Guiding Key: Worldline
“Pfft, I hate computers.”
Isa glared over his shoulder at Lea as they approached the old mansion in Twilight Town, Roxas and Xion in tow. “Will you shut up? Riku should be here soon. Where’s Pence?”
“Riiight here!” A new voice sing-songed as Pence walked up, a big grin on his face as he stopped in front of the group.
“What’s up, Pence?” Roxas offered, grinning back at him as they clapped their opposite hands together, a friendly high five of greeting. “We need your help. We—“
Each pair of eyes swiveled toward the skyline when they heard the whir of the Gummiship overhead and saw it land somewhere in the vicinity of Station Heights.
Roxas nodded. “Riku. You sure you can do this, Pence?”
“Possibly. You guys didn’t give me much to go on when you called,” Pence replied. “It was easy enough to open a portal to the alternate Twilight Town with its mapping algorithm already in the system. But you’re asking me to try and connect the computer portal with an entirely different set of worlds than our own? Without even a technological footprint to follow.”
“We have a lead,” Isa said. “It’s Sora’s Gummiphone. Riku isn’t certain if the phones will work outside of our own Worldline.”
“But,” It was Xion now, “even if it isn’t working, we figured you might be able to trace it if Sora still has it on him. At least give Riku a....general launching off point.”
“Get him to a Worldline in the metaphorical ballpark of where Sora might be,” Lea chimed. “Got it memorized?”
Pence scratched his cheek thoughtfully, before adjusting his headband and shrugging with a negcous chuckle. “I mean, I can try. If the Gummiphone isn’t working, it might be impossible to track. It needs to be pinging off of a working cellular network tracker—the towers in town, the satellites when you guys are traveling between worlds. If he’s not near any of our Worldline’s trackers...”
“That’s where I thought my assistance might come in handy.”
All heads swiveled when Riku approached, walking next to a graying wizard with a pointed hat, an intelligent smile and a carpet bag. He waved at them.
“Had to make a stop in Radiant Garden to pick up an old friend,” Riku said. “If Sora’s phone isn’t working, Merlin’s magic might give it just enough of a kick to track him.”
“You hope,” Xion said, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I hope,” Riku replied, looking up at the mansion. His eyes immediately trailed to Namine’s white room, and his heart clenched. “She didn’t come?”
“She said it’d be too hard to say goodbye again,” Roxas answered, his pursed lips crooked to the side. “Sorry, Riku.”
“It’s okay,” he replied. “I talked to her last night.” He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. “Let’s get this over with. DiZ’s old computer room always did give me the creeps.”
Roxas snorted. “It just pisses me off.”
“We know,” Riku and Lea said in unison, and Isa covered up a small laugh with his fist, pretending to cough.
They entered the decrepit old house, and Riku tried to ignore the memories of months of walking through the rooms with Namine, both wearing his own face, and wearing Ansem’s. He missed her more being here, but also felt the darkness of his past haunt him as he relived those days. He knew who he was now but it still didn’t stop him from carrying his past in the back of his mind.
The group climbed the stairs and paused when Riku stopped at the top, his eyes trained on the hallway going in the opposite direction
“Library is this way, man,” Lea said, and then Riku shook his head.
“I’ll be right there,” he said. “Get everything started.”
“Riku, don’t—“ Roxas started, realizing where he was looking, only to be halted by a sharp glare.
“Go,” Riku said again, more firmly this time. He started walking down the hallway toward the room on the other end. Roxas sighed abd followed him, glancing st Isa, Xion and Lea. “Go on ahead. We’ll catch up.”
Lea nodded and shuffled everyone into the library, just as Riku reached for the door into the room on the other end. As he swung it open, a burst of stark white hit both of their eyes like bright paper or fresh snowfall. Riku paused, studying the room as his heart was flooded with memories.
Roxas stopped behind him. Riku never turned, his eyes trained on the drawings on the wall. Finally, still without turning, he murmured, “Do you love her?”
Roxas crossed his arms over his chest and approached a drawing of him in his Organization coat, standing next to Sora. His brows furrowed. “I thought I was supposed to. Because Sora loves Kairi.”
