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Characters in the AU; a reference guide (OUTDATED, PENDING UPDATES)
Here I'll be posting some information on the other characters in the AU. This should come in handy on the off chance that someone actually wanted to play somebody. Sooo, here we go!
Riku Replica: A perfect copy of Riku, right down to his abilities and personality. He was created shortly after Xemnas' fight with Riku in Hollow Bastion based on the data collected and immediately given a set of false memories. Unlike in canon, he never had a period of freedom as a blank slate.
These memories generally follow canon with a few big changes. First of all, Kairi does not exist at all, replaced by Naminé, a girl who grew up alongside Sora and himself. When they were very little, 'Riku' made a promise to protect Naminé no matter what. There was a meteor shower at the time, and Naminé gave him her good luck charm. Since then, he's always been her protector.
His relationship with Sora is roughly the same in his memories. He'd still tease him and give him a hard time, all while assuming the role of best friend. The main difference is the fact that he was pretty open about his feelings for Naminé, always trying his best to impress her. In those memories, he opened the door not out of jealousy but out of curiosity.
Here we have our next big difference: rather than passing her heart onto Sora, Naminé disappeared during the night of the storm. While Riku still wound up traveling with Donald and Goofy and his experiences in the other worlds largely match up with the real Riku's, he was much more determined to find his friends, Naminé especially, since she was hardly a fighter.
Sora still ended up with Maleficent, tricked into thinking she and her goons were his friends, and the struggle between Sora and Riku is largely untouched in the AU. The big change is that Naminé is still missing, meaning that Maleficent promised that gathering the princesses would simply help him find her.
Still, events follow the real Riku's up until Hollow Bastion, when things take a drastic turn for the worst. Rather than willingly sacrifice himself, the Sora in Repliku's memories was attacked by another Riku-- a replica created by DiZ that used the Dark Keyblade to tear Sora's heart out.
This replica disappeared before Riku could destroy him, and he reluctantly continued on his quest, taking out Ansem. However, he left the door open so that he could find Naminé and Sora. Like the real Riku, he used a dark corridor to get them out of the endless abyss, but the trio soon got separated.
This left Riku wandering for what seemed like an eternity, until he stumbled upon a mysterious castle and a man in black. This man promised Riku that he would reunite him with his friends, revealing that Sora was still very much alive, but reduced to an empty shell. He also revealed that Naminé had been found and that he would gladly bring him to her, so long as he cooperated. Of course, he also warned him that the replica that stole Sora's heart had stolen his identity, all his other friends, and all on behalf of an enigma named DiZ.
The two met again in the World that Never was, where Xemnas explained that, so long as he used his Keyblade to destroy the Heartless, Sora's heart would return in time. Longing to restore his best friend and hungry for revenge, Riku agreed to work with the Organization, but only out of necessity.
And so it is with these memories that the Replica begins his twisted revenge scheme, traveling alongside Sora's Nobody (or XIII) in order to turn people against the real Riku, all while performing his heart collection duties. First, they strike Hollow Bastion, scaring the townspeople and attacking Leon. He does so with a heavy heart, as it hurts going against his friends, even with his hatred of 'the Fake'.
Of course, XIII encounters Riku and friends soon after their little scare, and the Replica later rushes into the fray, isolating Riku and Kairi, that way Donald and Goofy would remain unharmed. After the fight, he leaves with XIII, assuring Riku that they'll meet again.
Between missions, he often spends time with his two best friends, hanging out around Neverland, where they'd gaze at the stars together. At times, he tries to scare Organization members away from Naminé, most notably Axel, Larxene, and Marluxia. Given the circumstances, though, they make it through all right. Around his two best friends, he's far less bitter and resentful, trying his best to keep XIII in high spirits despite the circumstances.
After Hollow Bastion, he and XIII end up going to Agrabah with the mission to eliminate a powerful Heartless. However, the Replica makes a diversion, leading XIII into the Cave of Wonders, where they acquire Jafar's lamp. While Jafar tries to manipulate the Replica and XIII, the Replica has his own ideas and strikes a deal with Jafar. One of his wishes will be used to bring back 'Sora's' heart, the other to possibly get back at Aladdin and 'the Fake'. The third would possibly be used to free Jafar... if he hadn't had his fingers crossed.
They make it out of the cave and the Replica makes his first wish, but, to his disappointment, it fails. Jafar claims that he cannot restore Sora's heart because it belongs to a Heartless with human-like intelligence. In short, taking the heart would effectively kill the Heartless, something a genie cannot do. The Replica refuses to believe this even when Jafar shows a faint image of Sora's humanoid Heartless. Irritated with Jafar's taunting, he locks him back in the lamp when the Kurt Zisa appears and proceeds to tackle his mission...
Too bad Riku and his friends arrive.
Throughout the fight, the Replica keeps bickering with Riku, trying to one-up him at every chance. However, when the fight gets rough, he begrudgingly works alongside Riku's gang. But when Riku delivers the finishing blow and starts questioning his and XIII's memories while Donald and Goofy talk over him, calling him the phony, the Replica becomes infuriated. In his rage, he releases Jafar from the lamp and uses his second wish to "drown the Fake in an ocean of sand". Oh, and Jafar complies... sending a tidal wave of sand straight at the group, the Replica included.
Left with no other choice, he and XIII flee Agrabah, leaving Riku to handle Jafar. When he returns to the World that Never Was, he lies to Saïx about what happened, neglecting to mention what happened with Riku and Jafar altogether. However, XIII spills the beans to Naminé, and she expresses concern at his recklessness towards Riku. In hopes of cheering her up, he decides to take her and XIII out to Twilight Town in order to kick back and grab some ice cream.
They grab their treats and head to the station in hopes of watching the sunset, but the Replica spots Riku up above. Deciding to take Naminé's feelings to heart, he creates a corridor to take his friends elsewhere-- to Neverland, specifically the Big Ben clock tower. And after seeing how much they enjoy the stars, he decides to make it their own special hangout after missions...
But there's a catch; when they return to the castle, Saïx confronts the Replica and XIII, having discovered what really happened in Agrabah. Questioning the Replica's loyalty to the Organization and his skills, Saïx assigns him a mission in Monstro. Alone. Should he fail, he may end up having to face additional training and work away from XIII For a while. Disappointed, but left with no other choice, he decides to play along.
It's there that he bumps into Pinocchio, who seems completely clueless about 'the Fake' and his actions. He actually considers him to be Riku... something which gives the Replica faint glimmer of hope. After meeting Geppetto and learning their predicament, he offers to help rescue them from the whale as soon as he eliminates his target-- the Parasite Cage. Thus, he takes off to hunt down the Heartless with Pinocchio at his side.
Unfortunately, Riku and his friends arrive, putting a damper on his mood. Furious, he picks a fight with Riku, acting as if he's there to seize the glory all while trying to keep Pinocchio on his side. After dropping hints at what happened to 'Sora,' he takes off with Pinocchio to finish his mission. Of course, Riku's crew follows, prompting the Replica to try and slow them down by launching some attacks.
They all stumble upon the Parasite Cage after a while, and the Replica stubbornly tries to fight it on his own. He outright states that he wanted to play the hero again, only for Riku to ruin everything. But much to the Replica's surprise, Riku allows him to fight, sending Donald and Goofy down to assist him, while he watches over Pinocchio. This leaves the Replica at a loss of words. Why would the Fake-- the same Fake that ruined his life and stole Sora's heart want to help?
When the fight ends, the Parasite Cage retreats, and the Replica pursues him straight away. All the while, he contemplates what happened with Riku, eventually convincing himself that he did it just to look good. After all, there's no way he'd actually want to aid him. And by the time Riku's group catches up with him inside Monstro's stomach, he reacts with blind rage, launching an attack and telling Riku and co. to back off. He refuses to let them steal his mission from him.
In his rage, he vents about how all his friends, not even Pinocchio, have abandoned him except Sora and Naminé. He even goes so far as to state that XIII is indeed Sora's Nobody and hints at the Organization's goals. But before his taunting gets out of hand, the Parasite Cage drops down on him, trapping him inside. And with so little room, he's unable to fight his way out...
For the first time, the Replica truly fears for his life.
But then the unbelievable happens. The 'Fake' actually fights to free him. He saves his life, once again putting the Replica's feelings into question. Though at first he yells at Riku once he's finally freed, the sudden reaction in Monstro's stomach gives him little time to bicker. The whole place starts to rumble and flood. And, in spite of his feelings, he aids Riku's group in their escape. In return, Riku offers to let him save Pinocchio and Geppetto, once again bewildering the poor Replica.
After dropping Geppetto and Pinocchio in Traverse Town, the Replica heads to the clock tower in Neverland and breaks down. He just can't understand why such a horrible 'Fake' would save him. How someone who coldheartedly and singlehandedly ruined his life could act so kind. When his friends arrive, he continues to question his experience, outright admitting to XIII and Naminé just how scared he was. How he didn't want to die.
In the end, they calm him down by showing how grateful they are that he made it back. And while the Replica's left with uncertainties about Riku, he's at least grateful that his life didn't end inside the belly of a whale.
Some time after the events of Monstro, Xemnas calls the Replica to the top of the castle to discuss a special mission within Castle Oblivion. Longing to uncover its secrets, he asks the Replica to take time to explore the castle at his own convenience. Should he oblige, he will get special rewards, including free time to spend with his friends.
Seeing no harm in it, the Replica agrees and returns to the grey area, where Saïx gives him his next real mission-- to investigate the Heartless shortage in Halloween Town alongside XIII and find a solution.
There, they end up bumping into Riku yet again. Still troubled by the events in Monstro, the Replica tries to put up a typical cool front, giving his usual taunts to Riku about him being a Fake, trying to steal more of his friends, and all that jazz. But when an explosion goes off in the distance, he immediately follows without another word.
When he reaches the outskirts of town, he orders XIII to stand guard and keep Riku's friends from following him. Soon, he reaches the ruins of Oogie's manor and encounters a terrfying Heartless called the Leechgrave. And, as he expected, Riku appears shortly after.
At the start of the fight, the Replica keeps telling Riku to back off and let him deal with the Heartless. It's his mission, and he doesn't need the extra hand. However, he eases up on Riku as the fight progresses once he realizes just how much easier it is with the added help. Towards the tailend of the fight, Riku gets caught between the Leechgrave and its poison gas, and the Replica rushes in to take the hit.
