Chapter 6 - Riku?

“This is most excellent. You are dismissed.” Xemnas pushed away the silver figure into a darkness portal. “That girl is so dull.” He said. Xemnas was currently making his home in a floating castle in The World That Never Was. Collecting hearts was getting easier and easier, especially with four keybladers now. Soon Kingdom Hearts would be his. The silver figure that was called a Nobody, just like Xemnas himself, had brought him a note that was meant for Kairi. Having control over nobodies took a long time, but once you mastered it, they would bow down to any order, no matter the cost. The only thing was that menacing child, Sora. Xemnas walked over to several computer screens and skillfully hit a few keys on a strange looking keyboard. A revolving picture of Sora came up on one of the screens, and on another a few paragraphs of text. Then a computer toned voice blipped,

“Sora. Age fifteen. Wields: Kingdom Key. Location: Memory Pod number one.”

Xemnas hit few more buttons. The voice sounded again,

“Kairi. Age fifteen. Wields: Certain Destiny. Location: Twilight Town.” A few more buttons and a screen showed a loading bar.

“Loading progress: sixteen percent.” Said the voice.

“Damn it!” Xemnas curled his hands into fists and brought them down upon the keyboard, only causing him more annoyance when the computer tone said, “Shutting down due to unknown problems in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.” The whirring of the computer stopped, and the only thing that could be heard was the deep breathing of Xemnas.

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Kairi reached the ground and observed the town around her. It was gorgeous. There were burnt-orange colored cobblestone streets and warm shadows that were cast by the same colored brick apartments. She wondered if it ever turned any other kind of day here, but maybe everyone who lived here was just used to the everlasting twilight. Kairi was getting too caught up in herself. She needed to concentrate on remembering things, and meeting that Roxas kid tonight. She wandered. That seemed to be the only thing she did these days. It was hard though, with her memories being lost, coming back, and being lost…again. She didn’t know what day it was, or how long she had been away from Destiny Islands. It was just too confusing, and even though she tried so hard, the memories would just linger in the back of her mind, just reaching its thin little fingers over the line that divided her new memories from her old ones, so that she could only struggle and rack her mind endlessly. Kairi was torn away from her thoughts when she noticed a clock tower.

“I saw that one! When I was leaving the mansion!” she exclaimed. She started sprinting up the ramp that lead in the direction of the tower, and reached a flat cobblestone surface with a sign above it that read, SUNSET STATION. Kairi looked up and her eyes caught a massive clock tower, with a clock face to match. She was completely stunned; it hadn’t looked this big from the distance! Then she noticed.

Eight feet were dangling over one of the ornate ledges of the tower, meaning four people! Wasn’t that kind of dangerous? Then one of them stood up, stumbled, and fell!

“Oh my god!” Kairi screamed. Then everything seemed to go in slow motion. The person, who now Kairi could see was a boy – was falling straight down the side of the tower, headfirst. Then a voice crept into her head.

“Hey Kairi!” It was the boy, the other one that she couldn’t remember.

“You! I remember you! What’s your name?” she thought.

“Oh thanks Kai! We were best friends and you can’t even remember my name? Well, I’ll give you a hint, it starts with an S!”

The boy was still falling, but falling even slower and slower.

While the falling boy was just about six feet above the cobblestone where he would fall, the “S” boy appeared and caught him, right before he landed, set him down, and disappeared. Kairi reached out her hand for the “S” boy as she remembered is name,

“Sora! Don’t leave me!” she shouted, but it was too late. He was already gone. She turned around and faced the boy.

“Kairi!” he said.

“Who are you? And are you okay?” she questioned, confused.

“Oh…I didn’t think that you would remember. I’m Roxas; I was the one that left the note for you in the hotel. Yeah, I’m fine. That was really weird. I am up there almost everyday and that’s never happened before.” Roxas replied, a little shakily.

“That was quite the fall you took. Do you know Sora?” she blurted. He probably didn’t, but it was worth an ask.

“Sora…Yeah, I know him. Well, kind of. He has a Keyblade, right?”

“I…I don’t know…” Kairi wasn’t quite sure. She knew what a Keyblade was, but she wasn’t sure about who else had one. She glanced up at the ClockTower again. The other people who were there were gone. They had probably left to see if Roxas was okay. “So, you wanted to meet me somewhere?”

“Yeah, but later tonight, when everyone is asleep. Let’s go to the Usual Spot and tell my buds that I am okay.”

Roxas grabbed Kairi’s hand and ran down the ramp to the “Usual Spot”. He led her to what looked like an alleyway. Roxas ran ahead of Kairi over to three other people.

“Hayner! Pence! Olette! Guys! I’m okay. Did you see that?” Roxas was calling to them, but they didn’t even turn around. He walked up to one of the boys and put his hand on his shoulder, but it went right through.

“Roxas?” Kairi was a little scared. What Roxas a ghost? “What just happened?”

Hayner, Olette, and Pence were flipping through a pile of pictures, finished, turned around and ran, right through Kairi, and Roxas. It seemed that they didn’t even know two other people were there! Roxas was studying his hand, turning it over and over, as if it had an extremely exiting story on it.

"Roxas,” Kairi started a little warily, “Let’s go.”

