just repeats himself, his voice quieter but no less firm.

With that, he turns, dismisses his Keyblade, and walks away.

You're wrong, you know, he almost calls back. This isn't you.

The boy I met on the island was you. The boy in that memory who said he remembers everyone from his home, all of his closest friends, was you. The young man who came to this stasis unit to try and find his family, who told me how glad he was his friends are sleeping safe in pods here, was you.

But this isn't who you are. It can't be.

He can't quite bring himself to say any of that out loud, though. Maybe he's having doubts about those thoughts right now.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[open]

A

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

A

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject