With a quick horizontal slash, the last shadow heartless in the area was struck down, fading away in a familiar dark cloud. I let out a heavy sigh as I pulled out a potion. That had been wave number twelve we had finished defeating. As for how many individual heartless we had beaten, I wouldn't be able to tell; after all, the realm of darkness did have a way of making the numbers of shadows seem neverending.

I never liked the realm of darkness. The air always felt threatening, and despite the lack of natural light, it was always impossible to get even the slightest bit of rest here. The closest I ever came to relaxing here was after Sora and I had defeated Xemnas. After that was over and done with, I never thought I would have to come back here. However, it was precisely because of how foreboding this realm was that I was back here. We had to find her soon, before the darkness claimed her for good…

"Riku!"

I turned back to see King Mickey come up to me, looking probably as tired out as me. Sensing his concerns, I finished my potion and said, "Don't worry. I'm fine, Mickey."

I righted myself and stretched my arms a bit, looking around at the empty blackness surrounding us and the pathway we stood upon. With how vast the space was, I found myself asking, "So, where do you think we'll find her?"

"Well, I'm not sure," the small mouse king responded thoughtfully. "Perhaps if we keep walking, we'll find an end to this path. If Aqua is still down here, she'll most likely be at the end of it."

I pondered over his words; they did make sense. If we found an end to this realm, surely we would find her at the end, if not along the way. Oh well, the sooner we found her, the better. The king and I both knew how dangerous things could get here. Brushing a hand through my bangs, I said, "Alright, let's get going then."

We continued our trek through the darkness, neither of us speaking for a while. It wasn't until five minutes or so of wandering that my thoughts began eating at me and I decided to voice them aloud. "How do you think Sora and the others are doing right now, Mickey?"

"Don't worry, Riku. I'm sure they're fine," he responded in his usual cheerful tone. "After all, they do have each other to lean on for support."

I allowed myself to smile a little at his words. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

When I initially asked Mickey about where to find Aqua days ago, he mentioned seeing her in the realm of darkness before, when he was searching for the dark realm's keyblade. However, due to his inexperience at the time and knowing he was there on a mission, he couldn't bring her back to the realm of light. We had been planning this voyage into the dark realm for days, but we didn't know the best world to enter from. After getting word that Aqua had last been seen in Radiant Garden before falling into the darkness, we took Kairi and Lea over to that world so they could train in a bigger world and began making last minute plans for what we'd do once we found Aqua. It was only just as we finished finalizing these plans that Sora had met up with us again.

Honestly, I was still a little amazed with my childhood friend. All he had to do was find the Key to Return Hearts, but when he regrouped with the rest of us, not only did he find that key, but he also managed to bring back another one of the king's missing friends: a young keyblade wielder named Ventus. When we questioned him on how they found the boy, Sora explained how he believed he had housed Ven's heart within his own. Despite knowing that he had kept Kairi's heart safe for a time, this news still didn't fail to surprise me. Only Sora could find a way to hold two different hearts in his lifetime. I guess it goes to show that he truly was special.

With that amount of luck, I almost considered taking him with us into the Realm of Darkness to find Aqua. Apparently, she was a keyblade master from years ago and had two other friends missing, which was now just one friend missing due to Sora's discovery. Since Ventus had been found, that just left her and Terra for me and Mickey to find. Hopefully, we could find Aqua quickly, not just for our sakes, but for her other friends as well.

Before departing, Ventus had begged us to take him along; it clearly showed how strong their bond was. I felt a little guilty saying no to him, actually. Still, I knew we couldn't allow him to come. Upon meeting him, I could sense a powerful light in his heart, very similar to Sora's, and that meant that just like Sora, his heart was most likely extremely vulnerable to darkness. I couldn't intentionally let him jump into this extremely dangerous situation. After some extra convincing from Sora, who said they would work on trying to find Terra while we were gone, Ven finally let up on us, but he still wouldn't get rid of that worried look in his eyes. It was partially that last image that prompted me to continue this search with the king. If we didn't find Aqua soon, I knew that he (and probably others as well) wouldn't be able to sleep soundly at night.

