Heyy! Personally, I hate this chapter. But whatever. :T Hmmm... I'm about to go on vacation, so I might not have any chapters but for a week. But ill make up for it... Please review!

Riku didn't dare move. He was—scared to. It was a strange feelings for him, he was never scared, or at least not often. His blue-green eyes just locked onto where Kairi and Vanitas had been standing. Or matter, floating.

He stepped back, remembering that this meant he had a new adventure to attend to. He was excited, and reluctant. But if he had Sora—

Sora!

Riku whipped around, excepting to see his friend lying on the sand. However, the young brunette was nowhere near Riku. Where had he gone?

"Sora!" Riku frowned, as this made no sense to him. His frown only worsened when he realized that Sora was in trouble. He was submerged in that darkness Vanitas had created, and Riku was positive that could not have been a good thing. But, he noted, Sora couldn't have gotten far.

So Riku set out to find him, rushing into a harsh sprint.

Sora's mind slowly blinked on. The last thing he remembered was being pulled under by the darkness, so where was he now? Sora forced his left eyelid open, as his right simply refused to budge—his left eyelid had started to close even before he could think about it staying open.

He swiveled his head around, only to find that it was throbbing.

Why? I haven't done anything. Have I?

Sora blinked and decided that it didn't matter, and he should just get used to it. He slowly pushed himself upward so his face wasn't touching the dusty, tan ground.

Wait! Dusty—Destiny Islands isn't dusty… It doesn't have the smell of darkness either.

Many questions bounced around inside his head, but none of them would be answered. At least, not yet. He sat up; gazing out onto the horizon of this strange new world he had somehow landed himself on. A loud, long sigh escaped his lips.

I can't believe this. How am I supposed to get to Riku now?

Sora decided to past some time thinking about this place by walking around and examining it. He peered down past his baggy shorts and skinny legs to his big black shoes. Might as well stretch them out, and he stood up. He walked a few steps forward and backwards, just trying to prove his legs still worked. He bent down, letting his hands land squarely on the ground, then sliding up to his shoes, which were not hard to reach as they stuck up off the ground so much. He brought his back up, and eyed the dusty plain suspiciously. Surprisingly, no Heartless, Nobodies, or even Unversed attacked him. He stepped one foot in front of the other, and after walking about 50 feet, he felt the darkness get stronger. What—No, who was that? Suddenly, an old raspy voice spoke to him. He couldn't see its owner, but already knew it must belong to an evil source.

"You have arrived, young hero."

Sora looked up, to his side, and behind him. There was absolutely nothing or no one, and he was the only THING that walked this plain. He shrugged, saying it was nothing to get worked up about, even though people talking that you can't see were usually bad.

If I must reply..

"I guess I have. Where is this? Who are you? Why'd you bring me here? How'd you bring me here?" Sora shouted because he wanted to make sure his voice reached the invisible speaker. He had stopped walking and was waiting for the man's answer, and soon enough the wise-sounding voice rang in his ears and filled the air around him.

"My, my, don't ask as many questions. But you shall find those answers yourself, young hero."

Hmph. That was no help.

And with that, Sora trudged along, his feet dragging in the tan dirt.

"Sora! Sora!"

Riku scratched his head. "Where could he be?" Little by little, Riku's head was juggling ideas of what could have happened. And he did not like what he was coming up with. He had told himself over and over that Sora was just hiding from him, but why, Riku would never know. And soon, he snapped himself out of that useless hope. Sora couldn't and wouldn't hide.

If I don't find him soon, I'll have to leave without him.

He did not want to do that. If Sora was still here when Riku left, he would be stranded. So Riku gave himself another thirty minutes to keep looking.

And looking.

And looking…

Riku stumbled onto the beach, as he had tripped over a stray log. He turned around, and sat down on it. Even though the log was very small and looked very breakable, it didn't snap under Riku's weight. HE shifted from left to right, just to make sure. Riku leaned forward, his back hunched a bit, and rest his head on his hand. He thought over this very carefully.

If I leave, there's always the chance Sora was here. But how? I looked everywhere..

Unless he's in another world.

Another world!

But, how would he have got there? He was trapped in the darkness from maybe 5 minutes. He wouldn't have gotten dark powers that quickly.

So the chance of a dark corridor is out..

Well, the best I can do now is either wait or go and hope I find him.

Wait.

Hope.

Wait.

Hope.

Hope.

Go and hope. That's my only answer.

Riku stood up, closed his eyes, and held his hand out.

I know I'll regret this… But—

A flash of darkness surrounded Riku's hand, and he smirked. "Guess I've still got it." Slowly, after many tries, a dark corridor opened.

Riku stared at it. He swallowed, and whispered, "It won't hurt. I'll—It's for Sora and Kairi. It won't hurt."

And he stepped through.

"So, what do we do now, Leon? There's…?"

