Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

Black Terrace

VI. Sea Sick (Cont'd)

I just wish we knew what they were up to. –Kairi

"So what are we looking for?" Kairi asked, running alongside Riku.

"Nobodies," Riku replied. "It couldn't have been a coincidence that they showed up in your room right when all of this started happening. They're definitely at the bottom of…" At the corner Riku suddenly stopped, and held his arm in front of Kairi to stop her. He pressed them both against the wall and peered around the corner.

"Demeatrix," Kairi whispered. "He's behind this?"

"I guess so," Riku replied.

Demeatrix stood in the middle of the deck, illuminated by a beam of moonlight. He crossed his arms, staring down at a hooded figure.

"So, you did everything right," he said, his voice sarcastic. "I'm impressed."

"Of course I did," the hooded figure replied. "I'm not an idiot."

"Right," Demeatrix laughed, his voice still very sarcastic. "Which food did you put it in?"

"It was a drink, actually. I put it in the martini mixture."

"And where did you put the Light?"

"In the olives."

There was a pause.

"You put the Light in the olives?" Demeatrix asked. The hooded figure nodded, and Demeatrix sighed, shaking his head. "I knew it was too good to be true."

"What?"

"You really are an idiot, you know."

"H…Hey, what did I do?"

"Why did you put the Light in the olives?" Demeatrix asked, uncrossing his arms.

"I was about to get thrown out of the kitchen," the hooded figure replied. "I didn't have time to put it anywhere else, and the olives were the closest…"

"They serve olives along with the martinis," Demeatrix interrupted. "The Darkness will have no effect on anyone who eats an olive."

"Well, that doesn't really matter. There aren't very many people who eat the olive."

"You really can't do anything right…"

"Kairi, you heard that, right?" Riku asked, turning to Kairi.

"It explains a lot," Kairi replied. "It's because of the martinis that everyone is acting so strangely."

"And it's because you ate that olive that nothing happened to you." Riku stopped to think. "I just wish we knew what exactly it was that they did."

"Well, at least we know that it was them who did something," Kairi said. "Maybe if we make Sora eat an olive he can help us figure everything out."

"Maybe. Let's…"

"And what do we have here?"

They each gasped and looked up to find Demeatrix smirking down at them.

"You two are really easy to sneak up on, you know."

They jumped back, and Riku grabbed Kairi by the wrist.

"Get back to Sora and try to get him to eat an olive," he whispered. "I'll take care of this."

"Are you sure?" Kairi asked, sounding worried.

The hooded figure came up next to Demeatrix, and Riku summoned his Key Blade.

"Yes. Just go."

Kairi nodded, and dashed away.

"You actually think you can take us on?" Demeatrix asked. "I bet you couldn't even beat this guy." He pointed a thumb at the hooded figure, who crossed his arms.

"I can hear, you know."

"Hey, it was a complement."

"You're making it sound like I'm a weakling."

"Well, you kind of are."

"I am not a…"

"Can we just get on with this?" Riku shouted. "Why are you even here?"

"Oh, you know. Just stirring up a little trouble," Demeatrix replied. "I didn't think we'd meet any of you key bearers here though." His weapon appeared in his grasp. "It must be our lucky day."

It seemed like he would rush forward and attack, and Riku braced himself, but Demeatrix suddenly stopped, and turned to the hooded figure.

"Why don't I let you handle this alone?" he asked, turning to the hooded figure.

"Wh…what?" the figure stammered.

"If you aren't a weakling, then you should be able to take this guy out in no time." He turned to Riku and made a kind of salute. "See ya." He disappeared in a portal of darkness, leaving Riku and the hooded figure alone.

"Hey, come back," the hooded figure cried. When no one answered him, he sighed.

"Are we going to fight are what?" Riku shouted, growing annoyed.

The hooded figure snapped his head over to Riku, and then lifted his arm into the air. An orb of water appeared above his hand, and morphed into a solid form.

"It's…an instrument?" Riku thought, as the figure pulled the object into his arms. Riku was right, but it wasn't just any instrument. It was a sitar.

Kairi rushed into the bar, looked around to make sure that no one had come in while she was gone, and then hopped over the counter.

"It's just me," she said quickly, when Hana started.

"Oh," Hana sighed, laying a hand on her chest.

"I need to know where you keep the olives," Kairi said.

"The olives?" Hana asked, obviously confused. Kairi nodded. "Um, they're in the kitchen. You can't miss them." She pointed a door to the far left. "Why do you need the olives?"

"I'll explain later," Kairi replied, rushing to the kitchen door. The olives were in a large, plastic container next to the sink, and so Kairi grabbed one and came back out. She kneeled next to Sora and laid a hand on his face.

"Sora," she called. "Sora, wake up." He stirred softly for a moment, and then slowly opened his eyes.

"Kairi?" he whispered. He brought his hands to his forehead. "I…I don't feel right."

"Just eat this," Kairi said, bringing the olive to his mouth. "It'll make you feel better." Sora nibbled at the side of the olive, and then made a face. "What's wrong?"

"What is this?" he asked. "It's so…bitter." Kairi took a small bite of the olive herself, and shook her head.