... but he convinces himself that it was just as payback and because he can't let a Heartless do his dirty work.
When the Leechgrave's finally defeated, the Replica flees the scene, as he and XIII return to TWTNW. There, he continues to struggle over his conflicted feelings towards Riku. Between missions, he takes a little time to explore Castle Oblivion but comes up empty-handed. All the floors look the same and just seem to go on forever, with only Heartless lurking the halls.
Alone in the castle, he thinks back on his experiences with Riku and continues grappling with uncertainty. Unable to accept the 'Fake' as anything but an enemy, he starts to wonder if he should just take him out once and for all.
It all escalates when XIII returns from a trip to Neverland after encountering Riku and Kairi again. When XIII expresses confusion and concern towards their words, the Replica urges him to ignore them. To stop buying into their manipulation. And when Xemnas gives him the approval to do whatever he wishes with Riku, he decides to take matters into his own hands at last...
He makes a plan with XIII to lure Riku to Castle Oblivion all by himself... to ambush him.
With newfound determination, the Replica hurries to Traverse Town, where he encounters Riku and the others. Though he tries to convince Donald and Goofy to come back with him, they refuse, deciding to stick with who they consider to be the real Riku. Furious, he throws Riku a card and a note, beckoning him to Castle Oblivion, where they'll fight one-on-one...
To further convince himself he's on the right track, he discards his coat for the fight, donning an outfit identical to Riku's. Unfortunately, when Riku arrives, he's not alone, forcing XIII to keep the others busy while the two Rikus face one another inside.
Though Riku tries to talk peacefully with him, the Replica refuses to listen. He attacks in hopes that a fight will keep his worries at bay. And indeed, the battle keeps his mind focused on his target. The cause for all his suffering and all his doubts... Yet despite his rage, he still finds himself questioning his experiences with Riku in Monstro and Halloween Town. Silently wondering if killing him is right. Nonetheless, he presses on, ignoring his lingering doubts.
...until Naminé arrives.
She tries to reason with the two of them, but with Riku's darkness going wild and the Replica too distracted, her words fall on deaf ears. Even worse, with the two Rikus wearing identical clothing, it's not like Naminé knows which is which. And in an attempt to quell the fighting, she accidentally shatters Riku's heart, and reveals the truth for all to hear, including XIII, who follows Kairi and the others inside at the sound of Riku's screaming.
At first the Replica tries his hardest to deny Naminé's words, but when she keeps insisting that it's true, he's left utterly devastated. To find out that he was the fake all along leaves him torn, confused, and at a loss. Was he really a puppet all along? And did he make Riku's life miserable for nothing?
Outside the castle, after Riku and his friends depart, the group splits. XIII leaves all by himself in hopes of finding Sora and discovering who he is, leaving the Replica and Naminé to their own devices. With nowhere else to turn, they return to the World that Never Was. There, the two have a talk atop one of the skyscrapers.
Though Naminé offers to rewrite his memories again, that way he won't remember what he heard and the Organization won't try to destroy him, the Replica flat-out refuses, telling Naminé that what happened wasn't her fault. After everything he's experienced, he refuses to live a lie. Yet despite his disappointment, he assures her that his fake memories are still dear to him. That he intends to keep his promise all while trying to become his own person.
And so he rebels from the Organization, killing and absorbing Vexen, destroying all data on the Replica Project, and taking Naminé with them as they search for XIII together. With Riku out of commission and the replica data destroyed, the Organization has no choice but to let him live. After all, they need Kingdom Hearts.
This sums up his role in Act 2. For more info on his future role, check out![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
individuate. I'll put more detailed information later on!
--EVERYTHING AFTER THIS POINT IS PENDING UPDATES--
Naminé: In this AU, Naminé is never brought to Castle Oblivion, but her memory powers still get utilized by the Organization. In order to make both XIII and Riku's Replica compliant, they use her powers to implant false memories in the two of them, creating a fabricated life for them where Naminé takes the place of Kairi, and the three of them act as a sort of parallel to the Destiny Islands trio.
Of course, Naminé, like in canon, must live with the guilt that she's manipulated the minds and feelings of two completely innocent people. So, while she does try her best to put up a facade, she constantly questions what she's done when nobody else is looking, save for Axel, who often appears when both the Replica and XIII are off on missions. The two have an... odd dynamic, with Axel largely prodding her in the 'right' direction. At one point, he even convinces her to go find Riku in Holloween Town to set things right. Of course, she ends up chickening out when she overhears Riku ranting about what happened to XIII.
Still, that guilt continues to bother her, building and building over time. When at last the Replica decides to go fight Riku in Castle Oblivion, Axel once again appears to aid her, taking her directly to the castle so she can finally reveal the truth. And given that Riku's life is on the line, she has little reason to back down...
Except she ends up smashing Riku's heart on accident, when he nearly finishes the Replica. At that point, all bets are off, and she openly admits what she's done. Much to her surprise, though, nobody holds it against her. Even the Replica, who's crushed by her news, continues to stick up for her, holding true to his promise to protect her.
The two journey together for some time after Vexen's defeat, with the Replica always keeping his eyes out for her. He tries to cheer her up whenever he gets the chance, fully aware of her guilt complex, and the two develop a very close bond. Soon they do find XIII again, who has since taken the name "Roxas". For a while, they spend their carefree days together in Neverland, eventually adopting Xion as another friend.
More info to come later. You can check outindividuate for some rough ideas, though.
Aqua: Aqua's story follows Birth by Sleep from beginning to end, with her winding up in the Realm of Darkness for roughly a decade. There she wanders the endless hours all alone, with only Heartless to keep her company. However, sometime after the events of Act 2, she ends up encountering Sora. After an awkward introduction, she comes to realize that Sora, although a Heartless, is still very much the same boy he was all those years ago. Even in darkness, he still knows how to smile and manages to keep his friendly demeanor, giving her a whole new look at darkness as a whole.
What's more, she senses, just vaguely, the presence of Ven's light inside of him.
Sora eventually ends up offering her a ticket out of the Dark Realm, offering to help her search for Terra, all while hunting down a way to change back from Heartless form. From that point on, the two of them journey across worlds, using corridors of darkness to get from place to place. Along the way, Aqua helps fight off the Heartless that plague the worlds, seals Keyholes, and learns just how twisted the worlds have become since her fall into darkness.
I'm still working out the rest of her role from that point on. What I do know is that she'll end up meeting with Riku and Kairi when Sora finally decides to show himself. From that point on, she and Sora will join up with Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy, find a new home base (probably Traverse Town), and end up splitting off into groups to cover more ground and protect more worlds.
They'll all meet up in Hollow Bastion when the Organization attacks, sending armies of Heartless throughout the world to lure in all the active Keybearers. At that point, she'll encounter Xemnas, mistaking him for Terra at first glance. And Xemnas, fascinated by Aqua and getting faint Terra pings, will try and isolate her, gather information, and even lead her into the Chamber of Repose. However, Aqua soon realizes that he isn't really Terra, having been twisted by Xehanort's presence over time. Of course, she's still fiercely determined to try and find a way to save him.
She'll be with the main group (including Repliku, Xion, and possibly XIII) when they venture into Xemnas' artificial world, which takes on attributes of Land of Departure, the Keyblade Graveyard, TWTNW, and other worlds meshed together. What I've worked out at this point is that Xemnas will once again use the faint Terra memories he possesses to screw around with her.
Really, though, there's lots of room for interpretation at this point.
Xion: Xion came into being when Riku's heart shattered thanks to Naminé. When Kairi, Donald, and Goofy dragged him back to the old mansion, DiZ threw him into the Digital Twilight Town for safekeeping, all while taking a data dump of his fractured heart. It was from that heart that he created Xion, an imperfect and unstable replica of Riku that possessed his ability to wield a Keyblade. Because Kairi was his only memory unharmed, she took on her appearance and voice initially. Naturally, DiZ gave her the ironic X-anagram name as a means to mock the Organization.
Furthermore, he treated Xion as merely a disposable tool, giving her the mission to hunt down Naminé, drag her back to Twilight Town, and combat the Organization if she stumbled across them during her search.
Initially, she does follow these orders, traveling from world to world in search of Naminé. Along the way, she meets Roxas and befriends him, though she doesn't realize his connections to Naminé at the time. Then, later on, she arrives at the Neverland clock tower and attempts to take her for real, only to cross blades with Repliku/Xiruk. Although the two fought, in the end, they befriend one another, after Xion explains why she attacked in the first place.
At that point, she and the others come up with a plan to keep Naminé safe, all while fixing Riku. During her missions, Xion opts to sneak off and hang out with her new friends, pretending that she can't find them in the first place. All the while, Naminé begins repairing Riku's heart bit by bit. At first it's a pretty smooth operation, even if DiZ berates her for her failure to find Naminé. At least she's got a clear conscience and isn't bringing harm to her friends, right?
Well, a few months pass without too much trouble. Between missions, Xion spends time with Kairi, who she begins to look at as a sister-type figure. From time to time, she'll also hang out with Donald and Goofy. Of course, DiZ discourages such behavior, constantly reminding her not to forget her purpose. All the while, he forbids her to enter the simulation. At first, she doesn't question this order, though in time she starts to despise DiZ and the way he treats her. Longing for answers to who and what she is, she barges right into the digital Twilight Town.
Big Mistake.
Because Riku's heart data wound up meshing with the town, it leads to some twisted side effects by the time that Xion comes in. The data, having previously set visitors into a form from Riku's memory, has no idea what to make of Xion, toggling her between Riku and Kairi's appearances. Despite all this, she presses on, searching desperately for Riku.
...Except she gets a killer headache when the two finally come into contact and winds up fleeing the scene before long.
Luckily, she ends up back to normal upon leaving, just a little dizzy from the data jumbling. What she doesn't realize at the time, though, is that her data has already started to correct itself, shifting into a 'stabler' form.
As the weeks go by, she starts undergoing some changes. Her hair grows longer and silver streaks appear. Her eye color, too, changes. Before long, she begins to hide her face under a hood and spends less and less time with her friends.
