Chapter Text
Riku woke up in an alleyway. Remembering what had happened before he passed out, he quickly jumped up from where he was slouched on the ground leaning against the brick wall behind him.
“SORA!” Riku called out as he quickly got to his feet to begin searching for his friend. The brunette wasn't anywhere to be seen in the dingy alleyway, so Riku ran off into an area that looked like a sort of plaza, calling his best friend's name again.
“SORA!? SORA WHERE ARE YOU!?”
The few people in the area looked at him and tried to ignore his shouting and searching, until one man walked into the plaza, facing Riku.
“So you’re the one the key chose.”
Riku turned to the man who had approached him. He was holding a sort of giant sword. Or was it a gun? Whatever it was, it was a weapon, and Riku took note of that.
“Grey hair, cyan eyes…” the man listed off, “You’re gonna have to come with me, kid.”
Riku scoffed, “Yeah, right, like I'm going anywhere with you.” Riku summoned the keyblade and readied himself for a fight.
The man chuckled, “Well then, I guess I'll just have to take you by force then.”
Riku lunged forward with his attacks, but faster than he could react, the man jumped back out of the range of his keyblade.
Stunned by his whiffed attack, Riku was caught off guard when the man’s weapon shot off three shots, right into Riku's chest.
Riku fell back and struggled to catch his breath, let alone get back up to defend himself.
“Damn it. I must still be weak from the fight with the shadow beast.”
The man approached the boy on the ground and before Riku could even think, the man hit him with the back of his weapon, knocking him out for good.
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Riku woke up slowly. Before he could move or open his eyes, he could hear the voices of people talking around him.
“...knock him out? You could have given him a concussion.”
His eyes opened slowly, and he could make out the figures of two people talking over his laid down body.
“...Sora?...Kairi?” Riku mumbled.
“Oh! He's waking up! Are you okay?” Sora? leaned in closer to Riku to inspect his head, eyebrows furrowing in concern and concentration.
“Sora….” Riku reached his hand up to Sora?’s cheek, “You're safe….”
“Sheesh, Squall, I'm pretty sure ya gave him some brain damage,” Kairi? laughed to someone out of his line of sight, “Listen here kid, I don't know who this Kairi girl is, but Sora's over in the other room. I'm the great ninja Yuffie, and the girlie you got your hand on is Aerith.”
“…huh?” Blinking rapidly, Riku realized that the two people watching over him were not in fact his two best friends, but rather two people he had never seen before in his life.
Mortified, Riku quickly brought his hand that was on the woman's face to his chest and jumped back so fast that his head hit the headboard of the bed.
“I'm so sorry, ma'am,” Riku blushed and apologized profusely to the woman he thought was Sora. Then blushed even more at the idea of it actually being the real Sora.
“Oh, no worries,” the woman reassured, “Like she said before, my name is Aerith, and that’s Yuffie.” Aerith introduced herself and the woman he thought was Kairi, then pointed to the man standing with his arms crossed in the corner, “...and that man there is Leon.”
Before any other questions could leave his mouth, Riku remembered what Yuffie had said before, “Wait, you said Sora's here? Where!?”
As if hearing his question, the door into the side room was slammed open by none other than Sora himself.
“Riku!” Sora shouted gleefully running up to his best friend with his arms open for a hug.
“Sora!” Riku quickly returned the hug, “I'm so glad you're safe.”
“Me too. After I woke up here and I couldn't find you, I got so worried,” Sora admitted with a sheepish smile, “But luckily I ran into this guy named Cid and he brought me to these guys. They've been looking out for me while you've been gone,” Sora finished with a smile.
“Wait, gone? How long have you been here?” Riku questioned leaning out from their hug to look Sora in the eye.
“Oh, only just a day or two,” Sora answered. Riku initially frowned at the thought of Sora being alone in this new world. He could imagine how when Sora woke up, he would have excitedly tried to turn to him or Kairi, talking about how they made it to another world, only to find neither of them there. Sora being alone was not a thought Riku liked to think about.
