The Road to Dawn
By Ariana
Aislinn
Chapter 1: The Path of Twilight
Wow, a fic! Been a long time since I wrote anything, and this is my first Kingdom Hearts fic. Please enjoy, but beware of spoilers from Chain of Memories (including Reverse/Rebirth mode) and from the opening FMV to Kingdom Hearts 2. There won't be any other KH2 spoilers, as I haven't played it yet, and probably the entire fic will end up being AU when KH2 is released here, but oh well.
Standard disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and its characters are the property of Square-Enix and Disney, not me.
"Insolent brat!" The white hallway filled with ripples of darkness as the tall, imposing man gathered power into himself. White-haired but young and strong, Ansem's golden eyes narrowed at Riku as he prepared to unleash a final, desperate attack.
Riku panted; it had been a grueling battle. His black costume, trimmed with red, blue, and purple, bore traces of the darker red of his own blood in places where Ansem had broken through his defenses to strike. Still, though Riku could feel his strength flagging, relentlessly trickling away, he saw with triumph that Ansem's attack was a last ditch effort. The card-wrought manifestation of Ansem's dark spirit, which had still resided within Riku, was beginning to flicker as the man's strength gave out. Indeed, as Ansem struck with a wave of dark power, Riku brought up Soul Eater and used the sword to block the attack. As he suspected, it worked - the sword deflected the ebbing ripples of darkness, even as they knocked Riku back to skid along the smooth white tile of the floor.
"Ansem!" Mustering all the power he had left, Riku grasped at tendrils of power from deep within himself, from both the light and dark sides of his heart, and wove them together into a final, crushing attack. Grinning, he darted forward with a burst of speed, pushing the collected power into Soul Eater and striking Ansem. His momentum carried him past the seeker of darkness, his sword biting into the flickering image and passing completely through it. "You're finished!"
Ansem doubled over as his form began to flicker erratically, the dark power around him spiraling tightly inward. "Hardly…finished…" he panted, his eyes burning like flames, his mouth twisted into a rictus of a smile. "I gave you…the dark… My shadow…lingers…" The tight swirls of darkness exploded outward in a flash, striking at Riku in relentless waves with all of Ansem's remaining power. "I will return!" With that final cry, his form vanished into the growing darkness that filled the room.
Riku bit back a cry of his own. The darkness pounded at him, surrounding and enveloping him. He fought it, trying to breathe, but it pressed in on him, filling his mouth, his nose, his lungs. The oily, bitter taste was acrid on his tongue, and he coughed as the heavy, smoky smell overpowered him. He'd defeated Ansem, but the backlash might be more than he could take. Struggling to think, he fought as the darkness pressed more tightly all around him. The room had vanished; he could see nothing, feel no surface beneath his feet - all was darkness.
Suddenly a light appeared before his eyes. It was small, but bright, and Riku winced, blinking at it. The small, brilliant sphere looked familiar, and hope began to rise within him.
"I know you wanted to do this alone, but you don't mind a little help, right?" Riku could hear the grin in the voice. Lost in the darkness, he felt relief wash through him as the light settled and flashed into a familiar form. Odd as the short, humanoid mouse was, Riku didn't know if he'd ever been so happy to see anyone in his life. Though he hadn't known the king long, he knew one thing for sure - you could trust him to keep his promises, as he had just proved. The king grinned. "Let's go, Riku." He motioned toward the direction from which he had come, where Riku could see a distant light. He nodded, and the two of them walked side by side, pressing through the darkness and reaching out to the light that beckoned. As they walked, everything flashed brightly around them, and the world became brilliant white.
When Riku's vision cleared, he looked around to see the familiar white stone hallway of Castle Oblivion. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief, grinning. As he looked around, he realized that this floor seemed different from the rest, including the one he had just come from - the doorway behind him did not lead down the stairway he had been climbing. Instead, heavy wooden double doors were closed tightly, but not barred.
Mickey grinned, looking around. He looked as resplendent as is possible for a short, mousy figure, garbed in red and black with gold trim. Despite his almost laughably small stature, he held himself with an unshakeable confidence that was infectious. He turned to Riku, smiling. "So, Riku…what's next? Are you going home?"
