Difference between revisions of "Let Go"

Revision as of 03:56, 10 December 2012

Another series of chambers stretched out before him. Riku stood at the threshold staring back at the way he had come. Surveillance drones lay twitching on the Labyrinth floor but the mere presence of the little robots meant he had little time left.

The teenager craned his head up at the ceiling clogged by water pipes and mechanical conduits, a long black coat covering his body with the hood pooled around his shoulders and neck. The heartless streamed around him and past him while he stared up at the ceiling. He couldn’t hear the fighting now but he could sense the heartless. They were a great sea of darkness that lay around and above him and his thoughts were only a whisper in their endless repetitive cadence.

They are coming.

Riku frowned but didn’t seem altogether that surprised to hear the voice again, each syllable echoing in the painful need of the shadows around him. He opened his gloved hand to look at the key stretched out there. It was such a little thing. He tried to remember why he was doing this. Why it was necessary. Why it was best for everyone but could only think of Reize’s letter. Of Mercade vanishing into the Fluorgis marketplace. Kairi laying in Hollow Bastion. The dream, reaching out for the twilight, the visions Maleficent had shown him to be the future.

How far will your dreams and your empty comfort get you here, Riku?

The voice was stronger now, pulling at some piece of him that murmured hunger and fear out of sync with the other shadows. What point was there in resisting? He belonged to the dark.

Let go of your foolish hopes, boy.

There would be no reunion with his friends. There would be no better solution. Mercade would have done his world a favor by opening fire on Leida, and then turning the shotgun on him for good measure. But the voice of evil had to be stopped. That it was Will Sherman only meant he could no longer trust his own judgment. He had no future.

Riku looks down at the key in his hand, fingers trembling and a moment away from annihilating the key in a burst of dark flame. All he had to do was look away and it would be done. Manhattan would be sealed, possibly forever, and he would have to live with the consequences of his choice.

Oh, no Riku. The universe itself would have to live with the consequences. I know many things about the darkness you face. Including what will happen when your foolish quest ends in failure, as it surely must.

“I won’t fail. This will work. IT HAS to work.”

Oh. You will fail, boy. You crafted this entire enterprise on boredom and an evil whim of the moment, because a short tempered duck couldn’t think of a solid plan outside of something exploding, and you felt the need to show him up. Have you learned nothing from your friends now that you’ve positioned yourself practically alone? Or are they simply convenient excuses for a stymied, arrogant child to play with things he doesn’t understand?

The anger he felt at the accusations felt multiplied a thousand times, a roaring surge of hatred and anguish that nearly knocked him off his feet. Riku gasped for air and clung to a thought as he tried to wrestle his haywire emotions back under control.

Give me your heart and I will let you pass..

When the fire died, resolve still remained though his head felt like it had been scalded. He wasn’t going to give in again. Not to the voice. Not to what was for all intents and purposes the monster of his make believe story. “I don’t need you. I don’t need anybody now. I put this together.. and I’ll finish it, and Kairi will be safe. And someday Sora will come to wake her, and it won’t matter if they hate me. If they all hate me. It will be done.”

Such a pity you’re in such a great hurry to die, boy. You could have been useful.

Riku draws the hood of his black coat over his face, spitting and cursing under his breath still charged with that unnatural anger.

The voice chuckles very faintly as he disappears into the twisting passageways.

And you still might.