Maaya looked around, "God damnit, I'm here again." She had been to this place multiple times before, but now she was standing in a new area. It was a decaying, dark forest. "I guess I better explore." She wasn't sure how long she had been walking, when she is in this place it is like time flowed differently. She smiled when she was finally out of the forest, but now she stood in a city that was partly destroyed.
"Your majesty, run!" To the left, there were two people running from the creatures. She had only ever encountered one person in this place, but she couldn't find her anymore. One was a man, he looked slightly taller than her and the other was a smaller…mouse? She didn't think much of it as she ran to help.
Running after the two of them, she began to catch up. They must have been running for a while, she wasn't a fast runner in the slightest. "Stop!" The creatures stopped and turned their attention towards her. "Leave, now!" All of the creatures had dispersed and that left her standing alone with the two new people.
"What just happened?" Glancing around, she made sure that they were gone and glanced back at the two.
"Are you two okay?" They stepped closer to her and seemed to be staring at her.
"How did you do that? How are you here?" She smiled but shrugged.
"Whenever I go to sleep, I end up in this place. I don't know why they listen to me." They took a cautious step away from her. She held up her hands, "I am not enemy of yours. See, I don't even have a weapon unlike you two." She pointed at their keyblades. "How are you two here? I haven't found anyone in this dark place for years."
"We closed the door between the realm of light and dark. We got trapped on this side." She ran her hands through her hair.
"I don't understand, realm of light?" They smaller mouse looking man, stepped to her hand and held out his hand.
"My name is King Mickey and his name is Riku. If you don't mind, could you tell us about yourself?" She shook his hand and nodded. She followed them for a little while until they reached a beach. Riku sat down and the king sat next to him.
She sat a little away from them, she knew they didn't trust her just yet. "My name is Maaya and as I've said, I've been coming to this place when I sleep. At first, I thought it was a dream you know, but after the first time I realized that it wasn't." She ran her hand over the scar that was on her forearm. "I met a girl here once. She helped me while I was here, but then she just disappeared. I couldn't find her anywhere and then they began to attack me. Every time I close my eyes, I see this place and every time I sleep, I am here." She began to draw patterns in the sand.
"You are able to freely travel through both the realm of light and the realm of darkness?" She shrugged. "That is amazing. I think I've heard this somewhere before." Mickey hummed and then jumped up. "That's right, I've read about it in one of Master Yen Sid's books. Someone who is able to travel between light and dark. A rare occurrence where someone that was born or created from someone from the realm of light and someone from the realm of darkness."
He kneeled in front of her. "Maaya, do you know how you came to be?" She shook her head. "I wonder how this came to be, there hasn't been someone like you for centuries."
"Maybe that is why I am such a freak." Riku came and sat next to her.
"You aren't a freak, you are special." She smiled and was going to reply, but her attention was drawn to the water.
"Something is coming." A dark creature came out of the water and everyone jumped back. "What the hell is that?!" Riku stepped in front of her and pulled out his keyblade.
"Stay behind me." She stepped further behind him as the creature got closer to them. When the creature stepped on land, Mickey attacked first and Riku right behind him. They seemed to be losing a fighting battle though, every hit that they landed on the creature he pushed them further back.
It hit King Mickey and she watched as he flew past her, then Riku landed in front of her. "No, stop this!" She stepped in front of them. "Stop!" This creature was different though, it didn't listen to her. He grabbed her and held her in front of him. It just starred at her, but then she began to feel her body burning. The scream that escaped her was one she had never heard herself make. She felt like there was something going on inside of her body, like a part of her was being torn in two.
"Maaya!" She could hear the two yelling for her, but they seemed like they were in the distance; but they were right below her.
"No, you need to stay back!" It was hard for her to say those words. It took a lot of her strength, and that was something that was fading fast from her.
"We need to get her away from that thing! It's trying to get rid of the light within her." Riku nodded at the king and jumped towards her. Pulling out his keyblade, he struck its wrist, causing it to drop her. He caught her and began to run away from the beach with King Mickey. When they felt that they were a great distance they stopped and leaned her against a wall.
"Maaya, hey Maaya!" Opening her eyes, she smiled at the man kneeling in front of her.
"You have really pretty eyes; did you know that." She laughed a little and he smirked.
"How are you feeling?" She grunted.
"I feel like I've been thrown against a wall and beaten. Other than that, I feel perfectly fine." She gave him her own smirk. "This is going to hurt like hell when I wake up."
"Your majesty, why did that thing go after her specifically? It seemed like she was his target." King Mickey paced behind the two of them.
"Maybe it knew, maybe it was trying to turn her to their side. The book said that the one who can travel between the realm of light and dark could turn the tides if any war was to come. I think we may have a serious problem when we get back to the realm of light."
"How did you two wind up here anyway?" Riku sighed and turned his attention back to her.
"We were helping fight someone, they opened the door to darkness. We closed it but ended up stuck here." She frowned.
"You got separated from your friends?" He nodded. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. They are safe over there." He sat next to her against the wall.
"I'm going to borrow your shoulder, okay?" He nodded and she laid her head on his shoulder. Closing her eyes, she tried to focus on anything other than the pain inside of her body, like the two of them talking.
"What are we going to do your majesty?" King Mickey was still pacing in front of them.
"We need to make sure that she is safe. Like I said, someone who is able to walk between the realm of light and dark is rare. Anyone who is on the side of darkness will want to use her, if they are able to get her who knows what they would do to get the darkness to come out of her." She squirmed against Riku's shoulder and he glanced down at her.
"Seems like she is sleeping right now. We need to find a way to get her back to the realm of light. If she has been here before then she must know of a way to get back."
