#altcuh

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??

N A M I N E

Day Twenty-Five

—Sora finished scrawling in the last few lines of the fishes she’d drawn on the wall of the secret place and turned to check on Kairi’s progress with her own drawing. It was of her, Sora, and Riku all poking their heads out of a house, and Kairi was now adding little clouds for the sky. Sora grinned at the artwork. Kairi was the better artist, obviously, but Sora didn’t mind. Because Sora could now reach the higher stones on the walls where previously only Riku could—

The sound of a Dark portal opening in her room prompted Namine to hurriedly withdraw from the memory. She relaxed slightly when it was revealed to be only Axel, dragging his feet and sighing.

He shuffled over towards the new couches on the far side of the room. And upon reaching them, promptly fell face-forward onto the empty one in a graceless pile of too-long limbs and too-red hair. Namine gave a quiet breath of amusement to not laugh out loud at the spectacle. Larxene was in the room, after all.

“Well,” Axel spoke into the couch cushion, his voice muffled, “Vexen’s pissed.”

Larxene hadn’t even looked up once at his entrance, and it was the same now. She boredly flicked through her magazine. “Tell me something new.”

Namine flinched at the memory of piles of paper falling. Vexen’s yelling. “Was it my fault?”

“Hm?” He unburied his face from the cushion enough to notice her beginning to fidget with the edge of the tabletop. “Oh, nah. That was ages ago, Nami, he probably found something else to be mad at an hour later,” Axel wrangled himself into something resembling an upright position just as awkwardly as he’d fallen onto the couch, and ran a hand through his hair. “This time he’s pissed about that energy signature in the basement I mentioned. We were assigned here to keep an eye on it. But Vexen said it disappeared last night and none of his equipment could detect anything of it happening.”

Larxene peeked at him from over her magazine at those words. “Now that’s new. That iceberg’s junk can pick up on Demyx’s attempts to eat dairy from the other side of headquarters. Did the guys downstairs screw up with assembling it or something?”

Axel snorted. “Nope, we did fine. Even with ol’ Vex breathing down our necks. This was something else.”

“Tell me,” Larxene demanded as she lowered her magazine just slightly.

Just then, another Dark portal opened. Marluxia strode in as he removed his hood with a flick of his hair.

“I managed to convince the keyblade wielder to continue into the castle. I’m sure it won’t be long before she and her lackeys wander too far,” He smirked.

“I’ve got some bad news, man,” Axel replied, “She might not be as alone as we were planning on.”

“Those ‘companions’ of hers are nothing to worry about.”

“I’m not talking about the animals.”

Marluxia turned towards him entirely and gave Axel his full attention. On the couch, Larxene lowered her magazine completely. “Tell me,” Marluxia demanded.

Axel recounted Vexen’s temper at the failure to get any data from the cause of the energy signature vanishing. “—But we went down there and saw it wasn’t from the equipment at all. They were still working when I walked in. Turns out, and get this, the machines couldn’t read anything because something was blocking them from within the perimeter. Somehow the castle created a whole damn room—it might have been two, I couldn’t look in to check—and that combined with the magic in this place already limiting the sensors made it so that none of the stuff could detect the energy signature at all. He’s sure it’s gone now.”

The room went so quiet that Namine could’ve heard a pin drop.

Marluxia was the first to speak. “You’re certain it created a room? Then that could only mean…”

“…Someone else with memories has entered Castle Oblivion,” Larxene continued, “In a way that provoked its effects.”

“And somehow without using any of the doors here at all,” Axel finished.

They all went quiet again. The silence this time was almost twice as shocked as before. But now, it was laced with something Namine could identify instantly: Unease.

It made sense. None of her friends had spoken much of the keyblade wielder they had supposed was Namine’s somebody. The girl who was interesting. The girl who had defeated the heartless of the superior, a mysterious figure whom they spoke of with equal parts derision and awe. But on the matter of Namine’s somebody, they had only ever spoken of her with a kind of begrudging respect towards her accomplishments. Even if she was just as much of a kid as Namine was.

After all, they had never referred to her by her name once. Sora was only ever called ‘the keyblade wielder’ by her friends. A title had to mean respect, didn’t it?

Namine didn’t know what her friends had planned for her somebody. But she knew they were thinking of something, even if they hadn’t said what it was yet. She recognized their whispering, the looks, their smirks. She had barely ever seen Axel doing anything other than watching the two of them closely whenever he was in the room.

But if the new arrival was anything like Sora, well. The unease told Namine enough.

that I can work in a sex scene at a later point in the fic series

and have it be COMPLETELY RELEVANT TO THE PLOT

WITHOUT IT DERAILING ANYTHING

of course, it’s gonna be the classic ‘fade to black and happen offscreen’ type of sex scene in the actual fic cuz I gotta preserve that precious PG13 rating to suitably sustain the true KH vibe of this being at least somewhat a kids series...but that doesn’t mean I can’t write out the ‘down and dirty’ and just shuffle it into the deleted scenes and outtakes I will absolutely post on Ao3 and FFN at some point ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )