Redemption Frägment

Chapter Thirteen: Light and Darkness

Yellow eyes blinked open and peered into the darkness, staring around, comfortable in the silence. The yellow faded back into sea green as there was no need to see into the darkness, and the owner of the eyes sat up, groaning a little at protesting muscles. He’d landed on something hard, something that was digging into his side almost insistently.

Riku quickly got his feet once he realized what – or whom, rather – he’d landed on. He rolled Sora over and let out the breath he’d been holding when electric blue eyes peered up at him in anger and annoyance.

Abruptly, the silver-haired boy was pulled into a tight embrace, his face pressed against the brunette’s neck. Riku returned the hug, clutching onto the younger boy as if for dear life. They did not part, merely shifted to where they were comfortable. They shared small touches, as if to reassure each other that they were unharmed.

Sora sighed, burying his face in Riku’s soft silver locks, nuzzling close to the nape of his neck and treating it to a gentle swipe of the tongue. Riku let out a soft moan and squirmed enough that, when they turned, they were able to catch each other’s mouth to share a breath-stealing kiss.

When they pulled back for oxygen, they clung to each other, laughing quietly between gasps.

“What took you so long?”

“You’re a very difficult person to find, Riku. Looked all over for you.”

A cuddle, both rejoicing in the closeness of their bodies. Sora stole another kiss from his Dark counterpart, mewling as Riku’s tongue swiped at his lower lip. They broke apart again, smiling in the half-darkness.

“Well, you found me.”

“Yup.” Sora gave a grin along with a sigh. “And now we have to find everyone else.”

Riku paused as if thinking. “Well, mom and dad can take care of themselves, Squall’s got Seifer with him… Shit.”

“What?”

“Ansem. He’s by himself.”

“Ansem?” A pause. “’Mom and Dad’? I thought your parents were back on Destiny Island.”

Riku shook his head in answer. “All right, here’s the deal about Ansem. He’s on this quest to redeem himself. There’s this fuzzy white furball you may or may not have seen following us. That thing is the link between Ansem and whatever put him on this quest. Another thing,” Riku added, “King Mickey gave him a Keyblade.”

“A Keyblade,” Sora echoed. “So he’s in our little club?”

“You’re taking this much better than I thought you would,” Riku muttered dryly, giving his Light counterpart a strange look.
Sora managed to look properly offended.

“As long as I don’t have to beat his ass.” Sora paused, giving Riku a searching glance. “He didn’t… you know… touch you… or anything. Did he?”

“Sora!”

THWACK

“Ow! Hey! I was just asking if he vandalized what’s mine!”

“He didn’t.” Riku replied with a little snarl. “He saved my life.”

“Then I’ll have to thank him. Now, about your parents.”

Riku paused and stood, helping Sora to his feet. As they began to walk, Sora watched Riku chew on his lower lip.

“You’ve already met my father. My mother you just met before we all got separated.”

Sora was silent. Then, “Hey! No way! No fucking way! Sephiroth is your father?!”

Riku shifted his weight, nodding, keeping his eyes on the dimly lit path. He could hear Sora muttering and allowed a half-smile. When they came to a fork, Sora’s muttering had ceased and he was now staring at the silver-haired boy with wide eyes.

“So if Sephiroth’s your father, Zack… Zack’s your mother? But that’s fucking impossible! A man cannot have a child! There’s no way! No physically possible way!”

Riku winced at Sora’s volume, sidling off to the left path. He heard the brunette’s footsteps behind him, along with the mutterings of the physical impossibility of a man becoming pregnant. When they emerged into a circular room with no defined exit, Riku finally turned to his Light counterpart and covered his mouth with his hand.

“Sora, I was born in Midgar. Anything can happen in Midgar, you know that.” He waited for the other’s nod of assent after understanding filled those radical blue eyes before continuing. “When I was five, something happened and I ended up on Destiny Islands. I don’t remember what, but I think it has something to do with why I resonate with the darkness. But that’s why you’ve never seen my parents; they’ve never been on Destiny Islands.”

He watched Sora’s eyes fill with something more than understanding, something that told Riku Sora was breaking down the information and piecing it together himself, coming to his own conclusion. Riku sighed, relieved, when Sora gave him that radical, trademark grin. Sora was smarter than he looked, a credit to him and a misgiving his enemies took. When Riku pulled his hand away, Sora took the opportunity to steal a kiss and hug him tight.

