Twilit Road to Dawn

[TwilightRiku_13]

Awesome, awesome, awesome!!! Great chapter again. I really liked the ending. What memories did Xemnas (or Mansex) take form Crystal? Why can't Ansem or Diz tell her about them? So many questions, so little time. As I said before, great job, and I look forward to the next update.

[Roxi-chan]

Yay! =) I like. Good job and I can't wait for more.

[Andillexe]

Chapter 7: Owari, Part 1

While Ansem was driving (even though I had offered to drive multiple times), I was off in my own little world thinking about how I got here. Okay, first Heartless invaded my world, no one ever told me why, though, when there were supposedly gates up separating the worlds. Then Mr. Secrets over there picked me up and taught me stuff while multitasking, doing secret odd jobs for DiZ (whom I still have to figure out), plus making me want to kill myself, taking him down with me. After that there was a mix of hating Ansem, getting lost, almost dying, meeting people who are surprisingly worse than Ansem, battling a clown (I still shudder at clowns) who has to spell everything and be sarcastic about it, and fighting over who gets to drive. That was just in order from tolerable to downright head bashing.

“So, where are we headed?” I asked the “driver,” even though I knew very well where we were heading.

“We’re on our way to the World That Never Was,” he explained for the umpteenth time.

“Oh. Why?”

“So we can defeat Xemnas. Isn’t that what you want after what he did to you?” He looked at me curiously. He and DiZ filled me in on what exactly he did do, and apparently he could hear the entire conversation between me and Xemnas, as my body was saying what Xemnas and I were saying to each other. After that I could vaguely remember the feeling of total, utter hatred and loathing directed at Xemnas.

“Well, yeah. I was just wondering, because it feels like we’ve been in this ship for forever,” I told him. “Since I’m not driving,” I added under my breath.

He looked at his watch (which I didn’t even know he had), and sighed. “We’ve only been flying for fifteen minutes.”

I decided to drop it for the sake of his sanity.

* * *

When we landed, we ended up in this really weird, dark, scary, creepy alley. It looked like we ended up back home, to a bad part of New York or something. There was a castle, though, floating over all of the buildings, and it was beneath a heart-shaped moon that had pink dots flying towards it. I sulked as we walked out into the open, thinking about my home. DiZ had already gone ahead to go test out his device.

“I need you to be very calm and cooperative when I tell you what I’m about to tell you,” Ansem said to me when we reached what looked like a really small Times Square in New York. “Got it?”

I rolled my eyes and stopped listening after he said the phrase “I need you to be,” but I pretended like I was going to be… whatever he wanted me to be…

“Fine. Shoot,” I said boredly.

He braced himself. “I have to leave you and go ahead to do some business that I don’t want you involved in.”

I stared at him for a second, wondering if he was for real.

“What?” I asked in a small voice, almost to myself. Jerkboy over there relaxed a little and put his hands on my shoulders.

“I’m really sorry, but we have to part company for a while.” It seemed like he was trying to console a little kid who was just told they couldn’t get what they wanted. I, though, was not a little kid who was just told they couldn’t get what they wanted.

I grabbed his arms and threw him to the ground in one swift move. Then I started yelling at him like I did when he left me at Hollow Bastion, plus a few more… colorful words and phrases.

Much to my surprise, Ansem looked shocked, like he didn’t expect me to throw him off me and freak out on him.

“Look, I said I was sorry, alright,” he told me after he got up and dusted himself off. “If I didn’t have to go and do this by myself, I’d bring you along. But right now,” he sighed and looked at me (luckily, for him, he didn’t put his hands on my shoulders again), “right now I think it’s just too dangerous to have you there with me.”

“Jackass,” I muttered under my breath.

“Sorry?”

“Nothing. I understand.” Then it was my turn to sigh. “What I don’t understand, though, is why you think it’s okay to leave me all by my lonesome in a world I have no clue about, fighting Heartless and Nobodies and who knows what else, while you go off and do something secretive that I have no idea about which might not be that dangerous to me at all. And if, only if, it is really dangerous, you’ll be there covering my hide and I’ll be there able to cover your hide.” I breathed in and out deeply to calm down. I wasn’t really angry at him, I was just really scared to be left out on my own again. Axel kinda ruined it for me. Plus I thought that my flawless logic might make him let me tag along.

Of course I didn’t tell him that. No, he’d just think I was a marshmallow and prove his point tenfold. I really felt like banging my head on the wall (yeah, I get it. I do that way too much).

“Whatever,” I finally said after minutes of awkward silence. “I don’t care anymore. Do what you need to do and I’ll attempt to stay alive.” Hopefully that guilt trip will work.

“Thanks. I really appreciate it.” He turned and walked toward the floating castle under the heart-shaped moon. Or, you know, he could be totally oblivious to my guilt trip.

“You’d better,” I said to myself.

* * *

This was just like at Hollow Bastion (only I knew that I couldn’t find a place to stay for the eternal night, nor did I want to), me fighting my way through the dark and scary world (kicking everyone’s butt, I might add), only this time I was headed toward the place I wanted to be at the most and the place I couldn’t get far enough away from.

I so wanted to defeat Xemnas for what the bastard did to me, invading my privacy and whatnot, but then again, what if I’m not strong enough? What if he kills me? What if I kill him? That’d be weird, and I don’t want to die. I mentally banged my head against an invisible wall and slashed a Nobody. I was already at the castle, so I guessed there was no turning back.

“Excuse me, kupo, but I was wondering whether or not you wanted to buy and potion,” I heard behind me. I turned around cautiously and saw a moogle. He was so cute. Must... cuddle!

“Sorry, what?” I asked, mystified. I walked closer to it and tried to touch its pom-pom, but my hand went right through it. I was shocked because it looked real, sounded real (I knew that one because it kept screaming “don’t touch my pom-pom, kupo” at me), but it wasn’t real.

It must’ve sensed my surprise (or saw it, I don’t know), because it stopped yelling and told me, “Oh, I’m a hologram, kupo. Since people kept trying to hug us and touch our pom-poms, as you seem to feel the urge to do as well, we decided to go holographic.”

I blinked a couple times, taking this in, then realized that he asked me something earlier. “What did you want before?”

“I wanted to know if you wanted to buy a potion, but now I feel cheap. See, a man came along a while ago and asked me to give you something before you went inside. My friends said that I should try to sell it to you. Anyway, here it is.”

He handed me a pouch with a note attached to it (even though he was holographic).

“Aww. Ansem isn’t such a jerk after all. Thanks.” I left and looked at the note:





I looked in the pouch and saw a bottle filled with green stuff. “Huh,” I thought. “A potion maybe? He isn’t so annoying after all.” Then I looked at the note. “He has really girly handwriting, though.”

I walked into the castle and was ready to defeat Xemnas.

* * *

Meanwhile, up at the Altar of Naught, Xemnas and Saïx were having a little chat. Wimpo y Jerko.

