Riku walked up to the beach, exhausted, and sat down. As he breathed a sigh of relief, Sora ran up to him and said, "Thought I found you there."

Sora sat next him and smiled, which confused Riku.

"What are you so happy about?" asked Riku. "Didn't your parents yell at you for being gone all this time?"

"Yep. They did," Sora said as he laid back in the sand. "Forgetting me for a year didn't help me there."

"So, why are you smiling?"

"Just glad to see them again. It's been awhile."

"I hear that."

Riku laid back and stared at the stars with Sora.

"Been awhile since we did this too, huh?" asked Riku.

"Yeah," Sora answered.

"It was sometime before the islands were swallowed by darkness. We were talking about what we would do once we got off the island. Heh, we didn't have a clue. We never thought where we would end up and how we would change."

"Riku…"

Sora noticed a sullen look in Riku's eyes as he turned towards him.

"Sora, about everything that happened after that… I'm sorry," Riku apologized.

"Riku… you don't have anything to apologize for," said Sora.

"Yes I do. After we were separated, I landed in Hollow Bastion and meet Maleficient. She thought I'd make a good pawn since I underestimated the power of darkness. I wasn't interested at first because all I had on my mind was finding you and Kairi. She told me she would help me and together we found Kairi between worlds, without a heart. I vowed to find you and together we would save her but Maleficient had different plans.

She was watching you, Donald and Goofy as you traversed the worlds and knew that if I joined you, her plans would be in even more danger. So she tried to set me against you by making think you abandoned us for them. I didn't believe it, but she gave me a chance to see for myself. I met up with you at Traverse Town but ruined what's supposed to be a good reunion because it took only the slightest hint that you did choose them over us to run away. You know the rest. I antagonized you and let darkness consume me. But even then you tried to help me."

"That's cause we're friends, Riku."

"Yeah, you still called me friend after hurting you so much. I guess you're stubbornness got through to me."

"Who you calling stubborn?!"

Sora and Riku laughed and Riku added, "Though you didn't look after Kairi like I asked."

"I thought you were just trying to shirk responsibility," said Sora. "That's both our jobs. I wasn't going to let you skip out on that. Donald and Goofy wanted to find King Mickey too so we decided to look for you guys together. We really had no idea where to start, but then we saw Pluto with a letter from King Mickey in his mouth. He ran off and we followed him down this path that seemed to go on forever. We lost him and decided to rest for the night, but something woke me up. I decided to look around and then…"

Sora paused and tried to remember what happened after that point.

"That's the last thing I remember before waking up in the old mansion in Twilight Town," said Sora.

"Let me fill in the blanks for you," said Riku. "A rebel faction of the Organization XIII wanted the power of the Keyblade to overthrow the rest of Organization."

"Wasn't Roxas in the organization?"

"He was new at the time. You were a little experienced."

"Little?!"

"Anyway, they lured you to Castle Oblivion and used Naminé to manipulate your memories and a replica of mine with a different set of memories to mess with you. Naminé decided to stop manipulating your memories and you decided to free her from the Organization's grasps. You defeated the rebel faction and went to sleep to regain your memories. Meanwhile, I somehow ended up in Castle Oblivion and dealt with another faction of the Organization while dealing with Ansem."

"You know I never really understood that. I thought he was destroyed."

"A part of him remained in my heart and wanted to control me again. I won't lie I was afraid of Ansem and the darkness in my heart. But after dealing with some of the organization members, my replica, and talking with Mickey and D- Ansem the Wise, I learned to confront my fears and defeated Ansem. But even then a part of him remained in me. I left Castle Oblivion with Mickey but I soon left him to look over you. But there was an issue."

"What was it?"

"We couldn't get back all your memories because someone else had some of them."

"You mean…"

"Yeah, Roxas. As long as you two were separated, you couldn't wake up. Ansem the Wise told me where to find him and we fought. He wanted to take on the Organization but I was sure that he would be destroyed if he did that. He beat me, but I couldn't afford to let him go. The strange thing is, I also heard a voice begging me to stop him."

"Voice? Was it Ansem?"

"No. I don't know who it was. Anyway, I let the darkness in my heart free and transformed into and took the name of Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. I defeated Roxas and handed him to Ansem the Wise. The Organization found him and tried to get him back but Roxas accepted his fate and returned to you. And then you woke up. Ansem the Wise then wanted me to destroy Naminé but I decided to hand her over to Axel for protection. I then stayed behind the scenes as you went to work."

