Disclaimer: When reading DToF, please keep this in mind. I plotted this story after watching KH (the first game), and seeing a couple of screenshots for the next one. That means: I adopted the new outfits for Sora and Riku and Kairi, and the trenchcoats from Another Side, Another Story. All concepts still belong to Disney/Squaresoft(Enix); all original plot stuffs belong to moi. Most original characters belong to me, excluding any characters listed beneath the disclaimer. Any similarities to material I have not seen like the Final Mixes are completely coincidental.

Chapter Preview Picture: aurora-silver . deviantart .com/art/C-Riku-and-Mitexi-285243926 (remove any spaces)

Chapter 18: You Can't Escape the Past

Funny thing about dreams...whether you wake or grow older, they will eventually end.

...

...

"It came from the caves!" Donald quacked, pointing at the flickering sparks of light and smouldering fire within the darkness of the tunnel. The faint sounds of gunshots, shrieking metal and whirring could be heard on the echoes of the blast; they renewed the raw tension in every position in every Atlantean and surface dweller.

"I reckon it's the Heartless." Goofy summoned out his shield, discontent distorting his usually placid face. He glanced over at Sora, torn, wanting to help the world and his friend. To his and Donald's surprise, Sora didn't hesitate to run to them, his eyes glistening with tears and determination.

"They'll be after Kida," he nodded, with grim reality settling over his body. He didn't want to fight, tired and defeated and still chained to guilt, but knew in every breath he took that the Heartless would not give up their pursuit for more hearts. He let the enemy take Kida from the city. That was far enough.

"Uh, Sora?" Goofy looked over at Sora, at his injured shoulder – the clothes repaired themselves but the memory remained. The way he swiped his glove at the moisture lingering at his eyes. "You okay?"

"Not really." The teen admitted, testing his shoulder with a couple rolls in both directions. It hurt more than he let on; he gritted his teeth to keep quiet. "But we can't let the Heartless harm Kida. It'll destroy..." Sora bowed his head, losing strength in his voice, "this world".

"We have to stop Rourke too!" Donald asserted, mage staff raised as high as he could lift it. Sora nodded, looking at his friends one at a time, his confidence building from their smiles and support.

"We'll help too!" Audrey called out, framed by Atlanteans also raising their hands with the offer of aid. Grief clung to their eyes and cheeks, but held no power over their hearts; pride and love for their home, their princess, and their fallen King shined brighter than the sadness.

Sora, Donald and Goofy spun to acknowledge their allies, though all three hesitated in body and facial expression. "But..." Sora tried, looking sideways to avoid eye contact. "The darkness is really dangerous, and—"

"Sora, we have to go." Milo interjected, stumbling to the front of the crowd, glasses askew until he could stop to set them straight. "This is their home, and the rest of us—

"We messed things up, Sora." Audrey's arms and hands moved while she spoke, gesturing to the desecrated courtyard. "

"I think all of us ought to be strong enough to make a bang." Vinny toyed with fresh dynamite, fuses pressed in his lips and the carmine sticks intricately balanced in his hands.

"We'll try to get Kida, then retreat." Dr. Sweet pursued when Sora's mouth didn't lose its pinched line. "We won't go after those creatures unless it's our only choice."

"Please, Keyblade Master," the Atlanteans chorused.

"Heh..." Sora slumped, a grin finally quirking his lips. "Well, it isn't really my place to tell you all what to do." Light swept through the fingers of his right hand, his oath and promise to Kairi touching his palm before the charm dropped down and Oathkeeper settled into his grip. Looking at Donald and Goofy, Sora kept his smile strong. "That would be meddling, right?"

Donald chuckled alongside a hearty "a-hyuck" from Goofy. No one else understood the humour behind Sora's response, but the only important detail was the absence of "no" bridging the space between them. Excitement levels peaked as plans began to get passed around, filling the courtyard.

"Just one problem." Mrs Packard's cigarette-razed voice pierced through the rising din, silencing the noise with an inaudible snap. "How're we gettin' there?" She gestured towards the gaping hole and burnt wood posts where the bridge used to hang, her cigarette weeping embers and ash with the movement.