Suddenly, I froze up as my thoughts came to a halt. There was a sudden sound in front of us. What was it? Steps? Scratching? Growling? The silence made it easy for me to speculate what those sounds could be. After traveling through this world, it was easy to tell when threats were coming due to the nature of this realm. It was always deathly quiet unless heartless were approaching to attack. That, paired with my instincts to pick up on darkness, helped me know when to keep my guard up.

"It looks like we have another wave coming," I muttered as I summoned The Way to Dawn and stood at the ready.

Mickey drew forth his own keyblade and said, "Right. Let's get 'em, Riku!"

I nodded and waited as we saw more Shadows approach us. I held back a groan as I noticed some Neoshadows following behind them. I always hated those breed of heartless; their claws were vicious. Just as I was about ready to cut into our thirteenth wave of heartless, Mickey and I stared in shock as they slipped right past us and ran off in the opposite direction. We turned around and stared at our retreating enemies. "They're… running away?"

"Strange…" Mickey mumbled behind me. "Heartless don't usually behave like that. Is someone down here commanding them?"

I stayed silent, trying to find an answer for this strange occurrence. Mickey did make a valid point. Heartless only had certain objectives: either collect hearts from innocent bystanders or relentlessly pursue those that owned keyblades. If they behaved otherwise, it would usually be due to someone playing puppet-master. However, if they were controlled by someone else, who in their right mind would linger in the realm of darkness? The only one I could consider being down here would be Ansem, but that theory was quickly ruled out in my mind once I remembered him being one of Xehanort's thirteen. After a little more thought, something else crossed my mind. "Hm, what if there's something else down here?"

"Huh? Like what, Riku?"

"I don't know, but…" I went quiet, trying to place where this thought came from. With the way the shadows were behaving, it was almost like they were being hunted by something. As I pondered over this, a chill ran down my spine as I heard that growling sound again. The growling was followed by some form of movement. Quickly, I spun to try and spot the source while Mickey, after hearing the sounds, did the same. These sounds, they weren't from a typical heartless. It came from something else: something big. In our silent moment of observing, we suddenly saw it: bright, red eyes staring back at us and a dark figure they were attached to. Before we could react, the creature began swiftly jumping from side to side. I took note that it was circling us. I knew that heartless behaved like wild animals at times, but this… thing exemplified that behavior to levels I wasn't prepared for. So, which direction would it come from when it decides to strike, and who would it aim for?

My questions were answered quite suddenly as the growls suddenly became louder and I sensed it rushing towards me. I barely had time to roll out of its range and looked behind me, only to see a shadowy bulge of a creature speed past us. Just as I tried to regain my composure, the monster rushed back, running directly towards me.

"Damn!" I knew I'd have no time for a reflect spell, so I raised my hands as if to shield my body and braced for the impact. Fortunately, Mickey's battle instincts were on point as he landed a powerful firaga spell against our foe. The darkness around the creature dispelled as it recoiled from the attack, and we were able to finally see what it was that was attacking us. The red eyes were now shining the classic yellow shade shared among all heartless, with most of the body a dark shade of navy blue. Its claws were a strange purple-ish color, with chains wrapped around its front legs. I took special note of its long tail, decorated with what looked like purple spikes and colored in pink, much like the fringes that were on its back and parts of its face (in hindsight, they were probably whiskers of some sort). With the way it stared at us with those soulless eyes and that jagged looking mouth, as well as the blue streaks on its skin that resembled scars, this creature seemed like the heartless equivalent of a wild jungle cat: only much bigger and surely, more ferocious.

"Mickey, what is that?" I asked tentatively. In all of my time in the realm of darkness, I had never come across a heartless like this before. I'd never admit it out loud, but this creature actually did frighten me a little.

