Riku (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
limitless_land) wrote2011-10-08 02:26 pm
limitless_land) wrote2011-10-08 02:26 pm
Entry tags:
Twelfth ★ [Video | Filtered from Aqua]
[...A feed during the attack? Seriously? There's only a brief glimpse of gold eyes beneath a hood before the SFC is tilted so only one of the kraken's tentacles can be seen. It takes five seconds before a deep, almost blank voice filters through the darkness.]
What do you do when you've been lost to despair. [A pause as disks of light(?) are tossed at it from behind the speaker.] What is it that you do when you lose sight of the hope you'd kept alive until now and realize that you don't have what it takes to protect others by your own power?
[He's silent for a long while, seemingly focused on dodging the retaliatory actions of the attacked appendage... until a black hand suddenly shoots electric shocks of the same white and pale blue energy at a now writhing mass of flesh.]
Tell me... What does one do with oneself then-?!
[Click.]
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['...Kairi.']
You're right. And if I let this win... [His voice changed just thinking about her; it wasn't deep, didn't match with the face he held now. Younger, uncertain, maybe even scared to see what his friend's reaction would be if she woke up to see this face. Yet there was still determination behind it. He couldn't just stay the way he was if she was here, still needing him to protect her—and everyone else—from harm.
He closes his eyes, and everything goes black. So tired...]
[video] 2/4 I LIED BECAUSE OF STUPID CHARACTER LIMITS
Yet the Coat and false appearance disappear in the brilliance of the light that came into being as his feet touched down on what first seems to be sand, only to change into stained glass of many nostalgic hues when he steps forward. The colors dimly lit the area he found himself in once again—one he always fell in while he dreamt, but wasn't he awake—? The voices outside echo in his mind as if they're ghosts: Aqua's kindness, Katsu's similar determination, Tsukasa's aide, Mami's method of knocking some sense into his head, Amaterasu's mother-like and heavenly aura... Her red markings...
Sora's peaceful, sleeping face. Kairi's warm smile. That stranger's once-blurry appearance... It's all there, in the faint glow coming from the platform of his soul.
"We have waited for you, Riku."
"Who's there?" Riku looks up and all about him, but sees nothing but black and mist. "And what are you doing in my-?"
Riku blinks, but nods. Three items appear about him, and he glances at each of them. He can see himself in each of them, and as "Voice" speaks up again, he suddenly understands why.
"The power sleeps within you, still. Should you give it form, it shall give you the strength you need..." These weapons... They're a part of his heart? No, more like aspects of it. "Choose well."
He doesn't even think about it, walking right toward the third object. The boy can see it within his mind's eye: himself jumping between Sora, creating a barrier between him and the assailant. This was the power he had sought all along: to be the shield his friends and those who would ever try to hurt him again. As his hand approaches the metal, he can hear one thing very clearly:
"The power of the Guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all. Is this the power you seek?"
A smile crosses his weary lips. He knew that is what he still desires; to protect those who mattered most to him... yet now it's so much greater. He wants to protect everyone from the threat on their second or third home and the forces that had once claimed him; to never fear the voice at the back of his head. The answer's a resounding, "Yes."
"Now what will you give up in exchange?"
Tired eyes look at both objects that remain. In the second, closest object—he could see himself causing large earthquakes, untold amounts of earth rising up from the ground as pillars, strong spells and a fierce determination etched across his face. Would he give that aspect of himself up, or-? ... He stared the only other object; it was sharp, unyielding. A sneer crossed that self's lips as he cut down any and all in his path. Yet it wasn't his eyes behind it—there was no warmth, no kindness from his old self.
"This is who you are meant to be, Riku. Who you truly are!" came the voice he always dreads to hear; one he fought so long to cause to fade entirely from his Heart yet could never shake off. Without a second doubt, he takes the final steps toward the object he knew would change the fates of countless others. He isn't a killer, and this would prove it in his mind.
[video] 3/4
"The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. Do you give up this power?"
The images fill his mind once again as he stares into the cold, metallic surface of the blade he holds in reverence. The darkness overtaking his home because of him, the faces of Alice and Jasmine in comatose states with the other Princesses because of him, Kairi's lifeless eyes... All of it was his fault...
Burdened by these thoughts, he lowers his head in shame. He'd clung to the others from the dark for this power—Maleficent especially. Now that he could see clearly, it was this power that caused him to be lost in a void that made him unable to see what was really in front of him. ...It was time.
"I already know the price behind this 'courage;' how many times it's hurt those who I cherish most...," he thinks, lowering himself to his knees. "I can't do that to any of them again. Take it; destruction was never the path I sought."
The blade vanishes, and he can feel himself beginning to sink once again through the same darkness that the sword was made of. It didn't wish to let him go, but this light... He didn't want to let it go, either.
"You've chosen the power of the guardian, yet given up the power of the warrior. Is this truly the power you've truly sought after?" ...The voice said that like he would ever change his mind. With that defiant thought, the voice chuckled. "That is very much like you, Riku."
"You chose the path that began in Darkness. The path has not been an easy one for you, I know. Yet should you continue... you shall see the rising sun awaiting your journey's end."
He's falling again, weightless—the dark no longer gripping his heart like a vice. He was almost free... Sora... Kairi... Caden...
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[It's just barely audible, barely picked up as he lies there face-first on the wet and blood-stained street. Before he can even awaken, the SFC picks up on a flash of something in his right hand. Not dark, but not quite light, either...
Then it forms into something solid, Riku's grasp on it's hilt tightening as he begins to stir. It's also completely automatic that the blade points directly at the kraken's tentacle, firing off a blast of what appears to be blue fire. . .]
Thanks.
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Riku.
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[If only Mami knew all the double meanings behind that one sentence. Then she'd probably understand why a smile still didn't touch the "man's" lips.]
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[she shakes her head] Mmn, it's all right. We all lose our way sometimes.
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[He said that out loud, didn't he. ...Oops.]
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... That's a wonderful thing to hear, Riku-san.
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I chose this path for them. [It doesn't show crossing his lips, but a small flash of who he used to be flashes in his eyes.] Might as well see where else it leads.
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