“So you gave it to the moogle, correct?” el Jerko asked el Wimpo.

“Yes,” Saïx answered.

“And you’re sure she got it?”

“Yes,” Saïx said again.

“You’re also sure that she has never seen his handwriting before?”

“Yes.” Saïx was getting impatient. What’s with all the questions? he thought. I gave the friggin’ moogle the note. Which took me forever by the way. He wanted to tell Superior this so bad, but he valued his life (err… existence?).

Xemnas took a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket and studied it. After a while he chuckled a bit and tossed the paper to Saïx. Saïx was confused… until he opened the piece of paper. Then he became very embarrassed.

“This is—!” Saïx stuttered. Xemnas began to laugh hard.

“She’s right. You do have girly handwriting,” Xemnas told him.

Saïx grew red in the face and threw the paper down as he stormed off to Addled Impasse. “We have better things to do than insult my handwriting,” he said to himself when he got there. “Sora’s loose in the castle; that no good ‘Ansem’ is on his way, with the little brat Crystal following along, no doubt; and I bet Kairi managed to slip through the space between the bars of her cell.”

“Hey! Who are you calling a little brat?!”

* * *

After I got Ansem’s letter, I made my way up the castle, fighting Nobodies the whole way (they were tougher than I remembered). I was holding in there, but I didn’t have any potions except the one Ansem gave me. Note to self: make all berserkers extinct after killing Ansem.

I refueled at some of those coolio-awesome-bright-whirly-healing-light things. Most of the time, after fighting Nobodies or thinking emo-tistically, I was cursing Ansem and made several mental notes to beat him with a rock first chance I got. At one point, being less emo, I remembered that I should probably know where the heck I was… but I didn’t have a map…

Why didn’t you warp, Crystal? We know you can do it is probably what you’re thinking right about now. So why didn’t I warp?

Reason is that I was a little bit scared (shut up. I’m very scare-able). The last time I warped, I ended up in Halloween Town, and I despise Halloween. Then I met Demyx, fought him, maybe made him cry, met Axel again, got very confused, then Ansem came to get me. Not fun. Also, I didn’t know the castle at all, so I couldn’t warp anywhere I haven’t been even if I wanted to.

“Well, someone looks hopelessly lost,” I heard above me. I hate unexpected voices. Why can’t they just introduce themselves like the rest of the voices in the worlds?

“I hate you. You know that, right?” I told Ansem.

“Really? Guess I didn’t get it the first couple million times you told me.” I looked up to where his voice was coming from and saw he was on a balcony near the ceiling.

“Meh. Where are we, anyway?” Looking around I saw there were three levels: ground level (where I was), a little balcony strip above the ground off to one side of the gigantic room we were in, and the tiny little balcony where Ansem was.

“The Hall of Empty Melodies. Stay there, I’ll be right down.”

“Oh. The Hall of Empty Melodies. How cheery.” I shook my head.

He could’ve looked for a way down, or warped… Nah, that’s too logical for him. I knew he was considering jumping down… from way up there…

“Don’t ju—!” Too late. Just as I said that, he jumped down, landed on the second floor balcony, sprung off that and landed a few meters from me.

“See? Everything’s fine,” he reassured me as he walked toward me. I was relieved he wasn’t hurt, because then I wouldn’t be able to beat him with a rock.

I whacked him upside the head (which I had to jump a little to reach). “Showoff. You could’ve just warped.” Then I smiled. We headed further up the castle, then I remembered the potion and note he gave me.

“Thanks for the potion. I haven’t used it yet.”

He seemed (operative word being “seemed.” Damn hood) confused. “I never gave you a potion.”

“Yeah you did. Remember? You gave it to the moogle out front to give to me. There was a note attached. See?” I grabbed the note out of my pocket and handed it to him. As he analyzed it, I was wondering why someone would send me a note saying it’s from Ansem.

At last he spoke. “This isn’t my handwriting. This is way too girly to be mine.” He pulled a pen from out of nowhere and wrote the same thing below the original note.








I stared at the two notes. There was no way anyone would have such girly handwriting change so dramatically, even if they tried.

“Then who gave me this?” I reached into my other pocket and showed him the potion that came with the note. Ansem looked at it for a moment then stuck it in his pocket.

“Probably the same person who wrote this note.” There’s that sarcasm that makes me wish I didn’t use it so much around him. I’ve been a really bad influence on him. “For whatever reason, though, it can’t be good. Maybe I should hold on to this.”

I sighed. “Fine. Wanna go find the guy who did this, beat him up, then go and kick Xemnas’ butt?” I didn’t wait for an answer. I headed out of The Hall of Empty Melodies further up the castle.

“You are a very violent child,” Ansem answered anyway.

* * *

Once Ansem and I got to Naught’s Approach, we saw some guy with long blue hair and a giant “X” between his eyes who was obviously with Organization XIII. Something about him made me want to take up a bow and arrow and have a short target practice (me? Violent? Why would Ansem think that?). Though I guess he didn’t see us, because he was muttering to himself angrily.

“…little brat Crystal following along; and I bet Kairi managed to slip through the bars of her cell.”

“Hey! Who are you calling a little brat!” I yelled at him. Is it some sort of sport to belittle me?? He looked really familiar, but I had no idea where I would’ve seen him before…

He looked like I hit him with a rock or a stick or something (which I wasn’t opposed to doing, but there weren’t any rocks, and the only thing that I had that resembled a stick was my sword… Well…). He stared at me for a second, not comprehending, when Ansem shot him with an energy ball (like the one I accidentally destroyed DiZ’s wall with), then pinned him against the wall. Geez, and I thought I had a temper. Only one problem with Ansem’s plan: the guy can warp through walls.

“Aw, crap. He can warp too,” I said. Then I noticed that there were two girls standing a little ways off… staring at us. They had the crappiest fighting stance ever. One had brown hair and was wearing pink clothing (I think she was also asking the other girl if the guy had just called her anorexic). The other one had blonde hair and plain white dress-thing on. I wasn’t even going to bother fighting them.

“Come on. Maybe we can catch him,” I told Ansem. We were well on our way to catching the guy, who so rudely called me a brat, when the blonde one relaxed. Worse: she spoke.

“Nice to see you again… Riku,” she told Ansem calmly. The brown haired girl looked shocked for a minute, and, call me overly jealous, I got pissed off.

“Who’s Riku?” I asked Ansem, wanting some answers as to why this girl called him Riku, and how they know each other (though with all the secret missions, I shouldn’t be surprised).

But no one pays attention to me, let alone gives me what I want.

The brown haired, pink one came up to him and put his hood down. And he let her!!! When I first met him, I could never get him to lower his hood, but there she is, lowering Ansem’s hood, with him letting her, while I was standing off to the side, very confused and morbidly curious about whether or not they had a “history.” As if it wasn’t weird enough. Ansem looked like he was ashamed about her looking at him. (Inside he must’ve loved having three girls around him, with one being obnoxiously jealous).

