Void

In his final moments before they fade Riku reaches out to his other self. He grabs him by the neck, digs his fingers in as deep as they will go. His chest burns, throat seared and tongue on fire. Everything inside him feels like it will burst, explode outward and render him nothing.

He's got seconds before he's sent back in time, back to Castle Oblivion with no memory of this. He's got seconds before the other Riku, his other self, slips back into the shadows he's sentenced himself to—back into the abyss replicas go to when they die.

It's so hard to speak when all he wants to do is kill—but what good would that do, to kill the thing you're going to become? Time won't change and this—this—is his destiny, slipping into darkness with glassy eyes and a pathetic smile.

The fact he can't change his fate makes him want to scream, rip his own head off, tear his own heart out. The fact that nothing he does will mean anything, that he's destined to be no more than a shadow chokes him. There's only one question he can ask.

"Why?" He snarls, as the world around them opens in twin wounds—their separate paths of darkness and time coming to claim them.  "Why her? Why him? We aren't him no matter what you say! Why don't we get to live too?"

His other self says nothing, his smile so serene Riku wants to strangle it off his face. He could, he's got just enough time, but there's no point. They'll both be gone in moments anyway.

"I want to live," he hisses. "Don't you get it? I wanted to live." It comes choked and shame burns him, the tears in his eyes humiliating.

And oh, he didn't think it could get worse but it does. The other him, the other replica reaches out to touch his face, wipe his tears away with his thumb. His smile no longer seems serene but miserable, and it's a misery beyond Riku's understanding. 

When he speaks all he says is, "I know. I wanted to live too."

"Then why? Why give up our body for her?"

"I promised," he says, "I promised to protect her."

"Why?" Riku screams.

"Because she's...just like us. Who would choose her? Who would choose us? No one would, not over people who are real, and when I realized that I knew...no matter what she'd done to me, I was going to protect her."

His chest aches and Riku doesn't know if he wants it to stop. It hurts, but it's proof he's alive. He shakes his head, feels his memories unraveling, feels time unraveling around him as it prepares to put him back in his place. "I don't want to be you," he gasps, "I don't want to go back. That other me, that other you—I'm not him. I want to live! I deserve to live! Why, why, why!?"

His voices catches and he's almost gone, slipping down the path through which he must return. Before him he can see his other self—his future self—fading back into darkness. Will he disappear entirely this time, he wonders, or will he be left wandering that forsaken realm until he gives in and is consumed?

Will the other Riku chase him?

Will anyone?

He'll never have the chance to be his own self, will have to merge and walk the path that leads him here—will have to become the Riku he looks upon now. As much as he loathes him he can only hope, plead for his rescue, plead that the original Riku will decide this pathetic existence is worth saving. This thing, with his face, his name, his destiny.

Will anyone love him enough to do that?

Riku knows the answer. He can see it in the other's eyes, emptiness rushing in to fill the cracks.

Broken, worthless thing.

"The world can do without us," his other self says, "without me, without you."

Riku screams and time consumes him.