Twilight Town pt1
Twilight Town pt1
It wasn’t long before Riku found himself in Twilight Town, walking along the slanted road that led to the central neighborhood, the tram slowly trailing by. It had been a long time since he last came to the peaceful world. Not since he had been looking for Roxas so that Ansem the Wise could fix Sora, back when he was sleeping in his pod. Was that why his heart was drawn to this world? He looked around the square and noticed a few things were different, namely that it seemed to be bustling with more activity, and there was even a small bistro in one corner that had been empty before.
However, the peace was short lived as he started hearing people screaming from a nearby alley. Riku followed the screams and saw the cause for terror.
“Nobodies!” he shouted as he summoned Braveheart and took out a Dusk before it could attack a woman cowering in fear. “Everyone, get inside and lock your doors!” he called out to the people as they ran away. He quickly took out the Dusks and the few Snipers that appeared in the neighborhood. There were quite a few of them– 3 more seeming to spawn when he would take one out– but, eventually, they stopped spawning, giving Riku some time to rest.
However, even that rest did not last long.
“Where did they come from?!” someone shouted from another alley. Riku didn’t need to follow the voice as, once he turned around, he saw three teenagers running in his general direction. And, right on their tails was a massive Demon Tide, larger than the one he’d fought in the Dark Realm.
“Go! Get someplace safe!” Riku shouted at them as he raised his keyblade as the teens ran past him, shouting their thanks. The Tide started to swirl around him in an intimidating manner, making Riku raise his guard even more. He had trouble dealing with the Tide in the Dark Realm even with Mickey’s help, and that one was much smaller than this one. Even so, he couldn’t back down.
“I’m a keyblade master, and I have to save Sora!” he shouted as he charged at the Demon Tide at the same time it came at him.
===
Soon after the fight began Riku was already at his wits end, the Tide showed no signs of slowing down. He had just used up his last Hi-Potion and Ether and he could feel his magic was weak. He may be able to get another Dark Thundara off, but if he missed and the Tide came at him again, he would definitely lose.
Riku dodged when the Tide came at him, but he missed when it phased through the ground and came at him again from underneath him. He was just barely able to dodge again, but he was still hit pretty hard, making him roll across the hard pavement with a cry of pain. Riku looked up and saw the Tide coming for him for a third time. He wasn’t going to make it…
Just then a Fira spell came out of nowhere, hitting the Tide head on, causing it to erupt into the smaller Shadow Heartless. Riku struggled to his knees as he watched the Shadows mill about in a daze, wondering where the attack came from.
“Did you really think you could take that thing all on your own?” a voice called to him from above. Riku looked up just as a tall redhead jumped off a nearby roof and landed next to him, a keyblade made of flames hanging over his shoulder.
“Lea?!” Riku was stunned to see the young man here and not training with Kairi. “What are you doing here?!”
“Oh, now you manage to get my name right,” he said sarcastically, tossing a green vial to Riku with one hand while he swung Flame Liberator in a huge arch with the other, taking out several Shadows around them. Riku broke the vial, realizing it was an Elixir as he felt his health and magic replenish. “Anyway, let’s take out these Heartless and then I’ll give you the deets!”
Riku nodded as he got up and together, they charged at the Heartless before the Demon Tide reformed.
===
After fighting the amalgamation of Heartless for a bit longer, it suddenly flew up into the sky and away from the town, disappearing into the distance. With the threat gone, Riku and Lea let out sighs of relief as they dismissed their keyblades.
“Thanks for the help,” Riku said as he visibly relaxed, turning to Lea to size him up. He was dressed in the new clothes Master Yen Sid had made for him. “Finally decided to ditch your old coat?”
“Actually, that’s the weird thing,” Lea said with a chuckle as he looked over his outfit. “My coat went missing the other day. I think Kairi snuck off with it and tossed it out for me. She’s been trying to get me out of it for a while now.”
“Speaking of,” Riku said with a curious look. “Why are you here? Don’t you still have training?”
“Yeah, about that…” Lea rubbed the back of his neck in a seemingly nervous manner, looking everywhere except at Riku. “Kairi must have told you before, but I just… needed some time to myself. Roxas and I used to come to Twilight Town, before he went missing, to eat sea salt ice cream up on the clock tower after our missions, and I just felt like I needed to be here for some reason, even though it brings back memories I don’t want to remember just yet…”
“Sorry,” Riku said with a frown, looking down at his boots. “It’s my fault that Roxas was separated from you.”
“True, but you did it to save Sora, and he’s pretty important and all…” Lea mumbled. The air quickly filled with nervous tension between them. This was the longest the two of them have been alone together with no one else there to butt in on their conversation.
“Who are you guys?”