“And let’s go,” I tried to coax Ansem into the warp hole I opened. “Away. To find the blue-haired jerk. Um… like, now-ish.” I got halfway in the hole, waiting for Ansem to leave the other two and follow me…

Which he almost did. As he walked towards me, a goofy looking dog came out of nowhere and made him back off. He looked at me then looked away, as if to say “I’m not going.”

“Fine. Guess I’ll catch up with you later.” And I went.

* * *

This time I actually ended up in the same world. I was in Proof of Existence. To me it looked like a graveyard with lights. There must’ve been about twelve lights: three were blue and the rest were red. There were also pictures of weapons on the squares of light, and I recognized a few. I saw Demyx’s sitar (stupid coward), whatever the heck Axel uses, and two crossed Keyblades.

I was really confused about the Keyblades (which were lit blue), because I thought there was only one Keyblade and it was in the tender-lovin’ care of Sora. Then I saw that there were two doors over blue-lit squares. Before I go on, let me tell you that curiosity sucks and you should never ever give in to it (unless it’s something you absolutely have to know about).

I was stupid and walked through one of the doors, ending up in Addled Impasse. It was a closed-in room with one huge wall made up of mostly windows. This room was ginormous, making the people in it look like action figures. In front of me were four people… actually, there were two people, me, and upright animals in clothing. I wanted to do a face-palm; the people in the room were Sora, Donald, Goofy, and the jerkhead from before.

I was also a little bit (microscopically) happy. Number two on my List of People Whose Butt I Must Kick (aka, blue-haired guy) and the Amazingly Dumb Trio (in retrospect, not so dumb) was there. It was like Halloween and… well, I don’t hate any other holiday so much as to diss it, so just Halloween.

Payback time. I put my hood up and strode up to Blue-Haired Guy, startling everyone.

“Who are you?” Sora asked me, cutting Blue-Haired Guy off from what appeared to be an insanely boring rant. I didn’t say anything; I wanted to watch them figure it out. So I just stood there, arms crossed… waiting…

…And waiting…

……And waiting……

………Okay, too boring.

“Give up yet?” I asked finally.

“Oooohhhhhhhh!” everyone exclaimed at once. I did a face-palm.

“You interrupted my evil ranting,” Blue-Haired guy pouted.

“Whatever,” I told him dismissively. “What’s his name again?” I asked Sora. He looked at me like I was crazy, but answered anyway.

“Saïx.”

“Cool. Thanks.” Then I turned to Saïx. He stared at me with an “I’m not scared of you” sort of look on his face. Feeling angry at the incredibly rude comment he made earlier, the fact that he ran, and the way he was smirking like he was all superior (plus, you know, the whole “he’s in the Organization” thing), I summoned the sword Ansem gave me (I am not calling him Riku unless it’s confirmed by him) and went into my fighting stance.

“Wanna help me beat him?” I asked Sora.

He laughed a bit.

The fight only lasted a few minutes, plus Sora, Donald, and Goofy helped. We beat him. It’s just what I wanted. Little fact I didn’t know prior to this: beat a Nobody up with the Keyblade and they will die. More like fade into nonexistence, but still. Ceasing to be is ceasing to be.

“Kingdom Hearts,” Saïx gasped, reaching toward the heart-shaped moon, “why?” Then he dissolved into darkness, turning into black, purple, and pink smoke. I fell on my knees, every thought and emotion except shock gone.

“Uh, come on. Let’s go,” Sora told me, trying to get me to walk back to Proof of Existence. I could tell that Sora, Donald and Goofy were concerned about me, but I guess they still didn’t trust me after our last encounter. Oh well. Can’t have everything.

“No thanks. You guys can go.” I waved them away and just stayed on the ground. After I felt them leave, I cried a bit. When the tears were reduced to heavy shudders, I walked out of Addled Impasse.

* * *

After I left Proof of Existence, I didn’t really feel like kicking Xemnas’ butt. Sure, he had done some very unforgivable things to me, but if getting rid of him meant killing him, like I did to Saïx, then I wasn’t so sure I wanted to. I had never killed anything in my life (not mentioning the 4 squirrels, 7 bunnies, and 2 birds during Driver’s Ed), and killing two people in the same day sounds so nauseating. I still couldn’t get the image of Saïx dissolving into darkness, reaching out for Kingdom Hearts, out of my head.

Geez, this world is so unfair.

“Ansem, wait!” Sora shouted. Where was I, how the hell did I get here, and why was Sora calling for Ansem?

1) I had looped back to the topmost section of The Hall of Empty Melodies, where Ansem was before.

2) I must’ve gotten up here when I was thinking about Saïx and Xemnas. I need to start paying attention to where I’m going. I’m surprised I didn’t walk into a wall or something.

3) Why is Sora calling Ansem? Well, let’s find out.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Ansem, and the brown haired girl from before were standing on the little balcony in the middle section of the wall. Ansem was getting ready to leave via dark portal, but Brown-Haired girl was holding onto him (floozy).

Sad part is: I could hardly hear anything, which kind of pissed me off because I wanted to hear what the hell they were saying (damned curiosity and mood).

I could tell that this might take a while, so I sat down, put up my hood, and strained to hear.

“Riku,” Sora said, falling to his knees. I could tell that I had missed a big chunk of the conversation. “I looked everywhere for you. I tried so hard, but I couldn’t find you.”

“I didn’t want to be found,” Ansem (fine… Riku) replied, looking at himself. “Not like this.” His voice changed when he said this; he sounded younger, like 15 or 16, and I really like the sound of it (though this made me much more confused than I already was).

Sora was crying at this point. So that makes the apology and crying; has this boy no testosterone?

“Hey! What are you doing here?” Donald exclaimed, pointing at me. Then they all turned to stare at the intruder: me. I pointed at myself, like “Oh, you mean me?” Everyone except Ansem (fine… Riku) nodded. He just looked amused; his hood was down for once. I stood up and jumped down onto the opposite end of the balcony from where they were.

“You’re from before, aren’t ya?” Goofy asked in a, well, goofy way.

“Which time?” I asked him.

“That one time, before.”

“That last time?”

“No, the time before that.”

“Oh, you mean that one time before last after the second time?” I smiled under my hood.

“Uh…” Goofy scratched his head.

“Okay, you’re done,” Riku told me, interrupting my fun.

“Fine,” I said sadly, while lowering my hood.

“Yeah, you’re definitely from before!” Goofy exclaimed excitedly. Donald sighed.

“So, um, what are you doing here?” Riku asked me.

“I could ask you the same thing, Riku,” I replied. He could obviously tell that I was going to give him hell if he didn’t give me a straight answer.

* * *

“No, you’re not,” Sora told Brown-Hair, crossing his arms.

Donald, Goofy, Riku, and I all scooted out of the way, and stood about five feet straight back from the middle of them.