"You and The King seem to like working behind the scenes. When Donald, Goofy and I ran into him, he handed a poach and ran off. To be honest when I saw King Mickey, I knew that meant that you were okay too. We went to Yen Sid's Tower to meet up with him but had to deal with Pete along the way. After that, Yen Sid told us about the Nobodies and Organization XIII. We travelled the worlds fighting the Heartless and Nobodies and dealt with any of the members on our travels.

We then learned that the Organization wanted us to fight the Heartless to collect their hearts, they had Kairi and that you were gone. I didn't know what to do other than to keep fighting until you started giving us clues."

"You guys were kinda lost after the Battle at Hollow Bastion."

"Radiant Garden."

"What?"

"That's Hollow Bastion's real name. Radiant Garden."

"Doesn't look Radiant now."

"Leon and the others are working that. Anyway, after running around in circles, we found out we needed to go to the old mansion at Twilight Town. We met up with The King and found a portal that would lead us to the Organization's world. We were ambushed by Nobodies, but Axel came to save us. Axel sacrificed himself for us to help us.

We arrived at the Organization's world and headed to their stronghold, but then time seemed to freeze. I then fought Roxas, who I guess wanted to see how strong I was. After that fight we fought through a lot of Nobodies to meet up with you and Kairi. Guess you got to her first, huh?"

"Actually it was Naminé who freed Kairi. I just stopped them from getting caught by Saix."

"That guy…"

"He was one of the few people to get under your skin, huh Sora?"

"He did. After we beat him and the rest of the Organization, we met up with The King and Ansem the Wise. I couldn't believe what happened next."

"We lost Ansem but I returned back to normal. We fought our way to Xemnas and together we beat him. Well you did most of the work.

"Only in the first battle. The second time it was all of us."

"After that Roxas and Naminé completely returned to you and Kairi."

"I was really confused."

"Everyone walked through the door home Naminé opened, but Xemnas closed it before we could get through."

"We fought him 3 more times before he went down for good."

"We ended up in the Realm of Darkness and found that letter Kairi wrote you."

"That was the key to the Door of Light. It's what led us back home."

"Finally back home. In a place that's part of something bigger."

"Yeah."

Suddenly, Kairi looked over the two of them and they quickly sat up surprised. Kairi laughed at their shocked faces, to which Sora responded with, "Give us a break, Kairi."

"What are you two talking about?" asked Kairi.

"Just what we've been while we were gone," said Riku.

"What did you do after the islands were destroyed?" asked Sora.

"I was in you for a while remember?" Kairi chuckled.

"Oh… Right…" said a slightly embarrassed Sora.

"After you saved me-" said Kairi.

"And then you saved me," said Sora.

"I stayed in Traverse Town until I somehow ended up where you were at after you two saved the day," said Kairi.

"How did you get to us?" asked Sora.

"I don't know how to explain how," said Kairi. "After that I started waiting for you too until I somehow forgot you."

"That was a side-effect of Naminé helping Sora," Riku answered. "Everybody Sora met forgot him."

"But one day I heard him spell it out to me," said Kairi.

"I don't remember that," Sora said as he laid back in the sand.

"It was then when I decide to send you that message in a bottle," said Kairi. "Some time after that Axel tried to kidnap me, but a door appeared out of nowhere and led me to Twilight Town."

"That was me," said Riku. "I had to get you away from Axel."

"Then how come you didn't protect me when he kidnaped me then?" asked Kairi.

"W-Well I…"

"Or what about when that Saix guy got her?" asked Sora.

Sora and Kairi stared at Riku who nervously said, "I just couldn't get to involved and…"

Riku sighed and said, "I didn't want you two to see what happened to me."

Sora and Kairi looked at each other and Sora said, "Riku… It wouldn't have bothered us."

"It bothered me," said Riku.

"That's even more of a reason that you should have come to us," said Kairi.

"Yeah, friends help each other in their time of need," said Sora.

"I know that… now," Riku said with chuckle.

Sora and Kairi smiled and she said, "I'm just glad you guys are home now."

"It's been a wild ride," said Sora. "But we're home."

"In time to get grounded" said Riku.

Kairi and Riku laid back in the sand with Sora and stared at the stars together.

"Friends forever," said Sora.

"Yeah," said Riku.

"Always," said Kairi.