About

Kingdom Hearts II

DiZ told Riku that the only way to awaken Sora was to unite him with Roxas, his Nobody. Roxas was created when Sora lost his heart for a short time in the past. The body and soul of Sora came together without the heart to form Roxas. But even though Sora regained his body and soul, Roxas still lived on, forever questioning his existence and why the keyblade had come to him. Sora and Roxas were, in a way, different pieces of the same person. After finding out that he had to unite the two, Riku left immediately, wanting to do whatever he could for Sora's sake.

When Riku encountered Roxas he didn't want to fight him. At first he couldn't believe Roxas was Sora's Nobody. During the entire fight (shown in the KHII: Final Mix version) Riku only defended himself, making no move to hurt Roxas. Finally, Riku tested him, by saying something that only Sora would respond to. Roxas responded as Sora would, and Riku decided that he would have to believe DiZ's words. Being in the land of darkness, Riku had the disadvantage in the fight. And Riku had already knocked Roxas out once, but couldn't bring himself to take the final blow. Instead, Riku unleashed the power of darkness to end things quickly, and even then, he used a minion to take hold of Roxas rather than using his own hands to do it. After unleashing that much darkness, Riku took on the form of Xehanort's Heartless (known as "Ansem" in previous games.) For the majority of the story, Riku would remain in this form, helping Sora in secret but never showing his face. He never wanted Sora to know what he did for his sake or that he was forced to sacrifice his true form to unleash the darkness, and also made King Mickey promise never to tell.

Riku managed to return to his original form upon the destruction of a machine that was intended to control hearts. Riku, who had long ago strengthened his heart to a degree much higher than it was originally, was once again a keyblade master. Once again he battled by Sora's side to save the universe, and even takes a life threatening blow to save Sora's life. In the end, Riku and Sora discuss how strong their friendship is and how much each of them wanted to be like the other. A year older, Riku is now a much wiser, more caring, and more humble person than in the past. As is stated earlier in the story, he has a strong heart that no darkness can eclipse.