Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Jenova's Children ❯ Distance ( Chapter 1 )

“Jenova's Children”

By Kawaii and Junsui

 

Chapter 1

Distant Memories

 

It was dark.

A frequent beeping sound was the only thing that reminded Riku he was living, for all his other senses were numb, over-used to the point of breaking. The cold of the metal table he was placed upon had worn away, being replaced but what little warmth his flesh produced. A door creaked open, sending a bit of light over pale blue eyes staring unseeingly into oblivion.

“Hojo! Do you think you're doing the right thing…? He's merely a child and-“ A female voice began as the sound of tapping heels rang throughout the room.

“Are you one to speak, Lucrecia?” A male voice replied coldly.

“… I have nothing to say.” She replied in an icy whisper.

“The boy has no family. He will not be missed.” The male voice said nonchalantly as a blinding light clicked on over Riku.

“Such cold things to say…” She said softly.

“Such cold things you've said to that young man with his eye on you, Lucrecia.” The male voice retorted snidely, “Quite the hypocrite today, aren't we?”

She was silent for a long while, and Riku felt a cool hand brush his brow, “Poor child.”

“Pity is something that you must shed, Lucrecia, in order to be a woman of science. Pity will only get in your way.” There was a click and the low hum of a computer being booted up, and then some frequent tapping on a keyboard.

“Password Accepted.” The computer said in an automated voice, “Commencing Project R.I.K.U Jenova #1445 in e minus negative five seconds… four… three… two… one…”

A searing pain shot through Riku as he screamed, a cold sweat breaking out on his body as his vision went completely white…

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

“NO!” The silver-tressed young man bolted upright in bed, his heart pounding out of his chest. Not that dream, again… why had he been having that dream so much lately…? It seemed that it the last time these dreams had occurred this frequently was when he was just a child… but they had eventually died off, with time.

And now they were back. Haunting him with their mere presence. The pounding in his chest had subsided to a mere murmur. He pushed a hand through his silver tresses, now matted with sweat, and looked around his room nervously. It wasn't long ago that he and Sora had returned home from their journey, and the room seemed strangely foreign to him.

He moaned loudly and threw himself back down on his bed, pulling his sheets up to his ears, only to kick them off a second later. He turned on his back and stared at the ceiling, watching the rhythmic motions of the fan and trying to fall asleep. Minutes passed, and Riku could feel no trace of tiredness. This wasn't unusual either. With those reoccurring dreams came insomnia.

In a sudden fit of anger, Riku through back the remaining sheets and stalked down to the kitchen. He pulled open the refrigerator door and stood blinking before it, revealing in the cool burst of air ensnaring his tall, muscular frame. Riku shook himself, hair splaying out to the sides and poured himself a glass of milk and sat at the barstool.

One could say that Riku lived in a miniature palace. He had a master bedroom sized room - if it had been a regular home, of course. Riku also had his own balcony and his own private bathroom as well as a walk-in closet. His mother had the same and together they lived comfortably in their over-sized house. But that's what happens when your father leaves you with his fortune.

An elongated creak caused Riku's head to snap up. He squinted in the darkness, although he could see just fine. The pale light burning from the fridge seemed to frustrate him… it made his eyes burn and his skin tingle… light coursing from the darkness… Riku could feel the injection needles stabbing mercilessly into the skin and the electric currents blast through his veins…

The next thing Riku knew, he was standing up against the ivory door of the fridge, having calmly closed it in his strange attack. His pupils were dilated from the darkness and his breath was heavy and rapid. There was another creak and a woman screamed softly, just before the kitchen light snapped on.

“Oh! Riku… you just about gave me a heart attack!” The pale-tressed woman placed a hand on her chest shrouded in a gray bathrobe. Riku's mother sighed in relief, “I thought you were a burglar… you've gotten so tall and I didn't realize it was you standing in the kitchen…”

Riku watched his mother blather on until she caught herself and folded her arms, giving him a strange look, “What were you doing down here in the dark, anyway?”

