Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Love of Fallen Angels ❯ Remember ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Blanket Disclaimer for Fic: I no own- you no sue me for my pocket lint, okay? I have no money- I just enjoy playing with the characters.

A/N: Sorry if some of them are OOC- especially the Organization XIII members. Don't know too much about them- it's been a while since I played. I know this has been done to death, but hopefully I'm putting a new spin on things.
Hope you all enjoy!

Love of Fallen Angels- Part 1

Remember

Riku sat silently on his bed in his Destiny Island apartment, a vacant look in his beautful green eyes as he stared at his hands.

'They... they're gone.' Riku thought to himself, blinking. Not that he hadn't expected it- no, he had known that they would be- but it still hurt to find out just how far he had fallen.

'They took my wings because I gave into the darkness. I gave in...' Riku repeated in his mind.
Riku had a secret- he wasn't human.

He was a guardian angel, sworn to protect Sora.

'But... why did they take my wings? Was what I did really so terrible?' Riku asked himself, standing and walking over to the open window. Moments ago, he had tried to grow his beautiful silvery-white wings and fly for the first time in two years, but his wings had not sprouted when he had called them. He had tried three times, but he had remained grounded each time. He knew that he would be punished, of course- guardian angels were the highest level of being, and were granted temporary mortal lives in order to protect the ones most deserving. He had violated law and had nearly killed the one he was assigned to protect. Still, that wasn't worth losing two wings over- at most he would have lost one and the other would have turned black. The loss of an angel's wings was the highest form of punishment and dishonor, the convicted angel losing a good deal of the power that came with your wings before being banished from heaven and trapped in a mortal existence.

Riku felt hollow, staring up at the stars and the clouds he could remember flying among. They seemed so distant now, his graceful human body feeling more like an iron cage he couldn't escape from.

'Was it something I did in Kingdom Hearts?' Riku asked himself. His memories of the past year- the year he spent trapped in darkness before being freed by Sora- were a blank. Frustrated, Riku walked back to his bed and lay down, back purposefully facing the window.

'It's no use dwelling over it.' Riku thoguht, even his logical side sounding bitter. Suddenly tired, Riku stifled a yawn and closed his eyes, sinking into what he hoped would be a peaceful oblivion.

*Dream Sequence*

Riku walked, the only sounds his heavy breathing and the sharp 'clack' of his footsteps on an invisible trail. A light grew before his eyes- black and sparking like lightening. It was small, but...

Riku was frightened of it. Eyes wide, he tried to dodge it, but too late. The ball of lightening hit his arm, a white flash blinding him.

'What the-?' Riku thought, blinking twice at the odd room he found himself in.

"It failed." a disinterested voice said from behind him. Riku spun around, the comfortable weight of Way To The Dawn settling in his hand as he crouched into a fighting stance.

To his surprise, it was not Riku that the speaker was talking to.

"You sent it to Kingdom Hearts?" An angel with silver hair and wings asked, his amber eyes gleaming. He wore a black cloak with a hood, clothing only wore by-

'Organization XIII- but why is Xemnas here?' Xemnas was the leader of Organization XIII- a group of powerful angels that hunted down the minions of Kingdom Hearts- what Riku was sure some called 'Hell'. They also hunted down stray angels, guarenteeing that any angel banished from heaven would be alone- Organization XIII played dirty and had been known to kidnap friends of banished angels in order to kill the angel.

'And why did he want to send a soul to Kingdom Hearts?' Curious, Riku glanced at the first speaker, mouth going dry upon seeing the man's face.

'Dr. Hojo?' For some reason, angels had to get check-up every month- and Dr. Hojo was the one who did it. A thin, greasy man, not a single angel had looked forward to their checkup. Riku had always felt uneasy around the man- like he was some lab rat Hojo found vaguely interesting.

"Of course. Now we just need a powerful heart to open the door and take that power for ourselves. I need to run more tests before I can make a proper scale of the hearts power. I need more angels."

"Is that all? I hate to see your work on them going to waste." Xemnas said. "I've heard that it is difficult to experiment on human souls to produce angels. And I know not many survive undamaged, or I'd be able to take this pitiful realm with my own army." Xemnas said casually.

"At least you don't expect me to turn them back into humans. That is still difficult... but I thank you for the test-subjects."

"Have any of them survived the experiment?"

"No. They simply turned into the physical equivilent of their patchwork soul." Hojo said, souding slightly disappointed and disinterested. Riku was frozen in shock.

'We can't be human again?' For as long as he could remember, he had been told that he had been a blessed human that had been unable to pass on, and would help others until he was deemed eligible for human reincarnation to live out his life and then die to go to his eternal rest.
'Angels are creatures in limbo- not dead nor alive, but will one day be human and cross over into heaven upon dying.' How many times had Riku heard that?

"I will have more test-subjects for you soon. There are a few angels that are... suspicious. I think they may have found out." Xemnas said. Hojo scowled.

"And we can't let him find out- he would probably forbid us from creating more angels." he said.

"Ruining a soul to create a powerful abomination loyal to us and believing the lies we feed them- using research he started- should not be considered a crime. We aren't hurting humans, after all. They're no longer human."

The words echoed in Riku's head as Xemnas stood and walked towards the door of the small room.
Just before Xemnas left, Riku could have sworn he saw Xemnas look at him.

'Not... human?' A piercing whistle sounded, a bright flash blinding him.

When Riku could open his eyes again, he was aware of an intense pain- like hellfire- burning his back. It felt like his flesh was melting and evaporating.

Riku gasped, falling to his knees as the pain became white-hot. Tired and sick from spending too much time in darkness, as well as the knowledge he had just gained, Riku was unable to keep conscious and blacked out.

When he came to, a sweet voice was calling his name gently and a smooth hand was shaking his shoulder.

"Riku... It's Riku, Riku's here... you're really here..." the voice said, two drops of water landing on Riku's bare shoulder. "I looked everywhere for you..."

"We have to go- I think I hear the Heartless coming." another voice spoke, souding a bit deeper than the voice that had woken Riku up.

"Roxas, help me carry him."

"Sora, Roxas! We have to go- Namine and I can't hold it!" A girl, one Riku recognized...

"We're coming Kairi!" Riku felt his body being lifted quickly but gently by two pairs of hands.

"It'll be all right Riku- we've found you." Sora's voice whispered in his ear and Riku felt himself transported outside, a flash of white and the song of a tropical bird the last thing he remembered.

*End Sequence*

Riku sat up, breath harsh and body soaking in cold sweat.

'Was that a dream...' he wondered, carefully calming his body. '... or a memory?' Even as he asked himself the question, memories of his 'dream' assaulted his mind, words echoing in his head and reminding him that he was not human.

He knew then that it had not been a simple dream.

'Sora told me I was unconscious when he found me...' Riku recalled, as well as the vague sense of deja vu when Sora had told him earlier that the brunette had looked everywhere for Riku.

'I can't ever be human again... even without my wings, I'm still...' Riku swallowed around the lump in his throat, staring hollowly at his bedroom wall. '... an abomination. A freak...'

A/N: How was it? Riku wasn't too OOC, right? He gets back to acting more like himself in a bit- but hey, how would you take it? 'Oh. My wings are gone. That sucks.' or 'This isn't happening to me'?
I'll update as soon as I can- if we all like it so far? It gets better (I think- I'm not exactly the best to be objective about this!)
Sorry for some spelling errors- no beta or spellcheck.