A timid voice asked, before she stopped herself. Everybody in the room was staring very intently at the wall behind her. More than that, their eyes seemed to be focused on one single object. She turned very slowly, taking her time, not sure of what to expect.

She leapt up from her chair, and soon she was too staring quietly at the wall where she was sitting. On the brown wall, an oval section was darkness. A dark corridor, if she remembered correctly. But the thing that intrigued her was the single hand that seeped through the darkness and the wall. She gasped, as she came to the realization that it would have grabbed her.

"Wha…?" One of her friend's said, wrapping up how they all felt pretty nicely.

"OH! There's people!" A voice exclaimed from inside the corridor, then muttered, "I better get out of this… stuff then."

The group of people didn't move as Riku stepped out of the dark corridor, or rather, the wall. Riku pushed his hair back, as traveling through dark corridors always pushed it in his face. Not that Riku couldn't see through his bangs, he had spent months seeing through a blindfold, after all. It just seemed more… respectful, and Riku didn't know these people. Sora did, but he knew saying I'm Riku probably wouldn't ring any of their bells.

The girl with the timid voice smiled. She had long, brown hair pulled into a braid and bright green eyes. Her genuine smile didn't match well with her friends (he assumed the four of them were friends) reaction. An older man with blonde hair and a toothpick sticking out of his mouth, a cute girl with short black hair and red-violet eyes, and a brunette wearing black who he concluded was in his mid twenties were the people that made up this group. The girl with short, black hair cocked her head to one side, confused.

She has to have seen a Dark Corridor before, right? Maybe it's just because I don't look evil but I came out of one.

The blonde older man and younger brunette just glared daggers at him. Obviously something was very wrong here.

Am I in the wrong world? No, I made sure I came to Radiant Garden.

Riku looked each of the four in the eyes trying to communicate with them silently that he wasn't a threat. He managed to look at the girl in pink for the longest only because she looked like she didn't want to kill him.

The girl in black coughed. "Well, this is awkward."

She looked at the brunette expectantly, who only gave her a look that clearly said, "Shut up."

"Uh, I guess I should introduce..." Riku started, but didn't finish his statement when a gunblade was pointed at him. Riku's eyes widened and he leaned backwards. HE took this time to notice the brunette with the weapon had a scar about three inches long that started on his forehead and crossed diagonal across his nose.

So he's definitely been in battles.

"You might want to leave. Anyone who comes out of those… things is not good," the middle-aged man didn't lower his blade.

Riku took a few steps back, and swallowed.

Please, please know who Sora is. Please.

"Actually, I will leave. In a little bit. I'm just searching this world for my friend."

The girl in black hopped over to where Riku was standing, leaned forward, and peered into his eyes. Sora's friend raised his eyebrows. What is she doing? "He's not lying, Leon."

They all turned to him; the brunette who Riku guessed was Leon. He slowly lowered his blade. "Fine. Who are you?"

Riku smirked, and then thought better of it. He wiped the sly grin off his face and replied, "I'm Riku. My friend is…"

The girl's eyes seemed to get bigger. "THE Riku? Really?" she asked, too excited for Riku's liking.

"Uh, sure, I guess…?"

The girl rushed over and hugged him. Riku stared down at her.

WHAT is happening?

"You have to contact Sora, Cid! He'll be so happy!" she leg out of Riku, and grinned up at him. "I'm Aerith, by the way. She's Yuffie." The girl in black frowned.

"The Great Ninja Yuffie! Is that really so hard to remember?" She exclaimed, pretending to be mad, and failing miserably at it.

Ninja?

Riku started to explain that actually this time, he was looking for Sora, but Cid was already out the door.

"Where is he going?" he asked.

Yuffie perked up at this question, "He went to the computer to get Sora, of course! Sora wanted to find you very badly."

Riku smiled. That was a good thought; Sora was still going on about finding him and Kairi, even if it was his second time visiting the worlds. Then he frowned, much to Aerith and Yuffie's confusion.

"What?" Leon asked, even though it sounded like he was barely paying attention. Riku had a hunch that he wasn't.

"Well, there's an issue."

"Huh?" The girls asked, while Leon just looked at Riku skeptically. He sighed and closed his eyes quickly. He didn't want to explain that the three of them where on Destiny Islands and somehow, Riku managed to not know where either one of his friends were. He decided just to get this over with, so he started to speak very fast.

Cid appeared in the doorway in the middle of Riku's explanation with a look of worry of his face, but after he heard it, Cid began to understand. He breathed heavily, and chewed thoughtfully on his wooden toothpick.

"I guess that's why I couldn't locate him."

Riku's jaw would have dropped, but only carefree (in a good way) people like Sora did that. Instead, a little bit of worry flashed in his eyes.

"At all? He's nowhere?" Riku shifted his weight slightly, rocking back and forth on his heels.

That makes no sense… That would mean he was dead, or something. And Sora's not dead…

I think.

Cid nodded, but didn't say anything.