Riku turned away from her, silver tresses spilling over his eyes. “I like the dark.” He muttered softly, “It soothes me.”

The woman frowned and went over to her son, placing a gentle hand on his bare back, for Riku was dressed only in a pair of gray sweatpants.

“There now, son…” The woman said soothingly to him, rubbing small circles on the pale skin, “You look exhausted…. Maybe you should go back to bed.”

“Can't.” Riku sighed heavily, shaking his head, “Can't sleep.”

Heaving a sigh as well, she put her arms around her son's middle and rested a cool cheek on his shoulder, “This is the fifth time this week you've had insomnia…” Riku's mother reached up her face and kissed him lightly on the cheek, “Do you need some sleeping medicine? Maybe we can go to the doctor…?”

“NO!” Riku jumped away from his mother, pulling himself out of her grasp, “No! No doctors!”

Seeing the positively horrified look on her son's face, Riku's mother renounced the idea softly before going over to her coffee machine. Riku cast a worried glance to the floor and traveled over to the wall, placing a single arm above his head as he rested it on the rough surface.

“Ma…” Riku spoke softly, timidly even.

“Yes Riku, baby?” She replied, fetching a cup from the cupboard.

“Ma… tell me about my childhood.” Riku muttered just as gently. His mother's eyes widened as she nearly dropped the cup, fumbling with it as she fell to her knees, the thing shattering over the floor.

“Ma?” Riku blinked and ran over to the woman, finding tears slipped down the side of her face, “Ma, what's the matter, are you okay?”

“Riku…” She whispered, “Let's go outside.”

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Riku rested on the ashen-colored concrete balcony; silver tresses blew in the wind, becoming glowing silver streaks in his vision as his mother came up behind him, placing a soft, warm blanket over his shoulders.

“Mom?” Riku uttered softly, turning to her as she put her arms around him, the woman shook her head, pale blond tresses dancing around soft eyelids as she lead him over to the porch swing. The two sat there in silence, moving back and forth, back and forth the slow motion was oddly comforting to Riku. Wind whispered through his ears… the sound gave him comfort as well, it reminded him of bells, which brought visions of a certain brunette-haired girl to his mind. A smile curled onto his lips as his pain was soothed. The pleasant silence was broken by a lone sob from Riku's mother.

“Mom… what's the matter?” He inquired softly, worry building up as his brow furrowed.

“Riku… my little boy.” She reached up and took his head in her arms, bringing it down to her chest where she lightly kissed his head several times, shushing and rocking him as she did, “I never knew… I never knew when I'd have to tell you this… but in time, I knew I would…”

“Tell me what, Mom?” Riku's voice was shaking as he looked up into his mother's soft blue eyes, tears sliding down her cheeks as she looked back down at him before sniffing and caressing his face, kissing his forehead lightly.

“Riku… I love you with all my heart and soul. You know that, right?” She whispered, beginning to tremble.

“Of course I do, Mom! What's the matter?” He was beginning to become frightened, what was going on here?

“My baby… nothing can ever, ever come between us…” She continued to rock him, as if the motion was to soothe her more than him, she took a deep, shuddering breath, “Let me tell you a story, Riku. It starts back eleven years ago when I was working at a nurse in Kiana Island General Hospital. There was a little boy there in a coma, and nobody knew where he'd come from or whom he was. He was only about five years old and he bore strange markings. They looked almost like injection marks… we all thought this to be strange. A very kind man whom had found him on the street brought him in. Nobody knew his name, as is origin was unknown. But he did bare a bracelet.” At this point, Riku's mother lifted the hem of her nightshirt to reveal a small pocket. Riku frowned, straining to see what the shiny object was that she fished out from it. However, she held it to her chest and continued.