Brown-Hair put her hands on her hips. “You are not leaving me behind again. If you and Riku get lost, like last time, I’ll be with you.”

“But, it’s dangerous, and there’ll be danger… and it’ll be hard!” Sora exclaimed, grasping for excuses.

“I know there’ll be danger, and I can help, if you think it’s going to be hard,” she said matter-of-factly.

“But I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“You mean: you don’t want me in the way, right?”

Ooh, she had him beat.

“Fine,” Sora sighed. “You can come.”

“Thank you.”

“But, you have to leave when I tell you to.”

“Nope.”

Sora looked like he was going to tear his spiky hair out.

“I’m trying to negotiate!” he shouted.

“And I’m going to stay by your side no matter what,” Brown-Hair told him calmly. I’m guessing Sora knew that she was coming one way or another, so he gave up.

“Nice job,” I said to Brown-Hair, walking up to her, standing next to her.

“Thanks. Who are you?”

“Crystal. Nice to meet you.”

“Kairi. Same.”

“So what’s his story?” I asked while pointing at Riku.

“Well—.”

“Let’s go fight Xemnas, shall we?” Riku cut her off, pointing to the exit.

“Okay. Whatever,” I said, walking past him. “You are so giving me an explanation when this is over. And something shiny. Like Edward.”

I heard a groan behind me. Then, “What’s an ‘edward’?”

[Roxi-chan]

Yay! So good. =) I love how this is going. Good job.

[TwilightRiku_13]

Yes!! Cliffhanger!! Awesome chapter again. I cannot wait for the ending.

[Twilight_Path]

Lol those notes were hilarious! Xemnas has the handwriting of a 6 year old... lulz XD

*applause*

YAYAYAYAYAYAY!! Go Andillexe!

[madammina]

Good Job. I really like the story. I'm gonna miss it.

[Essence of Elegy]

Well I haven't actually finished reading everything, but I can tell that you've got potential. The humor's a good addition as well. I won't be able to provide constructive criticism until I read everything, so for now you have my respect.

Keep it up!

[Andillexe]

Chapter 7: Owari, Part 2

Well, this was a first: me traveling with people (plus a duck and a… dog?). I was happy, and had almost completely forgotten that I had killed Saïx, like I was about to kill Xemnas. So that was a good optimism booster. Plus I got to thinking about Riku. Why would he lie about his name? And why did his voice change when he started getting called Riku? Also, what do I think of him? Sure, I make him want to kill himself; he does the same to me. We’re totally just two friends that get on each other’s nerves with our excessive use of sarcasm. No romantic relationship at all. Nope… I don’t like him… He’s just some guy that saved my life several times over… And besides, why the hell would I like him? He’s way too old for me…… Right? …

Back to the group.

The only hindrance was the total uncomfortable vibe that I got from everyone. I didn’t really get why, though; I mean, sure, Sora, Donald and Goofy have a right to feel uncomfortable, with me hanging around, and maybe Riku… and also maybe Kairi… and me. I was feeling very uncomfortable with my unknown feelings about Riku. I was also the one that was leading our little group, so I’m guessing that might’ve contributed to the vibe. I hate leading, so I headed to the back and let Riku lead.

That didn’t help the vibe. At all.

Despite the fact that there were six of us, it was really quiet. Seriously. No one said anything. Riku was leading; Sora and Kairi were behind him, Donald and Goofy were behind them, and I was bringing up the rear. I would’ve given anything to break the silence, and I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one, but it felt like everyone here but Riku thought I was still the enemy, and they didn’t want to talk in front of me. Then I noticed something strange (well, stranger): there weren’t any Nobodies, or Heartless. I don’t know if the others noticed it, but I sure did, and it creeped me out… a lot.

“Hey guys,” I said when we reached Naught’s Approach, “where are all the Nobodies?”

They stopped and turned around.

“Well, usually, when we go to a different area, Nobodies show up, which they haven’t been doing,” I clarified.

Everyone looked around. Apparently they aren’t as observant as me.

“You know what this means, don’t you?” Riku said.

Silence.

“… No, actually. Explanation, please,” I said.

He looked like he was going to fall over.

“I means that Xemnas is the only one left, so we have to finish this,” Sora jumped in. I thought we had already established that, but oh well.

“Look!” Donald exclaimed, pointing at Kingdom Hearts. I didn’t notice it before, but thousands of hearts were being pulled in like some magnetic force was acting upon them (well, I noticed the pink dots earlier). Here’s the thing Donald was probably pointing at: a beam had shot into Kingdom Hearts. The source was coming from somewhere ahead of us, and I thought I knew who/what was doing it.
“Let’s go!” I shouted, heading for the beam’s source…

Which was located a good twenty feet away from us. Not even, actually…

When we got to the top of Naught’s Approach, I saw DiZ (only his head wasn’t wrapped up anymore), and King Mickey standing next to DiZ’s little beam-producing device. DiZ had blonde, short-ish hair, a blonde beard, and his tan was gone. Eyes were still amber, but no tan.

“So I’m guessing it works, right?” I asked DiZ while walking to his toy. “Why are you doing this, again?”

“Well, Xemnas and the Organization were using the hearts they had collected to make Kingdom Hearts, right? They were using Kingdom Hearts for power, which is bad. So I’m encoding the hearts so that there is no Kingdom Hearts for Xemnas.”

I tried to follow and failed miserably. “My brain hurts.”

“Now there’s a surprise,” Riku commented as he and the others walked up. I death-glared at him. “Hi, DiZ. You’re Majesty.” He inclined his head at the King.

“Hello, Ansem. Everyone,” DiZ greeted back.

“Apparently his name is Riku,” I corrected, turning back to DiZ. “Did you know that? I didn’t.”

He was silent.

Silence usually means that they knew something and didn’t want me to know, but I figured it out anyway. Or that no one had anything to say… but the first one sounds better.

“You knew, didn’t you? Oh, let me guess, your real name isn’t DiZ, right?” I asked angrily. The way everyone I knew can just keep secrets from me, especially if it’s just a small one (like, uh, I don’t know, names), just set me off and made me feel like I didn’t belong. But it couldn’t stop there. Nope. It always has to get crappier.

DiZ was silent again.

I stared at him for a moment, not comprehending. Then I shouted, “You have got to be kidding me!” I was about ready to beat either my or Riku and/or DiZ’s head against something. “What’s your real name, then? Ansem?”

No one said anything.

“I give up,” I told them.

“Crystal,” Riku said soothingly, “we changed our names for personal reasons, not because we didn’t want you to know them. I know I would’ve told you… but I knew you would’ve badgered me until you got the whole story.” Then he turned away and mumbled under his breath, “Gee, wonder why I wouldn’t want that.”

“Jerk,” I counter-mumbled. I turned to DiZ, “So your real name is Ansem?”

“Yeah,” he answered.