"A predator in the realm of darkness," Mickey responded, not dropping his guard for a second. "I came across this heartless once before."

"Yeah?"

"It's probably the fiercest heartless I've had to deal with. At the time I came across it, I had no choice but to flee." Hearing that caused my heart to drop slightly. If this was a heartless that even the king felt he had no chance to face, then we most likely weren't going to have an easy time with this monster. Not helping was the fact that the monster had finished recovering from the fire that struck it earlier and was now rearing up for another attack. The two of us quickly dodged as it swiped a claw down at us.

Feeling a little uneasy, I said, "So, what are our chances of taking this creature down?"

"Well, if we work together, we do have a chance," the small mouse assured me. "This heartless is keeping us from finding Aqua, after all. We have to stop it!"

Aqua… I wonder if she ran into this heartless before… I wonder if she would manage to survive an encounter with this sort of heartless. She is a keyblade master, so I guess it can be assumed that she would. I decided to push those thoughts into the back of my mind and focus on what was in front of me at the moment. "Alright then. Let's go!"

Just as the predator rushed at us, we rushed towards him, and the battle began. At first, I tried to perform my typical strikes, but due to the predator constantly using his claws (and even at times, his tail) to bat us around or slash at us, it led to me constantly having to duck, roll or guard. Mickey, fortunately, was small enough to reach up to the creature's blind spots without too much trouble. Sadly, I found myself stepping back and having to play the role of support by unleashing magic spells. Several minutes passed with us settling into a pattern of quick strikes and powerful spells to get any damage done.

It was after my fifth bout of blizzard magic, I think, when the heartless came at us with a new strategy. After letting out a fierce roar, it suddenly jumped out of our arena and into the darkness. I let out a light gasp and quickly came up to Mickey as he used a cure spell to replenish our strength. "Where did it go?"

We both looked around to find it, and then, quite suddenly, it rushed out of the darkness, spinning right for us. We barely had enough time to bring up our keyblades and guard before he barreled right through us. We each cried out as we fell backwards. I quickly righted myself only to see the predator spinning towards us again from a different side of the arena. It continued to spin towards us from each side of the arena, and I knew I was taking a lot of damage, because a myriad of colors seemed to swarm my vision (strange, because I thought the scenery was supposed to get darker when you were getting weaker). Then, just as I was silently wishing for these hit-and-run tactics to stop, the heartless suddenly slammed down into the middle of our arena. Mickey, having just finished curing himself, jumped forward to jump onto his back, only for the predator to swat him away like a fly, finally bringing me back into an alerted state.

"Mickey!" After watching him tumble away, I chased him, hoping to heal us both with a curaga, only to be slammed down into the ground while my back was turned.

I let out a loud grunt of pain and twisted onto my back, deciding I needed to focus on the fight at hand. However, the realization came a second too late as I suddenly felt one of those giant claws pin me to the floor. I gasped as the creature's weight on top of me threatened to squeeze the breath out of me. In the distance, I heard Mickey calling out my name, but it was hard to notice that since this heartless chose to push its face dangerously close into mine, letting out a feral growl. I could practically feel his breath on my face and sensed the insane amount of bloodlust. Was this even a heartless? It seemed more like someone's worst nightmare taking physical form! I felt the grip on my keyblade weakening and my vision begin to fade as it continued to press down and opened its mouth, no doubt preparing to eat me.

However, just as I felt myself on the verge of losing consciousness, a cry split through the air: a… feminine cry? Suddenly, the creature let out a roar of discomfort, and I felt its claw rise off of my body. I rolled over, taking in much needed air, before sitting up and looking at who or what caused the tide of this battle to turn. The predator was jumping back, and I could see bits of frost around its face, no doubt from a blizzard attack. I then noticed a woman staring the creature down. She had short hair, as blue as the deep ocean, with a shirt to match the color. Draped over her tight, black capris was some sort of cloth. Her shoes appeared to be made of some sort of metal, and in her gloved hands, she held a keyblade: simplistic in design, but a keyblade nonetheless. There were a few parts in her appearance that made me think back to Ventus, and it was in that thought that everything clicked. This had to be Aqua!