Riku pondered that before answering. His brief experience in the card world that mirrored Destiny Islands had shown him just how much he missed his home. As surprised as he had been to discover it, he'd found that his heart ached with longing to be back there again, to see his friends safe and near once more. Yet…things could not be the same. Maybe someday they might, but not yet - and even if he could go back to the way things had been, Riku wasn't at all sure he could find his way home to the islands. He wasn't even sure exactly where Castle Oblivion was, for that matter. "I don't know if I can." He blinked, realizing that he was once more clothed in the familiar yellow and blue outfit he'd always favored back home, rather than the dark garb of the Heartless. Still, for all that the outward representation was gone, a residue of some sort still lingered. He'd subdued it, but he could still tell it was there. Holding up his hand, he turned it slowly, examining it. To the eye, it looked perfectly normal, but he could feel the darkness below his skin, coursing in his veins. He wanted to rub off its oily touch, but knew that it would never come off so easily. "It's still there. His scent…it's faint, but not gone. I can't go home until it is." He sighed sadly. He may have vanquished Ansem's shadow, but until he was sure that the man and his influence would never return, he couldn't risk exposing his home to that kind of danger again. "His darkness may still have a hold on me…"
Mickey shrugged. "Your darkness belongs to you. Just like your light."
Riku blinked at him, confused. How did that make the taint any better?
The king grinned at Riku's hesitation. "Until now, I thought darkness was nothing but bad. But my time with you made me change my mind. You've chosen a road I never thought of. Light and dark, back to back. With you, they mingle in a way no one's ever seen before. I want to see where that road leads." He took a step toward Riku, holding out a white-gloved hand. "And if it's okay, I want to walk the road with you."
Riku stared at the hand for a moment, then clasped it with a grin. "Wow, Your Majesty. I don't know what to say…" He repressed a shiver, realizing how afraid he had been for a moment of being alone again, of walking the path he'd chosen by himself. "Thanks." He smiled warmly.
Shaking his hand firmly and then releasing it, the king laughed. "Oh, you don't have to call me that!"
Well, the decision to journey together made them comrades - in fact, now that Riku thought about it, it was much like Sora's alliance with the other two humanoid creatures that served this strange king. It would certainly be less awkward to dispense with the title. He laughed. "Fair enough, Mickey."
"There ya go, that's it!" Mickey grinned and gave him a thumbs up. "Now…do we leave right away?" He rested his chin on a fist for a moment, looking thoughtful. "I'm not sure there's anything for us here…the castle's masters have seemed to disappear one by one. I don't even know if anyone's left."
"Oh…there is." Riku looked behind him, to where a stairway spiraled upward. "Sora's still here."
"Oh, hey, you're right! But he's sleeping, isn't he? Do you want to wait for him to wake up?"
Riku smiled and shook his head slowly. "No…I don't think so. Who knows how long that might take? I mean, as much as I'd like to see him when he wakes up…I can't just sit around here. I'm…not entirely sure I'm ready to face him, if you know what I mean." Riku sighed. "Zexion pretended to be Sora and attacked me. For a while, I thought it was real - I thought that Sora would abandon me because I was tainted by the darkness. But when I thought about it, I realized, that's never been Sora's way. He kept trying to find me the whole time he was looking for Kairi, and when he was separated from her again, he came after me instead of trying to find his way back home. I know how much he wants to see her, but he knew she was safe now, so he came looking for me. Sora's a good friend. That's why…when I see him next, I want to be able to face him without the scent of darkness on me. I owe him that much." He looked back at the king, looking uncertain. "Uh…does that make any sense?"
Mickey laughed. "It makes perfect sense."
Riku grinned. "Yeah, and besides - Naminé is looking after him. Not that I know her very well or anything; I only talked to her for a few minutes. But…I get the feeling I can trust her. Sora will be safe with her watching over him, I know it. And when he wakes up, he'll find me - if I don't find him first. So I'm not worried."
"All right then! I guess it's settled." Mickey stepped forward and grabbed the handle to the heavy wooden door, tugging it open a few inches. He peered outside into the night-shrouded fields, then pulled his head back in, making a face. "It's a little chilly out there…"
Riku glanced around the room, a black shape catching his eye in the pristine white of the room. He walked closer to it, curious - why had he not noticed it before? On the wall next to the door were two ornate, white hooks. From them hung two black coats like the ones worn by Zexion, Lexaeus, and the others. Riku lifted one off its hook and examined it. It was made of fine, black leather, with a silver zipper that closed it all the way from its floor-length hem to the deep hood. "What about this?" Unzipping it, Riku put his arms into the sleeves and shrugged it on over his shoulders. It was just the right length. "Fits perfectly. It's also warm, and I bet it keeps the rain off pretty well, too." He zipped it up, then took down the other coat. Eyeing it momentarily, he noticed that it was much shorter. His curiosity rising, he handed it to Mickey.
"Well, whaddaya know…" The mouse quickly put on the shorter coat and zipped it up, finding that it was also a perfect fit. He pulled the hood over his head, and Riku noted that it was big enough to cover Mickey's overly large, black ears. "Someone seems to have known we would be leaving. Wonder why they left these for us?"