Riku finally turned, but his eyes trailed downward to the clean white table, brushing his fingers over it as he remembered talking to Namine about promises. “And now?”
“Now? I think everyone is content having their own hearts. Making their own decisions. Deciding who to love on their own,” Roxas replied, finally looking at Riku. “I’m not Sora. And Namine is not Kairi. You jealous?”
Riku, eyes still trained on the table surface, chuckled and shook his head, but: “Yeah, actually. I always figure it’d be you, or The Other Me. Never...me.”
Roxas approached Riku, causing the young man to lift his eyes finally, the green orbs widening at how familiar the friendly, encouraging gaze from Roxas was. It was Sora’s.
“Don’t sell yourself short. You deserve to be happy,” Roxas said, and laughed, “is I’m sure what Sora would say right now. But he’s right. If she picked you, there’s a good reason. Besides, I don’t think of Namine that’s ay. I realize now I don’t have to. She’s a really good friend—and all I want is for her to be happy.”
Riku chuckled, and nodded as he gazed around the room one final time.
“Which means you better come back to her,” Roxas instructed, his voice firmer now, more earnest. “Or I’ll hunt you down myself.”
Riku laugher and raised an eyebrow at him. “I think there’s more of Sora in you than you realize.”
Roxas rolled his blue eyes skyward, but grinned. “Guess I’m pretty lucky then.”
///////
Pence looked up from the computer when he heard footfalls coming down the stairs. Riku placed a hand on the back of the computer chair and leaned in. “Any luck?”
Pence pointed to Lea’s phone, plugged into the main console, trying to connect to Sora’s. “It keeps disconnecting. I can’t power the portal if it doesn’t go through. But...”
All heads swiveled to Merlin, who pulled out his wand and smiled. “Just in time, m’boy. I’m going to see if I can boost the signal beyond our Worldline.”
“Just don’t fry it like you did Cid’s computer,” Roxas said, a few of Sora’s memories still present inside him.
“Says the boy who played Keyblade Struggle on DiZ’s computer in the other Twilight Town,” Riku teased back with a smirk, causing Roxas to stick his tongue out at him.
“Just stand back and watch a professional work!” Merlin replies, and then, carefully, sent a jolt of Thunder through the phone. Everyone looked at Pence, who shook his head.
Merlin’s harrumphed, and then bumped the magic up to Thundara, careful not to pour it into the phone and computer all at once—he had learned since CID. Still, nothing. Finally, casting a small amount of Reflect on the phone’s circuitboard with some intricate swishes, and then pouring Thundaga directly into it, Pence’s eyes lit up as Merlin’s magic seemed to do the trick.
“I’ve got a signal! It’s super faint—hold onto that!” Pence said to Merlin and then began to type furiously, causing the portal to flare to life, not to the other Twilight Town but to an alternate set of worlds far and away outside of their own. “Haha! It’s open!”
The entire group exchanged glances, before their eyes landed on Riku. He held up his hand and his new keyblade appeared within his fingers. He stared at it for a moment before nodding, allowing it to vanish as he looked at the sparkling portal to worlds unknown. He looked at his friends—his friends.
“I’m going to bring Sora back,” he said.
Everyone was quiet, and then Roxas smiled, and nodded. “Yeah. We know.”
Riku smirked back at him, glad for his Sora-Like confidence in him. He said nothing else, but thanked them all with his eyes. Thanked them for being his friends. For believing in him. Finally, his eyes went back to Roxas again. “Take care of her.”
“I will.”
Riku wavered, But only for a moment, as he though about Namine, and then he turned, took one final look over his shoulder at them, and dove through.
That was when everything went black.
/////
When he awoke again, his gloved hands pushed themselves up on wet cement. Everything was dark, the only lights those of the street lamps and dimly lit skyscrapers.
He stood, rubbing his head and looked around. Yep. This definitely wasn’t King Mickey’s domain anymore.
Well, he though to himself, Sora’s here somewhere. Welcome to the new Worldline.