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His heart sings in his chest.
Riku leans against the wall of the old mansion, a hand laid across his broad chest, and tries not to lose his mind.
Sora.
He hadn't meant to see him again. It was an accident; he'd gone to investigate the traces of darkness he could sense in the mountains. Then, the woman had startled him, forcing him to run up into the snow.
It had given him the shock of his life to hear Sora's voice calling angrily after him.
Riku closes the eyes he knows are orange. He avoids his reflection, but he can't erase the awareness entirely. He's too tall, too heavy. The features under his black cloak aren't his. Gone are the scars from a lifetime living wildly on the beach. There's no slice on his palm from the time he tried to pry open a coconut with his pocket knife. The moles he collected from his pale skin in the sun have disappeared, lost under the dusky skin tone of Ansem. Even his hair is different. It's longer, hanging like a silver sheet down his back and behind his ears, no longer falling around his face.
He could cut it, he supposes. If it didn't matter in the end.
He'll never show the face he wears to Sora again.
Riku breathes deeply, calming his racing heart. He shouldn't have fought with Sora. That was his first mistake in all this. Seeing him again, in his new clothes, a year older but awake and so beautifully alive had almost undone him.
Riku had sacrificed everything to wake Sora up. He'd accepted it all: the price of wielding darkness, the harm he'd done Roxas, even knowing he'd never regain his real body.
Seeing Sora again, no matter how briefly… Crossing blades with him again... It had been fun. He'd had to bite his tongue before he'd said something and given himself away.
Apparently, something already had, because he'd heard the faint cry of his name on the wind.
Riku lets his hand fall from his heart. Was it his blade that had given him away? Sora may have recognised it from their fight in Hollow Bastion.
He flinches at the reminder. Where he betrayed Sora and everything he'd sworn to protect. His heart had given into darkness. The result had cost him his body. Lesson learned.
Riku scoffs to himself. Then again, maybe not. This time, he's committed to helping Sora no matter the cost, and yet… Here he is again, in a body not his own.
The only thing that hasn't changed is his blade.
Soul Eater is a vicious-looking weapon, forged of darkness, given to him by Maleficent in a bid to make him feel special. Playing Riku's heart like an instrument, reinforcing his stupid beliefs that Sora had given him up for his new friends.
His own greediness, desperate for attention, made manifest in the ugly blade he wields. Maybe a stronger person would have cast it aside. Riku, despite it all, can't bring himself to throw it away.
Riku holds out a hand and calls his blade.
He expects the deadly curved wing, the fan of red spanning between the dark spikes.
That's not the blade that comes to his call.
Riku frowns at it, then gasps, registering the changes. Soul Eater is… different. The same, but not. The hilt is no longer so demonic in shape. Half of it has changed, becoming feathers, shaped softly like a bird's wing. The length of the blade is longer, the end still curving into the sharp spikes, but another feathery wing branching off the end. Becoming the teeth… of a Key—
No. No.
Riku drops it in a panic, heart fluttering. Did he steal Sora's Keyblade again? He can't have — Sora still had his when they fought. Riku hadn't pulled it to himself, exerted his will to claim it.
No, this is Soul Eater still. His blade. Darkness still courses through it; of course it is his.
What has he done?
Tentative, he reaches down, wrapping his gloved hand around the hilt of the new — old, cursed — blade, lifting it up to examine properly.
Sure enough, it's still in the same new shape, opposite wings curling to form the hilt, the new wing growing from the base of the old.
A small weight drops and dangles off the end of the hilt.
Riku's heart stops. Keychain.
This is a Keyblade. Not the one he stole from Sora back at the waterfalls. But his. His Keyblade.
Soul Eater has turned into a Keyblade.
Did he do something while fighting Sora? Stole his power, stole that radiant light and somehow absorbed it into his darkness?
Riku's heart thunders in his chest, threatening to break through his ribcage. It hurt.
How did his sword become a real Keyblade? Because it is, there's no denying the truth. It changed shape; it has teeth, it has a keychain. He can feel the power flooding it. All darkness, naturally. He wears Ansem's face, soaked himself in darkness, there's no light left inside him anymore.