Fearful of her changes, Xion ends up meeting with Roxas all alone at the clock tower, asking him what she should do. After all, she longs for answers about who she is even more than before. Roxas then tells her to go confront DiZ, offering to tag along. Sadly, things take a turn for the worse when they finally reach DiZ. After all, with Riku's heart nearing completion and Xion becoming more defiant, he has little patience to deal with her. As a result, he winds up throwing her into a corridor to the Realm of Darkness, the same way his apprentices did so long ago.
There she remains for what seems like an eternity, lonely and depressed. She goes through a serious breakdown as her data continues to 'fix' itself and she becomes increasingly unstable due to the discrepancies between Riku and Kairi's personalities and data. This leaves her wide open for the opportunistic Marluxia, who eventually discovers her and slowly begins to manipulate her for his cause.
He promises her that he can reunite her with her friends, so long as she assists him in ridding the Organization of undesirable individuals. Xion, having no one else to turn to, agrees to work with him, and she begins to hunt down Organization loyalists to destroy and absorb.
First she takes out Demyx, who refused to join Marluxia and Larxene due to their cruel behavior and out of 'fear' of getting eliminated. She gains his ability to create water clones, among other things.
Next, she takes down Lexaeus, whose strength and power of earth make her a force to be reckoned with.
She then proceeds to go after both Zexion and Xaldin, but Xaldin overpowers her, forcing her to flee, while Zexion uses his illusion to feign death.
Shortly after, Marluxia gives her the orders to kidnap Naminé. Though at first she's reluctant, he assures her that he only wants what's best for her friend and that it's all part of his promise to reunite them. Thus, she confronts Xiruk and Naminé in Traverse Town, using her powers to wear Xiruk down before she swipes Naminé and returns to Marluxia.
Later on, when all the heroes begin to journey to TWTNW, Marluxia gives Xion the orders to take out Xiruk and Roxas and absorb them. This news sets her off, but Marluxia points out that he's not backing down on his promise. After all, it is a way of 'reuniting' with them.
Xion does try to attack, only for Marluxia to use Naminé as a shield. He threatens to kill Naminé unless Xion complies, and so she (reluctantly) goes after her two friends. Of course, what Marluxia doesn't realize is that she has no plans to absorb them. Instead, she plans on letting them destroy her, that way she can't be his pawn any longer.
To accomplish this, she acts violent and irrational, asking the two who they see: Kairi or Riku. When Xiruk explains that he only sees 'Xion,' she nearly falters, but presses on in her attack. A fight soon follows, with Xiruk and Roxas overwhelming her in the end. However, Xiruk spares her, reminding her that he's a replica too, and he understands how she feels. Then, when she reveals that Marluxia has Naminé, he and Roxas hurry along, with Xion offering to be a distraction. Plus, she has a bone to pick with Marluxia by then.
Turns out that Axel has been sent on a special mission to take Marluxia out as well, and so the two tag-team Marluxia, eventually overwhelming and defeating him. With Marluxia finally defeated, she hurries over to her friends, apologizes profusely, and the four of them hurry along to meet with Riku and the others.
Around that time, DiZ tries to encode the bloated Kingdom Hearts as data, but it backfires miserably. Xion and the others happen to make it to him in time for him to issue an apology for everything he's done to her. Then, in a flash of light, the machine explodes, reverting Xion back to her 'original' form. Sadly, DiZ's machine does little to harm Kingdom Hearts in the long run, for it contains far more hearts than required for its completion.
And with Marluxia and DiZ out of he way, Xemnas has no reason to hold back. After making his grand appearance, he uses the power of Kingdom Hearts to begin crafting a new world, sending Xion, along with everyone else, flying out of TWTNW.
It takes some time to regroup and figure out a plan. Eventually, they all journey to the artificial world. Somewhere along the way, XIII dies, Naminé (possibly) ends up merging with Kairi, and by the time Xemnas is defeated, it's time to go back and close the door to Kingdom Hearts. With no place left to go, Xion and Xiruk both stay behind, helping seal the door from within. Though alone in the darkness, at least they have each other.
Kairi: Kairi's story follows canon more or less for the majority of the first act. At the beginning, the biggest difference is that, like Sora, she's there on the islands right as the storm starts up, and she winds up joining up with her friends during the Heartless attack. During this time, she gets to witness Riku summon the Keyblade to protect his friends, but when he insists that they pass through the door, she's left incredibly wary. She starts getting lightheaded once they enter the Secret Place, and, like in canon, her heart passes into Sora when the door flies open.
At that point, her body is sent to some unspecified world, where Maleficent eventually uncovers it. Her heart rests inside Sora, and from time to time she appears before him. In Wonderland, he spots her briefly as he wanders through the Lotus Forest, but she quickly disappears. Like in canon, he sees her again when he, along with Riku, Donald and Goofy, visit Merlin's house.
As the plot progresses, she maintains a level of awareness inside of Sora and witnesses him falling for Maleficent's cunning ruse. In short, she gets to see Sora steal Finkelstein's experimental heart for her sake and watch as Riku tries to set things right. Then she gets to see Sora get strung along by Jafar in Agrabah. During this time, her heart resonates inside of Sora, giving him sharp pains when he's around her body and when he later wields the Dark Keyblade.
Right after the events in Agrabah and before Riku gets taken onto Hook's ship, she tries speaking to Sora again, but it's no use. Maleficent's convinced him that any visions of Kairi he's seen are illusions. It's not until Sora overhears Maleficent calling him a fool during the events of Hollow Bastion that he finally comes to his senses, and by that time, there's only one option: to release Kairi's heart and let himself fall to darkness.
Kairi wakes up immediately after her heart's release, and she and Riku have a bittersweet reunion. Unfortunately, it's cut short by the appearance of Ansem and a horde of powerful Heartless that block the path to the Keyhole. At this point, Ansem tries to mess with Riku's head and even possess him; Kairi sticks up for him, along with Donald and Goofy. Through Sora, she's seen how much Riku's grown as a person, and so she takes on a supportive role as the story progresses, encouraging him even and especially when he's hard on himself.
The group leaves Hollow Bastion and returns to Traverse Town, escaping the darkness to come up with an alternate plan. During this time, Riku and Kairi get a little one-on-one time, and after a little bit of persuasion, Riku decides to let Kairi tag along for the rest of his journey. Once they return to Hollow Bastion, Kairi helps the other princesses fight back the darkness while Riku, Donald, and Goofy go to seal the Keyhole. Then, when the group encounters Xemnas later on, she ends up pulled to safety by Sora, although she doesn't get a good look at him.
Despite their reservations, Riku and the others even take her to End of the World, where they and Sora end up keeping her safe from the Heartless, while she provides moral support and a few strategic benefits (never hurts to have an extra set of eyes). Also worth noting is the fact that Riku promises to train her when all things are said and done.
Prior to the fight with Ansem, she ends up giving Riku her lucky charm as well as more words of encouragement. Once they pass through the door, she witnesses the group's battle with Ansem while keeping out of the way. When Ansem drags the group into the Endless Abyss, Kairi winds up trapped in one of the dark portals, much like Donald and Goofy. There, she's forced to use her light to hold off the surrounding Neoshadows, but Riku and co. reach her before things get out of hand.
After fleeing from the realm of darkness and leaving Kingdom Hearts wide open, the group winds up along a winding path, which they travel for roughly a week. During this time, Kairi begins her training, learning some basic swordplay and a fire spell. Later on, once DiZ brings them to Traverse Town, she picks up a rapier sword from the weapons shop. Unfortunately, when she and Riku go up against the Replica and XIII in Hollow Bastion, she's highly outmatched. With only beginner skills and a single spell, she's forced to fight from a distance and let Riku handle most of the fighting.
Luckily, the Fairy Godmother does pass on some new spells after that incident, including Mine Square, Sleep, Slow, and Poison. Donald and Riku also teach her to use Cure. Then, before they depart to the next world, she gets some training time with Phil at the Coliseum, gaining a bit more skill with both magic and swordplay. Her skills continue to improve as the story progresses, and she picks up a few additional spells along the way, such as Zero Gravity and probably some buffs (like haste, for instance).
Throughout the journey, she and Riku grow closer, all while longing to find Sora and figure out just what happened to his Nobody's memories. During this time, she starts developing feelings for him, but she doesn't act upon them, leading to a bit of awkwardness between the two at times. Fortunately or unfortunately, they're kept busy by dealing with the Heartless, Disney villains, and of course XIII and the Replica. There isn't a lot of time to dwell on crushes.
And when it comes to DiZ, Kairi develops a highly negative opinion of him over time, due to his blatant disregard for her and Riku's worries towards Sora's Nobody. The fact that he flat-out tells them that 'a Nobody cannot have friends, nor does he deserve them' understandably leaves her unhappy, and this attitude is something he keeps up for quite some time.
Towards the end of act 2, everything reaches a boiling point when the Replica challenges Riku to a one-on-one fight at Castle Oblivion. Though Kairi, Donald, and Goofy all tag along, they're kept out of the castle by XIII and forced to fight him in order to reach Riku before everything gets out of hand. As the fight drags on, Kairi becomes increasingly determined to reach Riku and make sure he's okay. Even if she's going up against Sora's Nobody, she can't back down when Riku's life is in danger. It's this desire to save her friend that enables her to wield a Keyblade of her own, surprising herself and everyone around her.
Unfortunately, Riku's heart winds up smashed and his memories disconnected, save for his memories of Kairi. When she and the others make it into the castle, he's worse for wear, clinging onto consciousness by a hair. He apologizes to Kairi before fainting in her arms. At that point, Naminé reveals the truth, and the group accepts her apologies; after all, it's not her fault.
But when they return to DiZ, things do not go smoothly. With Riku's heart in tatters, it's impossible for him to serve DiZ in his revenge scheme, and so he tosses Riku into a simulated Twilight Town in order to keep him distracted until a solution is uncovered. Kairi tries to protest, but it's no use; DiZ informs her that if Riku was allowed to roam free, he'd be an easy target for the Organization, due to his weakened state and lack of solid memories. What's more, if his heart can be broken, it can also be fixed, so long as they acquire Naminé. It's something Kairi's forced to accept, albeit reluctantly.
