Disclaimer: Again, I do not own Kingdom Hearts, though I desperately wish I did

Disclaimer: Again, I do not own Kingdom Hearts, though I desperately wish I did.

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Maybe it was the cold. Maybe it was the biting wind. Or maybe it was whatever was desperately yelling his name. Whatever the cause, Sora suddenly woke up and immediately shoved himself back a few feet from whatever was standing in front of him, fear flitting through his mind.

"Sora, you idiot!" the figure exclaimed, looking around them and checking for danger. They wouldn't come out here…though he wasn't about to put it past them.

"R-Riku?" Sora asked uncertainly, struggling to his feet. His arms, legs, and face were already very cold, and he could feel small ice crystals beginning to form in his moderately spiky hair.

"Who else?" Riku asked with some amusement in his voice, though it took on a more worried tone as he asked, "Do you know where we are?"

"Not on Destiny Islands, that's for sure," Sora sighed, also looking around. "I don't think I've ever been to a snowy place before." Although, that didn't sound right to him…

Riku bit his lip, but immediately stopped, seeing as how the blizzard would take advantage of an open wound, no matter how small. "Damn…how the hell did we end up here?"

"And all we wanted to do was look through the door," the fifteen-year-old muttered to himself irritably. Why did stuff like this always have to happen to him and Riku? Well, at least Kairi was safe…

"I haven't got a clue…"

The other boy ran one hand through his hair and shivered slightly, trying not to show that he was kind of cold to Sora. "I wonder how we get back."

A horrible thought suddenly ran through Sora's mind: What if they couldn't get back? What if they were stuck in this seemingly endless snow land forever? Despite the situation, he didn't find himself yearning for Destiny Islands at all. Instead, now that his initial panic was beginning to die, it was being replaced with excitement and intrigue.

"As long as we have something happen somewhere along the way, I don't mind," he said before he could stop himself, then looked at Riku with apprehension, bracing himself for his friend's response. To his relief, the sixteen-year-old smiled wryly.

"You know, you may actually have a point there, for once in your life," he joked, randomly choosing a direction and starting to walk.

Sora quickly forced his way to Riku's side through the now-foot-deep snow, and the two started to walk in silence, occasionally redirecting their course to avoid falling over a cliff edge or smacking into a rock wall. After they had been walking for a while, Riku broke the silence – well, as silent as you could get with a blizzard swirling around you – by asking while pointing ahead, "What's up with that?"

At first, Sora thought he was talking about the narrow path ahead, but quickly realized that he was pointed at clear ground, where it was a sort of light brown color, and devoid of snow. "I…"

He was about to continue, 'don't have a clue', but the words got caught in his throat as he began to run forward. He noted that Riku didn't call after him, but instead followed, curious he was sure, and wondering why he was rushing.

As soon as both his feet had left the snow and landed on the dirt ground, Sora turned and grinned at Riku, who also left the snow and started to shake the snow off his pants by stamping hard on the ground. The silvery-haired teen obviously noticed his grin, because he gave Sora and odd look as if to ask, "What?"

"I've been here before, Riku, I just realized! I'd forgotten how snowy it could be!" Sora replied excitedly, looking around as if to confirm this. "It's the Land of Dragons! It can't be Christmas Town, it'd be much more cheerful, I'm sure, and there are no blizzards there. Besides, I recognize a lot of this! If we keep following this path, we'll come to where a town…well, used to be."

Riku looked mildly impressed. "Let's hope that the emperor owes you a favor or something so we can see if we can find something to get us off of this world," he joked, starting to run down the path.

Sora couldn't help but let a faint smirk appear on his face as he followed after his friend. "Actually, he kind of does, as does Mulan I think. I think that Mushu should too, personally."

Riku looked back at him with an odd expression, then shook his head and looked forward again. Suddenly, he stopped and whipped his arm to the side, making Sora run into it at chest level, making him fall back onto the ground, winded.

"Hey, what--" Sora began, coughing slightly, but stopped and immediately stood up as he saw that they were surrounded by Heartless. They were the next level up from what he was pretty sure was the weakest and most common type, the ones that got really annoying because they could make themselves go as flat as paper and still move around, though you couldn't hit them and they couldn't harm you. The Keyblade appeared in his hand as he swiftly summoned it, with the Kingdom Key attached. King Mickey had insisted he take the other chains back to Disney Castle for safekeeping, but the Kingdom Key always stayed with Sora.

"Ready to fight?" Riku asked in a low mutter as he made his own Keyblade appear in his hand. It almost seemed like a dark purple and black wing, and strange as it was, it seemed eager to fight.

"When am I not?" Sora replied as he leapt forward and swiftly began to deal a string of attacks at a few different Heartless, barely hearing the Keyblade hitting their weak armor. He noticed Riku doing the same out of the corner of his eye, and began to wonder why his Keyblade still took that shape.

It wasn't a particularly difficult battle, aided by Riku's Dark Shield, which he still retained for some reason even though he'd come from the darkness and into the light, and Sora's own Explosion. At least they hadn't really forgotten any of their abilities. However, it took longer than it normally would have, since neither had fought for almost three weeks, and had instead been lounging in the bright sun, swimming, and racing.

"Glad to know that they aren't giving up on us," Sora remarked sarcastically and bitterly, watching a heart from the last Heartless float up and disappear into the sky. "I wonder where they go now."

"Let's just hope not to another Kingdom Hearts," Riku replied, letting his Keyblade disappear and resuming the run, though he set off at a slower pace and was barely faster than jogging. Sora quickly caught up, and they continued along the path in silence, on the lookout for more Heartless.

They fought at least three more groups of the same Heartless, including one very annoying one that looked a little like a centaur with a long spear-type weapon, and by the time the ruins of the small town were in sight, the two were relatively tired and injured. After all, it had been the middle of the night when they'd been jerked from Destiny Islands, though obviously other worlds didn't share the same time zone their own did.

"I hope we get to the city soon," Sora started to comment to Riku, but suddenly stopped as he stared ahead in fear.

"What is it?" Riku asked, following his friend's gaze to a young black-haired woman lying on the ground, dressed in armor, though you could see green clothing beneath. There were tears in her clothing, and red was staining her tunic and pants. Sora was already running towards her, and the sixteen-year-old wasted no time in hurrying after him.

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Author's Note: A little longer than the last one, I think, so that's good. I'm tired, so I'll try writing up another chapter tomorrow. Yay for this being my lamest and shortest author's note ever.