Okay, chapters may or may not be in chronological order from now on, I can't really decide. ANYWAYS! Yaaay, chapter two, from Riku's POV, poor little buu. READ AND REVIEW. You'll love it, I swear!

Chapter Two: I'll Be There

"Why do you still want to be my friend?!" Riku screamed, his words echoing off the darkness around him. "Don't you get it? I abandoned you! I'm darkness! Stop being such a weakling, stop hoping that I'm going to come back and everything's going to be perfect! It won't! Nothing will ever be the same!"

It was easy to imagine how Sora would react. First, his bottom lip would quiver, and he would bite it to make it stop. He would struggle to let Riku finish, then he would plead with him to try to understand. But all Riku saw was the darkness of his blindfold, and the visions of Sora's progress with Donald and Goofy. Each step of his made Riku bitterer.

"Turn back! Just go! You'll never reach me, not with this in me! I helped you once and look what happened to me! Leave me alone! I don't want you to find me!"

That was a lie. Guilt and pain floundered in his blood – Sora… all the things he was facing, all the people he was battling, just to find a friend who had betrayed his light and doubted his intentions. But if he was light, and Riku was darkness, how could they ever coexist? How could they exist without one another? They were flaring opposites, and he would never forgive Riku for attempting to destroy everything. He had been the weak one – too weak to say no to that power.

"Don't find me… don't see what I've become…"

Before he could remember, there may have been a time when Riku didn't want to be like Sora, but it was insignificant and miniscule compared to what he felt: he wanted to be true to his heart without reserve, bubbling out honest emotion, but all he found inside was darkness, covered by a stone reputation, and image. Alone in a strange place serving a strange master found by pain and fleeting catches of Sora's parallel journey. Why did Sora care so much about his evil, diseased, untrustworthy, jealous, vain friend…? Riku dropped to his knees and clutched the smooth ground. Sora would never forgive him…

"Ahyuck, why are you so excited, Sora?"

"Cause this is it! I can feel it! I'm going to find Riku here!"

Numb disbelief swarmed Riku's ears. Didn't Sora know Riku's sins?

"Wh-Wha-What?! Didn't he hurt you and Kairi!?"

"No, Donald, that wasn't him, I don't think. He would never hurt us on purpose. I just need to find him and everything will be okay."

Riku stared at the crystal floor.

"No matter what…"

Once again, Sora had stolen Riku's sureness, leaving dust and confusion in its place with a thousand-sun blue-bird smile that only Sora could give.

"…he's still my very best friend, and I'll find him. I promised."

"Sora…"