With miles to go before I sleep.

Goofy stopped mid-sentence.

One moment passed, and then two. Three. Sora, Donald, and Jiminy all exchanged a look of concern as a deeply troubled expression dawned on Goofy’s face. “Goofy?” Sora finally spoke, “What’s wrong?”

“I just remembered that I’ve got someone waitin’ for me back home,” He replied. He nervously fiddled with his shield. “A boy who called me ‘dad’. Y’know, it’s the darnedest thing,” Goofy gave a weak chuckle, and said, “For the life of me, I just can’t remember his name.”

No one chuckled with him, and no one spoke.

[Much later after the above scene, the moment after Namine offers them the memory pods.]

Goofy, surprisingly, was the first to speak.

“Sora,” She turned to see him having taken his hat in his hands. “I…I know me an’ Donald made an oath to follow King Mickey’s orders. An’ I know he ordered us to follow the key—and follow you.”

“Goofy?” Donald asked.

“If you need me, I’ll go wherever you go. I promised I wouldn’t leave you again like—” He tried in vain to remember the name of that place that was so broken and bare, and had left each of them just the same way. Sora could see it in his face. In that moment, she could see him try so desperately to remember who he was and what he had done.

But not one of them in this room could manage such a thing.

Goofy tried again.

“Well, I promised I wouldn’t leave ya,” He began wringing his hat. “But, uh, if it’s no trouble, I sure would like to remember my son’s name again.”

---

Note: I think I wrote this one in the initial months-long haze of writing anything and everything for this fanfic. You can see I hadn't solidified a lot of my plans then with the whole 'make them forget Hollow Bastion' part there, which probably still isn't going to happen, but I'm definitely going to still add Maxwell Goof (Knight in training! A squire?) to this whole shindig. Which is almost entirely because I really, really want to torture Goofy here. Just a little. Or a lot.

He didn’t remember falling asleep.

Riku came to in an endless field, where all was an ocean of grass made dark by the veil of night, save for the path before him. He walked it.

And he walked it alone.

But the boy held no fear of loneliness, nor for the darkness all around. For there was naught to fear of the Dark but that which lied within. After all, no beast of the earth could ever compare to the wild animal of a person’s Heart, not in the dangers posed or terror wrought.

And Riku had learned well that the depths of his own Heart held the greatest dangers of all.

There was no moon on this night, but the stars were enough to light his way. Riku watched them as he went. The more he looked, the more he saw. And as he studied them, he was struck by their beauty and the hope they brought—how they seemed to tell him that though the coming day was still far from hand, and the road seemed to go on forever, this night and all its shadows were but a brief and passing thing. For, in truth, there was always Light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. Whether it be made of the stars above the horizon, or the dawn waiting just below it.

The path continued on. Winding, rocky, and lonesome.

But though its arc was long, he knew it leaned towards justice. And though it was rugged, he knew he would overcome. And though it was lonesome, terribly so, he knew his friends were waiting for him at the end. Just as he knew their words and their love were with him in his Heart even now.

He saw figures standing up ahead. As he got closer, he steeled himself: Waiting for him at an upcoming crossroads stood one very familiar figure whose horns seemed to reach towards the stars in an unspoken threat.

Maleficent.

And with her, Riku saw two others. The first was the man in red he’d met just earlier, DiZ. And the second was…

…Ansem.

For a moment, Riku stopped walking.

His fear made the night seem so much Darker. And the path that much more winding, and rocky, and endlessly longer yet. His fear was to the point that his vision tunneled so that it seemed as if it were just him and Ansem in all the world, until he could no longer see the Light of the stars above nor remember the promise of dawn just below.

For a moment he could not even remember that his friends were waiting at the end, after this crossroads. Nor could he remember that his friends were with him always, even now. Especially now.

He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He took one step forward. And then he took another. And another.

Riku had hope, he had faith, and he had starlight. All of these things made his fear a little less so. But though it wasn’t gone, it was bearable now, and Riku looked forward again. He reached the crossroads.

He refused to look at them, but he could feel their eyes on him regardless. “You’re in my way.”

“Ah, but which of us is?” Maleficent’s painted lips were pulled into a smirk. “Do you not see where you are?”