And due to her distrust of DiZ, she keeps her ability to wield a Keyblade a complete secret and asks Donald and Goofy to do the same. Because of this, DiZ orders the three of them to stay hidden in Twilight Town, for going after Naminé or the Organization would draw unnecessary attention to them and perhaps even lead them to Riku. However, she, Donald, and Goofy decide in secret to continue traveling to other worlds in order to protect them in Riku's stead.
Unfortunately, because Kairi kept her Keyblade a complete secret, DiZ winds up creating Xion, a replica created from a digital copy of Riku's heart who winds up taking on Kairi's appearance, as she's his only stable memory. This leaves Kairi with some pretty heavy guilt, as DiZ treats Xion as a disposable pawn, whose only purpose is to capture Naminé and combat the Organization. Naturally, she ends up befriending Xion and treating her kindly, even when DiZ reprimands her for showing sympathy to a 'puppet'.
Over the course of the year, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy spend a lot of their time continuing to defend the worlds. However, when she's not out fighting Heartless, she often sneaks into the simulated Twilight Town to visit with Riku. It's during this time that she gets to witness just how damaged his heart truly is. Whenever she appears, Riku remembers her perfectly, but... that's the extent of it. At first, his memories of home, the Keyblade, and his journey are all vague at best, with his only recollections coming when he focuses hard. Even more unsettling is the fact that Riku's very aware that the simulation is fake and that the friends he's made within it are probably fake, too. In his fragile state, he becomes very reliant on Kairi whenever she appears, and because his memories are in a state of disarray, he's much more... forward with her. Awkward.
The rest of the details I'm still working out. What I do know is that, as the year goes on, Riku's memories do improve, although the simulation does start to change long before then due to Riku's memories meshing with the data. Thus, even as Kairi grows older outside the simulation, she continues to look 14 whenever she goes inside due to the influence of the memories. It's possible that she, Donald, and Goofy may at some point try to hijack the data similar to Naminé's actions in canon in order to get Riku out, but it most definitely will backfire. Riku does eventually wake up, at which point he and Kairi have a fond reunion, along with Donald and Goofy. The group then ditches DiZ, refusing to work with him any longer, and end up seeking a new 'home base'.
The other plot-point I've worked out for sure is that Kairi and Riku will end up reuniting with Sora once they leave the mansion, meeting with Aqua, and traveling to Traverse Town as one big group. The rest is pretty up in the air, though Kairi will probably end up getting some training with Aqua.
Will add more deets once I figure things out.
Marluxia: Marluxia joins the Organization as number 11, and, like in canon, he joins forces with Larxene, quietly plotting a coup to seize control over the Organization. A big difference in the AU is the fact that no Organization members get situated at Castle Oblivion. Because of this, Marluxia remains alive and well throughout Act 2, giving him more time to plot. During this time, he does attempt to get Riku's Replica on his side, and he even makes a few attempts to get Naminé, but the Replica's stubborn and protective nature makes this impossible.
But, oh, imagine his surprise when a) it turns out that Vexen's been murdered by Riku's Replica, the replica project's data destroyed, and Naminé has been taken off with Rep and is now completely vulnerable. These recent events prompt Marluxia to subtly encourage the relocation of himself and Larxene so to give the Organization a wider range of observation. Xemnas grants him the privilege, although he's fully aware of Marluxia's true intentions...
Later on, during a venture into the Realm of Darkness, he finds a poor, unstable little puppet who's been thrown aside. When Marluxia encounters Xion, he immediately begins swaying her to his cause by treating her with feigned sympathy and promising to reunite her with her friends... provided she helps him in return.
Thus begins a twisted business partnership, so to speak. Marluxia, knowing well that the numbers and odds are against him, orders Xion to take out any Organization members loyal to Xemnas. Demyx is the first to fall, followed by Lexaeus.
However, when Xion makes an attempt to slay Xaldin, things backfire, and Xaldin informs the rest of the Organization about her existence. At that point, Marluxia's forced to rethink his scheme a little. For the time being, he puts the elimination of loyalists on the back burner, ordering Xion to capture Naminé. After all, her memory manipulation is a valuable tool, and he did promise to 'reunite' the two...
Of course, his true motives are far from sentimental. In reality, he plans on having Xion absorb not only Naminé, but XIII and the Replica as well, creating the perfect pawn. Memory manipulation, power over the Keyblade, and the added strength from all she's absorbed would make her an ideal weapon against Xemnas himself. And to ensure that Xion doesn't get second thoughts, he blackmails her by threatening to dispose of Naminé if she doesn't comply.
Unfortunately for him, his little plan backfires, and Xion winds up revolting after the Replica and Roxas secure Naminé from Larxene's clutches. To make matters worse, both Axel and Xion confront him, and in the end, he winds up defeated by the very puppet he tried to control.
Donald: Donald's personality really isn't that different in the AU. He's still the occasionally grouchy, short-tempered duck we all know and love. And, like in canon, he started out completely fixated on the mission of finding King Mickey and keeping an eye on Riku. As a result, the two had a bumpy start. Whenever they traveled to new worlds, Riku completely disregarded both Donald and Goofy, often wandering off on his own, meddling, and just getting the trio into trouble. Because of it, Donald faced constant frustration, even when Goofy tried playing peacemaker. He thought Riku was a stubborn, reckless brat and, if it weren't for the Keyblade, he would've been happy to drop him.
There were moments where he saw some good in Riku, such as when he utilized magic effectively in Wonderland and came up with clever strategies to take down foes like Cerberus. Heck, in Olympus, Donald even tried to make amends with Riku... up until he brushed him off.
For the next few worlds, their dynamic remained rough at best. Though, with some encouragement from Goofy, Donald did allow Sora and Riku to spend a little time together in Traverse Town, and he later allowed Sora to head over to Merlin's with their group, he still showed little patience. Upon learning about Maleficent and the Keyholes, he became just as focused on sealing up worlds as finding King Mickey. It was still largely a business relationship...
But, despite all his flaws, Donald did find himself getting gradually attached to Riku. When the trio reached Pleasure Island and wound up facing hordes of Neoshadows and constant danger, Donald was one of the first to worry about Riku's well-being. Heck, when Riku stubbornly tried to take out the Behemoth and promptly got thrashed, Donald stepped in to save him. Then, once Pleasure Island went down and Riku finally apologized to Donald and Goofy, the duck finally accepted Riku as a friend.
From there, things only got rougher for the trio. Between Sora's alliance with the Disney villains and a constant slew of threats, the trio was forced to work together as a team. Luckily, their new-found friendship paved to way to a number of victories. Together, they saved Halloween Town, Agrabah, and Neverland, and it almost seemed like things were working out...
But Riku sure wasn't taking the circumstances well. With Sora under Maleficent's thumb and Kairi's heart missing, both Donald and Goofy were forced to lift Riku's spirits. A tough task, to say the least. In fact, Riku's fear of fighting Sora in Hallow Bastion cost him his Keyblade temporarily. Even then, both Donald and Goofy stuck by Riku's side.
In the end, they defeated Maleficent and, later, Ansem. Of course, when Riku refused to close the door to Kingdom Hearts, Donald was furious. Of course, Riku took all the responsibility, and given that they hadn't found King Mickey and Sora's fate remained unknown, he eventually accepted Riku's choice.
Throughout their next journey, Donald continued to provide the group with his magical prowess. Since Kairi joined them on their quest, he even helped her pick up a few spells, such as fire and cure. Whenever the Replica and XIII showed up, he remained cynical, considering them both to be nothing more than enemies. Likewise, he remained utterly suspicious of the Organization and even took some time with Goofy to scope out information on their actions.
When the Replica tried getting Donald and Goofy to come back to him in Traverse Town, Donald immediately declined, calling the Replica out on being a phony. Then, when Riku tried to take off to C.O. to face him alone, Donald was one of the first to refuse, wanting to fight alongside his friend, especially in case it was a trap.
Of course, when Riku's heart got smashed, Donald was quick to side with Kairi, who wanted to continue what Riku started and protect the worlds. Since then, they've been hopping between worlds in secret until Riku can finally return to them.
He's fully aware of Riku's feelings for Kairi and occasionally teases him about it. When it comes to DiZ, he's downright suspicious and only works with him out of necessity.
Goofy: Much like Donald, Goofy's personality isn't all that different in the AU. Unlike Donald, he was open to Riku right from the get-go, treating him with a friendly attitude, even when Riku disregarded him completely. Throughout the early parts of the journey, Goofy continuously tried to play peace maker between both Riku and Donald, all while remaining positive. He believed that Riku had some genuine good in him and that his bad attitude was just a part of being a teenager. After all, his own son showed similar behavior. In fact, Goofy saw a lot of Max in Riku.
While Donald wanted to stick to the mission, Goofy tried his hardest to keep Riku's feelings in mind. Thus, when Sora showed up in Traverse Town, he encouraged Donald to let the two boys catch up. Heck, if Sora hadn't run back to Maleficent after a while, he might've even suggested that Sora tag along.
Even after all of his mistakes, Goofy was quick to forgive Riku after the disaster at Pleasure Island. From there on, he continued to act as a positive influence, cheering Riku on whenever the circumstances got the best of him and reminding him to keep his chin up and look on the bright side.
Unlike Donald, Goofy didn't react angrily when Riku refused to close the door. While it was a huge risk to leave the worlds exposed to darkness, if Riku felt a need to find his best buddy, then of course Goofy'd be there 'til the end.
Throughout the next journey, he continued to provide the group with boundless optimism. Whenever the Replica came around, however, he found himself in a tough position. On one hand, the guy was obviously bad news the way he kept stirring trouble throughout the worlds, but on the other hand, he seemed genuinely sad whenever he saw Riku spending time with him and Donald. As a result, Goofy never quite treated him with the same level of resentment. Just wariness.
In fact, when the Replica tried getting Donald and Goofy to join him, Goofy tried reasoning with him instead of dismissing his claims. While he refused to leave Riku's side, he simply explained that it was because Riku was his buddy, not because he had anything against Repliku. And, like Donald, he stuck by Riku's side on the way to C.O. Even when XIII kept Kairi, Donald, and Goofy from getting into the castle, he fought hard for the sake of his pal.
When Riku's heart got shattered, Goofy chose to travel with Kairi behind DiZ's back. Since then, he and Donald have been helping her protect the worlds until Riku recovers.