She let out another cry as she unleashed another blizzard spell, this time aiming for the creature's legs. It howled in agony as the spell made contact and jumped backwards. The woman wouldn't let up, however, and dashed forward with a ring of fire surrounding her. As she continued her magical assault, I couldn't help but be awed. Some of the spells she was pulling off were spells I had never been able to pull off so elegantly. My awe was cut short as the heartless began to fight back furiously, clawing at her while I could've swore I was seeing a rainbow of colors again. Swiftly, she guarded with a magical barrier of sorts. However, I could see that this shield would no doubt break. And sure enough, with an inhuman roar of animalistic fury, the predator made a powerful swipe with its tail, breaking the barrier and hitting her along her torso, sending her flying towards the ground harshly.

I watched her body go limp as the creature prowled towards her, a hungry look in those golden eyes. Acting immediately, I used some of my leftover dark powers to dash forward and protect her. Normally, in the Realm of Darkness, I wouldn't use dark magic since that would lure heartless, but this was an emergency. Once I was in front of her, I unleashed a firaga spell at the creature, mustering up as much magic power as I could, and aimed it towards his face. The predator instantly recoiled, howling in agony at the sudden blast.

Mickey, finally having recovered from the last attack against him, quickly approached me and said, "Riku! Go check on Aqua real quick! I'll keep him busy and start thinking of a way we can end this battle for good!"

"Right!" I watched him run off to confront this beast before turning my attention to Aqua. She groaned weakly on the ground, and it was then I noticed the bruises and claw marks decorating her skin. I can only imagine she had been fighting tooth and nail since arriving in the dark realm. Had she been on her last legs when she came to our rescue? Regardless, I didn't want to leave her in this arena.

Kneeling down, I grasped her shoulder and tried to shake her awake. "Hey, are you alright?"

She let out a slight pained gasp and opened her eyes. The blue shade in her eyes seemed to be a little bit dulled, as if she were a little sick. Perhaps the blow she endured did a bit more damage than I thought. Just as I was about to suggest she run off to a safer place, she reached for my face, and I was barely able to catch her sudden whisper. "Terra?"

"Huh?" Was she hallucinating? Or was there something more going on?

Before I could find an answer, I suddenly heard Mickey shout out, "Riku! Let's team up! Hurry!"

Somehow, in hearing his words, I knew what the mouse king had planned. So I quickly nodded, turned towards Aqua, and said, "Just stay here for a little longer, Aqua. We'll explain things later."

As I ran towards my friend, the heartless was beginning to regain its composure, although I could tell from its limping that one more major attack would more than likely finish it off. As it began to rear up for another attack, Mickey said, "We'll strike it with a Holy Burst attack. That should do the trick."

I made a small smirk to myself; it would be just like old times, when we first began fighting together. "Got it."

The predator began to rush at us, and the two of us stood back to back and gathered our strength, relying on the strength in our hearts. Then, in a sudden burst, we spun around, hitting our opponent with powerful orbs of light. I thought his pained howls were a bit hard to hear earlier, but now, they hit tones and pitches I never thought would come out of a creature that big. I know heartless lack hearts, but it sounded to me like if it had one, we'd be shredding it to pieces. That was the sound of a creature dying, but I did my best to block out the sounds. After all, if we didn't destroy it here, we'd end up dead by its hands.

After one final burst of light, we came to a stop and watched as the predator let out one final cry before toppling over in a crumpled mess. A loud thud resounded through the darkness, with the emptiness only making the sound seem louder. We stood on our guard, and I almost expected it to make one final attack. However, I let out a relieved sigh as it began to fade away, just like the rest of the heartless we had faced.