“Yep, we've been looking out for this sucker here.” Yuffie's voice interjects, interrupting Riku's train of thought. Her arm looped around the back of Sora's neck, bringing him in close in order to ruffle up his hair with her closed fist, “Big trouble maker here, let me tell you, always butting his head into other peoples business, tryna help them out however he can.”
All concerns Riku had about Sora being alone without him faded away when he saw how the others there interacted with his childhood friend. He forgot how good Sora was at making friends. It was a real talent of his, his ability to make connections with others. Something that Riku had personally struggled a lot with.
But that feeling of concern began twisting into something else. Something Riku couldn't quite put a name to.
Riku looked away from Sora to inspect the room he was in. It seemed like a regular hotel room. Granted, the color scheme and odd placement of furnishings wouldn't be his first choice for decoration, it was a hotel room nonetheless.
“So I guess some things don't really change from world-to-world…”
Pivoting his legs, getting ready to stand up, he spotted the keyblade by the side of the bed.
Riku went to grab it, but before he could, someone's hand stopped him. It was Leon.
“Wait, you should hang on a moment before grabbing that,” Leon warned, keeping Riku's wrist in a tight grip, “that keyblade was the reason why those creatures were able to track you. We call them the heartless. You should be sure you're fully back to health before taking it.”
Riku glared up at the man, “I'm fine,” he spat through his gritted teeth, jerking his hand out of Leon's tight grip.
“Are you sure? I admit, I went pretty rough on you. No shame in needing a little extra time to recover.”
“I said I'm fine.”
The others could feel the tension rising in the room. Things could get messy real quick if something wasn't done to calm either of them down.
“Oh Riku! You should meet my other new friends!” Sora exclaimed, releasing the tension that had built up as he grabbed Riku's arm and led him out of the main room into the side room, Riku able to snatch the keyblade during their swift exit, “They were just telling me about this awesome rocket that they use to travel to different worlds. And get this! They're also looking for one of their friends!”
Never in a million years could Riku have guessed that these “new friends” of Sora's were a large, bipedal dog and a duck.
“Hiya Sora! Welcome back!”
“Took you long enough.”
“Okay, I take it back. Never in a million years would I have guessed that Sora's new friends were a talking large, bipedal dog and a talking duck.”
“Yeah, sorry about leaving so suddenly guys,” Sora apologized to the two, “But anyways I'm back and I brought my best friend Riku! You know, the one I was telling you about!”
“Nice to meet cha, Riku. I'm Goofy, a-hyuk.” Goofy introduced, reaching out his hand for Riku to shake.
“Yeah, you sure are,” Riku mumbled under his breath as he reached to accept the handshake.
“I'm Donald Duck! And you're the key we're looking for! So let's hurry up and get moving so we can find the King!” Donald ordered grabbing Riku's arm and attempting to drag him away and out the door. But before he could get very far, Riku snapped his arm out of Donald's grip without much struggle.
“Hold up, who said anything about me going with you? What's in it for me?” Riku questioned the two, not quick to trust people. Especially when they're not exactly “people”, but rather closer to humanoid animals.
“Hold on Riku,” Sora interjects, putting a hand out between his two very irritable friends before a fight could break out, “Think about it. We can go out to the other worlds with them on their ship. While we help them search for their King, they could help us look for Kairi!”
“Now you hold on a second, Sora!” Donald shouts, “We only have room for one more on our ship, and that seat is saved for the key that the King’s letter mentioned!”
Sora's face drops at this revelation, “But… Surely you can make room for the two of us, right?”
“Sorry Sora, but our ship’s got a 3 person capacity…” Goofy clarified, looking regretful as he put a reassuring hand on Sora's shoulder.
Seeing Sora so down at the two’s rejection, his hopes of him and Riku finding Kairi together crushed, Riku got mad.
Riku smacked Goofy’s hand off of Sora's shoulder, and led Sora towards the door out of the hotel.
