The sun set over the group of teenagers lazing around in the last of the evening's light on Destiny Islands. Sora had his arm around Kairi's shoulders, holding her next to him as she slept, Roxas was tracing patterns in the sand, propped up on his right elbow and Chayne was laying next to where his fingers traced swirls and hearts in the sand, her eyes closed and giggling a little. Nobody knew where Riku and Namine had gone off to, but they knew that those two hadn't gone off together. Roxas' hand paused in midair as he looked over at his Other with his arm around the girl he loved. He then looked at the hearts and swirls that were floating around Chayne's head in the sand. There was a bond between Roxas, Chayne and Sora which no one could ever know about, not even her.

A week before Chayne had moved to Destiny Islands, Roxas and Sora had been up in their bedroom browsing DeviantArt for a good picture to annoy Riku when a sudden bright light just materialized in the centre of the room. As the light gradually faded Roxas stared at Sora as his double emerged before his eyes.
"Sora, Roxas,"
Sora stared intently at the new arrival like a mesmorised child. "I know you somehow." He whispered.
"Yes, when you were young you bonded your heart with mine Sora, allowing me to connect to you at any time. And you to connect with me."
"Well that makes sense!" Roxas exclaimed in a sarcastic tone, "Now, why are you here?"
"Roxas... Sora's Nobody, created when he sacrificed his heart to save the girl he loves and the order of the Worlds. You play a vital role in what is to come."
"What is... to come?" Roxas bit his lip, drawing a fleck of blood, "How about you start talking sense?"
"In exactly seven days, a girl will appear. Show her the respect she deserves and teach her everything you both know. She has a strong and loyal heart, it is your new mission to help her find her Light."
"Oh great, missions... sounds like the Organization." Roxas mumbled, flopping down onto Sora's bed.
"Roxas, your role will be the one that will test her the most, just promise me."
"We promise." Roxas and Sora said together.
"Thank you. Goodbye."

Chayne's blue eyes opened slightly, as she looked at Roxas and smiled. It was the way he was looking at her that caused the sixteen year old's heart to race, although she knew that he could never feel the same for her. It was such a difference from Sora and Kairi, how could two people be the same and still be so different? Roxas' hand moved own to the other side of her head, so he was leaning over her and squashing all the hearts he'd carved into the sand. Chayne's cheeks filled with colour as he leant over her, looking almost as if he were going to kiss her. She closed her eyes again, waiting for it to happen, feeling the warmth from him radiate and course throughout her body.
"You scared?" He whispered, so low so only Chayne could hear it.
"No." She breathed.
As she went to hook her arms around his back to pull him closer to him, she heard rapid footsteps getting louder as they approached the beach. Roxas rolled off her and back to where he was before, without saying a word.
"Oh, hi Riku." Sora said, calm as anything before Chayne dared to look up.
"Hey guys..." Riku laughed surveying the scene, "Why's Chayne blushing?"
Sora shrugged as if to say 'Don't ask me' while Roxas copied him. Chayne turned away, pressing her lips together. Why did Roxas do that? Could it be that he actually knew how she felt about him now? She fought back a dry sob and got to her feet, ready to leave.
"Chayne? Where are you going?" Roxas asked as she ran up the beach.
"Leave me alone!"