“So how long is this going to take?” I asked, pointing at the heart-to-data converter, putting the name case behind me. Just then it started shaking violently. “Didn’t do it!” I said, putting my hands up. I got a lot of sideways glances from that. A maniacal laughter sounded around us, and Xemnas appeared.

“Foolish man. Did you really think you could stop the Organization? Kingdom Hearts is nearly complete. Nothing can stop it.”

“Xehanort: a foolish apprentice to a foolish teacher. I knew I should have thrown you and the others out when you went against my orders,” Ansem (not the Ansem I thought was Ansem; the Ansem that was really Ansem) replied.

I was getting more and more confused. Were there even more name changes? Or was Xemnas, since he was in Organization XIII, this Xehanort guy’s Nobody? If he was, then who was his Heartless? And why would Ansem address him by his former name? I started getting a migraine.

“I only finished what you were too cowardly to do. We all knew you’d fail. It was only a matter of time until we could take over.”

Ansem’s machine shook more violently, and we all knew it would explode.

“So long, my old master,” Xemnas sneered, and he vanished in a portal.

“Oh, shit,” I said.

“Come on, let’s go!” Riku shouted. Everyone except Ansem ran for it.

“Ansem, come on!” I yelled at him. “Get your butt in gear and move it.”

“I’m sorry, Crystal. I must do what my heart tells me to do,” he yelled back calmly, yet very sadly. I couldn’t accept that. I wasn’t going to lose a friend in addition to my world. I ran for Ansem, but got stopped by Riku.

“He’s chosen to follow his heart. There’s nothing we can do,” he said solemnly. I looked up at him, and realized that he knew Ansem better and much longer than I did. Nodding, I braced myself against Riku and tried not to cry.

* * *

When I woke up, it felt like I had been run over a few times by an angry rhino, then put into a washing machine, taken out and left to dry via the Mr. Freeze roller coaster. Making things worse, I realized that I was crying (curse this universe for turning me into a wishy-washy sap)… Oh, and I couldn’t see or breathe.
But that might’ve been because someone was on top of me.

I pushed the person off and did a mental inventory of any injuries. There were only a few bruises and nothing broken as far as I could tell. The others didn’t look as well. The person I pushed off of me I didn’t recognize. He had silver, spiky hair, an Organization outfit and a black blindfold on. One other thing: he was unconscious. Everyone but me was unconscious. I stood up and went to the spot where Ansem and his gizmo were before the explosion. Nothing was there. When I looked up at Kingdom Hearts, there was a huge hole in it and hearts were falling to the ground. Looking down, I saw that there were hundreds of Heartless and Nobodies creating a sort of mosh pit, trying to catch the hearts.

I didn’t see Ansem or Riku anywhere. There was no trace they had even been there, either. God, why didn’t I at least try to help Ansem out with his gadget? Or at least throw the thing over the edge of the castle before it exploded? I sat down and brought my knees up to my chest, burying my face in them.

It must’ve been a couple hours or so before the others woke up (I didn’t know. There was no discernable passing of time there). When they finally did wake up, I was still sitting down where Ansem’s gadget blew up, staring at Kingdom Hearts.

“So he’s really gone?” the guy I didn’t know asked.

“Yeah,” I answered. Then what he actually said registered in my confused and damaged brain. I got up and faced him. “No way. No. You can’t be—!” I stuttered. I looked at his face. “Uh, can you see me?”

“What? Oh!” He took off his blindfold and blinked a few times. His eyes were a beautiful azure color, but before they turned azure, his eyes were exactly the same color as Riku and Ansem’s: amber.

“Please tell me you’re not Riku. I can’t take anymore secrets,” I pleaded. “Especially this.” Before he could say anything, the others came up to where we were.

“Riku!” Sora exclaimed. “You’re back to yourself! Well, I mean, you were yourself before, but… Now you’re you, and…” Apparently he figured he wasn’t going anywhere with this and decided to shut up. Kairi came up behind Sora and hugged Riku.

“Glad you’re back to your old form,” she said sweetly as she hugged him. Riku blushed and I had a sudden urge to start throwing shurikens at her.

“So what’s the story here?” I asked anyone who would listen impatiently. Everyone turned to look at me, turned back to Riku, and then scooted off to one side to watch. Riku tried to go with them, but Sora kept him in my line of verbal fire (at least Sora was good for something).

“Well, uh… You see, the thing is, um,” Riku tried to explain, grasping for words.

“Story for another time?” I asked.

“You’re the best,” he told me, relieved. The others looked disappointed for some reason, like they wanted to see me blast an energy ball at him or something. Too bad, so sad, not going to happen.

“So what next?” Sora asked. Did he really not know the answer to that? Instead of waiting for someone to say “We have to fight Xemnas, the Organization’s last member,” I answered with “Let’s just go fight Xemnas” and started walking. “Nice outfit, by the way, Riku,” I added over my shoulder. He looked at his cloak and whipped it off in an overly dramatic way, revealing blue baggy pants, and a yellow vest. Yeah, he was the Riku I knew… Sort of knew…

“Showoff,” I muttered, shaking my head.

* * *

It wasn’t long before we reached the Altar of Naught. Here, the moon looked a lot bigger, but there was a little black nuisance floating up near it.

“Kingdom Hearts, I have given you the hearts you desired. Give me the power of darkness.” Xemnas reached towards Kingdom Hearts like he wanted to give it a hug. There may or may not have been more to his evil rant about darkness, but I don’t know because I didn’t care… at all…

“You’re not going to get away with this, Xemnas,” Sora said, shaking his Keyblade at Xemnas. Xemnas cackled evilly.

“What? Are you going to stop me?” he asked.

“Not alone, he won’t,” Riku shouted at him (making this the cheesiest battle of the cheesy comebacks ever), summoning a Keyblade of his own. I got really confused (well, more really confused). As I’ve stated before, I thought that there was only one Keyblade belonging to Sora. Then I saw that King Mickey had one, too. I got extremely more really confused, though decided to drop it for now and face the problem at hand: the Floating Jackass.

After a little more evil laughter, Xemnas vanished in a flash of bright, white light.

“Great, now where did he go?” I asked, annoyed. Just as I said that (do my questions have magical powers or something?... Dammit, nothing happened), a huge door sparkled into existence a little ways away from the edge of the castle.

“The worlds have opened a way to Xemnas. They want us to defeat him,” King Mickey told us. We all ran up to the door and went through, summoning our weapons (even Kairi had a Keyblade). Inside the door was just like an extremely dark New York. It felt as if we ended up back in the city below the castle. Only difference was that down there, buildings weren’t flying at us.

“Look out!” Sora shouted at us as he flew through the air, slicing buildings up.

“Holy crap,” I gasped. Nobodies came out of the buildings and started attacking us. The fight lasted a few minutes, then we finally got to Xemnas. He was still laughing like the crazy maniac he is. There was another flash of light, and when it was gone, there was a huge purple wall, tons of Nobodies, and no Sora.

