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“You’re just a creature of the dark now, not Riku…” Sora was looking down at Riku, keyblade in hand. Riku was on the ground, still straining to recover from the burst of light energy that had hit her full-on. She held a hand up, but it wasn’t enough to stop him from leveling his keyblade at her again. “It’s time for you to face the light!”
Riku found herself covered in the light of Sora’s attack. Even if Sora was a memory born from the illusions of Castle Oblivion, Riku couldn’t defeat him, and she didn’t even know if she should try. Sora must be right. It was because Riku was too dark.
“I'm going to fade away.” Maybe this was for the best. She’d rather have Sora defeat her than anyone else, anyway. “Into the light…”
“You won’t fade away,” a voice said. It was so familiar. “Riku.” She tried to blink through the haze. “You won’t fade.” That voice belonged to…
“Kairi?” With another blink, Riku saw her, looking exactly the same as their last meeting in Hollow Bastion. Reflexively, Riku reached towards her, and she reached back with a smile.
When their hands met, the haze surrounding them dissipated. Gone was the bright, painful haze from Sora’s attack, replaced by an open sky above a sea of light. As Kairi stepped closer on the surface of the water, her white shirt and purple skirt transformed into a long, draping gown of purple and pink, her crystal necklace resting above her breastbone, the gown’s neck low and wide, its sleeves in gauzy purples and blues trailing from her elbows, her wrist bare as she placed her hand in Riku’s. On her head was a golden tiara.
“Kairi, I…” Riku looked down; her own transformed outfit, a gold and purple tunic with black and white sleeves and tights, was just as unbelievable as Kairi’s. They’d parted under such awful circumstances, with Riku desperately holding Ansem back so that Kairi could escape Hollow Bastion. This final dream, with Kairi looking every inch the princess and Riku somehow changed to match, was a kindness from Castle Oblivion that Riku wasn’t expecting, but she knew it couldn’t last. “I don’t know how much time I have to say this, but I...”
“Riku, look at me.” Kairi was smiling as she moved Riku’s free hand to her back, then her own to Riku’s shoulder. “Whatever you have to say, I’ll listen.”
They began to dance.
“I’m sorry,” Riku said. She didn’t want to die without having said it. “I kept trying to be your prince, but… I wasn’t thinking about what was best for you at all. I just started fighting with Sora, without asking you if that was really what you wanted. But I’m bad at being a princess for Sora, too, and I got scared when I couldn’t win against him, and I gave in to the darkness because of it.” Every step Riku took left a trail of darkness on the water, but Kairi either didn’t notice or didn’t mind. “I’ve been trying to make up for what I’ve done, to push the darkness away, but…” Riku spun Kairi out, but she just came back, “...I don’t think I can get rid of it. Maybe I should stop trying to pretend, and just let myself be destroyed.” Maybe Riku was the real fake after all, bad at both sides of the prince-and-princess pair, lost somewhere in the middle with nothing to do but let everyone else move ahead without her.
“Your darkness is a part of you,” Kairi said, “just like your light is. Don’t push it away.”
Riku didn’t actually want to be destroyed, though. Did that mean Kairi agreed that it was better this way?
“Don’t give me that face!” Now Kairi was frowning at her. “Before you go calling me a princess, I’m myself, and I know you know that. So the same goes for you. Before you’re anyone else, you’re Riku.” They continued spinning. “In everything I know, it never mattered to me if you or Sora was more of a prince because you’re yourselves first, and I like you for you, dummy.”
Riku felt herself flush, and she twirled Kairi while she tried to get her face under control.
“I’m not done yet,” Kairi said, shaking a finger at Riku before taking her hand again. “You don’t have to be just one thing or the other. It’s the same with your light and your darkness; if both are inside you, then they’re both yours. And if it’s a little scary, then that’s okay. You just have to be brave. Because both of those things will make you stronger.”
“...Both of them?” Riku heard herself say. Kairi spun them again. “I don’t… have to pick?”
“Look inside,” Kairi said, “and don’t look away. Then you’ll find a strength that’s yours. It’ll show you the way to what’s important.”
“To who’s important,” Riku corrected, smiling. Kairi smiled back. Riku brought them to a pause, and Kairi didn’t pull away. “All this time, I was trying to push the darkness away…” Riku looked at the trails of darkness her feet had made in the water, at the three concentric circles joining to form a greater whole, “when it was really part of me all along, wasn’t it? What I thought I wanted to be, for myself, and for you and Sora, I…”
Inside of Riku was just herself. If she wasn’t only prince or only princess, then it just meant that she was something greater than either of those things by themselves. Something not just light or just darkness, because both of those were a part of her, too.
