ooc| history
Donning the black cloak of the organization, Riku and Mickey finally left Castle Oblivion, meeting DiZ on the outside. When asked which road Riku would take - the light or the dark - he confidently walked down the path in the middle, turning back to simply say “The Road to Dawn”. However, despite his confidence and his will to go on with Mickey by his side, Riku couldn’t deny that there was still evil festering within him. As such, he parted ways with Mickey to work with DiZ, putting on a blindfold to keep a hold on his true self.
Xion (SPOILER WARNING FOR 358/2)
Riku’s first act of business after starting his work with DiZ and Naminé was following and observing Organization 13, trying to find Sora’s Nobody. Naminé had informed them that someone had obtained some of Sora’s memories, thus slowing her progress. As Riku kept tabs on the Organization, he became alerted to three rather… different members: Axel, Roxas, and Xion. At first he was drawn to these three due to how differently they acted from the other Organization members, but as he watched them Roxas and Xion’s sometimes familiar actions peaked his curiosity.
As he watched and followed the Organization, he was constantly exposed to the darkness, and eventually it became so bad that if he ever took off his blindfold his physical appearance would change. While this gave him some additional strength, the more he took off his blindfold, the harder he found it to bind his sight again. While the blindfold didn’t actually hamper his ability to see and fight, it was always a struggle to keep the cloth over his eyes.
Finally, after a while of following the Organization members (and finally hitting a growth spurt, but that’s beside the point) Riku had his first run-in with Xion. He had followed her to the Beast’s Castle, and after a brief scuffle he pulled back her hood and pushed up the edge of his blindfold, trying to get a clear and close look at the girl. What he saw shocked him, something that was relatively hard to do at this point. Xion looked even more like Kairi than Naminé did, and as Naminé was Kairi’s Nobody… well… he hadn’t been expecting it. As Xion started to stir again, Riku told her that her keyblade was a sham, seemingly angering the girl. In a burst of sympathy for the Nobody’s plight, Riku adviced Xion to get out of the Organization. However, Xion was too angry to listen to him, and as she lashed out Riku easily knocked her out and made his escape.
He and DiZ left the Organization alone for a while to return to where Naminé was keeping Sora. When the blonde Nobody reached a stand still, saying that Xion contained memories Sora needed to wake up, Riku knew what he had to do, even though it wasn’t really sitting well with him. He started tracking the young girl again, eventually following her to Destiny Islands. He reached the Islands just as Xion was finishing a nightmare, going to the girl and coaxing her out of it. Xion soon woke up, and Riku held a conversation with her, trying to convince her to voluntarily return to Sora and return his memories so he can wake up.
However, as attached to Xion as Riku had grown, when push came to shove, he had to make sure Xion returned to Sora. Thankfully, he didn’t have to end the girl himself, instead she chose to go to her own end at Roxas’ hands. However, even then there was a part of Sora that just wouldn’t wake up, and as such Riku was finally forced to go after Roxas, who he, Naminé, and DiZ finally believed to be Sora’s Nobody.
Riku finally managed to track Roxas down in the World that Never Was, shortly after the boy left the Organization. There they fought, Riku questioning why Roxas had the keyblades and goading the boy until Riku finally got confirmation that Roxas was truly Sora’s nobody. However, Roxas was stronger than Riku, and the boy found himself in a bad situation rather quickly. With no other choice he removed his blindfold, giving into the darkness inside of him. Ansem’s appearance quickly overtook Riku’s own, and using Ansem’s favorite technique he managed to knock Roxas out. However, Riku wasn’t about to let the Heartless completely control him, and while he was doomed to wear Ansem’s appearance, tying the blindfold around his eyes again allowed him to keep a hold of who he was. DiZ soon came and Riku donned the Organization’s hood, hiding his shameful appearance and allowing Roxas to be taken back with them, to Twilight Town, sending the boy into a virtual world while they waited impatiently for Naminé to prepare the Nobody and his Other.