Riku looked up when he heard the new voice and saw the three teens who ran past him earlier. They were a tall boy with wavy blonde hair, a slightly shorter boy with dark hair and a bandana around his neck, and a brunette girl. As they approached them Lea turned to them as well and visibly flinched when all three of them gasped, the blonde boy pointing at him.
“Hey! You’re the guy who kidnapped Kairi!”
“You did what?” Riku asked the redhead in mild shock.
“Th-that was a long time ago, back when I was still ‘Axel’! A-and I was following orders!” The teens didn’t seem convinced as they got into defensive poses. Riku chuckled as he got between them and Lea before any fights started.
“It’s alright,” he said, raising his hands as a sign of peace. “We’re friends of Kairi.”
The brunette girl looked between Riku and Lea before she lost some of her tension. “Are you also friends of Sora?”
“You know him, too?” Riku asked them with a smile, not at all surprised that they knew Sora as well. The brunette girl also returned his smile with one of her own.
“Yeah. Sora has saved us before many times with a key shaped weapon similar to yours. And any friend of Sora’s must be good.” She stepped forward as the two boys watched her curiously. “My name is Olette. Thank you for saving us.”
“My name’s Riku, and that’s Lea,” Riku said as he pointed at the redhead with a thumb, the taller boy giving them a nervous wave. The other two boys looked at each other before they, too, visibly relaxed and stepped forward.
“I’m Pence,” the bandana boy said with a cheeky smile.
“And I’m Hayner,” the blonde boy said, reaching a hand out to Riku, who gave it a shake. “I’ve never seen a monster like that before. What was that?”
“It’s a Demon Tide, a more powerful Heartless,” Riku said with a frown as he looked over the three of them. “You’ve probably seen them around before.”
“Yeah, but most of the time it’s those white slithery things,” Hayner grumbled as he crossed his arms.
“Nobodies,” Lea added with a sigh as he stepped forward. “They are just as dangerous as the Heartless, so watch out for them.” The teens nodded in agreement.
“I’m actually here on a mission relating to Sora,” Riku said to them. This would be much easier, knowing that there were people in this world who knew Sora personally. “Something happened to him and now he’s missing. Have you seen him anywhere or heard anything from him lately?” Hayner, Pence, and Olette all exchanged a look before anyone spoke up.
“Well, there was that one guy…” Pence said as he rubbed his chin in thought.
“But he was wearing a black coat…” Olette added.
“A black coat?” Riku and Lea repeated at the same time, catching their attention.
“It was hard to tell because they had their hood up,” Hayner added. “We were chilling in the back alley, near the entrance to the woods, when we saw someone who looked about our age heading that way. And I don’t know why, but I was sure I knew them from around…”
“And there were these,” Pence said, digging around in his pockets where he pulled out two photographs. Both looked the same, depicting the three of them in front of a tall iron gate, but one of them…
“Roxas!” Lea gasped when he saw his blonde friend in one of the photos. He was standing at the back of the photo next to Hayner with a big smile on his face.
“You know him?” Olette asked the redhead curiously, looking between him and the photo.
“Yeah, he’s my best friend. Technically he’s also missing and we kinda need Sora’s help to find him.”
“This photo must be from the other Twilight Town…” Riku mumbled as he looked over the photo with Roxas.
“Oh, Sora told us about it after we first met,” Pence mentioned as he put away their own photo. “Something about how there was a data version of Twilight Town and that we were in it.”
“Where did you find this?” Riku asked the three of them.
“It was dropped by the person in the coat,” Pence said as he dug around his pockets some more before he pulled out something on a silver chain. “And this, too.” When Riku saw the other item, he gasped in shock.
“That’s Sora’s!” he exclaimed as he took the crown pendant. All of the children on the island – including Riku and Kairi – had pitched in some of their allowance to buy it for Sora as a birthday gift when he turned thirteen, and he had proclaimed that he would never take it off.
“And there was one more weird thing,” Hayner said as he rubbed his chin. “The guy in the coat had a woman with him. She looked unconscious and hurt, so we tried to follow them and see if they needed help when that Heartless monster showed up and chased us back here. If they were trying to take shelter somewhere in the woods they could be at the haunted mansion.” Riku nodded when he eventually tore his eyes away from the pendant.
“I’ll head out there to look for them,” he told the three of them. “For now, you should probably stay in town where it’s safer.” He looked around the square and saw that people had started to leave their homes, feeling that the danger was finally gone. “Lea, do you mind staying with them?” Riku asked when he turned to the redhead.
“Uh, I guess…?” Lea said, rubbing the back of his head.
“Yeah, you can hang out with us at the bistro!” Olette said with a smile, pointing to the outdoor dining area. “The food there is amazing!”
“You can also tell us a bit about Roxas,” Hayner added as he held up the photo of the blonde. “He seems like a cool guy, and I don’t know why but I feel like I know him even though we never met outside of the data Twilight Town.” Lea looked over the three teens before he eventually smiled.