“Yeah…let’s go…”

They wandered around the town the whole rest of the day. When they walked past someone, they didn’t even notice, and sometimes, they just walked right through them. Kairi was realizing that things weren’t quite going as well as she had planned. But it was too late to turn back now. She was on a journey, and she had to finish it. Finding Sora would be the key – the key to having a normal life. Back on the Islands, Selphie thought that Kairi was going crazy, talking about “these two boys that used to be here”. Then, being Selphie, she had talked to their school councilor, and now Kairi had weekly visits to some expensive psychologist. Often though, Kairi “came home too late” to make it in time to the appointment. Now she knew though. There was a boy. Sora. She loved him, and she was pretty sure he loved her too, but what would she do when she met him? Would he recognize who she was? Then she got an idea.

“Roxas, will you help me find Sora?”

They both stopped walking. They were near a crack in a twenty-foot cream-colored wall. Roxas stared at her with a pathetic look on his face.

“The truth is…” he hesitated, “I don’t know. To be honest, this person told me – Namine – that I – me, Roxas – was never supposed to exist. What if I am disappearing right now? What if …” he stopped and took a breath, then started again in a softer, wavering voice, “What if, I die?”

“Roxas…” Kairi leaned around him and hugged him. She knew what it was like to be confused, “I promise I wont let you die…” But she wasn’t sure. Actually, Kairi wasn’t sure of anything that happened anymore. Roxas pulled back and looked at her. A single tear rolled down his face, but he wiped it away and laughed, plastering a fake smile on his face.

“Sorry about that. Getting too emotional.” He fake laughed again.

“Come on, I will tell you the whole story.”

Roxas led Kairi to the crack in the wall and walked through. On this side was a forest, which was very familiar. Then all of a sudden, the bush nearest to Kairi rustled, and a dog came out, which ran out of the crack and into Twilight Town. Kairi raced after it.

“Kairi! Wait up,” he stumbled after her.

When the two were back into the town, they saw three (were they ducks?) chasing after the dog yelling,

“Pluto! Come back!”

Kairi gave a sharp whistle and shouted,

“Pluto! Com’ere boy!” The dog bounded towards her, and sat at her command. The three ducks, panting, approached her, all with the same, “thank you!”. Thus began the conversation of who each other were, and were they came from. Kairi didn't understande how these three could see her and hear her, and the others couldn't. She decided not to fill her mind with questions like this anymore, as the result often turned out for the worst. After a while into the conversation, the group met on common ground.

“You know Sora?” Hewey exclaimed, “So do we! Well, kinda. We are looking for our uncle, Donald. He is traveling with Sora, but we have some big news, so we need to find him!” he turned to Pluto, “Pluto! I am ashamed at you. You should have found us sooner if you met Kairi.”

A comical bark was all that the group got as an answer. While Roxas and the three were laughing and talking, Kairi stared at the forest entrance. It was oozing dark swirls. She reached out to touch it, but pulled back. Then she got mad. What if Sora was on the other side of the wall? She wouldn’t just let this dark stuff seal her only entrance to that side of the wall off! Kairi glanced behind her and saw that the four were still chattering away. She closed her eyes and thought,

“Certain destiny…”

She waited until she felt the familiar tingling in her hand and opened her eyes. The Keyblade was there. She struck the wall and the oozing stopped for about four seconds, but then the swirling stuff rushed out and smothered the scream that Kairi let loose. She was on her knees, and around her was swirling purples, whites, and blacks. She couldn’t believe that she was actually being held up by this mass of stuff. Kairi pushed herself onto her feet and looked around, poised with her Keyblade in hand. A black shadow-like thing jumped out of the darkness, heading straight at her. Kairi ran towards it, and slashed it in half, leaving it to dissolve into ground. She looked up. A simple pink crystal heart floated into the swirling sky. Then all of the sudden the ground was shaking, and Kairi was stuck in the darkness, like being stuck in quicksand. The Keyblade was forced out of her hand while she was pushed farther down into the blackness.

“I will be taking this, if you don’t mind,” it was a female voice that Kairi did not find familiar. The tone of voice suggested a smirk.

“No!” she cried out. But who ever had taken it was gone, and she was falling. It felt like she was falling in water, but how was she breathing then? Kairi landed on a platform, and hundreds of crows flew out from under her feet.

“What’s going on?” she screamed into the blackness, while shielded her face with her arms from the birds. All she had for her reply was the cawing of the crows as they rose and disappeared into the gloom. Kairi looked at the floor that she was standing on now. It was stained glass, but not the nice kind. There were thirteen twisted figures with black cloaks, with two Keyblades under their feet. On the sides were Riku and Sora, scratched and bloody.

“Sora! Riku!”

Kairi ran over to the warped figures of them and kneeled down.

“Riku…Sora…I’m sorry…” A single teardrop splattered on the floor between her hands.

“Hey Kai, relax!”

Kairi whipped around.

“Riku…?” A black-cloaked person stood in front of her. He raised his finger to his lips. “They don’t know I’m here.” Riku ran towards Kairi and lifted her up in his arms. “We have to go.”

“Riku…”

The black hood fell off of Riku’s head, and his silver hair flowed silently behind him as he ran. His face was stern and serious.

“Where are we going - ”

“Hush. They don’t know I am here.”
“Who?”

“Be quiet.”

Riku took four long strides and leapt off of the platform, only they did not fall. It was as if Riku was running up stairs, and then an orange light emerged from a pinprick in the distance. Riku put Kairi down and said “Kairi, do you see that light?” She nodded. “Run. Run to it.”

“But what if - ” Riku grabbed her shoulders and looked her in the eye.

“I said. Run!” a swarm of the shadow bugs had been following Kairi and him the whole time. Riku turned around and ran into the horde of them. Kairi was running, and when she reached the top of the mysterious stairs she looked back. The only things she saw were the pink crystal hearts floating up into the darkness before she stepped into the light.

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