"Hmm. I just hope they don't expect this to mean we're joining them. I mean, I'll admit that I'm as interested in finding out the truth about the heart as anyone else, but I'm not joining anyone else until I know exactly what their purpose is. I learned my lesson from Ansem."
"Ya got a point there, pal. Well…let's be off!"
Riku nodded and followed Mickey out the heavy doors, into the darkened fields beyond.
The path was just wide enough for them to walk side by side, and it stretched seemingly endlessly over the fields and low hills. Riku couldn't help but wonder where it might lead them. For that matter, what world was this? Was there anything to it besides Castle Oblivion, and if so, how far would they have to go to find civilization? How might they get off this world? Riku wasn't too worried, however - if he'd been drawn to Castle Oblivion simply by his resonance with Sora and the Keyblade, he was sure he would be able to find his way, one way or another.
They walked in silence for a while, as the castle dwindled in size behind them. The road wound between rolling hills and shallow valleys, the endless grassy fields seeming to rise and fall like waves. After a while, another path appeared ahead, intersecting the road they were already on and creating a fork in the road. At the center of the crossroads, a tall figure waited. Standing tall, Riku strode forward, Mickey at his side, a suspicion forming.
His suspicion proved correct. DiZ stood there, waiting silently, his enigmatic face expressionless behind its concealing red bandages. They stopped a few paces away from him, and Riku leaned forward slightly, raising an eyebrow with a wry smile. "What are you making me choose now?" Every single time he had met this strange man so far, he had pushed Riku to make a decision of some sort - he saw no reason to expect anything different this time.
DiZ's voice was as expressionless as his face. "Will you take the road to light - or the road to darkness?" He indicated the two roads on his right and left. Riku didn't know which way might lead him toward whatever destination he sought, but he was sure DiZ was being purely metaphorical. Still, it was a valid question - though Riku had an answer he thought might surprise the strange man.
"Neither." Mickey peered at Riku curiously as the boy walked toward DiZ. Riku continued past him, following the road straight ahead. "I'm taking the middle road."
Riku heard DiZ's voice behind him. "You mean the twilit road to nightfall?"
Twilight indeed. Looking ahead, Riku could see the horizon showing traces of rosy light. "No…" He turned around and quirked a smile at DiZ. "The road to dawn."
DiZ still faced away from Riku, but he thought he could almost detect an air of amusement from the man. "Perhaps so. We shall see, won't we Riku?" And with that, he vanished.
"Comes and goes awful quick, doesn't he?" Mickey hurried to catch up with Riku. "Still, I wish I knew where I'd met him before. Feels like an itch I can't scratch, wondering about it. Guess I'll figure it out eventually though."
Riku grinned. "Yeah, I'm sure you will."
"So, didja mean that? I mean, following this road. I don't think DiZ meant it literally, about where the roads lead. You think this is the best way?"
Riku shrugged. "Seems about as good as any, don't you think?"
"Heh! I s'pose you're right. Off we go, then!" The two continued to walk.
"Although…to be honest, I'm really not sure what that is," Riku admitted, embarrassed. "I saw the light on the horizon as soon as we crested the hill there, but I don't actually know if it's dawn, or dusk. I don't even know how long I was in the castle. It could have been hours, or days, for all I know."
Mickey peered at the horizon. "Looks like dawn t'me. I think the air was darker a bit ago, and now look - the sky's starting to go from dark blue to a bit grayish." He eyed Riku. "But whatever it is, I'm thinkin' it's time to stop."
"Stop?" Riku raised an eyebrow. "But we've hardly been walking fifteen minutes. Don't you think we ought to make some progress before we take a break?"
Mickey grinned, poking Riku in the forearm. "Nah. Our destination's not goin' anywhere, and we don't even know what it is, for that matter! You said yourself you don't know how long you were in the castle. And to be honest, I don't know how long I was in the realm of darkness. I don't know about you, but gettin' myself to the castle and blockin' Ansem for you really took it out of me. I think we should stop and take a rest."
"Maybe you're right." Now that the king mentioned it, Riku could feel the bone-weariness he'd been pushing away for who knew how long. It crept through his limbs slowly but steadily, and he knew it wouldn't be long before he'd be forced to stop anyway.
The two of them settled off the side of the road a little ways, curling up in the soft grass with the hoods of their coats for pillows. Riku didn't know about Mickey, but as for himself, he was asleep within seconds of laying his head down.
To be continued! Chapter 2 will be up...sometime. I'm not precisely sure what will happen yet, so it depends.