"Aw man..." Sora sighed, remembering the explosion now. He didn't have any kind of magic that could mend the damage or allow him flight. He, Donald and Goofy still had the ability to glide over vast distances, but to make the flight over the chasm and deep into the tunnels would require a height they did not have the time to find and climb. Even running the remaining distance to the battlefield would take too much time.

"H-Hang on!" Milo scampered through the crowd of disappointed warriors, calling everyone's attention to a stash of inactive vehicles; some were stacked and parked neatly, but most were resembled clothes discarded before bed. Moss and dust crusted the surface of every unit, no matter its location.

"Those crafts have been inactive for a lifetime, young surface dweller." An Atlantean guard cajoled through Milo's fumbling about, one finger of his left hand tracing runes and the right hand fussing with the crystal pendant the King had bestowed on him. "They will not fly—"

"Aha!" Milo cheered when his efforts spilt blue light force through the vehicle and it hummed up into a hover. A chorus of awe blanketed his audience. "Kida and I deciphered the directions earlier. You have to turn the pendant a quarter turn back at the end to make it start up." Mmilo guided his vehicle towards the others and repeated the process for them to see.

Hope filled the courtyard alongside the cyan light breaking through the gloom. It couldn't heal the wounded world, not without its stolen heart, but inspired the people to continue living, to fight. Long abandoned machines moaned awake, showing no signs of age or stiffened parts, as if merely passing the time before they rose again. Some of the stronger Atlanteans set aside their emotions and waved the surface explorers to ride upon their vehicles. Sora followed Milo's call, the two rising to the head of the pack.

"You okay, Milo?" Sora steadied his feet on the sides of the vehicle, resting his hand on Milo's shoulder for balance. Through the blunt burn of the gunshot would, Sora could feel the tremble in Milo's scrawny joint.

"I will be." Milo's voice didn't hide his anxiety either. He gripped the handlebars until his knuckles were white and almost through the skin. He was not a leader and never deluded himself into believing he was one. Only his intense desire to see Kida smiling, animated, humbled his self-doubt, forcing him through the fear. The light of his heart poured from the illuminated vehicle, a beacon in the dusk. "Once Kida is home."

The convoy sped to life at Milo's signal, beams of light scrawling towards the darkness of the caves, the pathway between two connected worlds. Echoes crashed against the walls, into each other; crying, yelling and cursing, cacophony reaching its shapeless hell out to meet them. Sora ducked closer to Milo, gasping, his chest tight without discernable reason. His heartbeat drowned out the voices in the tunnel until he could hear nothing but the dull, slowing thuds.

'No.' Sora flinched, feeling a quick, anxious pulse in his chest. 'That's not my heartbeat. What—"

Milo swerved, narrowly dodging the rocks knocked loose by the nearing explosions; Sora grabbed at the older man, almost capsizing the both of them. "Stay sharp, Sora!" Milo yelped, shaking, certain he would not stay upright if that happened again. "We're almost there!"

Sora gritted his teeth, then called out his agreement. Still, he couldn't shake the cold fingers tracing down his spine.

"Your Majesty?"Riku shut the door with care, keeping the handle in his hand until the latch could close with minimal noise. He held his breath, listening past the plips of water on the hardwood and window panes. "Mickey? Are you here?"

No high-pitched "hello" or "yep" greeted him, only the familiar sounds of the storm. The solitude didn't bother Riku; his companion was more than capable in battle and was no doubt restless after having woken to an empty apartment. Being alone did upset his heartbeat though; at first, he felt relief over having more time to make his decision only to have anticipation strike his pulse again. He hadn't prepared himself for a waiting game, the nerve already evaporating from his body.

"Could I have even...?" Riku shook his head, scattering rain from his silver locks. He wasn't sure, the uncertainty more frightening than the resolver he'd entered with. He would know in time; Mickey never stayed away very long.