*~3~*

Locke sat in the basement of The Castle That Never Was, his head against the wall and staring at the ceiling. Why had those strange cloaked men brought him here? He started going through all of the possibilities in his mind, yet none of them seemed to fit. The friends had all been seperated by different events and he didn't know if any of them were still alive or not. Chayne had been lost at sea and Elise had been kidnapped shortly before he had. The only person from their world, who was definately still alive was Lizzie. He didn't know which one to worry about more.
He closed his eyes, allowing his mind to drift and for those thoughts to overcome him. Memories. Painful ones. You'd never know what it was like to lose a friend until they were taken from you, plucked right out of your life like they never existed. But the memories were still there. And they were hard to live with.
Elise was standing next to him on the beach, watching Chayne out in the sea with him. Chayne had taken her body board and left before she could get a response, promising she wouldn't be out there too long. But she was having fun, so neither of them protested. She stopped for a moment to straighten out her annoying wetsuit when a giant wave rapidly approached. It seemed small at first, but until it was only inches from Chayne, who seemingly had not noticed it like it was never really there, did it really seem huge. It crashed over her and in an instant, the sea had mysteriously calmed down, with Chayne nowhere in sight, leaving just the body board floating blindly on its surface. At around the same time there was a sudden empty presence beside him, and Elise had gone. The vast expanse that was the beach would have allowed him to see if she had left for help, but she couldn't even be spotted on the distance. All that was left of her, was her phone.
From then on, he never saw them again.
Elise had always been the calmer one, whereas Chayne had been a huge buzz of energy that never really got boring. In terms of weirdness, Elise would say that they were both as bad as each other.
He sighed hearing footsteps approaching and watched as a hooded figure approached, pressing a finger to their lips under their hood.
"You need to come with me now." The female voice was urgent yet soft at the same time.
"I would, if I could get out of here!"
"Why? What's the matter?" The female asked before her head flicked to where the chains were binding him to the wall, "Oh."
She pushed down her hood, revealing white-blonde hair that fell across one shoulder to perfectly frame her petite face which held a pair of sparkiling light blue eyes. She then began to unzip the black coat she was wearing that enabled her to fit in with the people who had captured him. She tossed it to the floor to reveal a read and black cloak over a short white dress paired with knee high boots. "I'm Namine," She smiled, holding out her hand to him, "And you are...?"
"Locke." He struggled against the chains once more, "Namine, how do you expect to get me out of here?"
Namine pressed a finger to her lips, pulled a pencil from behind her ear and started to draw on a small piece of paper, "He told me it wouldn't be hard..." she muttered.
"What are you doing?"
"Would you shut up? I'm doing you a favour okay!"
"All right." Locke leant his head back against the wall muttering, "Geez. Women."

Elise woke up, her back was aching from laying on the cold floor and her cheek was mashed into the pavement, she guessed that she must have been sleeping. She immediatley jumped up as a tram rattled past just mere inches from where she had been lying. She pulled on the bottom her t-shirt to smooth it out and then set off walking around the town. She just hoped that Locke had found Chayne already and was looking after her, but something in the back of her mind told her that the scenario she'd been envisioning was impossible, with or without her. What if they were both dead? No. Elise wouldn't allow herself to think like that, they had to be alive. They just had to be otherwise Elise would strangle their corpses, however pointless that would be. They had to have lived. With the three of them, they could go back to their world and live happily. Well, Locke and Chayne could live happily ever after. Elise could just go back to concentrating on exams and school. She looked around her once more, a large open space made out of reddish and sandstone-coloured bricks, with lighter paving around the floor. A few shops were on display, selling items such as accessories and ice-cream. Outside the ice-cream shop, she stopped. A group of teenagers, not much younger than herself were laughing over some ice-cream, there was one female in the group and for a second, before she turned around, Elise mistook her for Chayne. She didn't notice the boy with tufty black hair wearing an extra large basketball shirt running up to her until he spoke. "Hey there, you look worried. Did you lose something?"
Elise gasped, before finding her voice, "Yeah... I mean no! No! I haven't lost anyone- I mean anything!"
The boy looked at her weirdly, "Oh... so, are you lost then?"
"I'm not a kid!" She growled.
"Oh no, I didn't mean it like that..." The boy blushed a little, "I meant, do you have somewhere to go? Somewhere to sleep?"
Elise's shoulders slumped a little as she became less defensive, "Now that you mention it... no, I don't."
"I'm Pence, by the way." The boy held out a hand for her to shake.
"Elise."
Pence ran back to his two friends and had some sort of brief argumentitive conversation with them, before walking back over to Elise.
"Olette says you can stay at her place for as long as you need to." Pence turned around to face his friends pointing out the lone female, "That's Olette there. She's nice...and smart."
"Oh right. Thanks?"
"No need to thank me! But Hayner says you're on ice-cream runs for the next week or so."
"Oh great." Elise sighed and looked over at her new group of 'friends'.