“These things just never go away, do they?” I asked (rhetorically) Riku.

“What’s the matter? Too many for you?” he teased.

“It’s not that. I just didn’t want to share the fun.” And we leapt at the first unfortunate Nobody we saw.

When all of the Nobodies were defeated, the wall began to shimmer.

“Sora!” Kairi called, and the shimmering wall dissolved into light. We all ran up to Sora and asked him if he was hurt and where Xemnas went.

“I’m fine,” he answered us. “I defeated Xemnas.” Oh, good. I just totally missed my chance to have some revenge. Since it appeared to be over, we all walked back through the door.

“Let’s go home,” Riku said. “All of us.” He looked at me, and I knew that he wanted me to go home with them. With him. I was all for going to see his home, but here’s where the controversy was: should I go with them, or should I go back to where I came from, even though it might not be there, and most likely forget about everything that happened here?

Taking these odds into consideration, I went with them to the other side of the door. That much I could decide on, at least.

“Just how are we going to get home?” I asked Riku as we walked to the platform below. “The castle’s probably swarming with Nobodies/Heartless.”

“Easy. We’re going to warp,” he answered in a “duh” voice. “And we’re not taking the gummi ship because I know you’ll drive no matter what and I don’t want to put these lives in jeopardy,” he added, inclining his head to the others. They looked at me with scared eyes.

“Fine. You’re doing it, though. I have no idea where your home is or what it even looks like. I’ll probably just get us stranded somewhere, anyway.”

He rolled his eyes and tried to open a portal. But there wasn’t one. He tried again… and again… and again…

“Why isn’t it working?” he thought aloud.

“You’re not steeped in darkness anymore, Riku,” King Mickey told him. So why could I do it? I tried warping to the other end of the platform, but I couldn’t do it either. So now the question becomes: Why can’t I do it?

“So you’re telling me that you taught me how to control darkness!?!?!?!?!?!” I shouted at Riku. “Next you’ll be telling me that I’ve been kept in some secluded location that no one really knows exists except for a handful of people asleep for the past year, right?” That was the most outlandish thing that I could think of.

Riku looked at me for a brief moment then looked away, not saying anything. I stared at him, appalled that that might actually be true. I looked at everyone else and saw that they were just as confused as me… except for King Mickey, who looked a little ashamed. I didn’t like that look. I thought that the look should go away. Since I couldn’t get looks to leave, I just stood there and dealt with it…

“So, wh—what?” I asked Riku and King Mickey. I didn’t say I dealt with it well. “And this is not a story for another time.” They looked at each other and Riku began telling his story.

“Remember the day when Heartless attacked your world?” he began. Damn right I did. How could I forget? “Well, it was about a year ago; back when Heartless were tearing down the gates that kept the worlds separate.” That would actually make more sense; Heartless coming and tearing my world into confetti.

“Wait, I thought you said that the Heartless were back and tearing up the worlds,” I interrupted.

“That was so you wouldn’t get disoriented. DiZ’s, I mean, Ansem’s idea. Plus I know now that it also saved me a long explanation,” he said. “Anyway, you ended up in Twilight Town, where Ansem found you unconscious. He didn’t know how long you had been unconscious, or how long it would take you to wake up, plus he didn’t have very comfortable living spaces, so he put you in a pod at his mansion until you woke up.”

“Ooookaay. But if I was in a pod, why did I wake up in a hotel with the same clothes on as when my world was attacked?” Then I thought about what I said. “Don’t answer the second part,” I added quickly.

“Well, about six months ago, you started getting restless in your pod. Ansem, the King and I figured that you might wake up soon. So we brought you to the hotel, where we would take turns staying with you until you woke up. Turns out we were off by a couple weeks when we said you’d wake up soon.”

“You were in on it too, then?” I asked the King. He nodded, looking up at me. “Well, can’t do anything about the past. Guess we should head ‘em up, move ‘em out.”

“Wait, Crystal,” the King interrupted. “There’s more. Tell her, Riku.”

Oh. Great. I looked at Riku. He sighed and continued.

“While you were in the pod, a girl we know searched your memories to find out what had happened to you and where you came from. That’s why I asked the King if you would be able to wake Sora up. She was chaining him memories back together after Castle Oblivion.” That made a little more sense… to me. Poor Sora was looking even more confused.

“Did she find anything?” I asked Riku.

“Not much. Your memories were too guarded by your heart. She could only see your most recent memories before you were unconscious. That was it.” Serves them right. My heart’s memories are not something to be played with. “Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Riku apologized. Mickey looked like he was about to tell Riku that there was even more, but Riku just shook his head at him.

“What I don’t get is why you looked like you did when I first met you,” I told him. I could tell he didn’t want to tell me that story. Too bad. “It’s definitely another time, and I’m curious.” He knew he wasn’t going to get out of telling it, so he took a deep breath and kept going.

“I had to use the power of darkness, which included changing my appearance,” he told me quickly. “There’s still darkness in me, though, and I can never get rid of it.”

“There’s a little bit of darkness in everything,” I told him. “There’s a little bit of light in everything, too. It’s a Yin-Yang thing; you need both to be balanced. Otherwise, you’re this weird, lopsided thing with a black and white outlook on life.”

“Where there is darkness, there is light? How does that even make sense?” Riku asked, looking at his hand. It would make more sense if your head wasn’t stuck in emo-mode, I thought to myself. His hand suddenly clenched, and he said, “There’s no light in me. I can’t change.”

“Stop being so goddamned emo!” I yelled at him, rolling my eyes. “You don’t have to change; the light never left you. Unless you wholly turn your back on it, it will never abandon you. Idiot.”

We looked at each other for a moment (whoa, he got close), and he kissed me!

First thought: WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I don’t like him!! Do I?...

Second thought: He’s good.

Third thought: … I think all thought shut down after that, ‘cuz I wasn’t thinking nuthin…

How long did it last? No idea. Did I enjoy it? You betcha.

“Uh…,” he said as we pulled apart.

“Yeah.” It wasn’t one of those awkward “ya thought the guy was a totally annoying jerk that you hated, then he goes off and literally transforms into another thing” scenarios. Nope. This was sorta “Huh. Who’da thunk it?” It was nice.

We looked around and saw that everyone was staring at us. We immediately turned bright red and looked away, laughing like “heh heh. We didn’t just kiss. What are you talking about?”

Suddenly (yeah. Even my mental questions [which are very sarcastic and meaningless] have the magical power) a warp portal appeared in front of us. Everyone turned to look at me.

“What? I didn’t do it,” I said. Then Pluto (the dog from before that randomly comes out of nowhere) came out of nowhere (zomg gaspeh) and bowled me over, running into the portal, barking. Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey followed him. Kairi walked up to the portal and started talking to it.

“Thank you, Naminé,” she said to it. When she said that, the blonde haired girl from before appeared (only she was sort of see-through). She smiled at Kairi, and then walked up to Sora.