Summer Vacation
As Roxas was prepared to merge with Sora, Riku sat on the sidelines, watching as DiZ and Naminé went about their work, only participating whenever he needed to make sure that Roxas was remembering Sora at the right rate. As Axel began to breach the town’s walls, Riku went into the town at a higher rate, taking some keepsakes of Roxas’ and pressing questions at him. Soon enough he was almost constantly in the world, fighting off the Nobodies breaking in and keeping Naminé from revealing too much to Roxas. Finally, as the time to Sora’s awakening grew nearer, Riku confronted DiZ, questioning the man’s motives in all of this. When he heard that DiZ was only in it for revenge, Riku was disgusted and angry, and when the man ordered him to dispose of Naminé, Riku instead handed her to Axel, allowing her to escape with a fellow renegade.
Help from the Shadows
Despite the fact that Sora was finally awake and searching almost desperately for him, Riku was incredibly careful to keep his distance from the boy, instead keeping tabs on Kairi and Axel, making sure that everything was proceeding well. Despite the fact that Riku wanted nothing more than to fight by Sora’s side, he was still stuck in Ansem’s form. How could he possibly face his friends wearing the enemy’s face after all the things he’d done to them?
So instead, Riku helped from the shadows. He pleaded with Mickey not to tell Sora anything about his current status, and although the King told Sora he was in contact with Riku, the brunet seemed to understand and kept his distance. However, as much as Riku would have liked to follow Sora closer and help him out as much as possible, things were unfolding in a rather unpredictable way. In one of his routine check-ins at Destiny Islands, Riku found that Axel was approaching Kairi, trying to find any way to get Sora to turn into a heartless again and recreate Roxas. Borrowing Pluto for a while, Riku sent the dog through the darkness, opening portals as needed for the animal to lead Kairi away from Axel and into Twilight Town, where Riku knew she would meet Sora’s friends. As much as Riku would have liked to stay and make sure Kairi was safe, he had to return to the realm of darkness as Sora sunk into it, leaving a package containing sea-salt ice cream and a picture of Roxas and his friends, raising questions and prompting Sora to remember his Nobody. Unfortunately, in that time of absence Kairi was finally found by Axel and taken out of Riku’s sight.
A short while later Riku arrived in the Land of Dragons, intent on warning the Emperor of a Heartless Dragon Xigbar was sending to the town. However, he timed his arrival poorly, and ended up surprising Sora. He was forced to defend himself in a short battle in which Sora recognized his weapon, withdrawing slightly and questioning Riku’s identity. Riku used the confusion to escape, making his way down to the Palace to warn the Emperor before the Dragon and Sora could make it there. Unfortunately, his unique personality and “respect” to the Emperor had Sora convinced it was him.
Not wanting to risk further discovery, Riku faded into the background, letting Sora continue his journey as he tried to find a way into the World that Never Was in order to try and save Kairi once he realized that she had been taken by Saïx. Finally, just as Sora entered the world, Riku sensed a change and broke into the world, helping Naminé save Kairi as Saïx surprised them. After a quick thank you from Naminé Riku’s retreat was stopped by Kairi. Reluctantly he allowed her to remove his hood, expecting her to be disgusted by his form. However, her ability to see who he truly was surprised him enough to follow her around, keeping her safe as she made her way down to where Sora had finally entered the castle.
The Final Battles
Forced to follow and keep his reckless friends safe, Riku joins Kairi and Sora in fighting off hordes of Heartless, even providing Kairi with a keyblade so she could finally join the fight. As Kairi finally made her way to Sora and the two reunited, Riku attempted to make his escape again, this time getting the portal actually open and active before Kairi latched onto him, dragging Sora over to get a real look at him. Riku waited nervously as Sora tried to see who he truly was, and when his friend dropped to his knees, crying, Riku couldn’t help but feel true relief for the first time in so long.
However, that didn’t change the fact that Riku was still overcome with guilt at his own weakness, both recently and during their first battles. However, he still follows Sora and the others through the different floors until finally, near the top of the building they reunited with the King and DiZ. To say that DiZ’s true identity had come as a surprise to Riku would have been an understatement, but there was no time to reflect on it as he activated a machine designed to encode Kingdom Hearts into data. As the machine overloaded and exploded, creating countless of Heartless at the base of the castle as well as engulfing the heroes in a burst of light, Ansem’s appearance and the darkness in Riku’s heart was melted away.
It took a bit of convincing from Sora and the King for Riku to risk taking off his blindfold, but as soon as he did and found that the darkness within him was no stronger, he finally shed the cloak he had been wearing since Sora went to sleep and took that middle path again, finally balancing out his powers and finally fighting at Sora’s side.