There is only one Keyblade… isn't there? Or two, since King Mickey has the dark world's opposite.
…How can he have made one? Or turned Soul Eater into one. It's the same blade, he knows it is.
Riku wishes he had someone to talk to about all this. Mickey's busy with his own tasks; he barely sees the king now that he's like this. His own fault, he knows. He made Mickey promise not to tell Sora what happened to him either.
He drags a hand down his face, noting once again how the planes of his cheeks and jaw are wrong.
Okay. He needs a plan. What does he know?
Soul Eater is a dark blade, forged of darkness. It's not a Keyblade, though he can summon it like one. It never went away, even when he lost his body. It answered his call in Castle Oblivion, and still does, despite wearing Ansem's face.
He fought Sora with it… and now it's changed.
Maybe he's looking in the wrong direction. Maybe it isn't his fault it changed, but Sora's.
Sora, the key who connects all. Sora, who was apparently looking for him across worlds.
Sora, the true wielder of the Keyblade, who's heart always pulled Riku's towards it.
Riku lifts the newly shaped Soul Eater. "Did you do this, Sora?" he murmurs, the voice horrible and off to his ears. He hates it, hates talking with Ansem's vocal chords, yet accepts it as the price of the dark powers he wields.
He owes Sora so, so much, and yet it seems he owes him more. Riku can never make up for the pain he caused, but damn if he won't spend the rest of his miserable existence trying.
Riku swings the blade out to the side, noting the difference in weight and the way it slices now that it has the winged teeth on the end.
The Keyblade chooses its master.
But it hadn't chosen Riku back in Hollow Bastion. Riku had stolen it from its rightful owner.
Maybe in the rush of crossing blades with Sora in the Land of Dragons, he'd done something that partially called it back, or Sora had infused his power into Soul Eater somehow.
He just doesn't know. He could take a gamble and find DiZ, though there's no guarantee he'll get a straight answer — if DiZ even knows the answer. Riku's not in the mood to trade secrets either.
Sora is awake, therefore their partnership is ended.
Hope Sora figures out those clues. Sora wouldn't stop until he'd taken down the Organization, and he'd need a portal to get there. Riku can't show himself to offer a dark corridor, so the stationary one Axel had used would have to do. That meant getting Sora to the alternate Twilight Town, finding the old mansion, and figuring out the password.
Well, there's some time before that; Sora's gallivanting off around the worlds right now.
Riku had better do the same. There's still work to be done from the shadows, so that's where he'll stay.
That's what he intends, anyway, until he's confronting Saïx in the Castle That Never Was.
Naminé had warned him Kairi was in trouble, and so here they are, using the dark corridors in a desperate bid to get Kairi out of there. The bait for Sora. Not trusting him to come of his own accord, they'd kidnapped Kairi to use her again.
Riku owes her a lot, too.
Enough that he goes to follow Saïx into the darkness. If he destroys Saïx, there's one less Organization XIII member to go after Sora.
Unfortunately, his attempt is ruined before he can escape: Naminé calls his name, telling Kairi who he is, and Pluto comes barking at him, forcing him away from the corridor.
Riku huffs, realising where this is going.
Kairi approaches him, hesitant, her luminous eyes shining with hope. She's always been fearless. Despite his cloak and hood, she steps up to him, lifting her arms to push his hood down.
Riku can't meet her gaze. He knows what he looks like. How horrible he must seem to her.
"Riku?" she asks quietly, taking in his appearance.
He forces his lips up. "Yeah. It's me. It's… a long story." Riku finally meets her eyes again, lifting a shoulder. "Sora was in trouble, so I had to do this to help."
Kairi relaxes, a small smirk rising. "Sora's always in trouble. From the sounds of it, he's in trouble again." She puts a hand to her hip and studies him. She's grown a bit. Her red hair is longer, brushing her shoulders now. Her pink dress is nice, a little hint of her fire in the multiple zippers and the hood at the back. "What are we waiting for? Let's go help him."
She'd just escaped from the dungeon, met a strange girl, been pulled through darkness itself again, and found out her old friend is wearing the villain's face.
A small chuckle escapes him. "You're amazing, Kairi, you know that?"