*~3~*

Chayne reached her new home and slammed the door to her room behind her. Nobody was following her (and that included Nobodies), sighing she flopped down onto the bed, reached into her pillow case and pulled out a small black notebook and a pen. Inside this notebook were all her thoughts and feelings, but even if anyone found it they couldn't tease her about the people mentioned in it. For one thing, she never mentioned them by name, for a second thing, it wasn't a normal diary. It was a book of songs marking feelings in her life. She opened the book to the last page she'd wrote on, placed the pen in her mouth and started to read it. She couldn't find anything more to say at this time, and she didn't feel like starting a new song just to vent her feelings at Roxas. Sighing, she put both pen and notebook back into her pillow case and reached for the cherry red laptop that sat beside her bed. She started it up, breathing deeply as the computer hummed to life, within seconds it was asking her for her password. She quickly typed in 'zerudin' and waited until her Messenger had loaded up, all while looking in her files for a document named Lies of Illusion and started writing. She felt weird when she wrote as if she could place other people in exact places under different names and even show their best or worst aspects of themselves as most of their personality. Her mind began to play images to her, like a sort of movie to the story she was writing, she found it both weird and astonishing that she could see her characters so clearly in her mind. Maybe it was because she had created them. She'd ask Kairi about it later.
Three abrupt raps on the door yanked her out of her thoughts. "Chayne?"
The person who had just called her was Riku, even though she would have known from the way he knocked the door, she decided to ignore him and soon enough he'd get bored and go back home. Another three knocks on the door. Couldn't he just leave already? It was obvious that she didn't want to talk to him.
"Chayne, I am not going anywhere." Riku called from the other side of the door, "And I know that you are in there wishing I would go away. Can I come in?"
"No!" She half-shouted, before guilt kicked in and she thought he deserved an explanation, "I'm not...decent."
"Chayne. I've seen you in a bikini."
"Excellent point."
"So, can I come in? I just want to...talk." Riku murmured through the wood.
"Sure... why not?" Chayne sat back on her bed, and lay down, pulling the laptop to her at the same time.
"So," Riku entered her room and looked around at the walls for a while, "What was with you just then? I mean...we're all meant to be down at the beach having a party."
"I know." Chayne's voice came out soft, "But Roxas..."
Riku stared at her with his aqua-green eyes before he placed an arm tenderly around her shoulders, "What did that jerk do now?" He half-whispered.
"He just reminded me of a dream I had, back home... about this guy I knew. We were really good friends, until I washed up here. And now... I have no idea, where he is or what he's doing." Upon finishing her speech, she instantaneously broke down into sobs and Riku's arm around her tightened.
To Chayne, Riku's expression would have looked strong and concerned. To Riku, as he glanced into Chayne's mirror, he looked worried. What if Namine wasn't back soon? What would happen to Chayne then? He didn't want to hurt her, but he did care about her happiness. "Chayne." Riku looked right into her grey-blue eyes, "I know this is possibly the last thing you want to hear but... sometimes you have to get hurt to be happy."
Riku didn't take his arm away from her, but pulled her closer to him as she started to cry. Her hair smelt of coconuts and sea-salt but her crying was so terrible it almost ripped him apart. "It's okay." He whispered mainly to her shoulder, "I'ts okay."
"But, it's not okay. I really miss him."
"I know, I know, but come on. Relax a little, forget about him for a while and please come down to the party?" Riku pleaded, still holding onto her.
"I can't." Chayne sobbed even harder, "He might be dead for all I know... you see..."