Together they ascended the last few flights of stairs to face Xemnas. Sora was called off to fight alone, and Riku stayed with the others, calling for Sora but otherwise unable to do anything more. Finally, Sora stumbled out of wherever Xemnas had taken him and the Nobody in question vanished into Kingdom Hearts. However, the worlds provided them with a door, and together the three keyblade wielders (Mickey, Sora, and Riku) unlocked the door and pushed forward, determined to end this once and for all. They fought again, and Xemnas appeared to be gone for good, leaving them trapped within the strange world. Riku attempted to create a portal to leave, but found it to be impossible now that he no longer had such a close tie to the darkness within him. However, Naminé appeared before them, opening a door to Destiny Islands. Relieved, Riku and Sora waited for the others to proceed, but just as they were about to leave, Xemnas resurfaced and the door closed. Together the two pushed forward, fighting battle after battle with the Nobody until finally they seemed to be reaching the end of the battle. By then they were both tired, sheer determination the only thing keeping them going. Riku took a heavy hit for Sora, one that had been intended to finish the keyblade wielder off. However harmful it was to Riku, it provided just the opportunity they needed to end everything. Both boys clutched Sora’s keyblade and shot a beam of light, finally ending Xemnas.
However, that wasn’t the end of it. Within seconds they were surrounded by Dusks intent on finishing them off. Both braced for an attack, faces set in grim determination, but the Nobodies melted into nothing, leaving the teens alone in the darkness.
With the battle over, with everything over, Riku finally allowed himself to collapse, intent on giving up right then and there. However, Sora’s never-ending optimism had him up and supported by his friend, and as they walked on they found themselves at the supposed end of everything, collapsing tiredly in the Dark Meridian. There the two finally reconciled with each other, saying things that should have been said one year ago, before the entire mess had started. Riku admitted that he had always wanted to be like Sora, and Sora said the same thing. And finally, they were just two teens relaxing. Riku was still feeling guilt, and probably always would, but the fact that he and Sora were talking like nothing had happened between them, like nothing had changed… it was enough to put the teen’s mind at rest.
Suddenly, something hit against his legs, washed up by the water, and Riku pulled a small bottle out of the ocean, opening it and reading the letter inside, handing it to Sora with a smirk. As the younger teen read the letter a door opened, and Riku pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the pain of his wound. He stepped forward towards the light… and slipped.
Xion (SPOILER WARNING FOR 358/2)
Riku’s first act of business after starting his work with DiZ and Naminé was following and observing Organization 13, trying to find Sora’s Nobody. Naminé had informed them that someone had obtained some of Sora’s memories, thus slowing her progress. As Riku kept tabs on the Organization, he became alerted to three rather… different members: Axel, Roxas, and Xion. At first he was drawn to these three due to how differently they acted from the other Organization members, but as he watched them Roxas and Xion’s sometimes familiar actions peaked his curiosity.
As he watched and followed the Organization, he was constantly exposed to the darkness, and eventually it became so bad that if he ever took off his blindfold his physical appearance would change. While this gave him some additional strength, the more he took off his blindfold, the harder he found it to bind his sight again. While the blindfold didn’t actually hamper his ability to see and fight, it was always a struggle to keep the cloth over his eyes.
Finally, after a while of following the Organization members (and finally hitting a growth spurt, but that’s beside the point) Riku had his first run-in with Xion. He had followed her to the Beast’s Castle, and after a brief scuffle he pulled back her hood and pushed up the edge of his blindfold, trying to get a clear and close look at the girl. What he saw shocked him, something that was relatively hard to do at this point. Xion looked even more like Kairi than Naminé did, and as Naminé was Kairi’s Nobody… well… he hadn’t been expecting it. As Xion started to stir again, Riku told her that her keyblade was a sham, seemingly angering the girl. In a burst of sympathy for the Nobody’s plight, Riku adviced Xion to get out of the Organization. However, Xion was too angry to listen to him, and as she lashed out Riku easily knocked her out and made his escape.
He and DiZ left the Organization alone for a while to return to where Naminé was keeping Sora. When the blonde Nobody reached a stand still, saying that Xion contained memories Sora needed to wake up, Riku knew what he had to do, even though it wasn’t really sitting well with him. He started tracking the young girl again, eventually following her to Destiny Islands. He reached the Islands just as Xion was finishing a nightmare, going to the girl and coaxing her out of it. Xion soon woke up, and Riku held a conversation with her, trying to convince her to voluntarily return to Sora and return his memories so he can wake up.