Kairi blinks at him, dropping her hand from her hip. "What? Where did that come from?"
"Just thinking about things." Riku glances around. "Come on, we can't stay here. There's more of them still around. We have to find Sora and take down the rest of the Organization. Naminé?" He looks to where the blonde version of Kairi is nervously toying with her fingers. "Stay in the shadows. You don't have to fight." He summons a dark corridor.
She nods, looking relieved. "Okay. Kairi, I'll be with you when you need me." With a small smile, Naminé slips into the dark corridor, safe from their questing enemies.
Riku had known all along DiZ would tell him to kill her. He'd also known from the start he'd never go through with it.
Her and Axel… He'd helped them escape, given them places to hide and rest. Willfully disobeying direct commands, despite DiZ holding the key to the only thing he wanted. It had been a fine line to walk.
Once Sora was awake though, their business partnership was concluded. DoZ wasn't interested in sticking around when he could be after his pointless revenge, and Riku wanted to ease Sora's way through the world in any way he could.
"I feel like I know her," Kairi mutters, staring long after Naminé has gone. She finally turns back, determination written across her features. "Okay, Riku, where's Sora?"
It doesn't occur to him to ask why she expects him to know. Don't Kairi and Sora have a stronger bond? He half-closes his eyes, feeling for that tenuous connection he holds in the back of his heart. The shadows are all consuming and thick around him, blocking out the light, yet — there.
"He's down, quite a ways. We'll have to fight our way there." Riku raises a sharp brow at her. "Think you can avoid getting kidnapped on the way?"
Kairi kicks him in the shin.
It catches him off guard, and he barks a laugh, even as he shakes out his leg. "Feisty as ever. I'm going to stand back and let you go at any of the Organization members we find."
She sticks her tongue out at him, heedless of the looming castle of darkness around her. "Don't you forget it! Any of those annoying guys we find, I'm fighting."
They descend floors, Riku slicing through Nobodies in their path. His bulk is good for something: he shields blow after blow coming for Kairi. His blade — Keyblade — destroys the rest, cutting through them easily with the power behind his swings.
Kairi kicks at one that gets too close, screeching and holding up her fists. Fearless.
Riku smiles to himself, unable to help it.
It's funny to think how far Kairi's come. A year by herself, waiting for them to return. A fire that never goes out. Ready to throw herself into the battles without any training at all, just to save her wayward friends.
Isn't she just like them, in that regard? Riku, sacrificing himself for Sora's sake; Sora, fighting his way through the worlds to take down Xemnas in his own castle?
Maybe he can ease her burden.
He has something tucked away in his shadows. A blade he'd forged from a keychain Mickey had given him. It isn't for him, he knows that much.
But… it might be for Kairi.
Enough to keep her alive.
"Here." Riku summons the blade, holding it out gently. "Take it."
Kairi looks at him, recognition striking. She nods and grabs it, hands settling on the grip with confidence. "This time I'll fight too!" That's all it takes. She refuses to be the weak link, the reason Sora falters.
She wastes no time, springing into action and slicing at the Heartless skittering nearby.
Riku can only watch, quietly awed by her courage. She will never quit when she wants something, and Riku respects her endlessly for it.
Below them, a level or two down, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are fighting their own battles, ignorant of the dangers above.
He could still leave. Wait until there's a quiet moment, then shove Kairi towards him and slip away into the darkness.
Sora doesn't have to see the face of the Heartless he'd defeated.
"Sora!" Kairi yells, leaning over the balcony.
Sora looks up, mouth falling open when he sees who it is. "Kairi!" He's jumped by a Heartless, flinging his Keyblade up to deflect it. Though, he doesn't strike back for some reason. It's an easy kill, yet he stays on the defensive, calling up to Kairi, "Are you okay?"
His eyes slide sideways, landing on Riku — seeing the face he'd forgotten to cover with his hood. Narrowing his eyes, his lips curl back into a snarl. The message is clear: don't you hurt Kairi.
Riku understands, a knife in his heart. It doesn't matter who he is underneath. He betrayed Sora, and he'll live with that knowledge for the rest of his life. He hasn't earned Sora's forgiveness.