“So your parents are here. I get it now. You do look an awful lot like your father.”

“But I inherited my mother’s temper. So now let’s find a way out of here.”

The duo split up, searching the room high and low, screening everything. They finally came upon a lever and stared at it as if it were covered in a million poisonous bees and hot tar. They stared at each other and finally stepped back.

A game of Rock, Paper, Scissors shortly followed, ending with Sora’s curse rebounding off the stone walls.

Riku’s wide-eyed stare was priceless.

Slowly, Sora reached forward, shuddered when he touched the lever and pulled it. A raucous noise of metal grating against stone assaulted their ears, and finally a doorway opened, revealing a room bathed in red hues.

“This is a trap,” Sora muttered, hearing Riku’s noise of agreement.

Slowly, together, they walked forward into the room, whirling when the door slammed closed behind them with a loud thud that rocked their bones. They were trapped again, but…

“A breeze.” Riku said wondrously. “I feel a breeze.”

Keyblade summoned and held loosely in his hand, Riku moved to follow the source of the breeze. Sora followed suit, holding the Ultima Keyblade in a downward “guard” position. The Keyblade Master of Darkness crept forward, the Light at his back, and reached out to touch the silver of rock the air was coming from.

“Riku! Don’t stop the air!”

The silver-haired boy jerked back a bit, staring at the sliver with wide eyes. “Mom?”

The black spikes of Zack’s hair could be barely made out, but with a simple shift, Riku could see clearly into the darkness. Both of his parents were in a room much like theirs, only glowing a deep green in colour. Zack shifted, leaning close to the sliver of rock to smile warmly at his son.

“Hey there. Look, don’t block the air. You do that, and you’ll kick the bucket. We’ve already had a minor explosion here.”

“That was not my fault.”

Riku smiled as he heard his father’s voice, the General seemingly glaring at the black-haired man.

“I’ll remember that,” Zack replied dryly. “Any clue where Ansem is? And Seifer and Squall for that matter?”

“Gee, thanks for remembering us,” Seifer’s gruff voice echoed into their rooms. “We’re… what? What colour is this?”

There was silence, filled with the inaudible eye roll. “Yellow.”

“I’m in blue,” Ansem’s voice shifted into the rooms, muffled. “Someone has the hots for the primary colours or something.”

“What do we do?”

“There should be a crystal creating the glow,” Ansem said, far away, as though he was searching for the crystal he’d described. “The walls blocking the four rooms from joining will lift and an elevator to the surface should appear, if you press it. Only that elevator leads to whatever’s eating the contestants.”

“How do you know that?”

There was a ruffle of clothing, as though Ansem was shrugging. “Something just told me. And the last part I made an educated guess.”

“Wonderful,” Sora muttered, tightening his hold on Ultima. “So what’s the plan?”

“Press the crystals, ride the elevator, kill the thing, and go the hell home.” Sephiroth spoke, voice low and cold, which really didn’t give the others much choice in arguing or offering another suggestion.

They’d come to hate it when Sephiroth did that.

But that usually meant he was angry, so it was better to let him have his way.

Grumbling, cursing, thwacking, arguing, and yelling ensued in the search for the coloured crystals and once they were found, one member of each pair gave a shout of three and pushed.

CLICK

Horrible grating sounded again and the walls began to shake as they rose, throwing dust and small pebbles down around those the walls caged. When the shaking stopped, they were together again. Slowly, they stepped toward the center of the room, weapons clutched in their hands. Sora flicked a glance at Ansem, eyes narrowing in appreciation of the wicked Keyblade held in his hand. Ansem met his eyes, froze and stiffened, before bowing his head in deference. Sora returned the gesture and Ansem slowly approached again.

“The elevator,” Squall said softly, staring up almost disinterestedly at the growing cylinder that rose from the floor.

“We take that up, then we have to fight,” Zack reminded the group, hand on the hilt of his surfboard of a broadsword.

“…We don’t really have a choice,” Ansem spoke, voice soft and old. “We can’t stay down here forever, and the only way out is that way. If we fight, we’ll get out, and we’ll save these morons. However, they probably know what’s at the end of this, so if we win, we should run. Far. Like frightened mice.”

They stared at the elevator, frowning, knowing what Ansem said was true. They couldn’t stay down here forever. They’d have to fight eventually and they knew it was better to do it now than later.

As one, the group moved toward the elevator, both dreading and anticipating the battle that was about to begin.