“See? I told you that we’d meet again,” she told him. I had no clue what Sora’s done in the past, so I wasn’t really that confused. Sora, on the other hand, must’ve had a bigger migraine than me.

“What?” he asked.

“You said that we’d meet again, only we might not recognize each other,” came a voice from within Sora. Then a boy, just as transparent as the girl, Naminé, was, stepped out from Sora. He seemed so familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Damn, it’s gonna bother me now.

“I did, didn’t I?” Naminé smiled at the boy.

Then there was some mushy “together” stuff, and Riku said to me, “Why can’t we be that close?”

“Because twenty minutes ago I thought I hated your guts, in a sarcastic, kidding way.” I smiled at him. He seemed a little hurt, but he’d get over it. Then the boy (I heard someone call him “Roxas”) came up to me.

“You know,” he told me, “you look really familiar for some reason. I just can’t think of where I could’ve met you.”

“Yeah, you seem familiar to me, too. But, given my past, I might’ve met you. Or at least seen you… somewhere…” It was true, too. I mean, I was kept in a friggin’ pod for the past year (which would make me… 16? Wow).

“I hear you,” Roxas laughed. He turned to Riku. “Take care of her. I don’t know why, but I just have this feeling that if you leave her alone for five minutes, she’ll get into trouble somehow.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve been there and done that more than enough times.” Riku put his arm around my shoulders. “You can count on me.”

“Okay, two things,” I butt in. “One: I’m hurt. I can get into trouble way faster than five minutes. And, two: what about the times I’ve had to save your butt? Hmm?”

Riku looked surprised. “What times?”

“Well, the time that… Wait, no. That was you. How ‘bout the one… oops, no… Uhh…” Of course, by then he was trying to keep from bursting out laughing and failing miserably. “Leave me alone,” I pouted, beaten. Everyone laughed. Naminé walked up to Kairi and took her hand. They both started glowing, and Naminé was gone.

Sora was just gawking at Kairi, oblivious to his own transparent friend.

“Hey!” His transparent friend said, getting Sora’s limited attention span to focus on him. “I’m still here, you know.”

“Oh, right.” And Roxas glowed into Sora. Sora patted himself (why? No idea, as per usual).

“Don’t worry. Nothing’s changed,” Riku reassured him. “You’re still you.”

“Let’s go,” I told Sora, Riku, and Kairi. “I want to see your home.”

Kairi smiled at Sora and Riku and went in. There was a weird noise and the portal began vanishing. Sora, Riku, and I tried to rush in.

“Sora! Riku! Crystal!” Kairi shouted, reaching for us. The portal closed. We didn’t make it in. I looked around to see if there was some way we could get down without going through the castle; I did not want to fight all those Nobodies.

“Maybe,” I suggested, “we could go down and get the gummi—Shit! Flying building!”

They both looked where I was looking and also saw a flying building. We all braced ourselves since it was too close to block. And, you know, it was a flippin’ building that was flying towards us at a high speed. The aim was off a bit and it hit just below the rim of the platform we were on.

“Okay. 1) That was close. 2) What the hell was that!!?” I exclaimed.

“It’s Xemnas,” Sora said.

“You said you defeated him,” I recapped.

“Just that one battle, apparently,” Riku chimed in. Great. At least I’ll be able to beat Xemnas up with my own two hands and trusty sword.

“Well, he missed us. All we have to do is go back through the door.” I had spoken way too soon. The platform beneath us started shaking violently and slowly started falling away from the door. We all fell down and tried to grab on to something… which didn’t work because the floor must’ve been waxed really well. I looked around to see if there was anything that we could jump on or something, then I saw it: a hovercycle.

I ran down the falling platform, planning to jump on it and try to drive it. Apparently Riku saw the cycle, too, because he was running toward it (either that or he was going to try to grow wings in two seconds and fly away). I leapt off the edge of the rail and landed on the cycle.

“Hop on,” I called to Sora, who was still trying to grab on to something. “I’m driving,” I told Riku, who had hopped on behind me. Nodding, he wrapped his arms around my waist and, after Sora got on, I drove us to where Xemnas was waiting.

Which turned out to be on a huge, flying, dragon-like machine. I felt my heart fly up into my throat, but gunned the throttle anyway.

* * *

We had to fight the damn flying dragon machine. It was really hard, too. Not only because we were in the air, but because Nobodies were popping in out of nowhere along with freaky lasers. I was about ready to tear something in half, and I preferred it be Xemnas.

After the annoying beast was defeated, we jumped onto a little open area at the front of the… ship? Xemnas was there, and his outfit was weird: he had, like, a suit of armor on, which was silver and gold with three-pronged crowns all over the place. He was sitting on a chair like it was a throne. Plus, on the sides of his chair, there were weapons. Every weapon I saw in Proof of Existence was there (only we had the Keyblades).

“Hey, Xemnas,” I greeted. Then I summoned my sword and tensed into my battle position. “Ready to lose?” Riku and Sora summoned their Keyblades and also went into battle position.

“It all depends on whether or not you’re ready to die,” Xemnas replied, the weapons on either side of him rising up seemingly on their own. And we fought.

Getting past the flying weapons to Xemnas was very hard, because every time I blocked an attack from one weapon, another one was right behind it, ready to strike. I looked over at Riku and Sora and saw that they were having better luck than me. Because they more than likely have more experience than me, I thought, blocking yet another attack. Finally the attacks became weaker and I was able to start whacking Xemnas with Sora and Riku. I was blocking and striking, blocking and striking, and then it hit me…

Xemnas struck me with one of his little lance things. It went right through me. I didn’t even know how Xemnas got me; I was zipping around him with Sora and Riku. I was slowly falling to the ground, or that’s what it felt like.

“No!” Riku shouted when he saw me (a little cliché, but still sweet).

Xemnas pulled the lance out of me and resumed attacking Sora and Riku. Riku looked at me, fading away, and kept attacking Xemnas with more force. My body was almost completely gone when I realized: he loved me. I knew he at least liked me from the kiss, but he truly, sorta deeply loved me. Then something else happened: I realized I truly, sorta deeply loved him too (even though for the majority of the time I knew him, I loathed him/had fun messing with his head). Funny what goes through your mind when your body’s fading away and you see the reactions of the people around you.

A few minutes after my body vanished, Riku and Sora beat Xemnas. Riku looked at the spot where I fell. “Why? Why did he have to—!?” he clenched his fists. “Damn you, Xemnas. Damn you, Xemnas!”

Riku,” Sora said, “it’s not over yet. We still have to end this.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go.” He started walking away, with Sora right behind him. I think Riku was crying, but I don’t know. I followed them.

We ended up in this really weird looking place. It was black, white, and gray. Xemnas, that bastard, was standing on the far side wearing a white cloak with a black thorn pattern.

“Aren’t you done yet?” he asked boredly. “You’d think that now that Crystal’s gone, you’d go and grieve.”