He shook his head. “You’re all in my way. Two of you are supposed to be gone, now get lost.”

“I think it is you who is lost, boy,” Ansem chuckled. Riku scowled.

But before he could come up with a retort, Maleficent cut in, “You are well aware by now that power sleeps within you. But what form do you wish for it to take?”

At this, Maleficent, DiZ, and Ansem brought forth their hands in offering. Maleficent held out her staff for Riku to take; DiZ once again presented the Organization coat he had given him earlier; and Ansem, lastly, summoned the Dark keyblade he’d made in Hollow Bastion. Riku flinched at the sight of it.

Ansem chuckled again. “Is this too much?”

Ansem flicked his hand, and in a flurry of Light the Dark keyblade had transformed into Sora’s keyblade, the Kingdom Key. But that only made Riku angry.

“What’s going on here?” He demanded, and then shook his head. He knew better by now than to expect the truth from people like them. “Whatever. If you’re not going to move, then I’ll just—”

Riku turned to walk down the path he’d arrived from, and gasped at who was standing in his way.

His mother.

“Don’t look back,” She said, “You know there’s nothing waiting for you here.”

Riku knew this was a dream when he noticed the fact that her eyes were looking straight at him, and not through him. Otherwise, not a detail was out of place: Her clipped tone, the bright silver hair swept up in an elegant bun. Though the woman was still as thin as a model and now barely a head taller than him, she still somehow managed to be a more imposing figure than both Ansem and Maleficent combined.

Indeed, not another detail out of place from waking life.

“You have a choice to make. Now make it,” Lin commanded. He grit his teeth.

“Fine,” he yanked the coat out of DiZ’s hands. “I’d rather have the stupid coat again. Now will you all go away?”

“The power of the guardian,” DiZ nodded in clear approval, “Kindness to aid friends, a shield to repel all. A fine choice. But what will you give up?”

“Everything else. Can you go away now?”

“You can only choose one.”

Riku sighed. On his left, Maleficent held out her staff for him again. On his right, Ansem and the Kingdom Key beckoned. He sneered at it.

“I’ll give up any hope of getting a keyblade ever again, if it means I won’t see you ever again either.”

Ansem, Maleficent, and his mother all paused. For two seconds, then three. It was more than a bit unnerving.

“What?” Riku asked defensively.

“Do you mean that?” Ansem replied, sounding oddly intrigued, “Truly?”

What the hell was this question?

“Of course I do. Why are you even asking?”

They all watched him for a moment longer. Until suddenly they and the night all started coming apart—in pieces carried on the backs of birds.

In the past, Riku’s Heart would’ve soared at the revelation at what was unfolding. But now, dogged by fear and regret and too much self-loathing to bear, he only wanted to run back to the night that he’d long since learned to conquer.

He flinched at the feeling of movement under his foot—but not at the stained-glass dawn unfolding below him. Rather, Riku flinched at what it meant. He was by no means ready for this kind of responsibility yet. He was barely capable of being responsible for himself at this point. But it seemed fate had other plans.

And indeed, a Voice then spoke.

Be not afraid, child.

[End Scene]

I can't add much for context here since it's 11:38 and I'm late AF for bed as it is lol, but I remember writing this one with the thought "What would a slightly changed/symbolic Awakening look like?" I know canon Awakenings are all (theoretically) made of the same components--stained glass, making choices, etc., and they're already pretty steeped in symbolism as it is. So I kept the most essential parts and let myself get a lil bit artsy fartsy in my usual style (though I've realized there is such a thing as being *too* subtle hahaha) and imagined how the Voice would interpret Riku's experiences at this point in the story and reflect those back at him in the choices it offers. I'm worried that the specific forms here (particularly Ansem SoD) could come off as the Voice kinda 'leading the witness', per se, in that it's clearly trying to get Riku to *not* choose the keyblade and resist temptation, thus proving he's worthy of its responsibility now, and of the far greater role he's unwittingly signed himself up for much later on. But to do so this overtly could raise the question of whether it's really Riku making that choice freely, or whether it's a knee-jerk reaction to his greatest fears. If it's the latter, would he still be able to do what needs to be done in KH3?? And *why* would he make the choices he does then??