However, as attached to Xion as Riku had grown, when push came to shove, he had to make sure Xion returned to Sora. Thankfully, he didn’t have to end the girl himself, instead she chose to go to her own end at Roxas’ hands. However, even then there was a part of Sora that just wouldn’t wake up, and as such Riku was finally forced to go after Roxas, who he, Naminé, and DiZ finally believed to be Sora’s Nobody.
Riku finally managed to track Roxas down in the World that Never Was, shortly after the boy left the Organization. There they fought, Riku questioning why Roxas had the keyblades and goading the boy until Riku finally got confirmation that Roxas was truly Sora’s nobody. However, Roxas was stronger than Riku, and the boy found himself in a bad situation rather quickly. With no other choice he removed his blindfold, giving into the darkness inside of him. Ansem’s appearance quickly overtook Riku’s own, and using Ansem’s favorite technique he managed to knock Roxas out. However, Riku wasn’t about to let the Heartless completely control him, and while he was doomed to wear Ansem’s appearance, tying the blindfold around his eyes again allowed him to keep a hold of who he was. DiZ soon came and Riku donned the Organization’s hood, hiding his shameful appearance and allowing Roxas to be taken back with them, to Twilight Town, sending the boy into a virtual world while they waited impatiently for Naminé to prepare the Nobody and his Other.
Summer Vacation
As Roxas was prepared to merge with Sora, Riku sat on the sidelines, watching as DiZ and Naminé went about their work, only participating whenever he needed to make sure that Roxas was remembering Sora at the right rate. As Axel began to breach the town’s walls, Riku went into the town at a higher rate, taking some keepsakes of Roxas’ and pressing questions at him. Soon enough he was almost constantly in the world, fighting off the Nobodies breaking in and keeping Naminé from revealing too much to Roxas. Finally, as the time to Sora’s awakening grew nearer, Riku confronted DiZ, questioning the man’s motives in all of this. When he heard that DiZ was only in it for revenge, Riku was disgusted and angry, and when the man ordered him to dispose of Naminé, Riku instead handed her to Axel, allowing her to escape with a fellow renegade.
Help from the Shadows
Despite the fact that Sora was finally awake and searching almost desperately for him, Riku was incredibly careful to keep his distance from the boy, instead keeping tabs on Kairi and Axel, making sure that everything was proceeding well. Despite the fact that Riku wanted nothing more than to fight by Sora’s side, he was still stuck in Ansem’s form. How could he possibly face his friends wearing the enemy’s face after all the things he’d done to them?
So instead, Riku helped from the shadows. He pleaded with Mickey not to tell Sora anything about his current status, and although the King told Sora he was in contact with Riku, the brunet seemed to understand and kept his distance. However, as much as Riku would have liked to follow Sora closer and help him out as much as possible, things were unfolding in a rather unpredictable way. In one of his routine check-ins at Destiny Islands, Riku found that Axel was approaching Kairi, trying to find any way to get Sora to turn into a heartless again and recreate Roxas. Borrowing Pluto for a while, Riku sent the dog through the darkness, opening portals as needed for the animal to lead Kairi away from Axel and into Twilight Town, where Riku knew she would meet Sora’s friends. As much as Riku would have liked to stay and make sure Kairi was safe, he had to return to the realm of darkness as Sora sunk into it, leaving a package containing sea-salt ice cream and a picture of Roxas and his friends, raising questions and prompting Sora to remember his Nobody. Unfortunately, in that time of absence Kairi was finally found by Axel and taken out of Riku’s sight.
A short while later Riku arrived in the Land of Dragons, intent on warning the Emperor of a Heartless Dragon Xigbar was sending to the town. However, he timed his arrival poorly, and ended up surprising Sora. He was forced to defend himself in a short battle in which Sora recognized his weapon, withdrawing slightly and questioning Riku’s identity. Riku used the confusion to escape, making his way down to the Palace to warn the Emperor before the Dragon and Sora could make it there. Unfortunately, his unique personality and “respect” to the Emperor had Sora convinced it was him.
