Fan Fiction ❯ What lies beyond... ❯ Chapter 1

Disclaimer: don't own kingdom hearts or anything related to it...blah blah...

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"Take care of her, Sora..."

The words rang over and over in his mind. With too much at the moment, he couldn't find it in himself to keep on hating his best friend anymore. Riku knew forgiveness, but he knew now that he wasn't the one who should be forgiving.

"Sora, you're a true friend...thank you for not changing that..." he whispered in hopes that Sora would hear those words somehow. Then he reached out a hand, making his sword appear in it. King Mickey had been fighting off the heartless around them, and now he would assist. He thrust his sword at them viciously.

"Back off!" he warned, but being practically mindless, they heeded none of his words.

"Riku is it?" Mickey asked calmly from several feet away, still fighting the heartless with his own Keyblade.

Riku didn't answer. He continued to fight relentlessly for his own life. "How do we get out of here...?" he asked.

"It depends...but right now we have to stay alive if we do want to escape."

"Easier said than done..." Riku mumbled. Riku lunged his sword at a Shadow, but fell after it disappeared suddenly. The little shadows all disappeared, but rather strangely. The light at the back of the place glowed even more. Riku shielded his eyes. As the light began to dim out, he opened them slowly, only to see a gargantuan dark figure standing before him. "Another heartless?"

It grew and grew until he was looking straight up toward the ceiling, if there even was one. "I promised that I'd survive and return to Kairi...AND YOU'RE NOT CHANGING A THING!!!" Riku screamed and ran straight for the figure. He leapt up at it and ran himself and his sword into it. But oddly, he flew right through it and fell to the ground.

"Riku, you alright?" Mickey asked.

He opened his eyes a bit and looked up. There was nothing there...but a simple ordinary shadow, not a heartless.

"What happened...?" he muttered. He then stood up. Riku looked at the figure once more...it changed. It really wasn't a heartless at all...what he saw was the shadow of another, caused by the gleaming light from behind. "K-Kairi...?" Riku whispered to himself. The figure turned around to him.

Then a familiar laugh echoed through his ears. "Get up silly..."

"Kairi?" he repeated louder.

"Well, if you want it to be..."

"Who are you?"

"Who am I? You're looking at me...you decide who I am."

Riku gave a puzzled look. He then convinced himself that it was her and started running to her, spreading his arms out. But once again, he ran right through her. Riku got onto his knees with his hands on the ground. "Why...?"

"You are silly...I said I can be what you want me to be, but I never said that it would come true..." the girl said.

"THEN WHAT DO YOU WANT???" he shot up and yelled.

"It depends..."

"On what!!?"

"On what you want..."

"...on what I want?"

"If you want me to be Kairi...then you'd want me to think like her...right?"

"..."

"So what would she want then?"

"For me to come back..." Riku said softly, staring to the ground.

"Are you sure?"

"...I don't know..."

"Then decide. You can keep your vow and come back. Or you can stay her and die. It's your decision...but if you do cherish your life...then take this..." she said.

"Wh-" he gasped as his sword disappeared.

"You're gonna need something to help you..."

Then a Keyblade appeared in his hands. "A...Keyblade...?"

"Yeah. Use it Riku...use it to go home."

Riku stared at the blade. He then looked up to the girl. "Who are you?"

"Like I said, I am who you want me to be. This Keyblade comes from the light in your heart, but not from yours alone...I'm sure you know who else's too..."

"Wait..." he said, holding out a hand, but Kairi's image faded away.

"Riku...are you ready now?" Mickey asked.

"...yeah...I'm ready."

"Then let's go home..." he said.

"I'm coming back Kairi...I'll be there..." he whispered and pointed his Keyblade to the light.

A/N: This is my first KH fanfic. I didn't finish the game yet cuase I just beat Behemoth, but I saw the ending. So I just went and made up some sequel ish thing and thought I should post it so yeah. I have a couple other fics that I'm working on too (under a diff penname) and so if no one is interested in reading the rest of this, then I won't post anymore chapters. So tell me in a review if you like it or not and if I should continue it.