“Well, if you don't have the room for the two of us, then you won't be getting either of us,” Riku stated as he and Sora went out the hotel doors, slamming it behind them.
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After leaving the hotel room, the two friends decided to wander around the new world a bit. After all, this was their first time off the island. But they could feel the weight of the presence missing from the trio that had become a temporary duo.
They ended up wandering far enough that they passed through a giant door with the words “District 3” at the top of the archway.
Along the way, Sora had been rambling to Riku about what he had gotten up to in the short amount of time he was there without him, continuing to walk while talking.
“...and then I helped out Cid at his shop! He's kinda intimidating at first, but once you get to know him, he's really nice! Same with Leon!” Riku rolled his eyes at the mention of that man. Sora noticed Riku's distaste for the man, "I know you two got off on the wrong foot, but he really is a good guy!”
“...he shot me in the chest and kidnapped me.” Riku deadpanned.
“Well, technically, yes… But he only did it because I told him to keep an eye out for you! He mentioned something about a key and I remember you called your cool new weapon a keyblade, which is still super awesome,” Sora began to get off track, “like you can just summon it? And Leon told me it chooses its wielder! That makes it even cooler! You’re like one of those super cool comic book protagonists! A chosen one!”
Riku began to blush at the words coming from his best friend, “Yeah, I guess it is pretty cool,” Riku shrugged, trying to act nonchalant at Sora's praise.
“SORA! RIKU! WHERE ARE YOU!?” Riku heard a certain grating voice called out from the entrance way. They ended up stopping in the center of the plaza to turn to where the voice had come from. There they spotted Donald and Goofy leaning over the half wall that gave a clear view of the plaza.
Riku sighed and rolled his eyes, not wanting to have to deal with the talking duck again after what he had said to Sora. But before Riku could drag Sora into hiding, he accidentally made eye contact with Goofy.
“Oh! There you fellas are!” Goofy began to walk over, Donald following not far behind.
“What do you guys want,” Riku asked pointedly, glaring at the two who had quickly made it to the center of the plaza, “Don’t you guys know when to leave us alone?” Goofy had realized Riku’s obvious annoyance right away, but Donald wasn’t about to put up with Riku’s attitude.
“We want the key to come help us find the King!” Donald shouted at the grey haired teen, jumping up to shout in his face.
“And why exactly should I!? You’ve done nothing but be rude towards me since I’ve gotten here! YOU DON’T EVEN CALL ME BY MY NAME!!” Riku leaned down to shout in the duck’s face the same way he had done to him.
“You need to help us because all the king told us to do was to find and follow the key! We did that so now you have to lead the way towards finding the King!”
“Guys, calm down! We both want to find people that are important to us, so we should find a compromise, not fight like this.” Sora tried to put himself between the two to stop them from getting physical, but doing so just caused him to get involved. The two quickly turned to face him.
“No, Sora, I won’t calm down!” Riku shouted at Sora.
“Yeah! Stay out of this!” Donald shouted soon after.
“HEY! DON’T YELL AT HIM LIKE THAT!” Riku quickly whipped back to face the duck once again.
“Uh, fellas?” Goofy tried to interject, but the three were too involved with the meaningless argument the fight had turned into.
“NOT NOW GOOFY!” Donald shouted at his teammate.
A loud crash of metal interrupted whatever was to be said next. They all turned to see a floating set of armor. Riku quickly summoned the keyblade. Donald and Goofy followed suit as they readied their weapons as well.
The floating metal armor’s arms and legs broke off from the main torso and began to charge towards the group. They all dove out of the way, and quickly recovered to begin attacking the armor that had slammed into the spot they were standing just moments ago.
… All except for Sora. He watched from afar as his friends split up and used their special abilities against the different pieces of the metal monster.
Riku immediately went straight after the main torso and head. His key shaped weapon proved to be a formidable weapon as he used a similar strategy to when he had fought against the towering shadow monster from the islands.