He wandered the empty apartment with aimless direction, trying to line up the pieces of his heart. He wanted to tell Mickey the situation but worried he would resist. Insist they stay on task, trapped in the confines of a world that offered no answers or escape. Riku flinched, his wrist renewing its ache, the memory of long, sharp teeth slicing into his arm.

Then he saw it again, the image of a heartless thrusting its claws into her chest.

"No. It's not real." Riku grimaced, breathing deep against his unconvinced heart. He clicked his tongue, then turned away from the circuit of rainwater he'd dripped across the front room. He didn't shut the door of the room he chose to sleep in during their tenure – he refused to call it his bedroom when this place was not home. He didn't want to miss hearing Mickey's return. Breathing out a sigh, Riku approached a large mirror in the opposite corner of the room, an object left abandoned by the building's previous occupants. Riku hadn't paid the mirror any mind before now; he disliked mirrors, a childish attitude, one he hadn't been able to overcome. Staring at his reflection only confirmed an irrational but potent fear.

He lifted his right hand to the blindfold, fingertips tingling from the soft fabric. Trying to lift the small strip of black cloth took more energy and focus than the physical action required, revealing more to the young man than he wanted to start off knowing. Riku eventually mustered the strength to lift the blindfold up, resting the soaked fabric on his forehead.

Your eyes are honest, Riku, even when you're not...

A sigh parted his lips. He'd heard those words so often, never once challenging the claim. He knew it to be true whenever he found his reflection. He glanced down, catching sight of how the disappointment and fear glistened in the aqua of his irises, and sighed. "Yet your eyes always revealed nothing."

The change was so slight, Riku didn't notice at first. The pain canvassing his left arm rose and ebbed without warning, so he could never calculate when habituation would settle in. As he stood there, trying to man up to his reflection, the throb trickled away, draining to a dull ache, then to nothing. He paused in his musings, looking at his wrist, when he heard a familiar voice.

"Better?"

Riku rubbed at his eyes with his right hand, expecting his hallucination to disappear proper. "Huh?" Where he should have been standing, staring back, she was there instead. Even with his eyes blurred, his knuckles rubbing hard, his reflection didn't reappear.

"Mitexi?"

She didn't answer, only tilted her head as if confused by his inquisitive tone. She wore the same trenchcoat as he, proving that girl's claim to be true. Her mid-back hair was still the same, black with about half an inch of red along the tips; her bangs seemed longer than he remembered, but Riku decided he was wrong, believing only what he could see. He reached out, convinced the distance between them was finally gone; reality came back when his fingers touched only glass. His shoulders slumped, body drained by the confused arrhythmia of his heart.

When he started to speak, Mitexi touched her hand against his palm, or at least where it lay against the mirror. The contact, flawed as it was, lured him closer. The glass felt wet where his forehead touched, either from his hair or the hard chill of the surface. Mitexi mirrored his movements, then touched her right hand to the barrier as well. He tilted his head to the left, watching her slender fingers press upon the glass, hesitate back, then press again. He knew he couldn't do the same, his injury still raw, but he wanted to...wanted to feel.

"Why can't things just be simple?" His breath fogged on the mirror, masking the image of his left hand rising up. "Can it be? Simple?"

"Just once?"

Sunlight woke him, warm against his closed eyes; when he opened them, the dim lightened, but still left him without sight. Fighting back panic, Riku moved his right arm out from under his body, touched his fingers to his eyes; beyond the fabric of his gloves, Riku felt the blindfold shift upon his skin.

x-x-x-x-x

"Did I...fall asleep?"

His left forearm ached again, the way it did after the attack. He didn't remember when it flared up again, not after seeing Mitexi in—

The sound of familiar tides broke his concentration, reminding him of sea-salt, sunshine and home. "Impossible..." Tucking his left hand at his stomach, Riku pushed up from the ground, feeling the ocean mist on the exposed skin of his face. He looked at the spot he knew the Paopu tree to be, certain its bent truck would cling at his gloves if he reached out.

"Or am I dreaming now?"