"Good job, Riku," Mickey said with a smile, coming up to me with a spare potion.

Thankful for the help, I smiled and took it from him. "Thanks, Mickey. You were pretty great, too. I don't think I would've lasted without your help."

"Ah, gosh, Riku. It's not like it was any trouble. We're friends, after all."

"Right…" After finishing up the potion, I recalled that moment I nearly lost my life and turned back to Aqua, who was now resting on her knees quietly. "Actually, you're not the only one I should be thanking."

Seeing that Aqua was staring at us with some strange mixture of disbelief and confusion, the two of us decided that we needed to tend to her while we had a quiet period to relax. We quickly came up to her, and after casting a cure spell on her, Mickey asked, "Gosh, are you okay, Aqua? I'm sorry I took so long to come back."

She spent a few more moments in silence staring back at us, as if trying to process what she was seeing. I honestly felt a little uncomfortable with it; it was like she was trying to figure out if we were real. Surprisingly, these thoughts were proven true as she reached out to touch Mickey's cheeks: almost like when Mickey finally caught up to me in Castle Oblivion and I was checking to see if he was real.

In response, Mickey let out a laugh and said, "Hey! That tickles!"

I let out a small chuckle; that was the same reaction he had made, too. Seeing this response caused Aqua to let out a relieved sigh. "Oh, you're not illusions. You're real…"

So, my suspicions were true; she thought we had been illusions. Still, that left me with a new question. As kindly as I could, I asked, "Sorry to ask, but, if you thought we weren't really here, how come you still fought that heartless? I appreciate you saving me, but wouldn't it be pointless if you thought I wasn't real?"

"Oh, well…" Aqua suddenly went quiet and looked away before whispering, "It's just, your presence… It felt very similar to a friend of mine. I've seen so many mirages down here of my friends. Lately, it's been hard to tell the difference between what's real and what isn't. But, your light, it felt so real, and even though you weren't him, I couldn't let that monster devour your heart. So, I did what my heart told me, and I rushed in without another thought."

"Oh…" After pondering over her words, I was able to catch on to what about me felt familiar to her. "Hey, this friend of yours that I reminded you of… Was his name Terra?" She gasped, but I quickly explained, "You called me "Terra" when I went to check on you. I can only assume he's who you meant."

Quietly, she nodded, and Mickey decided to pipe in. "We better get you back to the Realm of Light, Aqua. The darkness has been attacking the worlds again, and Xehanort's looking to begin the Keyblade War."

Aqua's eyes widened in surprise, and she let out a gasp. "Xehanort? But, how?"

"Don't worry, we'll explain when we get back." Mickey turned back to me and asked, "Riku, do you have the card Master Yen Sid prepared?"

"Oh, yeah. Hang on." I dug around in my pockets for a moment before pulling out the device that the aging master had prepared for us. It was what looked like a blue card with yellow stars. In the center was a bright orb. When we had taken it, Yen Sid said it contained enough power to bring us into the Realm of Darkness and then bring us back. But we'd only be able to use it for those two trips. Once getting back to the Realm of Light, it would lack any teleporting power. When we were ready to go back to the Realm of Light, all we had to do was grab it together, and focus on the world we wanted to jump to, along with a person or object we wanted to find there. According to Mickey, it was a more refined, better controlled version of what he called a "star shard", and while that object was said to have unlimited magic for teleportation, it was also a bit sporadic in when it chose to work unless you've had it mastered. Hence why we were using this card for this mission.

"Good. Now, let's get going."

Before we could grab the card, Aqua piped up, "Wait! Further down, I left a man behind."

"What?" Mickey and I stared back, admittedly shocked. There was someone else trapped down here, too?

Quickly, Aqua explained, "Once I found the edge of this world, I met a strange man in a black coat. He said this was his second time here. He told me the worlds had been put in danger, and that a young boy with a keyblade was endlessly traveling to save them."

