Twilight Town
First Appearance: KINGDOM HEARTS CHAIN OF MEMORIES (2004)
After Sora's adventures in Hollow Bastion, he finds himself in a battle with Vexen, who gives him the card to a world nobody can remember ever visiting before, the sleepy town that is always cast in the rays of the setting sun - Twilight Town. The town sets off a memory within Sora and he reminisces about the time when he and Naminé were children and when she gave him her good luck charm, a golden star she'd had since she was a baby. Sora says that he made her a promise, to protect her from harm no matter what. Then Naminé left the island - the reasoning behind Sora's loss of memory of her. Sadly, none of the party knows that this is untrue, and they go on without giving it a second thought.
As usual, Sora is occupied by hoards of Heartless but he and the group reach the Old Mansion through the dark woods after much combat. It is here in front of the Mansion's locked gates that Sora questions the nature of the town and the memories he feels he has from it; he insists that this isn't like the memories with Naminé in the sense that they don't come back to him in little increments, but rather feels like there is the idea of having been there before. But before Sora can question himself further, trouble arises. This time it isn't any pesky Heartless but Vexen, who has obviously freshened up from the previous skirmish. True to Vexen's nature, he sets out a deck of riddles before Sora on the nature of Sora's true memories - but either way, Sora is adamant about fighting for Riku and Naminé, and enters into battle with Vexen.
Vexen goes down like an icicle on fire but even when severely weakened he doesn't quit with his tormenting. Sora orders that Vexen "put Riku back" and Vexen laughs it off, condemning him and Riku to a fate which is only in the hands of darkness. He goes on to reveal the truth of the situation and the reality behind Marluxia's plans - that Sora will continue to seek out Naminé and will only play deeper into Marluxia's scheming hands, losing his free will. But when Sora begins to ask questions, Axel appears and finishes Vexen off to prevent him from talking too much. He then leaves a horrified Sora behind, and the young boy has no choice but to end his time in the world and leave.
During Reverse/RebirthRiku appears in the Tram Common area of Twilight Town where most of the town's commerce is done. Even though it is usually bustling with people, Riku finds the strange, unfamiliar town empty. When he thinks things couldn't get any worse, Ansem manifests in front of him, challenging him to a fight. Riku is about to, but he stalls and then refuses, finally realizing that it isn't really Ansem, but the person that has guided him from the start of his time in Castle Oblivion. When this realization is made, the façade of Ansem shatters apart to reveal the true identity of the guardian, a tall man with his face wrapped in bandages, known as DiZ. DiZ reveals to Riku that he has been watching the boy all along, and that he wants Riku to choose; Riku currently stands between light and dark, in the realm of twilight. DiZ says that after Riku meets Naminé - a girl unknown to Riku - he must make his decision. With nothing more to say, he leaves.
After more Heartless fighting, Riku reaches the Old Mansion and wonders if Naminé is inside, but before he can go any further, his replica appears behind him and after a bit of tongue biting, he gets angry about the fact that even after absorbing Zexion, he isn't real. That is to say, his memory nor heart nor face is real, and because of his desperation to be real, he attacks the real Riku in the need to stop being a mere shadow of him. The infusion from Zexion has certainly done him a lot of good - or bad? - and he gives Riku a good, long fight, but Riku finally overcomes him, leaving the replica to sink into a literal pool of darkness and into a metaphorical pool of agony and despair over his nature as a 'phony', to quote. After waxing poetic about his heart - a truly sad thing to see - the replica dies.
Many more Heartless later, Riku enters the white pod room of the Old Mansion to find a tiny blonde girl in a white dress hiding behind the pod; she reveals herself as Naminé. Without hesitation she shows Riku the contents of the pod, and inside it he sees a slumbering Sora who has been put into the pod so Naminé can reconnect the chain of his memories. At first he is anxious, but after Naminé gives him the lowdown on the events that have transpired on Sora's journey in Castle Oblivion, Riku understands the bravery his best friend has displayed. But it isn't time to talk about Sora, because it is finally time for Riku to make the fabled decision DiZ talked of.
Naminé explains that while nobody tampered with Riku's memories, the real problem is the darkness which resides in Riku's heart, the darkness that hosts Ansem. She proposes to use her powers to put a tight lock on Ansem so that he may never come out from Riku and cause havoc - but in sealing it, Naminé would also be sealing the memories gained in Castle Oblivion. To choose to lock the memories away with the darkness is a choice Riku must make, and he looks to Sora for inspiration. He reflects playfully on the times that they were together, calling Sora lazy, and he jokes that if he's asleep, he can't tell Sora off... but more importantly, he needs to do something by Sora, and that is to defeat Ansem once and for all, even if that means not going to sleep.
This is a decision Naminé worries about, but Riku is resolute that even if Ansem overcomes him, the darkness will show him the way out, and Naminé admits that she really wanted Riku to face the darkness because she knew that of all people it would be him who could face it - and because of that Naminé was the one who came to his rescue in the form of Kairi. With this new information and a heart set on killing off Ansem once and for all, Riku tells Naminé to look after Sora and leaves Twilight Town.
