so raise your banner, fight your war (kh3 spoilers!!)

[dawnward]

[ it's been weeks without Sora, a void left behind in the wake of his disappearance. though in many ways they've succeeded and won so much - in the end, they've lost something so vital. and as King Mickey has gone home and the others have gone their separate ways, it's Riku who finds himself inexplicably alone, too. somewhere out there, Sora's alone too.

and Kairi? Kairi returns to that forest suspended in time to train, hoping to find Sora. Lea joins her, he finds out, as Riku examines her gummiphone updates. all of them are scattered in their own ways, gone back to Twilight Town or Land of Departure. but the islands are empty without his friends, and in his own way, Riku follows the path Ansem - Xehanort's Heartless - bid him go: he'd told him there was so much more out there to seek...and to seek it.

if anyone had told him he'd be doing this a year ago, two years ago, he'd have laughed at them.

but here he is, wandering from world to world, taking down his own notes, providing updates via gummiphone to the king. he takes pictures when he can as a reminder of the good things as well as the bad, even when he destroys Heartless time and time again. something to take home, something to show Kairi when he sees her.

something to show Sora when he finds him again.

in his travels, he disembarks in La Cite des Cloches, recently brought back from its slumber. and even in wandering the world on his own, hands in his pockets, no one seems to pay him much mind. no one even remembers him. but the tolling of the bells tells him an old friend is still there in the clock tower, and the world has recovered from the fire and brimstone it was thrown into. the heartless aren't even that bad, he finds, when he has to fight them.

it's late in the evening when he starts back towards the gummi ship, and when he heads around the cathedral, he sees the trail of a familiar black coat.

that can't be right.

Riku follows, sticking to the shadows, and quietly chases the figure back into the cathedral and up the back stairwell.

they should be dead, he thinks. there can't be anyone else. then who-- ? ]

Comments

[madannoshashu]

[ There is silence -- a lengthy pause as the words sink in.

Finally, though, a soft laugh escapes from under the hood. ]

Now, there's a novel concept. Being gone, finally and forever!

[ He doesn't take his hood off, but he doesn't need to. His voice is recognizable enough. ]

I guess that's your fault, isn't it? For falling for my little stunt.

[dawnward]

[ He stiffens at the sound of Xigbar's voice. It isn't the person he expects though it's exactly who he imagined it to be, from the way he moved, the way he fought. It coaxes an edge to his voice. ]

It's a concept that none of you seem ready to stick to.

[ If Xigbar is alive, then...are the others? But, no, he's claiming it was all a stunt-- ]

Thirteen Keyblades were made. We thought you must have been one of them when you supposedly died. So why are you here? Xehanort and all of his iterations are gone.

[madannoshashu]

[ Why is he here? Such a simple question, and yet the answer is immeasurably complex.

Xigbar simply scoffs. ]

Thirteen clashes between Light and Darkness, kiddo. Doesn't say anywhere in the rulebook that you gotta croak in order for it to count.

[ Obviously. Otherwise he wouldn't be here. ]

Besides...I wasn't about to die over nonsense like this.

[dawnward]

But it was the sort of nonsense that others should have died over. Just not you.

[ There's a dark edge to Riku's voice as he remembers what Xehanort did to Kairi. At the sacrifice his replica had to make. The despair in Ansem's eyes when he told Riku he only wanted to defy his fate. His gaze narrows further. ]

Why do you have that?

[ The Keyblade, he means. ]

[madannoshashu]

[ Xigbar just laughs quietly at that. ]

People die all the time, kiddo. For much stupider reasons than all of this, I might add. It just means I have priorities - like you.

[ As for the Keyblade itself...well. He lifts it up and turns it around so Riku can see that strange eye gazing from the tip. ]

A beauty, isn't it? Passed down from Master to apprentice, this Keyblade existed even before the great Keyblade War that plunged all the worlds into darkness.

[ Lowering it again slowly, his gaze stays on Riku. ]

The lineage of Masters has ended, and so it comes back to me.

[dawnward]

[ The eye is what draws his gaze first, the color a deep blue and fine-pointed. In fact, as Riku watches it, it feels almost...like it's calling to him. Like it's watching him. It's unnerving.

He's so used to golden eyes that this... It's strange. It's the same color as Sora's. As Kairi's.

His brow furrows. ]

Then--

[ He pieces what Xigbar says together but nothing makes sense in that regard. ]

What do you mean, it's come back? You never had a Keyblade to begin with.

[ But no, that's not true, is it. Riku's seeing the fragments line up and he doesn't like what's being spelled out. ]

[madannoshashu]

[ A much throatier chuckle emanates from beneath the hood. ]

Never, huh? That's an awfully long time, even for me.

[ Especially now, at the end of his long vigil, with so many lifetimes under his belt. ]

What? Did you think I was lying when I told you I was worthy? That the only reason I stuck around...was for this?

[ The Key in his hand. ]

I was the first to wield this Keyblade, and now that the role I had to play is done, it is mine to wield again.