"Hm…" Aqua's words made me wonder who this stranger was. It sounded like he knew of the activities of the heartless, and a young boy endlessly traveling… My gut instincts were telling me this man was talking about Sora. And that meant he could potentially help us in battling against Xehanort when the time came. So, coming to a decision, I knew what I had to do. "Hey, Mickey, how about you-"

"Right, I'll go find this man, and you take Aqua back."

I gasped; that wasn't exactly the plan I had in mind. Voicing my surprise, I said, "Wait, but wouldn't it be better if you-"

"Riku, I know what you're thinking," the mouse king said in a serious tone rarely used, halting my words and pushing me into silence. "And while I might be able to help you all in the Realm of Light better, I believe you can look after Sora and the others just fine. And besides, this man may be in danger. If the danger is anything like what we just faced, it may be better for you to regain strength first before going up against it. In the Realm of Light, you'll at least have friends to help you."

"I guess, but will you be alright?"

Mickey smiled again and said, "Don't worry, Riku. I've been here long enough to know how to avoid trouble. I'll try not to get into any fights I don't have to be a part of."

I thought over his words silently for a while. After a while, I sighed; I knew arguing with Mickey would be pointless. He always tried to look out for his friends and look for ways to keep them safe. At the same time, though, he knew where our strengths were and usually made plans that would fit that as well. In a way, his thought process was a little similar to Sora's, only with a lot more experience behind the thought process and an even amount of emotion and logic. So, giving in, I said, "Alright. So, I guess I'll see you on the other side?"

"Yep," he replied with a nod. "Take care of Aqua, and good luck."

"Yeah, you too."

With that, he turned and continued his way down the path we hadn't taken. After seeing that Aqua and I were alone, I turned back to her and said, "Well, it's just you and me now. In order for this card to work, we need to think of a world to travel to. We can either go to Master Yen Sid's tower to report to him, or we could go to Radiant Garden. A few friends of mine should be training there right now. Where do you want to go?"

If it were left up to me, I wouldn't know where to go. On the one hand, I wanted to report to Master Yen Sid immediately so I could get my next task. However, on the other hand, I wanted to see that my friends' training was going fine. So, maybe it was due to my torn feelings that I let Aqua decide. After a few seconds of thought, she said, "Well, my old keyblade… I think I left it behind at Radiant Garden, along with my armor."

"Okay, we can aim for that world then," I responded with a slight smile. I'm sure she'll be happy seeing Ventus again. I chose not to tell her about him joining our team; it would be a little fun to surprise her. Perhaps Sora's playful nature had rubbed off on me, because it felt like I was adopting some behavior from him now. I held the card out to her, and she grabbed onto it. "Now, just keep Radiant Garden in your head and focus hard. I'll do the same, and we should get there."

She nodded, and with that, we both closed our eyes and focused with our hearts and minds on where we wanted to go. After a moment, light shone brightly from the center of the card, and a light sensation filled our bodies. As we were teleported back to the realm of light, I felt slightly lightheaded. Unlike when Mickey and I used this to enter the dark realm, I wasn't surprised. It was probably just how the body normally feels when going through a method of teleportation. I felt a little similar when using my dark powers as well, only with the darkness, there was a more unpleasant tingling: like when the edges of a flame flicker a little too close to your body.

After several more seconds, I could feel my feet touch the ground again. Opening my eyes, I noticed we were standing in the courtyard of the castle town. It was nice to see that the repairs that had taken place in the town had gone a lot better since our last adventure to take down Xemnas and the Organization XIII. I looked over towards Aqua to see her curiously observing everything. "This town, it seems… different…"

"A lot has happened since you were gone," I stated casually. "Once we find your keyblade, I can help you with an update, if you'd like."

For the first time since saving her, I saw Aqua give a light smile, and she responded with a nod. "Sure, I'd really like that… um..."