Not wanting to risk further discovery, Riku faded into the background, letting Sora continue his journey as he tried to find a way into the World that Never Was in order to try and save Kairi once he realized that she had been taken by Saïx. Finally, just as Sora entered the world, Riku sensed a change and broke into the world, helping Naminé save Kairi as Saïx surprised them. After a quick thank you from Naminé Riku’s retreat was stopped by Kairi. Reluctantly he allowed her to remove his hood, expecting her to be disgusted by his form. However, her ability to see who he truly was surprised him enough to follow her around, keeping her safe as she made her way down to where Sora had finally entered the castle.
The Final Battles
Forced to follow and keep his reckless friends safe, Riku joins Kairi and Sora in fighting off hordes of Heartless, even providing Kairi with a keyblade so she could finally join the fight. As Kairi finally made her way to Sora and the two reunited, Riku attempted to make his escape again, this time getting the portal actually open and active before Kairi latched onto him, dragging Sora over to get a real look at him. Riku waited nervously as Sora tried to see who he truly was, and when his friend dropped to his knees, crying, Riku couldn’t help but feel true relief for the first time in so long.
However, that didn’t change the fact that Riku was still overcome with guilt at his own weakness, both recently and during their first battles. However, he still follows Sora and the others through the different floors until finally, near the top of the building they reunited with the King and DiZ. To say that DiZ’s true identity had come as a surprise to Riku would have been an understatement, but there was no time to reflect on it as he activated a machine designed to encode Kingdom Hearts into data. As the machine overloaded and exploded, creating countless of Heartless at the base of the castle as well as engulfing the heroes in a burst of light, Ansem’s appearance and the darkness in Riku’s heart was melted away.
It took a bit of convincing from Sora and the King for Riku to risk taking off his blindfold, but as soon as he did and found that the darkness within him was no stronger, he finally shed the cloak he had been wearing since Sora went to sleep and took that middle path again, finally balancing out his powers and finally fighting at Sora’s side.
Together they ascended the last few flights of stairs to face Xemnas. Sora was called off to fight alone, and Riku stayed with the others, calling for Sora but otherwise unable to do anything more. Finally, Sora stumbled out of wherever Xemnas had taken him and the Nobody in question vanished into Kingdom Hearts. However, the worlds provided them with a door, and together the three keyblade wielders (Mickey, Sora, and Riku) unlocked the door and pushed forward, determined to end this once and for all. They fought again, and Xemnas appeared to be gone for good, leaving them trapped within the strange world. Riku attempted to create a portal to leave, but found it to be impossible now that he no longer had such a close tie to the darkness within him. However, Naminé appeared before them, opening a door to Destiny Islands. Relieved, Riku and Sora waited for the others to proceed, but just as they were about to leave, Xemnas resurfaced and the door closed. Together the two pushed forward, fighting battle after battle with the Nobody until finally they seemed to be reaching the end of the battle. By then they were both tired, sheer determination the only thing keeping them going. Riku took a heavy hit for Sora, one that had been intended to finish the keyblade wielder off. However harmful it was to Riku, it provided just the opportunity they needed to end everything. Both boys clutched Sora’s keyblade and shot a beam of light, finally ending Xemnas.
However, that wasn’t the end of it. Within seconds they were surrounded by Dusks intent on finishing them off. Both braced for an attack, faces set in grim determination, but the Nobodies melted into nothing, leaving the teens alone in the darkness.
With the battle over, with everything over, Riku finally allowed himself to collapse, intent on giving up right then and there. However, Sora’s never-ending optimism had him up and supported by his friend, and as they walked on they found themselves at the supposed end of everything, collapsing tiredly in the Dark Meridian. There the two finally reconciled with each other, saying things that should have been said one year ago, before the entire mess had started. Riku admitted that he had always wanted to be like Sora, and Sora said the same thing. And finally, they were just two teens relaxing. Riku was still feeling guilt, and probably always would, but the fact that he and Sora were talking like nothing had happened between them, like nothing had changed… it was enough to put the teen’s mind at rest.
Suddenly, something hit against his legs, washed up by the water, and Riku pulled a small bottle out of the ocean, opening it and reading the letter inside, handing it to Sora with a smirk. As the younger teen read the letter a door opened, and Riku pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the pain of his wound. He stepped forward towards the light… and slipped.