"I was with the girls on the beach, and this gigantic wave crashed over her. Nobody knew where the heck it'd come from, anyway, I looked around to tell Elise that I was going to try to find her and Elise had just vanished. So I'm freaking out, wondering what's going on and getting really stressed when I feel this bump from underneath me. I don't know what happened to my world, but I got lost in a field and then these guys picked me up." Locke looked at Namine, bent over her sketchpad. There was a brief sound of metal clinking together and the chains sliced down the middle, freeing him. "Thank you, Namine."
"No problem, I'm gonna drop you off somewhere where you can stay for a while. You'll have to move again in a few days, but you'll find your friends. I'll help you, when I next see you." Namine smiled at him, "Now, get in here." She opened up a Dark Corridor and pulled him in.
When they emerged, they came out right outside a short tower, the only building on the surrounding grass they were standing on. There were also train track suspended by nothing right behind them.
"This is the tower of Yen Sid. You'll stay here for a few days until you get your strength back and then he'll send you on to the next part of your journey. Good luck!" Namine opened another Dark Corridor and disappeared.
"Namine!" Locke swore under his breath when he realised he was alone. Frustrated at the world, he ran a hand through his short blond hair and walked towards the mysterious tower.

"I'm sorry, Chayne, but I know one thing. If he does feel the same way about you, he'd want you to be happy. That's all he'd want."
"I guess you're right." Chayne sniffed.
"C'mon, cheer up okay? It's not the end of the world, you've still got some great friends here." Riku muttered giving her a small shake.
"So...I guess I'd better get down to the beach." Chayne smiled.
"I guess we should. I'll walk with you."
Riku took her hand and held it out before him, turning his head a little as she held it, so that she wouldn't notice the faint pink blush that had strated to creep across his cheeks. He didn't usually blush and shy away from girls, that was Sora's job, so why was he doing it now? He continued to hold her hand as they walked, with Chayne pressed against his side for most of the journey, as they neared the beach a sudden thought crossed his mind. Roxas seemed to have a crush on Chayne, and she also liked him too. After all, he'd seen him attempt to kiss her, and stopped it. Why did Roxas back off as soon as Riku appeared? Riku didn't care, Roxas could have her, or that's what he told himself.
He let go of Chayne's hand, before they reached the beach because he didn't really want to endure the teasing. Of course Riku was strong but he knew Chayne wasn't as strong as him. She was sensitive and fragile. He didn't register what was going on in his mind, the images of the girl walking beside him, the surreptitious glances that he kept giving her... he didn't register what he was doing, even though anybody else would have seen it clearly.
They reached the beach, where darkness was descending, Chayne looked around to make sure nobody (and that included a certain Nobody) was watching her, or looking in the general direction, stood up on her toes slightly and planted a small kiss on Riku's cheek.
Riku blushed in the darkness and watched as Chayne made her way back down to the beach, almost immediately falling into Roxas' arms. There was something inside of him stirring away, something almost dark. He hoped it wasn't the Darkness inside him, he had learnt how to control it after all.

"Sora?" Riku whispered in the darkness as they lay in the sand.
"Yeah?" His friend whispered back from around the campfire.
"Is everyone else asleep?"
"Uhhh...I think so, Riku. What's this about?"
Riku felt himself blushing again and silently cursed himself for behaving like an idiot. "I felt something inside me when Chayne came back down to the beach..."
"Oh, that can't be good." Sora whispered back.
"It felt Dark, Sora. I felt like I should march over there and hit Roxas upside the head with my Keyblade." Riku sighed loudly, "I've never felt like that before."
"Excuse me?" Sora's disbelief was shown on his face, although Riku couldn't see it. "Never?" He echoed.
"Never. I don't know what it is, and to be honest Sora, it kind of...scares me." His voice softened on the last part, Riku did not like to admit he was afraid of anything. It made him feel helpless, small and weak instead of the man he was supposed to be.
"Hmm... well Riku, if it scares you then it really can't be good. Maybe we should talk to Chayne in the morning." Sora yawned and settled back down, "G'night Riku!"
"Yeah, goodnight Sora." Sora's plan wasn't a good one and anyway, Chayne wasn't the problem. Roxas was the problem, it was Roxas Riku had wanted to hurt, not Chayne. He really needed to get hold of this Darkness thing that was going on.