After realizing she was trying to remember my name, I helped her out. "Oh, it's Riku."

"Right. Thank you, Riku."

"Hey! Riku! You're back!"

Recognizing the voice, I turned around, and sure enough, Lea was coming towards us, with Donald and Goofy trailing behind. Smiling, I said, "Yeah, I am."

Noting the anthropomorphic animals looking around, my face fell a little and I said, "Sorry, but Mickey couldn't come back with me. He had to help someone else first."

They both let out loud sighs. I couldn't help but understand their pain. As the king's loyal followers and closest friends, it must've been upsetting to know their king was always doing things on his own.

"I see you've managed to find who you were looking for then," Lea said, approaching Aqua. "So, you're Aqua. Nice to meet you. The name's Lea. Got it memorized?"

I sighed as the redhead gave out what Sora and I dubbed as his "catchphrase" and gave her the same smug smile that he tended to give when saying those words. A little startled, Aqua replied, "Um, sure. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

I watched Lea observe Aqua, and I couldn't help but think he was sizing her up; or maybe he was just ogling her body. With a person like him, it's hard to say. Aqua clearly wasn't a fan, because I could see her frown slightly, and I could tell she was thinking about saying something. I decided to cut in before the situation could turn sour and said, "Anyways, now that Aqua's here, I've got to take her to get her keyblade she left here. Do you think you could grab Sora for me while I do that?"

"Nope."

I gave Lea a hardened glare and said, "Lea, I don't have time for your teasing, so just cut it out and get him."

Lea shrugged and said, "I'm not teasing, Riku. He took off with his girlfriend to go exploring."

"What?!" I immediately felt on edge. I thought we had told Sora to keep watch over Kairi and Lea's training while we were gone. Why would they go off right now? Was she ready to face the heartless yet? It's not that I lacked faith in my friends, but after what had happened during Sora's first attempt at the Mark of Mastery, I knew Xehanort could strike at anytime. And I didn't want Kairi to be killed, or worse, captured by that dark seeker.

"Relax, man," Lea said calmly. "He did say he wanted to try and find Terra for you guys, remember? You shouldn't be surprised. So, he decided to show Kairi some of the more fun worlds he had been to while looking. I let him go, but I asked him to leave Donald and Goofy behind to help me out. I still haven't quite got the hang out how this keyblade thing feels."

I sighed; that casual attitude of Lea's always bugged me, even when he was a nobody. But I knew arguing wouldn't do any good right now. The important thing was to find my friends and make sure they were at least going through worlds as safely as possible. I pushed my worries and frustrations to the back of my mind and said, "So, do you know where they went?"

"Well, they didn't have a specific destination in mind," Lea started, which forced me to frown. Sensing my negativity, he continued, "Hey, it's not like I have no idea whatsoever, Riku. Calm down. They did run through a few ideas. I remember Sora brought up Atlantica, Pride Lands, Halloween Town, and Neverland. He got rid of the last idea, though, once Ventus mentioned how he had visited that world before."

"Great…" So Ventus was with him, too? It shouldn't surprise me, and I honestly should be happy it wasn't just Sora and Kairi. Still, did he have enough training under his belt to help them properly?

My thoughts were cut short as Aqua rushed up to Lea, grabbing him by the shoulders. "Wait, Ventus?! Did you just say Ventus?"

Lea seemed to stare back for a while, clearly startled out of his carefree attitude, before regaining his composure and replying, "Uh, yeah. You know him?"

She backed off, clearly floored by this news. Suddenly, I could see Aqua smile as she held back tears in her eyes. "So, he's safe. Thank goodness…" Aqua then gasped and looked back at us. "But, how? When I left him, he was trapped in slumber. His heart had…"

I watched her go into a concerned silence. Smiling, I decided to share with her what Sora had told me. "Well, Sora found him. He was supposed to just find the Key to Return Hearts, but when he did, he said Ven's heart led him to where he needed to go. I'm not sure how your friend's heart got into Sora's, but Sora was able to give it back to him."