Like Donald, he's aware of Riku's crush on Kairi and fully supports the two of them... even if Riku's too stubborn to do anything about it. Sometimes this leads to embarrassing conversations on Riku's part.
Riku Replica: A perfect copy of Riku, right down to his abilities and personality. He was created shortly after Xemnas' fight with Riku in Hollow Bastion based on the data collected and immediately given a set of false memories. Unlike in canon, he never had a period of freedom as a blank slate.
These memories generally follow canon with a few big changes. First of all, Kairi does not exist at all, replaced by Naminé, a girl who grew up alongside Sora and himself. When they were very little, 'Riku' made a promise to protect Naminé no matter what. There was a meteor shower at the time, and Naminé gave him her good luck charm. Since then, he's always been her protector.
His relationship with Sora is roughly the same in his memories. He'd still tease him and give him a hard time, all while assuming the role of best friend. The main difference is the fact that he was pretty open about his feelings for Naminé, always trying his best to impress her. In those memories, he opened the door not out of jealousy but out of curiosity.
Here we have our next big difference: rather than passing her heart onto Sora, Naminé disappeared during the night of the storm. While Riku still wound up traveling with Donald and Goofy and his experiences in the other worlds largely match up with the real Riku's, he was much more determined to find his friends, Naminé especially, since she was hardly a fighter.
Sora still ended up with Maleficent, tricked into thinking she and her goons were his friends, and the struggle between Sora and Riku is largely untouched in the AU. The big change is that Naminé is still missing, meaning that Maleficent promised that gathering the princesses would simply help him find her.
Still, events follow the real Riku's up until Hollow Bastion, when things take a drastic turn for the worst. Rather than willingly sacrifice himself, the Sora in Repliku's memories was attacked by another Riku-- a replica created by DiZ that used the Dark Keyblade to tear Sora's heart out.
This replica disappeared before Riku could destroy him, and he reluctantly continued on his quest, taking out Ansem. However, he left the door open so that he could find Naminé and Sora. Like the real Riku, he used a dark corridor to get them out of the endless abyss, but the trio soon got separated.
This left Riku wandering for what seemed like an eternity, until he stumbled upon a mysterious castle and a man in black. This man promised Riku that he would reunite him with his friends, revealing that Sora was still very much alive, but reduced to an empty shell. He also revealed that Naminé had been found and that he would gladly bring him to her, so long as he cooperated. Of course, he also warned him that the replica that stole Sora's heart had stolen his identity, all his other friends, and all on behalf of an enigma named DiZ.
The two met again in the World that Never was, where Xemnas explained that, so long as he used his Keyblade to destroy the Heartless, Sora's heart would return in time. Longing to restore his best friend and hungry for revenge, Riku agreed to work with the Organization, but only out of necessity.
And so it is with these memories that the Replica begins his twisted revenge scheme, traveling alongside Sora's Nobody (or XIII) in order to turn people against the real Riku, all while performing his heart collection duties. First, they strike Hollow Bastion, scaring the townspeople and attacking Leon. He does so with a heavy heart, as it hurts going against his friends, even with his hatred of 'the Fake'.
Of course, XIII encounters Riku and friends soon after their little scare, and the Replica later rushes into the fray, isolating Riku and Kairi, that way Donald and Goofy would remain unharmed. After the fight, he leaves with XIII, assuring Riku that they'll meet again.
Between missions, he often spends time with his two best friends, hanging out around Neverland, where they'd gaze at the stars together. At times, he tries to scare Organization members away from Naminé, most notably Axel, Larxene, and Marluxia. Given the circumstances, though, they make it through all right. Around his two best friends, he's far less bitter and resentful, trying his best to keep XIII in high spirits despite the circumstances.
After Hollow Bastion, he and XIII end up going to Agrabah with the mission to eliminate a powerful Heartless. However, the Replica makes a diversion, leading XIII into the Cave of Wonders, where they acquire Jafar's lamp. While Jafar tries to manipulate the Replica and XIII, the Replica has his own ideas and strikes a deal with Jafar. One of his wishes will be used to bring back 'Sora's' heart, the other to possibly get back at Aladdin and 'the Fake'. The third would possibly be used to free Jafar... if he hadn't had his fingers crossed.
They make it out of the cave and the Replica makes his first wish, but, to his disappointment, it fails. Jafar claims that he cannot restore Sora's heart because it belongs to a Heartless with human-like intelligence. In short, taking the heart would effectively kill the Heartless, something a genie cannot do. The Replica refuses to believe this even when Jafar shows a faint image of Sora's humanoid Heartless. Irritated with Jafar's taunting, he locks him back in the lamp when the Kurt Zisa appears and proceeds to tackle his mission...
Too bad Riku and his friends arrive.
Throughout the fight, the Replica keeps bickering with Riku, trying to one-up him at every chance. However, when the fight gets rough, he begrudgingly works alongside Riku's gang. But when Riku delivers the finishing blow and starts questioning his and XIII's memories while Donald and Goofy talk over him, calling him the phony, the Replica becomes infuriated. In his rage, he releases Jafar from the lamp and uses his second wish to "drown the Fake in an ocean of sand". Oh, and Jafar complies... sending a tidal wave of sand straight at the group, the Replica included.
Left with no other choice, he and XIII flee Agrabah, leaving Riku to handle Jafar. When he returns to the World that Never Was, he lies to Saïx about what happened, neglecting to mention what happened with Riku and Jafar altogether. However, XIII spills the beans to Naminé, and she expresses concern at his recklessness towards Riku. In hopes of cheering her up, he decides to take her and XIII out to Twilight Town in order to kick back and grab some ice cream.
They grab their treats and head to the station in hopes of watching the sunset, but the Replica spots Riku up above. Deciding to take Naminé's feelings to heart, he creates a corridor to take his friends elsewhere-- to Neverland, specifically the Big Ben clock tower. And after seeing how much they enjoy the stars, he decides to make it their own special hangout after missions...
But there's a catch; when they return to the castle, Saïx confronts the Replica and XIII, having discovered what really happened in Agrabah. Questioning the Replica's loyalty to the Organization and his skills, Saïx assigns him a mission in Monstro. Alone. Should he fail, he may end up having to face additional training and work away from XIII For a while. Disappointed, but left with no other choice, he decides to play along.
It's there that he bumps into Pinocchio, who seems completely clueless about 'the Fake' and his actions. He actually considers him to be Riku... something which gives the Replica faint glimmer of hope. After meeting Geppetto and learning their predicament, he offers to help rescue them from the whale as soon as he eliminates his target-- the Parasite Cage. Thus, he takes off to hunt down the Heartless with Pinocchio at his side.
Unfortunately, Riku and his friends arrive, putting a damper on his mood. Furious, he picks a fight with Riku, acting as if he's there to seize the glory all while trying to keep Pinocchio on his side. After dropping hints at what happened to 'Sora,' he takes off with Pinocchio to finish his mission. Of course, Riku's crew follows, prompting the Replica to try and slow them down by launching some attacks.
They all stumble upon the Parasite Cage after a while, and the Replica stubbornly tries to fight it on his own. He outright states that he wanted to play the hero again, only for Riku to ruin everything. But much to the Replica's surprise, Riku allows him to fight, sending Donald and Goofy down to assist him, while he watches over Pinocchio. This leaves the Replica at a loss of words. Why would the Fake-- the same Fake that ruined his life and stole Sora's heart want to help?
When the fight ends, the Parasite Cage retreats, and the Replica pursues him straight away. All the while, he contemplates what happened with Riku, eventually convincing himself that he did it just to look good. After all, there's no way he'd actually want to aid him. And by the time Riku's group catches up with him inside Monstro's stomach, he reacts with blind rage, launching an attack and telling Riku and co. to back off. He refuses to let them steal his mission from him.
In his rage, he vents about how all his friends, not even Pinocchio, have abandoned him except Sora and Naminé. He even goes so far as to state that XIII is indeed Sora's Nobody and hints at the Organization's goals. But before his taunting gets out of hand, the Parasite Cage drops down on him, trapping him inside. And with so little room, he's unable to fight his way out...
For the first time, the Replica truly fears for his life.
But then the unbelievable happens. The 'Fake' actually fights to free him. He saves his life, once again putting the Replica's feelings into question. Though at first he yells at Riku once he's finally freed, the sudden reaction in Monstro's stomach gives him little time to bicker. The whole place starts to rumble and flood. And, in spite of his feelings, he aids Riku's group in their escape. In return, Riku offers to let him save Pinocchio and Geppetto, once again bewildering the poor Replica.
After dropping Geppetto and Pinocchio in Traverse Town, the Replica heads to the clock tower in Neverland and breaks down. He just can't understand why such a horrible 'Fake' would save him. How someone who coldheartedly and singlehandedly ruined his life could act so kind. When his friends arrive, he continues to question his experience, outright admitting to XIII and Naminé just how scared he was. How he didn't want to die.
In the end, they calm him down by showing how grateful they are that he made it back. And while the Replica's left with uncertainties about Riku, he's at least grateful that his life didn't end inside the belly of a whale.
Some time after the events of Monstro, Xemnas calls the Replica to the top of the castle to discuss a special mission within Castle Oblivion. Longing to uncover its secrets, he asks the Replica to take time to explore the castle at his own convenience. Should he oblige, he will get special rewards, including free time to spend with his friends.
Seeing no harm in it, the Replica agrees and returns to the grey area, where Saïx gives him his next real mission-- to investigate the Heartless shortage in Halloween Town alongside XIII and find a solution.
There, they end up bumping into Riku yet again. Still troubled by the events in Monstro, the Replica tries to put up a typical cool front, giving his usual taunts to Riku about him being a Fake, trying to steal more of his friends, and all that jazz. But when an explosion goes off in the distance, he immediately follows without another word.
When he reaches the outskirts of town, he orders XIII to stand guard and keep Riku's friends from following him. Soon, he reaches the ruins of Oogie's manor and encounters a terrfying Heartless called the Leechgrave. And, as he expected, Riku appears shortly after.
At the start of the fight, the Replica keeps telling Riku to back off and let him deal with the Heartless. It's his mission, and he doesn't need the extra hand. However, he eases up on Riku as the fight progresses once he realizes just how much easier it is with the added help. Towards the tailend of the fight, Riku gets caught between the Leechgrave and its poison gas, and the Replica rushes in to take the hit.