“Aw, why not!” he exclaimed as he stretched his arms out. “This gives me a chance to take a proper break!” Riku shook his head as he let out a huff, smiling slightly.
“I’ll be back soon,” he told them as he slipped Sora’s pendant into his pocket. “Just call me if anything happens.”
After giving his goodbyes, he left for the forest.
===
While it was annoying that the only way into the forest now was through the sewers, at least he was in and out of them fairly quick. After a short walk, a few more fights with some Heartless, then saving a rat being attacked by some Heartless and even forced to help it collect some fruit, Riku found himself at the entrance to the haunted mansion. He looked over the old, abandoned mansion in slight awe. It still gave off a creepy feeling, most likely the reason why everyone thought it was haunted, when in reality Riku knew that it was like that to hide the lab in the basement. He looked over the front when his eyes landed on the window on the second floor, the one with the white curtains that Naminé stayed in while she fixed Sora’s memories.
Riku then noticed the curtains move slightly. He squinted at them hard. Was someone standing near the window…?
“Riku?”
The silver haired teen nearly jumped out of his skin as he spun on whoever grabbed his shoulder, summoning Braveheart. Luckily, he stopped himself in time when he saw that it was just Lea, the other teens standing behind him. They all jumped back in shock from his reaction.
“What are you all doing here?” he demanded with a glare, dismissing Braveheart when he turned to them. “You guys said you would stay in the town!”
“Sorry, it’s my fault,” Lea said with a forced chuckle, wiping the sweat from his brown. “We were just chatting at the bistro when I felt this need to be here at the mansion.” He placed a hand over his heart as he looked down at the ground in confusion. “I don’t know how to explain it. Just that I had to be here…”
“Yeah, and then he just took off!” Hayner exclaimed with a frustrated huff. “Without a word! Just got up and booked it for the woods! We were all confused and followed him to see what was up.” Pence and Olette both nodded in agreement. Riku crossed his arms in thought.
“Lea,” the teen said, getting the redhead’s attention. “Didn’t you say something similar earlier? That you felt it in your heart to come to Twilight Town, even though you didn’t initially want to?”
“Now that you mention it…” Lea said in slight realization, rubbing his chin curiously.
‘Just like how my heart led me here in the first place…’ Riku thought to himself. He had followed his heart, found himself in Twilight Town, and now there was a black coat who had a photo of Roxas and Sora’s pendent on them. And now Lea was there for similar reasons. Could it be that…?
“K-keeeeey… b-blaaaaade…”
Riku felt a sudden chill run up his spine when he heard those words and the sudden onslaught of dark energy around him. Lea must have also felt it as he flinched and turned on the spot, looking for the source of the voice. Hayner, Pence, and Olette just stared at the two in confusion. That was when three pools of darkness appeared in the ground near the gate of the mansion, and out of those pools, three Heartless emerged.
But, these Heartless were different, Riku noticed, as he and Lea got between the enemy and the other teens, who all gasped in fear. These Heartless had humanoid shapes, standing on two legs at just under 5 feet in height, wearing black shoes, shorts, and large clawed gloves stained red at the tips. They each also had bat wings on their backs and a black hat with antenna on top, partially concealing black faces that had the traditional soulless yellow eyes and red mouths full of sharp teeth. They were each slightly hunched over, swaying in place as they clawed at the ground, their eyes focused on the wielders as they summoned their respective keyblades.
“What kind of Heartless are these?” Lea asked as he got into a defensive position. He’d mostly encountered Shadow Heartless and the ones he used to go hunting with Roxas back in the Organization, but never these types.
“I don’t know,” Riku admitted as he raised Braveheart, ready to strike when needed. “I’ve never seen anything like th—”
“…ku…”
The lot of them went silent in shock when one of the Heartless opened its mouth and words came out.
“… Ri… ku…”
“… Ax… el…”
“Wait, did those things just--?” Lea gasped in shock, his stance wavering. One of the Heartless had said his old Organization name, the one he’d been trying to get everyone to stop calling him.
Suddenly, the Heartless began to let out small choking, coughing-like sounds which quickly turned into cackles. Then, they let out screeches as they launched at the two wielders.
“Stay back!” Riku told the teens standing behind them as he quickly Reflected the Heartless away from them, giving Lea a chance to get his composure back so he could charge at them, knocking them further back. “Get inside the mansion! We’ll join you when we get rid of these!”
“R-right!” the three teens said in union as they quickly pulled open the double doors and got inside the mansion. When he heard the doors click shut, Riku turned around and joined Lea in the fight.