Donald and Goofy held back and began to crowd the pair of hands in an attempt to corner them. Goofy slamming his shielded self against the hands, pushing it back. Donald sending offensive spells after the heartless and healing Goofy when he needed it.
Sora scanned the arena for something to use against the living armor and spotted a broken lamp post off near the entrance of the makeshift arena, the top half being ripped straight off in the commotion of the battle. He ran over and quickly grabbed his new, makeshift weapon.
Scanning the arena with a newfound confidence now that he had something to defend with, he spotted Riku locked in combat with the metal torso. Riku was so focused on the enemy in front of him, he failed to notice the pair of shoes beginning to stomp their way towards him.
Sora ran over as fast as he could and defended Riku from the oncoming attack from behind. He used the lamp post to smack the shoes away before they could get close enough to injure Riku. Riku turned back towards Sora when he noticed how he had protected him from being hurt from behind.
“You should really get better at this ‘fighting giant monsters’ thing, Riku. Seems like it'll become a pretty common experience for us now.” Sora joked while he aimed another swing towards the pair of shoes. Riku didn't say anything in response, just grinned and rolled his eyes in a fake sense of annoyance, turning his attention back towards the main torso.
Before anyone could begin to finish off their respective piece of armor, the pieces all began to fly towards one another.
Donald and Goofy ran over to Sora and Riku, who were already standing near the main torso where all the pieces seemed to fly towards.
“What's it doing?” Donald asked. No one knew the real answer, but they all knew that whatever it was couldn't be good.
Once reunited, the large body began to spin violently. They all used their weapons to guard as soon as they could, their weapons taking the majority of the hit. But unfortunately, the makeshift weapon that Sora had picked up didn't guard as well as the others’ magic infused weapons.
The lamp post was thrown out of Sora's grasp and the boy went flying across the arena and into the wall of one of the surrounding buildings.
“SORA!” Riku screamed and ran over to where Sora had landed. Riku began to check over Sora's body in order to see if there were any life threatening injuries.
Sora sat up with a groan, “I'm fine Riku,” he said as he began his attempt to stand up, only to fall to the ground once again with a small yelp in surprise.
“No!” Riku placed his arm in front of Sora to keep him where he was, “You stay here. Without a weapon, you're better off staying on the sidelines. Let us handle this.”
With that, Riku ran back into the fray to assist Donald and Goofy who were close to cornering the still connected armor into a corner on the opposite side of the plaza from Sora.
Luckily, the spinning move the heartless did seemed to be a telltale sign that it was almost down for the count. One swing with the keyblade at one of its arms made it explode into tiny pieces, never to be connected with the main body again.
Then, Donald cast a fire spell and the other arm was done for too.
Next, the two legs with Goofy ramming into them with his shield.
Finally, just the torso was left. The three fighters went all in with their final attack: Goofy tossed his shield, Donald casted blizzard, and Riku with a sliding dash into the metal body. With that, the heartless was done for.
The armored body froze and then began to fade as what looked to be a heart manifested and floated up into the sky.
With the heartless gone, Riku turned to where he had left Sora to rejoin the fight, and began to run over. Sora was still sitting on the ground, but he had ended up pulling his legs to his chest and was holding them there with his arms wrapped around them. He had a distant look in his eye, but when he heard riku coming over, he began to stand up.
“Sora! Are you alright?,” Riku asked when he made it over to his friend. Riku lended a hand in helping Sora make it all the way up standing.
“Yeah, I’m fine, just a bit bruised, that's all,” Sora quickly responded with a smile and a light laugh, not wanting Riku to worry about him. But Riku wasn't so easily fooled. He remembered how when they were kids, Sora would try to hide small scratches and bruises from their parents, so that they wouldn't get into trouble when their play fights got too rough.
Before Riku could inspect Sora for any injuries he could be hiding, the door to the third district slammed open and from the door came Aerith, Yuffie, and Leon.