“Okay,” Riku said. Then she called to what was inside of her. “Darkness!” It welled up from within her, the breaking of a long silence between herself and herself. The spell over the dance ended, and Riku emerged in her familiar suit of darkness; it was no longer restrictively pulling at her or demanding of her, but now a part of her, a true shape for her power.
“Thank you,” Riku said.
“That was all you,” Kairi replied with a grin. She was in her normal clothes again. The dream was probably going to end soon.
“I have to go,” Riku said, “but we’ll see each other again. I want to show you who I am.”
“Promise?” Kairi asked.
“Yeah.” They were still holding hands from the dance before, and Kairi didn’t seem inclined to move away, so instead Riku slowly brought her face down to Kairi’s; Kairi met her halfway. “See you soon.” If Riku’s cheeks were pink, she didn’t mind.
“I can’t wait,” Kairi said.
Riku opened her eyes. The water faded away, and so did Kairi. Riku was back in the blank void. She looked around; everything was light, in every direction except one. Riku called Soul Eater to her hand and opened her eyes again.
She emerged back into the false Destiny Islands, and when she saw her opponent in front of her, she struck.
“What?” Zexion cried out. Sora wasn’t there, of course, because the Sora that tried to destroy her was what had been the illusion all along. “But you were trapped in the light!”
“Yeah,” Riku said, “so I followed the darkness to you instead.”
“You were so afraid of the dark before.” It was Zexion that was hunched in fear now, that was hastily backing away to make his escape.
“Not anymore,” Riku said. “I know who I am now.”
—————————————
Some time later, Riku found herself walking through the doors of a strange mansion. She’d gotten to the building itself via a card for a place called Twilight Town, a sleepy town built onto the side of a hill, a path through the woods on one edge of town leading to a mansion of sandstone brick, but the inside of the mansion itself was the same blank white of Castle Oblivion itself. Pale vases on equally pale pillars lined the entry hall, leading to an inner door. Riku opened it and found herself in a large, round room.
The room was empty save for a giant sculpture in the shape of a closed lotus bud, and halfway towards the sculpture, walking towards her, was a blonde girl in a white dress.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Riku,” the girl said. “My name is Naminé. Please come this way.” She turned back towards the sculpture, clearly expecting Riku to follow. As Riku did so, Naminé left a familiar scent in her wake, delicate notes of the flowers that grew at the entrance to the Secret Place mixed with the saltiness of a warm sea breeze. It was the scent of Kairi, of home.
“Wait, was it…?” Riku murmured to herself.
“I need to explain what’s happened in this castle,” Naminé said, looking over her shoulder for a moment. Riku nodded and kept following. As they got closer to the sculpture, Riku thought she saw–
“Sora?” Riku ran the rest of the way. Sora was there. “Sora!” He was somehow inside the flower bud itself. The petals, up close, were hinged panels, shut closed and leaving him floating in the mist within. A keyboard panel attached to the apparatus was lit up, presumably controlling the whole thing. Riku turned to Naminé. “What’s going on?”
“Let me explain,” Naminé said, holding her hands up as she approached. “It’s so Sora can get his memories back. I can’t re-connect those chains unless he sleeps in here.” (Riku watched her go) She went up to Sora and rested her hand on one of the glass petals, her sad eyes watching Sora as he gently floated within the bud.
“I knew Sora was in this castle,” Riku responded, “and that he’s been fighting too, but that’s about it.” Somehow — whether it was because she reminded Riku of Kairi, or simply the way she looked at Sora — Riku wasn’t worried about Naminé being honest with her. “Maybe you could fill me in on things?”
“Yes, that’s one of the reasons I brought you here.” Naminé smiled at Riku, then, but her eyes were still sad. “It’s the least I can do.” She began speaking, then, of Sora’s path through Castle Oblivion, the loss of his memories, the plots of the Organization, and her own involvement. As she spoke, she slowly began a circuit around the flower bud, her fingertips trailing along the glass; Riku followed her path, her scent the only true splash of color other than Sora in the pale expanse of the room. Often, Naminé’s eyes would flicker away from Riku’s to look at Sora or her feet, but they always returned eventually, her blond hair resting over her shoulder as she turned her head back to look at Riku.
“So Sora chose to get his old memories back,” Riku said, once Naminé had finished her explanation.
“Yes,” Naminé said. “It might take some time, but I’m going to fix things.”
“I believe you.” The words left Riku’s mouth before she registered herself saying them. Naminé flashed what was almost a smile, but it was fleeting; she stopped walking and turned to face Riku fully.