... but he convinces himself that it was just as payback and because he can't let a Heartless do his dirty work.
When the Leechgrave's finally defeated, the Replica flees the scene, as he and XIII return to TWTNW. There, he continues to struggle over his conflicted feelings towards Riku. Between missions, he takes a little time to explore Castle Oblivion but comes up empty-handed. All the floors look the same and just seem to go on forever, with only Heartless lurking the halls.
Alone in the castle, he thinks back on his experiences with Riku and continues grappling with uncertainty. Unable to accept the 'Fake' as anything but an enemy, he starts to wonder if he should just take him out once and for all.
It all escalates when XIII returns from a trip to Neverland after encountering Riku and Kairi again. When XIII expresses confusion and concern towards their words, the Replica urges him to ignore them. To stop buying into their manipulation. And when Xemnas gives him the approval to do whatever he wishes with Riku, he decides to take matters into his own hands at last...
He makes a plan with XIII to lure Riku to Castle Oblivion all by himself... to ambush him.
With newfound determination, the Replica hurries to Traverse Town, where he encounters Riku and the others. Though he tries to convince Donald and Goofy to come back with him, they refuse, deciding to stick with who they consider to be the real Riku. Furious, he throws Riku a card and a note, beckoning him to Castle Oblivion, where they'll fight one-on-one...
To further convince himself he's on the right track, he discards his coat for the fight, donning an outfit identical to Riku's. Unfortunately, when Riku arrives, he's not alone, forcing XIII to keep the others busy while the two Rikus face one another inside.
Though Riku tries to talk peacefully with him, the Replica refuses to listen. He attacks in hopes that a fight will keep his worries at bay. And indeed, the battle keeps his mind focused on his target. The cause for all his suffering and all his doubts... Yet despite his rage, he still finds himself questioning his experiences with Riku in Monstro and Halloween Town. Silently wondering if killing him is right. Nonetheless, he presses on, ignoring his lingering doubts.
...until Naminé arrives.
She tries to reason with the two of them, but with Riku's darkness going wild and the Replica too distracted, her words fall on deaf ears. Even worse, with the two Rikus wearing identical clothing, it's not like Naminé knows which is which. And in an attempt to quell the fighting, she accidentally shatters Riku's heart, and reveals the truth for all to hear, including XIII, who follows Kairi and the others inside at the sound of Riku's screaming.
At first the Replica tries his hardest to deny Naminé's words, but when she keeps insisting that it's true, he's left utterly devastated. To find out that he was the fake all along leaves him torn, confused, and at a loss. Was he really a puppet all along? And did he make Riku's life miserable for nothing?
Outside the castle, after Riku and his friends depart, the group splits. XIII leaves all by himself in hopes of finding Sora and discovering who he is, leaving the Replica and Naminé to their own devices. With nowhere else to turn, they return to the World that Never Was. There, the two have a talk atop one of the skyscrapers.
Though Naminé offers to rewrite his memories again, that way he won't remember what he heard and the Organization won't try to destroy him, the Replica flat-out refuses, telling Naminé that what happened wasn't her fault. After everything he's experienced, he refuses to live a lie. Yet despite his disappointment, he assures her that his fake memories are still dear to him. That he intends to keep his promise all while trying to become his own person.
And so he rebels from the Organization, killing and absorbing Vexen, destroying all data on the Replica Project, and taking Naminé with them as they search for XIII together. With Riku out of commission and the replica data destroyed, the Organization has no choice but to let him live. After all, they need Kingdom Hearts.
This sums up his role in Act 2. For more info on his future role, check out
individuate. I'll put more detailed information later on!--EVERYTHING AFTER THIS POINT IS PENDING UPDATES--
Naminé: In this AU, Naminé is never brought to Castle Oblivion, but her memory powers still get utilized by the Organization. In order to make both XIII and Riku's Replica compliant, they use her powers to implant false memories in the two of them, creating a fabricated life for them where Naminé takes the place of Kairi, and the three of them act as a sort of parallel to the Destiny Islands trio.
Of course, Naminé, like in canon, must live with the guilt that she's manipulated the minds and feelings of two completely innocent people. So, while she does try her best to put up a facade, she constantly questions what she's done when nobody else is looking, save for Axel, who often appears when both the Replica and XIII are off on missions. The two have an... odd dynamic, with Axel largely prodding her in the 'right' direction. At one point, he even convinces her to go find Riku in Holloween Town to set things right. Of course, she ends up chickening out when she overhears Riku ranting about what happened to XIII.
Still, that guilt continues to bother her, building and building over time. When at last the Replica decides to go fight Riku in Castle Oblivion, Axel once again appears to aid her, taking her directly to the castle so she can finally reveal the truth. And given that Riku's life is on the line, she has little reason to back down...
Except she ends up smashing Riku's heart on accident, when he nearly finishes the Replica. At that point, all bets are off, and she openly admits what she's done. Much to her surprise, though, nobody holds it against her. Even the Replica, who's crushed by her news, continues to stick up for her, holding true to his promise to protect her.
The two journey together for some time after Vexen's defeat, with the Replica always keeping his eyes out for her. He tries to cheer her up whenever he gets the chance, fully aware of her guilt complex, and the two develop a very close bond. Soon they do find XIII again, who has since taken the name "Roxas". For a while, they spend their carefree days together in Neverland, eventually adopting Xion as another friend.
More info to come later. You can check out
individuate for some rough ideas, though. Aqua: Aqua's story follows Birth by Sleep from beginning to end, with her winding up in the Realm of Darkness for roughly a decade. There she wanders the endless hours all alone, with only Heartless to keep her company. However, sometime after the events of Act 2, she ends up encountering Sora. After an awkward introduction, she comes to realize that Sora, although a Heartless, is still very much the same boy he was all those years ago. Even in darkness, he still knows how to smile and manages to keep his friendly demeanor, giving her a whole new look at darkness as a whole.
What's more, she senses, just vaguely, the presence of Ven's light inside of him.
Sora eventually ends up offering her a ticket out of the Dark Realm, offering to help her search for Terra, all while hunting down a way to change back from Heartless form. From that point on, the two of them journey across worlds, using corridors of darkness to get from place to place. Along the way, Aqua helps fight off the Heartless that plague the worlds, seals Keyholes, and learns just how twisted the worlds have become since her fall into darkness.
I'm still working out the rest of her role from that point on. What I do know is that she'll end up meeting with Riku and Kairi when Sora finally decides to show himself. From that point on, she and Sora will join up with Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy, find a new home base (probably Traverse Town), and end up splitting off into groups to cover more ground and protect more worlds.
They'll all meet up in Hollow Bastion when the Organization attacks, sending armies of Heartless throughout the world to lure in all the active Keybearers. At that point, she'll encounter Xemnas, mistaking him for Terra at first glance. And Xemnas, fascinated by Aqua and getting faint Terra pings, will try and isolate her, gather information, and even lead her into the Chamber of Repose. However, Aqua soon realizes that he isn't really Terra, having been twisted by Xehanort's presence over time. Of course, she's still fiercely determined to try and find a way to save him.
She'll be with the main group (including Repliku, Xion, and possibly XIII) when they venture into Xemnas' artificial world, which takes on attributes of Land of Departure, the Keyblade Graveyard, TWTNW, and other worlds meshed together. What I've worked out at this point is that Xemnas will once again use the faint Terra memories he possesses to screw around with her.
Really, though, there's lots of room for interpretation at this point.
Xion: Xion came into being when Riku's heart shattered thanks to Naminé. When Kairi, Donald, and Goofy dragged him back to the old mansion, DiZ threw him into the Digital Twilight Town for safekeeping, all while taking a data dump of his fractured heart. It was from that heart that he created Xion, an imperfect and unstable replica of Riku that possessed his ability to wield a Keyblade. Because Kairi was his only memory unharmed, she took on her appearance and voice initially. Naturally, DiZ gave her the ironic X-anagram name as a means to mock the Organization.
Furthermore, he treated Xion as merely a disposable tool, giving her the mission to hunt down Naminé, drag her back to Twilight Town, and combat the Organization if she stumbled across them during her search.
Initially, she does follow these orders, traveling from world to world in search of Naminé. Along the way, she meets Roxas and befriends him, though she doesn't realize his connections to Naminé at the time. Then, later on, she arrives at the Neverland clock tower and attempts to take her for real, only to cross blades with Repliku/Xiruk. Although the two fought, in the end, they befriend one another, after Xion explains why she attacked in the first place.
At that point, she and the others come up with a plan to keep Naminé safe, all while fixing Riku. During her missions, Xion opts to sneak off and hang out with her new friends, pretending that she can't find them in the first place. All the while, Naminé begins repairing Riku's heart bit by bit. At first it's a pretty smooth operation, even if DiZ berates her for her failure to find Naminé. At least she's got a clear conscience and isn't bringing harm to her friends, right?
Well, a few months pass without too much trouble. Between missions, Xion spends time with Kairi, who she begins to look at as a sister-type figure. From time to time, she'll also hang out with Donald and Goofy. Of course, DiZ discourages such behavior, constantly reminding her not to forget her purpose. All the while, he forbids her to enter the simulation. At first, she doesn't question this order, though in time she starts to despise DiZ and the way he treats her. Longing for answers to who and what she is, she barges right into the digital Twilight Town.
Big Mistake.
Because Riku's heart data wound up meshing with the town, it leads to some twisted side effects by the time that Xion comes in. The data, having previously set visitors into a form from Riku's memory, has no idea what to make of Xion, toggling her between Riku and Kairi's appearances. Despite all this, she presses on, searching desperately for Riku.
...Except she gets a killer headache when the two finally come into contact and winds up fleeing the scene before long.
Luckily, she ends up back to normal upon leaving, just a little dizzy from the data jumbling. What she doesn't realize at the time, though, is that her data has already started to correct itself, shifting into a 'stabler' form.
As the weeks go by, she starts undergoing some changes. Her hair grows longer and silver streaks appear. Her eye color, too, changes. Before long, she begins to hide her face under a hood and spends less and less time with her friends.