“Sora! You're alright! Oh thank goodness, I was so worried!” Aerith ran over and immediately brought Sora into a hug. She noticed Sora's wince when she had brought him in and cast a small cure spell to help with his injuries.
“After the two of you left in a hurry, heartless began to appear in the hotel. Luckily, it looks like you already took care of the big boss, so hopefully the little guys should show up less.” Leon explained.
“... Well, now that that's all over with,” Donald grabbed Goofy and Riku’s hand and began walking off to head to the gummi ship, “Let's get a move on!”
“No! I’m not leaving without Sora!” Riku ripped his hand from donalds hold, his previous anger from before the fight with the heartless beginning to show once again as he opened his mouth to argue against going more. But before he could get another word out, Sora stood up and placed a gentle hand on Riku’s shoulder.
“…I think you should go with them,” Sora admitted. Riku was shocked into silence, so Sora continued, “It's like what I said to you before, you're the chosen one! The keyblade chose you, Riku, so you should help out where you can.”
Riku couldn't believe the words he was hearing. While Sora spoke, he did so with a smile on his face, like he wasn't even realizing he was telling Riku to leave him behind. Riku fully turned his back to Donald and Goofy, not wanting them to see the concern and worry that had quickly made its way onto his expression.
“…But what about you?” Riku asked in a soft voice, looking Sora straight in the eye.
“I can stay here and keep an eye out for Kairi in case she ends up here. I mean, we showed up here at different times, so who's to say it won't be the same for her?” Sora reassures with a smile, maintaining Riku's established eye contact to prove that he meant what he was saying.
“Don't worry about him, Riku. We’ll keep an eye on him for ya!” Yuffie butted in, looping an arm around Sora's shoulders and bringing him in close, causing the brunet to laugh at the older teen’s antics.
“See Riku? I'll be just fine here,” Sora gently shook Yuffie’s arm off his shoulders, grabbed Riku's arm, and led him to turn back towards Donald and Goofy.
“Now, since you three are gonna go off on adventures together, you have to all get along…” Sora turned towards Donald, “... And that means no more calling Riku just “the key”, you gotta have respect for each other!”
Riku glared down at the duck, challenging him to say anything in rebuttal.
“He's right, y'know, Donald,” Goofy backed him up, “we gotta get along if we're gonna be findin’ our friends together, a-hyuck.”
Donald was quiet for a moment, then sighed, and began his apology.
“...Sorry Riku…” Donald murmured. It wasn't enough for Riku to totally forgive him, but it was a start.
“...Alright, I'll go with you guys.” Riku decided with a slight roll of his eyes. With that, Sora and Goofy's faces lit up and they let out a small cheer. Even donalds attitude seemed to brighten.
“Fantastic! Now that we're a team, that means no more grumpy attitude Riku! Our ship runs on smiles and happy faces!” Donald ordered with a smile, “Come on! Let's see it!” Goofy egged Riku on.
“...That's not happening.” Riku deadpanned to the two.
“Awwww, come on Riku! Let's see that smile,” Sora grinned deviously and leaned over to poked Riku in the side, somewhere he knew was ticklish for the taller boy. Immediately, Riku tried to dodge his attacks, but his attempt was fruitless.
“Sora! Quit it!” Riku tried to sound intimidating, but he was too giggly from the tickling to be threatening in any way that mattered to Sora. Despite this, Sora ceased his silly assault of his friend and quickly grabbed Riku into a right hug.
Shocked by his fast change in demeanor, Riku wasn't even able to return the hug before Sora had already pulled away.
“Now let's get a move on!” Donald shouted and began to usher Riku towards the door to the first district with the help of Goofy, “We got worlds to search and friends to find!”
Riku looked back to Sora and saw him waving with a small bittersweet smile, standing in-between Aerith and Leon with Yuffie jumping up and waving goodbye behind him.
Riku knew he was leaving Sora in good hands. So with a new sense of determination and duty, he let Donald and Goofy lead the way to their ship to begin their adventure.