“The poor boy wasn't doing well at all. At one point, his heart stopped entirely… the human body wasn't supposed to handle as much stress as he had, especially at such a young age. The doctors had slowly dropped off of his case, in fact; only one of the four doctors assigned to him remained when he finally awoke. The other three were shocked to say the least when he did - they all expected him dead by the end of the month.

“There were a few things beside for the seemingly hopelessness of it all that caused these doctors to turn away. There were strange… occurrences. You see, we had him hooked up to several machines, one being of course a heart rate monitor. Whenever he had a particular difficult time, he would moan, and then…” She sighed deeply, a chill running down her spine.

“One time all of the glass in the room simultaneously burst as if they had all been struck by a heavy blow. Another time, the cabinet doors flew open and all of the supplies fell to the ground. Other weird things happened throughout the whole hospital after he arrived. Two doctors and a few receptionists and nurses actually quit - they thought the place was haunted or something. Doors would open for no reason, things would go missing, all of the monitors on a certain level would be filled with static, one time a tray rolled down the hall into a closet when it had been standing still.

“Anyways… almost everyone had given up on him. But he was so young and helpless. As you must know, I was one of the main nurses assigned to him. I took sympathy on him, but refused to think too much on the matter. It wasn't until he awoke… I was the first one he saw. He called out to me… he thought I was his mother. I don't know why, but I let him believe that I was his mother. I felt so bad for him, and eventually…” she stopped and looked away.

Riku was eyeing her critically, suspicion etched into his features. “Kaa-san…” he frowned, stepping away. “Kaa-san, you couldn't mean-? Don't say that!” he shook his head in dismay, willing the thoughts to leave him.

“Riku… Riku…” His mother called out to him sadly, extending an arm as if to touch his face. She grabbed his wrist and placed the object she had pulled from her pocket into his palm. He looked at her a moment, fear coursing through his veins as he slowly brought his eyes down to see. It was a bracelet. A twisted black cord with an adjustable knot that was burned into place snaked around to meet the rough edges of a small steel plate. Engraved into the steel were several crude markings. Riku felt his heart stop as everything around him faded away. Etched into the metal was, “J#1445 - R.I.K.U.”

He stared down at it disbelievingly. “No…” he whispered, not even hearing his own voice. He couldn't hear or feel anything. The only thing he could see was that bracelet; all he could feel was the faint pounding of his own heart. “NO!” he spat, looking sharply to his “mother”. He drew his hand down sharply, preparing to cast the bracelet aside, but at the last moment, balled his fist around it.

“Riku, please!” She begged, a hand to her heart.

“WHY?!” he yelled, hot tears running down his face. “Why did you lie to me?! Who am I really?!”

“Riku, honey, I just wanted to protect you. To give you the life you'd never have had. They'd have sent you to an orphanage, they'd have-“

“SO YOU TOOK YOUR WORK HOME WITH YOU?! I'M ONLY HERE BECAUSE OF YOUR PITY?!” Riku ranted. His vision was blurring now.

“NO! Riku, please!” she pleaded.

“I DON'T WANT YOUR PITY! ALL I WANT IS THE TRUTH!” Riku tore away from the balcony and pushed passed the woman he had considered for so long to be his mother. She reached for his arm, but he wrenched it away and raced down the hall.

“Riku!” She cried, chasing after him. “Riku! Come back!” Riku ran on, turning a deaf ear to her. He came to a forked hallway, and she came up to him.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” he spat, feeling a strong darkness fill him. The woman gasped in shock, as she watched his eyes flicker for a moment, shadowy tendrils ensnaring his body. Riku started, then bolted off in the opposite direction. He tried a door, but it was locked. The next two doors were dead-ends. Not knowing where else to go, he went up a small staircase, running his hand along the mahogany railing.

“RIKU!” his mother called from the base of the steps. As he stared down at her something like scorn or contempt crossed his face.

“What is it that you want from me? How many more lies can you feed me?” he asked in an icy whisper.