===
However, the fight was short-lived when, not long after it began, the Heartless disappeared within a dark corridor, their cackles still echoing in the air until their dark presence was gone completely. Riku and Lea entered the mansion, slumping against the big wooden doors as they panted for breath. If they thought the Demon Tide in Twilight Town was difficult, these new Heartless were ten times worse.
“I think I would prefer fighting old man Xehanort one-on-one than fight those things again!” Lea exclaimed as he pulled out his last two Elixirs, giving one to Riku as he used one on himself. Riku nodded with agreement, feeling his energy return as the Elixir disintegrated in his hand. “But you heard those things talk, too, right? I’m sure one of them said ‘Axel’…”
“Yeah…” Riku mumbled as he straightened out, crossing his arms as he contemplated what those things could have been. He’d never encountered such powerful Heartless before outside of a Demon Tide, but those were amalgamations of Heartless, not a single being. Especially Heartless that could talk, not including Seeker of Darkness Ansem.
“Are you guys okay?” Olette asked them in worry. She was with Hayner waiting for them in the main foyer, sitting on one of the staircases leading up to the second floor. Pence entered the foyer from the back.
“Well, we’re still alive at least,” Lea said in a sarcastic manner as he popped his fighting arm, his muscles no longer sore from all the fighting he’d done today.
“While we were waiting for you guys, I had a quick look around,” Pence said as he came forward. “The computer in the basement still works, but it’s locked behind some kind of firewall or something. I thought we could try and access the other Twilight Town from it.”
“Let’s go take a look,” Riku said with a nod, the lot of them heading for the basement.
===
Thankfully, he didn’t have to do much after they found the computer as Ienzo called him on his gummiphone not long after, saying that he’d picked up readings on his side in Radiant Garden that someone was trying to access Ansem the Wise’s data. After Pence talked it over with the scientist, they decided to try and hook the two computers up digitally so that they could analyze the data faster. Yeah, Riku may want to come off as the more mature and knowledgeable individual among his friends on the islands – especially Sora – but while figuring out the basics on how a phone or a gummiship or even the basics of a computer work, the level of what Ienzo was going for was just a little out of the teenager’s league.
Riku had propped up his phone on the desk so Pence and Ienzo could see each other and talk as they connected the systems, the young scientist stating that it might take a while. The rest of them just milled about in the computer room while Pence typed away and Ienzo gave him directions.
“I’m going to walk around the mansion a bit to make sure there are no more Heartless or Nobodies,” Riku said as he walked out of the room, everyone else giving him a wave of acknowledgement. In reality, Riku wanted to be alone with his thoughts and not have the others pester him to make sure he was okay. He soon found himself standing in the foyer again, taking a seat on one of the steps with a sigh. He pulled out the crown pendant from his pocket and looked it over, his thumb tracing the edges. “Where are you, Sora?”
That was when he heard something from upstairs, causing the teen to look behind him curiously. It almost sounded like someone humming. He then remembered vaguely seeing someone standing in the white room earlier, but had dismissed it thinking it was just the wind causing the curtains to flap about. Could someone be up there?
The silver haired teen stood up and quietly made his way up the steps and down the hallway, not wanting to spook whoever was up here. He stopped when he reached the door to the white room, leaning against the door to listen for anyone who might be in there. He could hear something shuffling around, and could more clearly hear someone humming a tune. Slowly, Riku placed a hand on the door handle, took a few deep breaths, then quickly threw the door open, closing it just as quickly once he was inside.
There, sitting on the large windowsill, was someone in a black coat. They gasped when Riku closed the door, pulling the hood tightly over their face so that he couldn’t see them. Riku noticed that the coat seemed a bit large on them by how baggy it was and how it seemed to cover them up entirely. Not far away, propped against the wall, was a girl with short blue hair. She appeared to be sleeping, but otherwise okay.
“Listen, I don’t want to hurt you,” Riku said calmly as he raised his hands as a sign of good faith. Normally he would instantly pull out his keyblade and start demanding answers or attack anyone in a black coat, but something stopped him, telling him to take it slow and easy. He opened one of his hands to show Sora’s pendant was still there. “You had dropped this earlier. You recognize it?”
The black coat seemed to flinch slightly at the mention of the pendant, slowly slipping off the windowsill so they were standing. Riku noticed that they had their coat zipped up completely so that he couldn’t see any part of them, the bottom on the coat dragging on the ground. He kept an eye on them to make sure they weren’t going to attack him or try to run. They stayed quiet as Riku took small, baby steps towards them, appearing to grow more agitated and nervous as the seconds ticked by.
“Is this yours?” Riku tried asking them to see what kind of response they would give him. They only looked away as the teen now stood just a few feet away from them. Just then, the black coat made a quick dash for the door, but Riku had anticipated this and grabbed their arm, the force strong enough for them to fall against the wall, giving a small cry of shock as their hood fell down. When Riku saw their face, he let out a gasp.
“Sora!”