#risem

Every planet he went to, there Ansem was, waiting for him--though, seemingly, only that.

 A lot of fuss had been made about the nefarious plots of the Real Organization Thirteen. They had proven aggressive enough in seeking out and looking to collect or corrupt the new Princesses of Heart that Riku and Mickey's mission to retrace Master Aqua's footsteps had been called off, and Lea and Kairi's training moved to on-field training. All Guardians of Light that had been discovered so far were called to search the planets for the princesses themselves and secure them before the Organization could. 

Riku had pointed out with no lack of  mirth that they would already be up a helpless princess that needed protection if Kairi stayed in the forest. His joke had not been appreciated for what it was. He'd floundered for a moment on how to convey his complete faith in Kairi's abilities. It was only because he thought it was self-evident that he wanted nothing more than for him, Kairi, and Sora to fight by each other's side and he thought he was the one that needed to keep striving to gain the honor that he teased each of them like he did. Maybe at one time, he'd been cocksure and thought himself superior. That wasn't the case anymore. He'd let it go in the end though. Another epidemic of the times was that the only one who always understood his intentions these days, even before he spoke, much less after was...

"Ansem," Riku was more resigned now, split second anger and tension bleeding out  of his frame and soaking into the pavement like an emotion-based version of the water cycle, ready to rise to the clouds and rain back down on him again when he least expected it. "How do you always find me?" 

And how was it he always knew the exact moment Mickey split off on his own to cover more ground and was out of sight or earshot?

Why, when every report from Sora or Axel over the gummi phone was a story of the Organization members becoming more deadly and reckless, forgetting what orders they might have once been trying to follow as they became impatient for the clash and revenge they had been promised, did Ansem, who had proven first to have a taste for suffering matched by few, only appear to Riku to talk and then disappear again, leaving both guardian and the world untouched.

Riku had probed him about it, two worlds and two forms ago, on an island much too similar to home where shapeshifting gods roamed. Ansem had said that, if Riku wanted to be touched, he would have to beg. Ansem had left behind a few Nobodies and Heartless that time, as if it were formality and he felt he needed to cover a lapse.

Ansem was a handsome bird of prey. Silver-white feathers except for a patch like a heartless symbol over his breastbone. Wicked beak. Wingspan that near blotted out the sun and ended with fluttering feathers near the tips that looked like dancing fingers, unnaturally dexterous. "We're linked. You draw me in, across time, across space. The reason you could not leave me in the Land of the Dead is that you can never forget me, nor I you." 

"You're still called by my darkness," Riku surmised, light going out of his eyes and ears drooping further, flopping down around his neck. It made Ansem want to dive down and dig his curved talons into Riku's back so he screamed, to tear into the flesh until he felt his heart from behind while he buried his head against soft fur, knowing it would end things quicker if he just bit down with his beak and so resisting, because the struggle was glorious. 

Or that could be just what he told himself so he didn't dwell on the obvious defect in the replica body he'd been placed in that caused him to think about softer ways to work out what he wanted from the island boy.