"Oh…" Aqua smiled again, only it looked a little sadder this time. Before I could question why, she said, "Some friend I am. I had promised him that I'd wake him up once I found Terra. Guess I couldn't keep that promise…"

I sighed, not really sure what to make of this. I had thought she'd be a little happier at hearing that her friend was awake and well again. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't worry too much about it. We had more important things to do. I looked over to Goofy and asked, "You guys have a spare gummi ship, right?"

"Well, actually, Sora took the spare," the canine responded. "It's a smaller model and comes with a nifty feature of shrinking down at the press of a button so it doesn't have to stay parked in one spot."

"And we'll be able to track it down with our gummi ship!" Donald piped in, which I was grateful for. At least we wouldn't be wandering aimlessly then.

"I see. Why don't you guys wrap up Lea's training and prepare the gummi ship we have? There's a few things we need to do here, and then we'll go look for them."

"Got it!"

As the three of them ran off to gather some things, I turned back to Aqua and held a hand out to her. "Come on. Let's go get your keyblade, Aqua. We'll need to report to Master Yen Sid afterwards, but then we can go looking for them. I know Ventus really wants to see you again."

Aqua seemed to perk up a little, clearly having been lost in thought: no doubt over Ventus. Smiling, she nodded and took my hand. We made our way to Ansem's study (since I figured his former apprentices would possibly have an idea of where her keyblade and armor were), and as we walked, I surprisingly looked forward to this next leg of our adventure. Now that Aqua was with us, we would find a way to save the worlds. We would defeat Xehanort, and then, the horrors of what we found in the realm of darkness wouldn't have to be replicated in the realm of light.

Hello, once again, fanfiction readers! As promised in my last story, I have uploaded a third KH III possible scenario one-shot in order to complete the trio, so to speak. It's strange to think that back when I posted UCI in May, I had no intention to make this series of one-shots into a trilogy. I want to thank everyone giving my fanfictions the time of day as well as those going the extra mile to put the stories in their favorites, because I believe it was thanks to the extremely positive reception that I went on to complete my stories on how the main trio of Birth By Sleep could possibly return in KH III.

As for this one-shot, Aqua's story was the hardest for me to type. Not the longest one-shot (that honor still belongs to UCI), but just the hardest. Since I initially figured her rescue would be something that happens off-screen, I actually did have to think hard about how to structure the story. I actually did a lot of research into the fighting, where I watched gameplay and played through the secret episode of Birth By Sleep to make sure this special heartless behaved like in the game (hence why the 'rainbow of colors' moments were in there, since that's how it appeared in the secret episode). With writing in Riku's perspective, it was also a little tricky, because while I personally feel I behave like Sora and Ventus a lot, Riku I knew had to be a little more mature. In the end, I'm not sure how successful I was, but regardless, I hope you had fun reading.

So now that I've completely, what I suppose I'll refer to as the "Returning Wayfinders Trilogy", time to address questions that faithful readers of my stories might have. Will I do more Kingdom Hearts fanfiction in the future? Absolutely. I've already got several ideas: some more cliché than others. Will I do more stories relating to how I see KH III playing out? Eeeeeeeeh, it depends. If I do, it most likely won't all be in one fanfiction, like how most writers on fanfiction tackle this. Since I like the idea of taking my time in the different worlds of the games, if I do more KH III stories, they'll most likely be uploaded one world or important event at a time. It will also help me not feel so pressured about updates, I think. So, if I go this route, I'll probably leave a section on my profile, saying which story takes place when. With that said, I'll put the chronological order of Returning Wayfinders one-shots on my profile shortly. So that way, if you want to read these in the order that they take place, you'll be free to do so.

Have a wonderful day, everyone, and thank you so much for reading my stories.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts belongs to Disney and Square Enix. I own nothing in this franchise.