Still, he swings around, slicing through a Heartless leaping at them. "Kairi, pay attention," he mutters, defending her while she yells at Sora.
Telling him to fight.
Why isn't he? He's come all this way, why falter at the finish line?
They finish their fight easily. Kairi has no trouble adapting to her Keyblade. While she wields it with little grace and no training, she nonetheless figures out how to swing at moving targets, smacking them around with wild glee.
She's the opposite to Riku. His own blade feels both foreign and right in his hand, in a way the body he wears doesn't.
Maybe he's been wrong about Keyblades all along. It's clear now that there's more than one. Four of them already exist here in the castle: himself, Sora, Kairi, and King Mickey.
Roxas had access to the Keyblade, too. It could be because he was born from Sora, but then, was he wielding Sora's Keyblade the whole time? Or his own?
And why had he used Oblivion, a Keyblade forged of Riku's darkness and Sora's memories?
Riku almost falters in his steps, ruminating on the nature of Keyblades. Is it because Sora's heart connects them all? Him, Roxas, Kairi… they can all wield because Sora's heart believes they can?
Because it's getting harder to deny the evidence. Soul Eater has become… something else after he'd fought Sora in the Land of Dragons. After their reunion, as brief and unexpected as it had been.
Soul Eater is a Keyblade now. He sees it every time he summons it. He's steeped in darkness, wields it freely, and yet…
There is light within him too.
Enough that his heart recognises it, despite giving it up to wear this face and wield these powers.
There's hope, springing to life in his chest, burning as brightly as Sora does in his mind. Like sunlight banishing the dark clouds.
Maybe… One day, he might truly regain his body. After all this is over, when he no longer needs the darkness.
Maybe the three of them can finally go home.
His heart aches at the thought. His feelings about Destiny Island are complicated, pain and grief and longing all mixed together.
When he's there, all he wants is to leave.
Yet, when he's gone… all he wants is to go home.
Riku shakes his head and clears a path to the only home he cares about.
And there's Sora, shining brightly, blue eyes sparkling under brown spikes.
It still hits him like a bolt of lightning through his chest. Sora, whole and hale, awake after a long year waiting. Older, taller, yet still so full of energy.
Kairi runs at him and catches him in a hug.
That's enough for him. Job done.
Riku turns away. He's delivered Kairi to safety. Sora will take care of Xemnas. Now there's no reason for him to stay. He can meet up with King Mickey and work on—
"Didn't think I'd see you again, Ansem." Sora's voice cuts through the white noise between them, a little too sharp to be friendly. "Or… Xehanort's Heartless."
Riku curses himself for lingering. If he'd just taken a portal, he could have escaped before Sora noticed.
Then Sora thanks him, and it's so unexpected Riku half-turns to stare at him. Go, his mind warns. Stay, his heart begs.
It's Kairi who throws him under the bus. "Wait, Riku, don't go!" she calls, pleading.
The reaction that goes through the other three is electric. Sora jolts, mouth falling open. "Riku?" he asks, quiet and careful, so earnest it hurts. "What did you say, Kairi?"
"I'm no one," he answers, and means it. Just a castaway from the darkness.
It's not enough for Sora.
Then he's standing there, Sora's hand over his, his heart pounding a rhythm too fast.
"Riku…" Sora sinks to his knees. "I was looking for you," he sobs over the hand he holds in both of his. Tears drip to the ground below.
Riku would rather rip his own heart out than be the cause of those tears. "You gotta pull it together, Sora," he says, instead of the words on the back of his tongue. I'm so sorry. Forgive me. I would rather endure all of it again than hurt you like this.
Pretty sure I'm in love with you.
Ahh, there's the worst part of it all.
"I looked everywhere for you!" Sora uses Riku's hand to pull himself to his feet, wiping his eyes. "Stop running away from me!"
Riku winces. "I didn't want you to find me." Not like this.
Sora stares up at him, blue eyes as bright as the sky and deep as the ocean. "Riku…" There's a wealth of pain in his voice. "You're my best friend. I'll always find you. It doesn't matter what you look like! You're still you." He scowls, angry — looking like a little puppy dog growling. He's not threatening.
