Chapter Text
Life was just different shades of gray and brown now.
Quadratum was the biggest, most bustling place Sora had been to yet. People were everywhere—milling around on sidewalks, filling stores, spilling out of cafés, swarming in and out of stations, crossing streets—and yet never had he felt more dead inside. Alone in a sea of people because he didn't belong. The people around him were living their lives, but for him, this was an afterworld. A life of death. The place he'd been sent as a punishment for abusing the Power of Waking.
No wonder he never felt like smiling. Or when he did, Strelitzia always said it was sad and never reached his eyes. A hollow, broken smile, because that was what he was. Hollow, broken.
She understood though. When you'd had everything ripped away from you, all the people you loved torn from your life just as you were torn from theirs, it was hard not to be hollow and broken.
As he exited Shibuya Station and let himself be carried along by the throng, the fingers of his left hand twitched. He'd heard about people having phantom sensations from limbs that were long gone, and maybe this was something like that. Only his phantom sensations were from someone else. Her absence hurt most of all.
He made his way to the largest crosswalk in Quadratum and wondered, for the millionth time, if things might have turned out differently somehow. If he could've made some choice to save all of them, to save her, and not doom himself. But no, this had been his fate all along. He just had to trust that each step forward was a step closer to home.
What he wouldn't give to see her again in the flesh. She constantly haunted his thoughts and dreams. Every time he closed his eyes, he pictured she was there, a smile on her radiant face, the sunshine in her hair. Even in his dreams she couldn't hear his voice, and he inevitably had tears in his eyes when he woke up. He missed his friends, too.
But it was like Strelitzia had said: if their loved ones could live out the rest of their lives happily, she and Sora could be at peace. Not happy, not smiling, but content.
He stepped onto the crossing. A light rain had fallen earlier, and the street was still wet. Puddles reflected the flashing neon lights above. He really missed Destiny Islands. He missed the feeling of sand between his toes and ocean spray on his face and sunsets with no buildings blocking the sky or stars. He missed home.
A loud scream tore through his thoughts. His Keyblade instantly appeared in his hand. His senses honed in on the source of the scream. Sure enough, a giant Darkside had appeared about 20 feet away from him. Everyone stampeded away from it when he needed to go toward it. They carried him along like a riptide back towards the station. He wasted precious time fighting the current until enough people recognized him to shout to the others to let him through, it was the boy with the Keyblade.
The boy with the Keyblade. They didn't know much about him or his past, but they knew what he could do.
He had no idea where Strelitzia was, so he'd have to fight this thing alone. Oh well. He'd done it before. He could do it again. He raced toward it, determined not to let it hurt anyone else. Even when he didn't know what else to do, he could always help.
He hooked Kairi’s lucky charm onto the chain of his Keyblade. Right as he was about to launch himself into the air, a flash of silver caught his eye.
No, it couldn't be. His eyes had to be playing tricks on him. He was just imagining his best friend was here, racing toward the Darkside with his Keyblade in his hand.
“Riku?” he called out, not believing his own voice.
Riku skidded to a halt. He had on a new outfit, and Sora could've sworn he’d gotten even taller somehow (no fair!), but it was really him.
Riku smiled. He actually smiled. “I figured I'd find you here,” was all he said, skipping any greetings. “People needed help, so I knew you'd come running.”
“But how? How did you make it to Quadratum—”
“I'll explain later.” He nodded towards their enemy.
"Right.” Sora couldn't let himself get distracted, no matter how badly he wanted answers.
Even though it had been more than a year, he and Riku still fought together like it was second nature. They used a lot of old tricks as well as a few new ones. Working together, the Darkside didn't stand a chance. They beat it in record time, and it dissipated into smokey oblivion.
Before Riku had even had a chance to banish his Keyblade, Sora threw his arms around him. Riku just chuckled and awkwardly hugged him back.
“I promise I'm really here. It's really me.”
“You're not dead, right? You didn't have to die?”
“Nope. Kairi and I figured out a way to safely get me here.”
Sora pulled away, hoping against hope. “Kairi? Is she here with you?”
Riku’s face fell. “I'm sorry, but no. She wanted to train more. She didn't feel like she was ready.”
Sora felt like someone had punched him in the stomach. “That's crazy. You should've seen her fight Xehanort with me. She was incredible.”
“I'm sure she was, but you know how she is. After what happened, she was worried about being a burden. So she wanted to train again. Get even stronger.”
The blood drained from Sora’s face. “She doesn't still blame herself for my death, does she?” He'd tried to reassure her before he disappeared that it wasn't her fault, and in his dreams he tried to communicate the same thing with heartfelt gestures, but it sounded like she still blamed herself, even after an entire year—
“You'll have to ask her that,” Riku said. “I know she's dying to see you.”
Sora pulled the lucky charm out of his pocket and stared at it. “I'm dying to see her, too.”
Riku's expression softened. “I know.”
Bitter disappointment mingled with the happiness and relief he felt at being reunited with Riku. He was grateful to see his best friend again, but it would've been even better if Kairi had been here too.
Still, he'd make the most of it. Riku was here and that was something worth celebrating. He put the lucky charm back in his pocket. “That's okay. I know I'll see her again soon. Come on, let me introduce you to a new friend of mine.”
Riku just chuckled and shook his head. “Of course you've already made more friends.”
“Hey, it's me.” He put his hands behind his neck and grinned. “Would you expect anything else?”
“No,” was his best friend's wry response. “You'll only hear me say this once, and I'll deny it to anyone who asks, but I did actually miss you, you know.”
“I missed you too.” He'd missed them all, so much. But this was the start of something good, he was sure of it. More reunions would follow. And he would never take a single moment spent with any of his friends for granted ever again.
And when he saw Kairi again? He had been shy and hesitant before, but he wouldn't hold back anymore.