The woman below him quailed as a sob wracked her body. “No, Riku… please. I told you that no matter what… I love you more than anything, Riku. More than anything… you're all I have left.”

He sneered. “Is that just another one of your lies? You said that you hoped you never had to tell me. Did you plan to keep it a secret for all my life and yours? … I don't need this.” The air behind him rented and split into an oval opening of the blackest obsidian. Tendrils identical to the ones that trailed Riku snaked around the wounded fragment of space, and Riku stepped into it without a second look back, not even noticing the hot tears that fell below his feet.

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Beyond the portal lay the road of darkness. The portal snapped shut behind the silver-tressed teen, almost in a zipping sort of fashion. But to Riku, it seemed as if a door had closed. But one door cannot close unless another one opens. When Riku summoned the portal, he had no idea where it was that he had planned to go. He had nothing with him - no food, no extra clothes, no munny, nothing. Just the clothes on his back. But Riku could manage. Traveling alone was a mere cakewalk compared to the horrors that he had had to face before. And for a brief moment, Riku felt untouchable. Like a stone that not even time and blood and chaos could wear away.

With a start, he noticed the feeling of darkness seep into him as his thoughts of power and invincibility grew. He shook it off, feeling a slight twinge of regret as it faded away - it had taken the edge off his nerves and almost made him feel… lost? Riku wasn't really sure. It was true that no one could find him here - only the Organization members could do that, but they were all dead - and he could find his solitude. But Riku was no fool; his time spent with the King hadn't been put to waste.

The impending darkness that lurked in his heart was worrisome enough, spending a lifetime in exile with naught but darkness, as his companion would break him. Yet, at the same time, it felt like home. He needed a dark place, somewhere quiet and secluded, where he could brood alone. He needed somewhere he could think. The answer came to him immediately - the island.

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

The island had always been a favorite hangout for the kids at Destiny Islands. Adults only came during festivals, and then only sometimes - the fireworks where most often set off on small ships in between, and from the docks. Therefore it was only kids who knew of the cave hidden by mosses and lichen inside the boulders guarding the waterfall.

Riku knew that Sora and Kairi had come here often as young children, and according to the sketches on the wall, they still did. He eyed a particular picture mournfully - the one in which Kairi and Sora exchange paopu fruits. Riku had felt a strong adoration for the sprightly young teen, something he had never quite been able to shake. But Kairi's heart was connected to Sora's indefinitely, and Riku knew this quite well. He had moved on sense then, but the thought still brought a bitter sting to his heart. After all, it was for Kairi's sake that he allowed himself to become a pawn of the darkness.

He sat down beside the engraving, pressing his back against a boulder, hugging his knees to his chest. His fists tightened in anger, and he felt a swift scraping sensation. Looking down in shock, he saw that he was still holding the bracelet, now smeared with his own blood. He wondered morbidly if it had looked that way when he was found. Suddenly, the normally calming damp odor reminded him of death, and Riku pondered how he even knew what death smelled like. The droplets of water that trickled through cracks in the stone seemed harsh and metallic, and Riku could almost taste it in his mouth.

He spat as a cold sweat soon covered him. He looked back down at the bracelet and saw a flash of light. The cave melted away into a darkened room, the moonlight drifting into lamplight. He raised his arm meekly, and the bracelet was there, hanging around a frail wrist. His eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't put it on… frowning; he stroked the smooth, polished metal… and found only flesh. He blinked hard multiple times and looked around frightened. He was in the cave, and the bracelet laid in his palm, still smeared with blood, edges worn into jagged ends.

His heart was hammering. He HAD just been in a room, had he not? But then how…? Riku gasped as a sharp pain pierced his abdomen. Small pinpricks prodded him as invisible needles speared his skin. He recoiled, drawing into himself, screaming. But nobody was there to help him as his own screams reverberated and echoed off the walls around him, mocking him. As the sensation ended, Riku was crying steadily, rocking himself back and forth until he passed into an uneasy sleep.