Fearful of her changes, Xion ends up meeting with Roxas all alone at the clock tower, asking him what she should do. After all, she longs for answers about who she is even more than before. Roxas then tells her to go confront DiZ, offering to tag along. Sadly, things take a turn for the worse when they finally reach DiZ. After all, with Riku's heart nearing completion and Xion becoming more defiant, he has little patience to deal with her. As a result, he winds up throwing her into a corridor to the Realm of Darkness, the same way his apprentices did so long ago.
There she remains for what seems like an eternity, lonely and depressed. She goes through a serious breakdown as her data continues to 'fix' itself and she becomes increasingly unstable due to the discrepancies between Riku and Kairi's personalities and data. This leaves her wide open for the opportunistic Marluxia, who eventually discovers her and slowly begins to manipulate her for his cause.
He promises her that he can reunite her with her friends, so long as she assists him in ridding the Organization of undesirable individuals. Xion, having no one else to turn to, agrees to work with him, and she begins to hunt down Organization loyalists to destroy and absorb.
First she takes out Demyx, who refused to join Marluxia and Larxene due to their cruel behavior and out of 'fear' of getting eliminated. She gains his ability to create water clones, among other things.
Next, she takes down Lexaeus, whose strength and power of earth make her a force to be reckoned with.
She then proceeds to go after both Zexion and Xaldin, but Xaldin overpowers her, forcing her to flee, while Zexion uses his illusion to feign death.
Shortly after, Marluxia gives her the orders to kidnap Naminé. Though at first she's reluctant, he assures her that he only wants what's best for her friend and that it's all part of his promise to reunite them. Thus, she confronts Xiruk and Naminé in Traverse Town, using her powers to wear Xiruk down before she swipes Naminé and returns to Marluxia.
Later on, when all the heroes begin to journey to TWTNW, Marluxia gives Xion the orders to take out Xiruk and Roxas and absorb them. This news sets her off, but Marluxia points out that he's not backing down on his promise. After all, it is a way of 'reuniting' with them.
Xion does try to attack, only for Marluxia to use Naminé as a shield. He threatens to kill Naminé unless Xion complies, and so she (reluctantly) goes after her two friends. Of course, what Marluxia doesn't realize is that she has no plans to absorb them. Instead, she plans on letting them destroy her, that way she can't be his pawn any longer.
To accomplish this, she acts violent and irrational, asking the two who they see: Kairi or Riku. When Xiruk explains that he only sees 'Xion,' she nearly falters, but presses on in her attack. A fight soon follows, with Xiruk and Roxas overwhelming her in the end. However, Xiruk spares her, reminding her that he's a replica too, and he understands how she feels. Then, when she reveals that Marluxia has Naminé, he and Roxas hurry along, with Xion offering to be a distraction. Plus, she has a bone to pick with Marluxia by then.
Turns out that Axel has been sent on a special mission to take Marluxia out as well, and so the two tag-team Marluxia, eventually overwhelming and defeating him. With Marluxia finally defeated, she hurries over to her friends, apologizes profusely, and the four of them hurry along to meet with Riku and the others.
Around that time, DiZ tries to encode the bloated Kingdom Hearts as data, but it backfires miserably. Xion and the others happen to make it to him in time for him to issue an apology for everything he's done to her. Then, in a flash of light, the machine explodes, reverting Xion back to her 'original' form. Sadly, DiZ's machine does little to harm Kingdom Hearts in the long run, for it contains far more hearts than required for its completion.
And with Marluxia and DiZ out of he way, Xemnas has no reason to hold back. After making his grand appearance, he uses the power of Kingdom Hearts to begin crafting a new world, sending Xion, along with everyone else, flying out of TWTNW.
It takes some time to regroup and figure out a plan. Eventually, they all journey to the artificial world. Somewhere along the way, XIII dies, Naminé (possibly) ends up merging with Kairi, and by the time Xemnas is defeated, it's time to go back and close the door to Kingdom Hearts. With no place left to go, Xion and Xiruk both stay behind, helping seal the door from within. Though alone in the darkness, at least they have each other.
Kairi: Kairi's story follows canon more or less for the majority of the first act. At the beginning, the biggest difference is that, like Sora, she's there on the islands right as the storm starts up, and she winds up joining up with her friends during the Heartless attack. During this time, she gets to witness Riku summon the Keyblade to protect his friends, but when he insists that they pass through the door, she's left incredibly wary. She starts getting lightheaded once they enter the Secret Place, and, like in canon, her heart passes into Sora when the door flies open.
At that point, her body is sent to some unspecified world, where Maleficent eventually uncovers it. Her heart rests inside Sora, and from time to time she appears before him. In Wonderland, he spots her briefly as he wanders through the Lotus Forest, but she quickly disappears. Like in canon, he sees her again when he, along with Riku, Donald and Goofy, visit Merlin's house.
As the plot progresses, she maintains a level of awareness inside of Sora and witnesses him falling for Maleficent's cunning ruse. In short, she gets to see Sora steal Finkelstein's experimental heart for her sake and watch as Riku tries to set things right. Then she gets to see Sora get strung along by Jafar in Agrabah. During this time, her heart resonates inside of Sora, giving him sharp pains when he's around her body and when he later wields the Dark Keyblade.
Right after the events in Agrabah and before Riku gets taken onto Hook's ship, she tries speaking to Sora again, but it's no use. Maleficent's convinced him that any visions of Kairi he's seen are illusions. It's not until Sora overhears Maleficent calling him a fool during the events of Hollow Bastion that he finally comes to his senses, and by that time, there's only one option: to release Kairi's heart and let himself fall to darkness.
Kairi wakes up immediately after her heart's release, and she and Riku have a bittersweet reunion. Unfortunately, it's cut short by the appearance of Ansem and a horde of powerful Heartless that block the path to the Keyhole. At this point, Ansem tries to mess with Riku's head and even possess him; Kairi sticks up for him, along with Donald and Goofy. Through Sora, she's seen how much Riku's grown as a person, and so she takes on a supportive role as the story progresses, encouraging him even and especially when he's hard on himself.
The group leaves Hollow Bastion and returns to Traverse Town, escaping the darkness to come up with an alternate plan. During this time, Riku and Kairi get a little one-on-one time, and after a little bit of persuasion, Riku decides to let Kairi tag along for the rest of his journey. Once they return to Hollow Bastion, Kairi helps the other princesses fight back the darkness while Riku, Donald, and Goofy go to seal the Keyhole. Then, when the group encounters Xemnas later on, she ends up pulled to safety by Sora, although she doesn't get a good look at him.
Despite their reservations, Riku and the others even take her to End of the World, where they and Sora end up keeping her safe from the Heartless, while she provides moral support and a few strategic benefits (never hurts to have an extra set of eyes). Also worth noting is the fact that Riku promises to train her when all things are said and done.
Prior to the fight with Ansem, she ends up giving Riku her lucky charm as well as more words of encouragement. Once they pass through the door, she witnesses the group's battle with Ansem while keeping out of the way. When Ansem drags the group into the Endless Abyss, Kairi winds up trapped in one of the dark portals, much like Donald and Goofy. There, she's forced to use her light to hold off the surrounding Neoshadows, but Riku and co. reach her before things get out of hand.
After fleeing from the realm of darkness and leaving Kingdom Hearts wide open, the group winds up along a winding path, which they travel for roughly a week. During this time, Kairi begins her training, learning some basic swordplay and a fire spell. Later on, once DiZ brings them to Traverse Town, she picks up a rapier sword from the weapons shop. Unfortunately, when she and Riku go up against the Replica and XIII in Hollow Bastion, she's highly outmatched. With only beginner skills and a single spell, she's forced to fight from a distance and let Riku handle most of the fighting.
Luckily, the Fairy Godmother does pass on some new spells after that incident, including Mine Square, Sleep, Slow, and Poison. Donald and Riku also teach her to use Cure. Then, before they depart to the next world, she gets some training time with Phil at the Coliseum, gaining a bit more skill with both magic and swordplay. Her skills continue to improve as the story progresses, and she picks up a few additional spells along the way, such as Zero Gravity and probably some buffs (like haste, for instance).
Throughout the journey, she and Riku grow closer, all while longing to find Sora and figure out just what happened to his Nobody's memories. During this time, she starts developing feelings for him, but she doesn't act upon them, leading to a bit of awkwardness between the two at times. Fortunately or unfortunately, they're kept busy by dealing with the Heartless, Disney villains, and of course XIII and the Replica. There isn't a lot of time to dwell on crushes.
And when it comes to DiZ, Kairi develops a highly negative opinion of him over time, due to his blatant disregard for her and Riku's worries towards Sora's Nobody. The fact that he flat-out tells them that 'a Nobody cannot have friends, nor does he deserve them' understandably leaves her unhappy, and this attitude is something he keeps up for quite some time.
Towards the end of act 2, everything reaches a boiling point when the Replica challenges Riku to a one-on-one fight at Castle Oblivion. Though Kairi, Donald, and Goofy all tag along, they're kept out of the castle by XIII and forced to fight him in order to reach Riku before everything gets out of hand. As the fight drags on, Kairi becomes increasingly determined to reach Riku and make sure he's okay. Even if she's going up against Sora's Nobody, she can't back down when Riku's life is in danger. It's this desire to save her friend that enables her to wield a Keyblade of her own, surprising herself and everyone around her.
Unfortunately, Riku's heart winds up smashed and his memories disconnected, save for his memories of Kairi. When she and the others make it into the castle, he's worse for wear, clinging onto consciousness by a hair. He apologizes to Kairi before fainting in her arms. At that point, Naminé reveals the truth, and the group accepts her apologies; after all, it's not her fault.
But when they return to DiZ, things do not go smoothly. With Riku's heart in tatters, it's impossible for him to serve DiZ in his revenge scheme, and so he tosses Riku into a simulated Twilight Town in order to keep him distracted until a solution is uncovered. Kairi tries to protest, but it's no use; DiZ informs her that if Riku was allowed to roam free, he'd be an easy target for the Organization, due to his weakened state and lack of solid memories. What's more, if his heart can be broken, it can also be fixed, so long as they acquire Naminé. It's something Kairi's forced to accept, albeit reluctantly.
And due to her distrust of DiZ, she keeps her ability to wield a Keyblade a complete secret and asks Donald and Goofy to do the same. Because of this, DiZ orders the three of them to stay hidden in Twilight Town, for going after Naminé or the Organization would draw unnecessary attention to them and perhaps even lead them to Riku. However, she, Donald, and Goofy decide in secret to continue traveling to other worlds in order to protect them in Riku's stead.