Riku gives in, as he always does. He can't deny Sora anything. Not now. "I'm sorry," he whispers, saying what he should have said all along. I'm sorry. I hurt you. I didn't mean it, not like that…
His heart struggling with his jealousy, his insecurities, his need for Sora's attention. Kairi is his friend too, and he'd pulled away from them both out of a misguided desire to leave, unable to deal with the weight pressing down on his heart.
Leave, before they left him behind.
He reaches out, ruffling a hand through Sora's spikes. He can't feel the texture with his black gloves on, but the motion is so familiar it aches. When had he stopped doing it? When was the last time he'd touched Sora, afraid of what it meant? "I'm here now. I'm going to help you fight." The promise slips out. No more hiding in the shadows. He'll protect Sora and Kairi during their battle to the top.
Sora beams. "Yes! This is awesome. C'mon Riku, with the two of us, we can't lose!"
He's powerless to deny Sora.
Riku does, staying close, fighting off their enemies. He ends up defending Kairi more than once, tearing him from Sora's side.
Eventually, there's nobody left but Xemnas.
They ascend the castle, following the thick, ominous white ramps up and up and up.
They burst outside, blades in hand, and find none other than DiZ — Ansem the Wise — and King Mickey.
"Riku, you know what to do," DiZ warns, apology and understanding in the words.
For all their disagreements, they had fought for the same outcome.
Riku nods. Protect the others.
The machine explodes, flooding the air with hearts.
It blasts through Riku's darkness like the sun, tearing through his powers and stripping through his defences. His darkness recoils, hides away, rubbing his heart raw until only that spark of light remains.
He comes to on the ground, his body aching, a panicked voice calling his name. When he opens his eyes, everything is dark.
The blindfold, hiding his eyes from the world. He'd needed it to track through the darkness.
Sora's hand on his shoulder pulls him back to reality.
Riku gets to his feet, off-balance and confused. Everything feels weird. His centre of gravity is off.
"Riku you… you're you again," Sora's voice breathes reverently from next to him. He must be close.
Riku runs a hand over his hair, his face, his chest. His own body. After all of it… After everything he's sacrificed…
"Are you gonna take that off?" Sora's fingers trail over the fabric of the blindfold, gentle, barely there.
Riku sucks in a breath at the simple touch.
"Oh, right," he mumbles, reaching up to slide the blindfold off. It's so strange. He'd hidden his eyes to find the darkness. Then, he'd worn Ansem's form and not needed it. Now, he's seeing with his own eyes.
They aren't orange anymore, right? He's not that anymore; he's not standing opposite Sora and betraying everything he'd promised to be.
He blinks against the brightness of the castle walls. The first thing he sees is Sora's shining eyes, a grin on his freckled face.
"…Hey," Riku mutters, just for Sora.
Sora beams back. "Hey."
Somehow, that's enough.
They're on the same page. Riku's here, and he'll help, and together, they can do anything. He slots back into his position at Sora's side like he never left.
There's so much he needs to say, yet it'll have to wait a little longer.
There is one thing he can do.
He strips off the cloak, a weight lifting from his shoulders. Freedom. He no longer breathes in darkness, no longer hides from the light.
His heart pounds in his chest, louder than it's been in a long time. Since he'd known for sure he was on the right path again. Since he'd stared down DiZ and told him—
It's the road to dawn.
"Wait," Riku murmurs, holding up a hand. His Keyblade appears, singing it's song, reforged when his heart changed.
Sora squints at it, then at him. "Isn't that… different?" Sometimes, Sora can be perceptive.
Riku smiles at it, holding it up. "Yeah. It changed after I met you again. I thought you did something to it, but it was me. My heart changed and I remembered why I was fighting." He swipes it through the air. "It's not Soul Eater anymore."
There's a wide, delighted smile on Sora's face. "What's it called then?"
And Riku knows. Feels it in his heart, light and darkness both; two sides of the same coin settling into place inside him. He is both. His darkness is his greatest weapon, his light is the sun he follows.
The sun he will always fight for.
Riku offers the hilt to Sora. His heart is on the right side at last. His Keyblade, his in truth, the true name that reverberates through his chest.
With Sora's hand over his on the hilt, Riku leans in to whisper:
"Way to the Dawn."