“Riku, you have a choice to make, too.”
“I’ve been hearing that a lot lately,” Riku commented. Naminé attempted a smile again. “But no one’s messed with my memories.”
“It’s your darkness,” Naminé said. “Inside of you is a darkness that’s vast and deep, and inside that darkness is Ansem. If he emerges, then he’ll take over you again, but if I put a lock on your heart, then he can’t get out.”
“Would I forget?” Riku asked. Ansem taking over again would be the worst thing possible, but… “I’d be like Sora, wouldn’t I?”
“Yes,” Naminé replied. “You’d forget the darkness, and go back to how you were before.” Riku couldn’t help but exhale a laugh. “Hm?”
“Sora sure looks peaceful, doesn’t he?” Riku said, turning to look at him floating inside the glass bud. “He’s not worried at all. He was always like this back on the Islands, too.” Riku thought of who she’d been back on the Islands, before the darkness; the gulf between that person and who she was now was immense. “We were trying to build a raft together, but he spent half the time sleeping on the beach. And now that I’ve found him here, he’s sleeping again.” No matter how much she and Naminé spoke of him, Sora’s eyes remained closed.
“When he wakes up, I’m going to tell him to stop slacking. But,” she looked back at Naminé and grinned, “I can’t do that if I’ve been asleep too.” Riku had decided to open her eyes. She wasn’t going to close them again. “I don’t need a lock on my heart. I’m going to fight Ansem.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” Naminé replied, finally holding her smile. “Ansem is strong, but if anyone can face that darkness, it’s you. You won’t turn away.”
“My own darkness will show me the way,” Riku said, recalling the dance on the sea of light. “Because it’s part of me, isn’t it? Like my light. Both things.” Naminé’s lips parted with a soft gasp. “That’s what you said, when you were pretending to be Kairi.”
“How did you know?” Naminé asked.
“The way your hands move,” Riku said, taking Naminé’s hand that had been on the glass and holding it, like they were about to dance, “and the way you smell. It’s just like Kairi.” Naminé blushed but didn’t pull away. “I don’t want to sleep, or to look away again. I’m not afraid anymore.” Riku remembered her last embrace with who she’d thought was Kairi and placed her lips to Naminé’s cheek before she lost the nerve. “You helped me realize a lot of very important things about myself, so thank you.”
“I told you, it was all you,” Naminé insisted with a laugh.
Not without some reluctance, Riku finally pulled away.
“Take care of Sora while I’m gone?” she asked.
“I will,” Naminé said. Riku nodded and began walking towards the door out. “See you again soon!” she called, giving Riku a wave goodbye. Riku waved back.
—————————————
It was dim outside when Riku and Mickey left Castle Oblivion, and the long, dirt road leading away from the castle looked as if it would run for many miles through the grassy hills before they would reach another building. Before that, however, there was a crossroads, and in the center of that crossroads was a man whose face was hidden by several red belts.
“So, Riku,” DiZ said, “you chose to remain awake, and you’ve defeated Ansem.”
“Yeah.” She hasn’t been able to eliminate him completely, but she’d shoved him down into the very bottom of her heart. Ansem wasn’t going to cause trouble again anytime soon, but he wasn’t gone completely, either. Riku couldn’t go home to where Kairi was until both she and Sora were safe and free, so while Naminé fixed Sora’s memories, Riku would keep journeying to find a way to get rid of Ansem for good.
Mickey had told her he would take that journey with her, but DiZ was standing in the middle of their path.
“What are you making me choose this time?” Riku asked.
“Your heart stands at a crossroads,” DiZ said. “Which path will you take? The road to light?” He gestures to one side. “Or the road to darkness?” Both he and Mickey were looking closely at her.
Before Riku had been through Hollow Bastion, she might’ve answered one way. Before she’d been through Castle Oblivion, she might’ve answered another. Here, now, was the same question that had been asked of her since the moment she entered the castle; only recently had she finally found an answer.
Asleep and awake. Fear and bravery. Princes and princesses. Locking up a heart and fighting to free it. Boys like Sora and girls like Kairi and Naminé. Light and darkness. Riku was done trying to be only one or the other. It was something in between, or both, or neither, or some other name for it that made her more herself, and that was the direction she wanted to start walking.
“Neither of those,” Riku said, walking past DiZ. “I’m taking the middle path.”
“Do you mean the twilight road to nightfall?” DiZ asked.
“No,” Riku said. There was another place where light and darkness met. “It’s the road to dawn.”