"It doesn't taste bitter to me," she said.

Sora suddenly clamped his eyes closed, and gripped his chest. Before Kairi could say anything, Sora took a deep breath, and gave a large sigh.

"The feeling's gone," he whispered. "I don't feel so terrible anymore." He attempted to sit up, but Kairi laid her hands on his shoulders.

"Why don't you just lie down?" she said. "You should rest."

"Oh. Okay." Sora lay back down, and Kairi turned to Hana.

"Okay, you know how everyone out there who's acting strangely has had a martini?" she asked.

"Yeah" Hana replied.

"Well, I'm sure now that the martinis are what's making them act like that." She stood. "And olives are the only way to change them back to normal."

"How can that be though?"

"I don't really know," Kairi admitted. "But I'm going to find out." She laid her hands on the countertop. "I'll be back," she said, and then hopped over the counter to make it back to where Riku was.

At the moment, Riku was having a hard time fighting the hooded figure. He began to wonder if Demeatrix had simply called the hooded figure weak to lower his guard. They stood at opposite ends of the deck, breathing heavily and eyeing one another.

"This guy's definitely not a weakling," Riku thought. Although this person's fighting style was a bit sloppy, it still got the job done. "Hey," he called out. "Why are you and Demeatrix here anyway?"

"I'm not going to say," the hooded figure replied. He drew an arm into the air, and columns of water shot up from the deck. Riku rolled to the side to avoid them, realizing too late that this was a distraction. A blast of water suddenly slammed into him from behind, knocking him to the ground. He tried to get up, but another blast came from bellow. This one slammed him against the wall.

Until this point he and the hooded figure had had a stalemate. It seemed now that the odds had turned against Riku. The hooded figure attempted to push his sitar-like weapon against Riku's chest, but Riku held his arms up to hold it back. He looked at his hand that held his Key Blade.

"If I could just move my arm up a little bit more," he thought, but the hooded figure seemed to know what Riku wanted to do, and pushed this arm further down. They struggled like this for a few moments before the hooded figure finally pushed Riku to the ground. He lifted up the sitar, as if he would slam it down against Riku, and Riku quickly brought his Key Blade up to block. Suddenly, as if he had lost the will to fight, the hooded figure brought his weapon down, and sighed.

"Look," he said. "I don't really want to do this."

"What do you…" Riku began.

"Just go get your friends and go hide somewhere," the hooded figure interrupted. "Everyone should be back to normal by morning."

Riku started to respond, but then he heard Kairi's voice behind him.

"Riku," she shouted. He heard her running toward him, and before he knew it, the hooded figure had disappeared.

"Riku, what happened?" Kairi asked, rushing to his side. "Are you all right?"

"…Yeah," Riku replied. He stood. "Is Sora all right?"

"Yes," Kairi replied, nodding. "I gave him an olive, and he said he felt better after eating it." She sighed. "How are we going to get every single person to eat an olive?"

"Well, why don't we just go back to our room?" Riku suggested. "Maybe we'll be able to figure out something to do in the morning."

Instead of automatically rejecting the idea, Kairi seemed to consider it.

"Maybe we will have more options during the day," Kairi admitted. "And it's getting pretty late anyway."

"Yeah," Riku agreed. "I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out tomorrow."

They started back for the bar, Riku praying that the hooded figure had not simply wanted to mislead him.

Indeed, he had not. Riku and Kairi went back to the bar to grab Sora, offering to let Hana come with them, of course. In the morning, everyone had returned to their normal selves. None of them remembered what had happened the previous night, including Sora. Riku and Kairi thought that it was best this way though, and they did not fill him in.

They arrived at the Alpha Island at the end of the day, and found that Black Terrace was not there. No one seemed to know anything about it, either. The end of the day found them back on the ferry, and they luckily had an uneventful ride. Once they got to the Beta Island, they went straight to the Gummi Teleportation Site.

Surprisingly, they found Donald and Goofy waiting for them in the Gummi ship. They would find out later that the pair had successfully solved the problem at Disney Castle, and that they had arrived at the Gummi Ship a few hours ago, but no one asked then about that now. At the moment they appeared uneasy and worried.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Sora asked.

"One of the four Black Terrace islands," Goofy replied. "It's…it's been destroyed."

"What?" the trio gasped.

"How?" Kairi asked.

"We don't know," Donald replied. "All we do know is that when we checked the world's coordinates, the map showed that nothing was there."

"Are you sure it's not just broken?" Riku asked.

"It's not broken," Donald said. "The computer records still show that the world was there yesterday, and now it's not."

"Well, it could still be there now," Sora said hopefully. "Maybe there's just something keeping the computer from detecting it."

"There's no doubt that it's been destroyed, Sora," Donald replied, shaking his head. "There's nothing that can keep a world from being detected, unless something destroys it."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Which world was it?" Riku asked.

"Lumarium," Goofy replied.

"Then which world do we have left?"

"Callgeera," Sora answered him, surprising everyone. "We're going to Callgeera."

To Be Continued…

Well, I'm glad I finally got a chance to put this up! It's really been a long time though… That's the longest I've ever taken to put up a chapter for any story… wow…