Unfortunately, because Kairi kept her Keyblade a complete secret, DiZ winds up creating Xion, a replica created from a digital copy of Riku's heart who winds up taking on Kairi's appearance, as she's his only stable memory. This leaves Kairi with some pretty heavy guilt, as DiZ treats Xion as a disposable pawn, whose only purpose is to capture Naminé and combat the Organization. Naturally, she ends up befriending Xion and treating her kindly, even when DiZ reprimands her for showing sympathy to a 'puppet'.
Over the course of the year, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy spend a lot of their time continuing to defend the worlds. However, when she's not out fighting Heartless, she often sneaks into the simulated Twilight Town to visit with Riku. It's during this time that she gets to witness just how damaged his heart truly is. Whenever she appears, Riku remembers her perfectly, but... that's the extent of it. At first, his memories of home, the Keyblade, and his journey are all vague at best, with his only recollections coming when he focuses hard. Even more unsettling is the fact that Riku's very aware that the simulation is fake and that the friends he's made within it are probably fake, too. In his fragile state, he becomes very reliant on Kairi whenever she appears, and because his memories are in a state of disarray, he's much more... forward with her. Awkward.
The rest of the details I'm still working out. What I do know is that, as the year goes on, Riku's memories do improve, although the simulation does start to change long before then due to Riku's memories meshing with the data. Thus, even as Kairi grows older outside the simulation, she continues to look 14 whenever she goes inside due to the influence of the memories. It's possible that she, Donald, and Goofy may at some point try to hijack the data similar to Naminé's actions in canon in order to get Riku out, but it most definitely will backfire. Riku does eventually wake up, at which point he and Kairi have a fond reunion, along with Donald and Goofy. The group then ditches DiZ, refusing to work with him any longer, and end up seeking a new 'home base'.
The other plot-point I've worked out for sure is that Kairi and Riku will end up reuniting with Sora once they leave the mansion, meeting with Aqua, and traveling to Traverse Town as one big group. The rest is pretty up in the air, though Kairi will probably end up getting some training with Aqua.
Will add more deets once I figure things out.
Marluxia: Marluxia joins the Organization as number 11, and, like in canon, he joins forces with Larxene, quietly plotting a coup to seize control over the Organization. A big difference in the AU is the fact that no Organization members get situated at Castle Oblivion. Because of this, Marluxia remains alive and well throughout Act 2, giving him more time to plot. During this time, he does attempt to get Riku's Replica on his side, and he even makes a few attempts to get Naminé, but the Replica's stubborn and protective nature makes this impossible.
But, oh, imagine his surprise when a) it turns out that Vexen's been murdered by Riku's Replica, the replica project's data destroyed, and Naminé has been taken off with Rep and is now completely vulnerable. These recent events prompt Marluxia to subtly encourage the relocation of himself and Larxene so to give the Organization a wider range of observation. Xemnas grants him the privilege, although he's fully aware of Marluxia's true intentions...
Later on, during a venture into the Realm of Darkness, he finds a poor, unstable little puppet who's been thrown aside. When Marluxia encounters Xion, he immediately begins swaying her to his cause by treating her with feigned sympathy and promising to reunite her with her friends... provided she helps him in return.
Thus begins a twisted business partnership, so to speak. Marluxia, knowing well that the numbers and odds are against him, orders Xion to take out any Organization members loyal to Xemnas. Demyx is the first to fall, followed by Lexaeus.
However, when Xion makes an attempt to slay Xaldin, things backfire, and Xaldin informs the rest of the Organization about her existence. At that point, Marluxia's forced to rethink his scheme a little. For the time being, he puts the elimination of loyalists on the back burner, ordering Xion to capture Naminé. After all, her memory manipulation is a valuable tool, and he did promise to 'reunite' the two...
Of course, his true motives are far from sentimental. In reality, he plans on having Xion absorb not only Naminé, but XIII and the Replica as well, creating the perfect pawn. Memory manipulation, power over the Keyblade, and the added strength from all she's absorbed would make her an ideal weapon against Xemnas himself. And to ensure that Xion doesn't get second thoughts, he blackmails her by threatening to dispose of Naminé if she doesn't comply.
Unfortunately for him, his little plan backfires, and Xion winds up revolting after the Replica and Roxas secure Naminé from Larxene's clutches. To make matters worse, both Axel and Xion confront him, and in the end, he winds up defeated by the very puppet he tried to control.
Donald: Donald's personality really isn't that different in the AU. He's still the occasionally grouchy, short-tempered duck we all know and love. And, like in canon, he started out completely fixated on the mission of finding King Mickey and keeping an eye on Riku. As a result, the two had a bumpy start. Whenever they traveled to new worlds, Riku completely disregarded both Donald and Goofy, often wandering off on his own, meddling, and just getting the trio into trouble. Because of it, Donald faced constant frustration, even when Goofy tried playing peacemaker. He thought Riku was a stubborn, reckless brat and, if it weren't for the Keyblade, he would've been happy to drop him.
There were moments where he saw some good in Riku, such as when he utilized magic effectively in Wonderland and came up with clever strategies to take down foes like Cerberus. Heck, in Olympus, Donald even tried to make amends with Riku... up until he brushed him off.
For the next few worlds, their dynamic remained rough at best. Though, with some encouragement from Goofy, Donald did allow Sora and Riku to spend a little time together in Traverse Town, and he later allowed Sora to head over to Merlin's with their group, he still showed little patience. Upon learning about Maleficent and the Keyholes, he became just as focused on sealing up worlds as finding King Mickey. It was still largely a business relationship...
But, despite all his flaws, Donald did find himself getting gradually attached to Riku. When the trio reached Pleasure Island and wound up facing hordes of Neoshadows and constant danger, Donald was one of the first to worry about Riku's well-being. Heck, when Riku stubbornly tried to take out the Behemoth and promptly got thrashed, Donald stepped in to save him. Then, once Pleasure Island went down and Riku finally apologized to Donald and Goofy, the duck finally accepted Riku as a friend.
From there, things only got rougher for the trio. Between Sora's alliance with the Disney villains and a constant slew of threats, the trio was forced to work together as a team. Luckily, their new-found friendship paved to way to a number of victories. Together, they saved Halloween Town, Agrabah, and Neverland, and it almost seemed like things were working out...
But Riku sure wasn't taking the circumstances well. With Sora under Maleficent's thumb and Kairi's heart missing, both Donald and Goofy were forced to lift Riku's spirits. A tough task, to say the least. In fact, Riku's fear of fighting Sora in Hallow Bastion cost him his Keyblade temporarily. Even then, both Donald and Goofy stuck by Riku's side.
In the end, they defeated Maleficent and, later, Ansem. Of course, when Riku refused to close the door to Kingdom Hearts, Donald was furious. Of course, Riku took all the responsibility, and given that they hadn't found King Mickey and Sora's fate remained unknown, he eventually accepted Riku's choice.
Throughout their next journey, Donald continued to provide the group with his magical prowess. Since Kairi joined them on their quest, he even helped her pick up a few spells, such as fire and cure. Whenever the Replica and XIII showed up, he remained cynical, considering them both to be nothing more than enemies. Likewise, he remained utterly suspicious of the Organization and even took some time with Goofy to scope out information on their actions.
When the Replica tried getting Donald and Goofy to come back to him in Traverse Town, Donald immediately declined, calling the Replica out on being a phony. Then, when Riku tried to take off to C.O. to face him alone, Donald was one of the first to refuse, wanting to fight alongside his friend, especially in case it was a trap.
Of course, when Riku's heart got smashed, Donald was quick to side with Kairi, who wanted to continue what Riku started and protect the worlds. Since then, they've been hopping between worlds in secret until Riku can finally return to them.
He's fully aware of Riku's feelings for Kairi and occasionally teases him about it. When it comes to DiZ, he's downright suspicious and only works with him out of necessity.
Goofy: Much like Donald, Goofy's personality isn't all that different in the AU. Unlike Donald, he was open to Riku right from the get-go, treating him with a friendly attitude, even when Riku disregarded him completely. Throughout the early parts of the journey, Goofy continuously tried to play peace maker between both Riku and Donald, all while remaining positive. He believed that Riku had some genuine good in him and that his bad attitude was just a part of being a teenager. After all, his own son showed similar behavior. In fact, Goofy saw a lot of Max in Riku.
While Donald wanted to stick to the mission, Goofy tried his hardest to keep Riku's feelings in mind. Thus, when Sora showed up in Traverse Town, he encouraged Donald to let the two boys catch up. Heck, if Sora hadn't run back to Maleficent after a while, he might've even suggested that Sora tag along.
Even after all of his mistakes, Goofy was quick to forgive Riku after the disaster at Pleasure Island. From there on, he continued to act as a positive influence, cheering Riku on whenever the circumstances got the best of him and reminding him to keep his chin up and look on the bright side.
Unlike Donald, Goofy didn't react angrily when Riku refused to close the door. While it was a huge risk to leave the worlds exposed to darkness, if Riku felt a need to find his best buddy, then of course Goofy'd be there 'til the end.
Throughout the next journey, he continued to provide the group with boundless optimism. Whenever the Replica came around, however, he found himself in a tough position. On one hand, the guy was obviously bad news the way he kept stirring trouble throughout the worlds, but on the other hand, he seemed genuinely sad whenever he saw Riku spending time with him and Donald. As a result, Goofy never quite treated him with the same level of resentment. Just wariness.
In fact, when the Replica tried getting Donald and Goofy to join him, Goofy tried reasoning with him instead of dismissing his claims. While he refused to leave Riku's side, he simply explained that it was because Riku was his buddy, not because he had anything against Repliku. And, like Donald, he stuck by Riku's side on the way to C.O. Even when XIII kept Kairi, Donald, and Goofy from getting into the castle, he fought hard for the sake of his pal.
When Riku's heart got shattered, Goofy chose to travel with Kairi behind DiZ's back. Since then, he and Donald have been helping her protect the worlds until Riku recovers.
Like Donald, he's aware of Riku's crush on Kairi and fully supports the two of them... even if Riku's too stubborn to do anything about it. Sometimes this leads to embarrassing conversations on Riku's part.