Hello there, welcome to my story. Just for your reference, this story is supposed to take place after KH and KHII. Sora and Kairi are about 18 and Riku is just barely 19. My OC is roughly Riku's age. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Don't own Kingdom Hearts or any Disney items that may be used.

The hot tropical sun pounded down on the shores of Destiny Islands, but the boys didn't mind. Having grown up and spent most of their lives there, they no longer noticed the heat of the sun and sand. Lying on the beach, thinking, and perhaps starting up a conversation every once in a while, thatwas how Sora and Riku now spent a large portion of their days. Each had much to think about, so much had happened. But Sora, who had never been one for pondering life's mysteries, was growing restless.

"Hey, Riku," he said, "Ya want to do something?"

Riku thought for a moment longer, and then shrugged his shoulders, "Ok."

"Let's have a race!"

Riku shook his head, "No, no competitions for me. Not right now at least."

Sora's face fell slightly but he understood. Riku had always had a competitive nature, but it had caused him a lot of trouble in the past. So, now he was trying to break himself from that nature, and anything else he believed might have played a part in the mistakes he made. "Ok, then let's um……go see if Kairi needs help gathering coconuts or something," suggested Sora uncertainly.

Riku frowned. It was a rather lame suggestion, they both knew, but the best that could be given. It surprised Riku just how little there was to do now that he was abstaining from competing in anything. Silently, he wondered how Kairi had kept herself from going crazy while they were growing up. As soon as he thought of their childhood, a stream of unwanted memories returned. Your friends have all but deserted you. …Do you even care about finding Kairi? …You're on the wrong side! … He waved them aside.

"Alright," he said. Sora jumped up, eager to have something to do. As Riku stood, he cast a casual gaze over the island. But before he could follow Sora, something he had seen registered in his brain. He stopped dead and whipped around to look back up at the top of the wooden structure build over the island.

By now Sora had realized that he wasn't being followed. He jogged back to where Riku was standing. After taking a furtive glance at the place where Riku was staring intently, he inquired, "Um, Riku, are you ok?"

"I thought I saw someone up there."

"Someone?" Asked Sora, now studying the place as well, "Who?"

Riku shook his head, "I don't know. It might have just been in my head."

The two watched for a moment longer. "Um, well, how about we go help Kairi now?" Riku nodded and headed towards the cove. Sora watched him from behind. Had it just been in his head? They had all been through a lot in the past three years, but Riku had been through the most. What kind of effects had their travels had on him? Still… Sora glanced up at the wooden structure again. What if there had indeed been someone up there? How would they have gotten up there? Who would bother to try?

"I'm so glad we're all back home," said Kairi.

"Me, too," said Sora with a slight laugh. Even though they had been back for well over a month, Kairi still reminded everyone how good it was to see them on a regular basis. The two sat on the dock, watching the sun fall low in the sky and talking.

"You know what Kairi, I think I finally have to agree with you."

Kairi looked at him, puzzled, and asked what he meant.

"Do you remember that time when we were younger, right before the heartless came, when you told me you thought Riku had changed? Well, I think I finally see what you meant. He has changed; we all have."

"Well, what did you expect?" asked Kairi. "Change just happens, there is no stopping it. But certainly it is Riku who has changed the most; he used to seem so confident and reliable. He used to have fun. Now he almost seems afraid to help or play or do much of anything besides think. And, honestly, I know he has always been one to keep to himself and ponder the world, but I don't think it is good for him. I mean, we both know what he is probably thinking about. He's thinking about how he messed up and joined forces with Maleficent. You know, I think he still feels bad about the way he betrayed you. Even though we forgave him and told him that we know he only had the best of intentions, I don't think he has forgiven himself. It's like he blames himself for everything that ever happened to us." She sighed, "Oh, well, I guess time heals all. Eventually he'll see that no one blames him. Then we'll have good ol' fun-loving Riku back, right Sora?" She turned to the brunette beside her. "Sora?" Sora had fallen asleep, his back turned to Kairi and a small smile on his face. Kairi giggled. Aww, he's so cute when he's sleeping, she thought. Then she giggled again, this time at herself for having thought so. Sora was right, they all had changed. She looked for a moment towards the small island, where she could make out a figure in his customary spot of leaning against the paupu tree, before letting out a huge yawn. She silently agreed that a nap sounded like a good idea and allowed herself to drift into slumber.

Staring blankly out to sea, turning thoughts of the past over in his mind, Riku couldn't help but sigh. It was almost funny, he thought, because, in the past, before everything had happened, he had been in this same spot many times, but his thoughts had only been on the future then, longing to leave and travel to new worlds. Now that his wish had been granted, he was totally different. He avoided thinking of the future and longed for the simpler times of the past. Of course, there was nothing he could do about that now. Still, he constantly found himself dwelling on the mistakes he had made. Standing away from the tree on which he had been leaning, he mentally slapped himself upside the head. Fat lot of good it would do him, dwelling on the past.

He started to walk towards the bridge, but stopped as he was over whelmed by the feeling that he wasn't alone on the small island. Closing his eyes, he listened and felt, trying to pin point where the other person was. His body tensed, preparing for an attack. Then, in one swift, fluid movement, his wingblade materialized in his hand, he whipped around, and pointed it out at his alleged opponent. There stood a girl, with her nose not an inch from the tip of his sword, whom Riku had never seen before. Her golden blond hair, which was most likely very long, was most all pulled up in to a thick braid that was looped about her head to rest like a crown; however, two strips of silky hair from just under her temples were loose and swung just below her shoulders. Her shirt, which was deep aqua-blue in color, had a collar that rose high on her right shoulder, almost up to her neck, and then angled down to fall just off below her left shoulder and there was a strap buttoned over this shoulder (1). The sleeve on the low collared side was wide and fell almost to her elbow and there was no sleeve on the other side. Her dark grey pants fit snugly until they reached the knee then loosened up to fall over plain brown boots. She had a thick belt around her waist and another that hung from her right hip to fall low on the top of her left thigh. In a holster attached at her left side to these two belts was what appeared to be a thick, jet-black rod. Her wild blue eyes, which were quite dark near the outside of the iris, but lightened until they were almost silver near the pupil, stared past his sword to meet his gaze.

"Hello, Riku" she said softly. Though a million surprised and shocked thoughts ran through his head, Riku didn't start at her greeting. He simply returned the cool stare.

"How do you know my name?" he inquired. Face impassive and expression blank, the strange girl answered,

"I know a lot of things. More then you'd imagine."

"Well, why are you here?"

The corner of her mouth twitched for a moment into the slightest smile, then returned to a neutral expression. "Don't we all wish to know our purpose?"

"I didn't mean your purpose in life, I just wanted to know why you came to Destiny Islands. What do you want here anyway?"

"Want? Well, I would like to ask you a question."

The white haired young man pondered this for a moment, "Alright."

"First, could you please take your sword away from my face?" Riku lowered his sword, but did not put it away.

"How long did you think it would last?" she asked.

"Think what would last?"

"This peace. How long did you think the darkness would stay dormant?"

Ok people that is all for chapter 1. I'm sincerely sorry but I will be a dreadfully slow updater. I just spend too little time on fanfiction and too much on my original fiction.

(1) for the strap, think of the straps that hold the bottom of Riku's pants up.