Rikku sat bored out of her mind on the bridge of the Celcius. The wind felt nice, but that was about it. She cracked her neck and knuckles, and suddenly, rain began to patter softly against the ship and her skin.

"Ah, jeez!" she said as she stood up and started to run back into the Celcius.

Suddenly, the huge airship jerked sharply to the let, throwing Rikku off balance.

"Cred!" Rikku cursed as she toppled over to her side, as the rain fell harder.

Just then, Yuna ran out.

"Rikku!" she shouted over the loud storm.

She ran to try and help her, but the Celcius gave another sharp jerk and Yuna fell too, but Rikku was sent to the edge.

"Holy crap! I'm gonna die!!!!" Rikku screamed as she held onto one of the large parts of the ship.

The metal was slippery, as were her fingers, and she couldn't hold on any longer.

"Yunie!" she shouted as she saw Yuna's head pop out above her as her fingers slipped and Rikku fell from hundreds of feet in the air.

She tried to scream, but couldn't. Her hair flapped violently, blocking her view of where she was going to land and most likely die. She was falling very quickly, and she finally looked down and saw a huge mountain right below her.

"Ooh, man! Okay, I didn't wanna steal the little kid's candy, but he wouldn't sell it to me for less than 20 gil! He was sooo mean and he wouldn't gimme my money back!" Rikku continued rambling on things she'd done wrong.

After about a minute of doing this, Rikku finally said, "Well, now I've got a clean conscience!"

Just as she was about to hit the mountain, Rikku braced herself, but when she was supposed to hit it, she didn't feel a thing. Her swift falling pace had slowed and she was now levitating, floating, rather than falling. She opened her eyes and looked around, but saw nothing but darkness. She looked down, and saw a large design of what looked like a princess wearing a pink dress, and it shone brilliantly. Rikku smiled, but the design faded.

She landed softly on what seemed like sand. There was a set of large doors in front of her, huge. Curious, Rikku pulled on the handle of one of them, and once the door was opened a little, poked her head inside and looked around. She saw dark shapes, shadows, kind of, moving everywhere.

"Whoa...this is weird..." she said, and as she was about to step in, she heard a voice from behind.

"Don't go in!"

Rikku turned to see a short boy with chin-length silver hair, a yellow shirt, and blue and black pants. He wore blue and white sneakers.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, sounding upset. "Close the door!"

Rikku tried to push the door closed, but it was too heavy. Suddenly, a stream of darkness shot out of the opening in the door. Rikku watched in amazement, but the expression on the boy's face was pure terror. The boy ran into the door, trying to ram it closed.

"Help me!" he said frantically. "Before more of them escape!"

Blindly, Rikku pushed with all her might to close the doors. Finally when she was just about to faint, the doors shut.

"More of what?" Rikku said, panting.

"The Heartless." the boy said flatly. "By the way, my name's Riku."