“Shut up!” Riku yelled at him. Good, I’m not the only one who gets pissed off every time Xemnas opens his mouth.

Then he immediately attacked, only to be stopped by Dusk. There were, like, a hundred of them.

“Have fun,” Xemnas said as he disappeared.

“You coward!”

Sora ran up to Riku and started kicking Dusk butt.

* * *

After that little battle, Riku fell to his knees.

“Riku!” Sora shouted.

Riku went emo again. “Why did she have to get killed? Xemnas is gonna pay for this.”

“Am I, now?” That jackass was back.

“I won’t let you get away with this,” Riku said to him. He stopped being emo and had a deadly tone in his voice.

“You’re going down,” Sora added. I mentally did a face-palm.

They promptly began another battle, which had some cool parts, like the laser dome (which was bad for Sora and Riku, but still insanely awesome). At the end of the battle, Riku got hit in the side, and I really wanted to go help him, but I knew that would be very bad. Then the battle was over. Riku and Sora shot a cool light beam at Xemnas (serves him right for what he did to me) from Sora’s Keyblade. There was some dialogue I couldn’t hear, but I knew they were debating on how to get out of there.

Here, I thought. Let me help. And I opened a light portal in the distance. I don’t know how I did it. I just felt it in my heart and let it out in the open for them.

And me being me, I followed them into it, the curiosity that I am somewhat famous for strutting its stuff.

Where did we end up? I have no idea whatsoever, but it was way cool (but at the same time really creepy). Only, the thing is, I ended up in a rock closet, while the other two were just behind some rocks.

“Where are we?” Sora asked. Riku looked around. It was nighttime, the moon was reflecting in the water, the beach was dark and surrounded by rocks, one of which I was in.

“Looks like the other side,” Riku answered. Sora either knew what that meant, or had no idea but went along with it anyway. “Take me to the water,’ Riku said gently. They went down to the water. I wanted to go with them so badly because 1) Riku looked really hurt. 2) I was getting a little claustrophobic in my hiding place. Now I know what Riku and Ansem (and whoever else) felt like while they were keeping secrets from me. The heck with it, I’m going down anyway.

I walked down to the beach to where they were and sat on the other side of Riku. I knew they were staring at me like “WHAT!? I thought you were dead!!!”

I stared out at the water. “No, I didn’t die. Not really, anyway.”

They kept staring at me.

“So,” Sora said after an awkward silence, “why aren’t you dead?” He said this in a shocked, numb tone.

Riku slapped him.

“Hey! What was that for?” Sora exclaimed.

“You could be a bit more delicate,” Riku said. Then he turned to me. “Um, so why aren’t you dead?”

Sora rolled his eyes.

“Because I made a duplicate of myself before the battle and kinda hanged back to watch,” I told them, looking at my gloved hands.

They looked shocked.

“Oh…” Sora muttered to himself.

“Where’d you learn how to do that?” Riku asked. He seemed almost proud.

“Talent,” I smiled mischievously. Then I lay down on the sand. And we just stayed there… like that… for, like, ever. I had no idea what we were waiting for, so I just stayed like that, waiting for the other two to decide what we were going to do next. The tide came and I felt movement on my left.

“It’s for you,” Riku said to Sora.

“Thinking of you, wherever you are,” he read out loud. “We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend. Now I will step forward to realize this wish. And who knows: Starting a new journey may not be so hard, or maybe it has already begun. There are many worlds, but they share the same sky—one sky, one destiny.”

I looked out onto the water and saw a thin column of light, slowly growing bigger.

“Look. Light,’ I said. Then Sora mumbled something, had a realization, and jumped to his feet.

“We’ll go together,” he said to Riku, who looked at me.

“I’m right behind you,” I told him, smiling. We got up and walked through the light…

Which was diddlyin’ terrorizing, by the way. When we walked through the Door to Light we fell straight down. I guess we hit some clouds or something on the way down, because I got soaked. And I couldn’t breathe. Again. I heard someone swim next to me and pull me up. We broke through the surface after a few seconds of swimming, and I saw Riku, thus I proceeded to blush.

“Thanks for not letting me drown,” I mumbled. He chuckled a bit.

Kairi called us, and Sora swam like a madman, well, more like a flailing moron, in the general direction of Kairi, almost drowning in doing so. I got dragged along like a buoy courtesy of Riku. Did he think I couldn’t swim or something? What would give him the idea that I’m just some helpless girl? …Don’t answer that…

* * *

Well, they were home…I was with them…With Riku…Here…In Destiny Islands…Which Riku gave me the grand tour of… So why wasn’t I completely happy? Oh yeah, I remember: because my world may or may not be gone still, along with my friends, my family, my stuff, all the cool hangouts I knew about, the car that I sort of was going to get, and everything else that was familiar to me that I cherished.

Yeah, that’s about right. But I did have fun in Destiny Islands. I went swimming, I’ve been getting a nice tan, I got a new pair of clothes, I’m now living with Kairi (because the adults think that it’s “better” than being in the same house as Riku [come on, they let us play on the island by ourselves… jerks]), and I get to see Riku every day. So far, so good. I’ve only been in Destiny Islands for a few days, but I still love it and think it’s amazing. The only problem is, I can’t get a single paopu fruit! Riku told me about them and has been teasing me that if I can get one then we can share it. Easy, right? Heh heh, not really (must be because gravity sucks and I have no arm muscles at all). Not a good enough picture? Look at this:




(Why, yes, it is a bit big. Oh well). As you can see, not fun… for me, anyway (Riku was just laughing and criticizing, the git). All was well in Destiny Islands. Too bad I didn’t know how bad my life could get in only a few short months. If you’re reading this, I’m probably in my cell with no clue as to how this is going to end. Oh, and if you see Riku, tell him that I love him and that I’m going to miss him. A lot.

[Andillexe]

Good Job. I really like the story. I'm gonna miss it.

Uh... what? Thanks, but, what? There's still the end of this /and/ the sequel... o.0

[madammina]

(claps) FANTASTIC!!!!! Great Job! I LOVED it! now what is going to happen with the cell thing? I sense a sequel is coming soon. (it better)

[Roxi-chan]

O_O Squeal time. I. Must. Knooooooow. lol
Great job!

[TwilightRiku_13]

So great!!! Holy Hell, what was with the ending? I cannot wait for your sequel (which I apparently figured out the plotline to already). Anyway, great story; I await forthe continuation.

[Andillexe]

(claps) FANTASTIC!!!!! Great Job! I LOVED it! now what is going to happen with the cell thing? I sense a sequel is coming soon. (it better)

Thank you, thank you. About the last part: *points to previous post*. I'm gonna post the prolouge to the sequel soon, so hang in there! =3

[Twilight_Path]

LOLZ!!!! Omg you had me laughing the whole time Andillexe!

That was so awesome! And... there's more?!?! YAYAYZ!!

:D