"That may be true. I'm hoping we can find a way to bring her back, but I'm worried about what the heartless did to her." Riku shuddered.
"I haven't heard a yell like that in a long time, I never want her to have to scream like that again." King Mickey nodded at this. Maaya jerked up in that instant. "Maaya, what's wrong?"
She looked down at her hands, around, and then at them two. "I'm still here?" They both gave her worried looks. "Usually, I'm back by now. It's been a couple of hours, at least." She grabbed Riku's arm, feeling the tears threatening to fall. "I don't want to stay here. I hate it here."
Riku wrapped her in a hug. "We will figure out a way to get you out of here." Mickey held his hand out of her and helped her stand.
"You can feel darkness and light?" She shrugged. "Try it." She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. She could smell something; one thing sweet and the other was a mixture between sweet and something else she couldn't put her finger on. Whatever it was, it made her want to find it. Turning towards the smell, she took a step by stopped when she ran into someone. Opening her eyes, she noticed that her face was pushed into Riku's chest.
"Oh god, I'm sorry." She jumped back trying to hide the blush that was on her face.
"What happened?" She turned towards Mickey, trying to face away from Riku.
"I smelled something sweet and then something else. Something that I couldn't describe but it was tempting, I guess to say." She glanced at Riku. "You have darkness inside of you as well?" He nodded. "So, the sweet smell was King Mickey?" Mickey nodded.
"Good, so you can smell the light and darkness. Now let's try to see if you can see it." Glancing around them, she couldn't see anything but the dark that was around them. She was about to give up, but she noticed a small light in the distance.
"There!" She began to run towards the small light.
"Wait, Maaya. We can't just run through this place." She came to a stop and Riku stopped next to her. "We have to be careful in this place. We will all go together." She nodded and they all began to walk to where she pointed out.
They had traveled for a long time, taking breaks when needed; Riku would tell her about his home and his friends. "Sora and Kairi seem amazing. I don't have any friends where I'm at."
"Well, now you have two friends." She smiled at that.
They traveled throughout different parts of the realm of darkness. The more she stayed in that place, the more fear she began to feel. As they days went on, the darkness seemed never ending. "There!" They were so close to their goal. When they got to where it was, it looked like a door.
"We finally made it." Before any of them could step through the door, multiple creatures like the one at the beach had shown up. "Shit. How are we going to get past them?" Riku grabbed her wrist and pulled her behind him and King Mickey.
"We will handle them, you just stay back."
"No, I want to help. There are too many of them for just you two." Riku didn't listen, him and King Mickey just jumped into battle. "Riku, your majesty!" They just continued to ignore her. Every blow that Riku and the king received, she felt them. She just wanted to do something, she hated being so weak. You want to help fight? She looked around trying to find where the voice came from. "Who are you?" The voice laughed, I am you, but I am not you. I'm another side of you. Now back to the question, do you want to help them fight?Just then Riku was thrown back into a wall next to them.
"Yes!" Very good, just accept every part of me. You could easily defeat these weaklings. She clenched her fist and nodded. What she felt she couldn't comprehend, it was like everything around her was becoming clear. The creatures, she could see them perfectly. Glancing at her hands, she realized that they had turned black and it continued until mid-forearm. Now, let us get rid of these weaklings. She jumped past the king and into the battle.
"Maaya!" She ignored their yells for her and fought against the creatures. With one swing of her right hand, the creature on her right was destroyed.
"Leave, now!" The creatures stopped moving and began to retreat. "You will not harm them anymore." They disappeared as she just stood before the king and Riku. Turning back towards the two of them, she noticed them starring. "What?"
"Maaya, are you alright?" She nodded. "You look different." She tilted her head to the side, confused. The only thing she noticed was that her hands had changed. "Your eyes aren't green anymore, they are red, and you have black markings on your face."
"Maaya, it seems like you have become more of the darkness." She could hear the laughing in her head. That is exactly right, you seem to have accepted more of yourself than you have before. After this we will only grow stronger and destroy anything in our path.
"No!" She grabbed her head. "I just wanted to save them." Do not fool yourself, you have had this desire within your heart the entire time. All of those times where you had wished someone would just disappear, that was me. Every time you had engaged in a fight and hurt your opponent more than what was needed, that was me! "Get out of my head!" She fell to her knees, gripping her hair tightly. "Leave me alone, I don't want to hurt anyone." She glanced behind her at the door. "You two need to go through. I don't think it will be there much longer." The King and Riku had shared a look.
"We can't just leave you here, Maaya." Riku kneeled in front of her and offered her his hand. "You did all of this so that you could help us, just don't let it consume you. I know how you feel right now, the struggle you are going through. You can get through this." Riku smiled at her. "There you go, your eyes have gone back to being green." Looking down at her hands, she noticed the black beginning to recede.
"You both need to get through the door." Maaya and Riku starred at the king in disbelief.
"But what about you're your majesty?"
"I will be alright, Maaya needs to get out of this place. She is being influenced by it, she needs to be brought back into the realm of light. Riku, you need to go back to Sora and Kairi. I will find a way out of here. Do not worry." They nodded at him and Riku helped Maaya stand by putting her hand over his shoulder.
"We will get you out of here Mickey." Mickey smiled at Riku's statement.
"In that, I have no doubt." Turning towards the door, Riku began to walk.
"Are you sure about this Riku? Maybe I belong here." He shook his head.
"You let the darkness in to protect Mickey and me. That is how I know you do not belong here." She wrapped both of her arms around his neck and pulled him tight to her.
"Thank you, Riku. I truly hope you see you again when we get out of here." He smiled and nodded.