He winced, his forearm worsening through the warmth of his memories. Thoughts tumbled and fell against one another, competing to be attended to, heard. Nothing made sense, the things he kept seeing, that voice, the mirror. How he came here, to the Islands. As he struggled against his pain, Riku felt something else. He thought it was sound at first, but the sensation trailed against his back. It was familiar, this aura, he turned, following it, towards the beach he knew all too well.

His eyes could not see Mitexi, not covered with the blindfold, but he "saw" her all the same, walking from him in the distance. He didn't hesitate, jumping off the islet and running through the sands as if he'd never left home. The shifting ground did nothing to hinder his stride; too many years of racing Sora along the beach. "Mitexi..." he murmured, afraid to call out and watch him disappear the way she forever did in his dreams. He had gotten close enough for her to hear anyway.

She didn't react, offering no indication she heard him run up or say her name at all. Riku didn't dwell, stumbling close enough to gently take hold of her arm. His hand trembled when he touched her, prepared to touch nothing but air.

He could not predict what did happen.

"Let me go!" Mitexi screamed into the evening twilight, tearing her forearm from Riku's grip as she spun about-face in the damp sand. Her body shifted into a fighting stance; she pressed her right arm against her chest, guarding it from his reach. She glared at her pursuer, warning him to stay back, to not come near her. "D-Don't you remember me?"

What force possessed him to ask such a question was unclear but he knew it was not wrong. The The only answer Riku received was rejection. Mitexi's frightened eyes, her defensive body language, the tremble in her stance. He could not see her clearly, vision filtered through a black strip of fabric, the light of the sun pressing at her right side, but he knew it to be true.

He was not prepared for this.

Before he could speak again, Mitei hid her face in her hands; the action did not mask the sobs catching in her throat. Riku took a sharp breath, remembering the last time he'd heard Mitexi cry; she left the Islands six days later, washed away into the darkness.

"No," Riku exclaimed, stepping closer, "wait."

Why couldn't you have forgotten me?

Riku froze, his back sensitive to the sensation of another body meeting his, shoulderblades misaligned from a slight height difference. He tried to turn and catch Mitexi, not caring how she'd somehow gotten behind him; his hand only found air. Riku stumbled forward and the ground collapsed under his stop, dropping him into oblivion, even as he cried out to stay.

"W-Wait, don't move!" Mickey shouted a second time, trying to clear away the mirror shards before riku cut himself. He didn't know how his companion managed to fall asleep – or collapse – in the middle of a glass battlefield, but didn't have the time to wonder about it, not while Riku was flailing in his unconscious state. The shards were big, making the chances of damage lower, but Mickey couldn't afford the risk. Kicking a jagged sliver away, Mickey grabbed at Riku's coat and smacked his cheek. "Riku!"

"Gah!" Riku fell still, alert and awoke with the slap singing through the damp chill on his skin. "M...M..." His vision spun, blurring pinpricks of pain, darkness and King Mickey's face. He felt the fist on his coat loosen, slowly letting him support his body alone. Riku sidled into a seated position, pressing his right hand upon the floor; his fingers missed several mirror fragments but he didn't notice. He tried to concentrate on the pain of Mickey's slap...instead of the heat and sharp spikes tearing his left forearm apart.

"Riku. I'm sorry, I didn't want you to get hurt." Mickey peered hard into Riku\s eyes, unable to recall the last time the young man had left them visible. Peripheral vision treated him with the darkening mark he'd inflicted on Riku's normally pale skin, but it could not distract from the dilated panic and hurt in those eyes.

"Majesty..."

"Riku, I know you prefer taking everything on yourself, but you're really worryin' me here." Mickey pressed his stinging hand upon Riku's shoulder, trying to calmhis own nerves and the tremble in his companion's arm. "Please—"

"She wanted me to forget..." Riku could see Mickey looking back at him, but the information wouldn't register; only after an extended blink did his vision start away the miasma of memory. "Why?"

"Riku, tell me what's going on." Silence drifted between them, tempered only by the sounds of the storm beyond the apartment walls. Riku looked away, staring blindly into the darkness.

"I...I'm sorry, your Majesty..."