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Chapter Nine

Poison and Attempted Kisses

Back at the Gummi Ship Riku was laid on his bed, sweat beaded down and stuck his silver hair to his forehead; his hands constantly clenched the sheets beneath him. Donald crouched over him, desperately casting Curaga after Curaga while Goofy paced the room back and forth.

"Nothing's working!" Donald sighed in exasperation.

"What can we do?" Goofy asked.

It was at that moment that Sora, Kairi and Zelda came running in.

"Riku!" Zelda cried out.

With tears streaming down her face she knelt down by his side and clasped his hand. Her eyes widened at the sight. Riku's shoulder was torn and bloody, red beads oozed out under the skin. She could only watch as he gritted his teeth every time the blood would seem to sizzle before it became burnt black. Wisps of black smoke slowly entered the air from the wound.

Zelda tore her eyes away. She couldn't look at it anymore. Without a word she turned back to everyone.

"What happened?" she demanded, her voice like venom.

Sora touched her shoulder and began his explanation.

"We were battling some Heartless in the Bizarre Room, along with some of those Night Warrior Nobodies. Riku was taking out one and made his way to dodge, none of us expected it to bite him. The moment it did, it vanished. We quickly brought him back here and he has been here ever since."

"Curagas are no good! We've tried Potions and Elixirs, but nothing's worked." Donald inputted.

"What do you think, Zelda?" Kairi asked, bringing order to the hysterics. "You're the expert on Night Warriors, surely you, Merlin and Aerith will be able to find something to save him."

Zelda sighed heavily, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand.

"Okay, you guys go and get into contact with everyone on Radiant Garden, and drop off Alice at Disney Castle. I'll stay with Riku."

With the plan agreed the group left Zelda and Riku alone.

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Zelda soaked a cloth and pressed it against Riku's sweating brow, her lip bleeding to bite back the tears that threatened to spill once again down her cheeks.

"Why did this happen? Why did it bite you, damn it!?" she whispered harshly.

"Got me…my guard was slack…I guess…" muttered Riku.

His eyes were blurred and uncertain as he gazed up at her. The girl gasped at his words.

"Riku! You should rest!" she gasped.

"And let my blood get poisoned while I sit back, doing nothing? I don't think so," he retorted. He then gave a small smile. "Plus it gives me a chance to do something…"

"What?" she asked, inching slightly closer.

"First, close your eyes…" he ordered.

Zelda did as he asked and waited. Even without her sight she could tell that he was getting slowly closer. Bringing himself up by his elbows so that he was level with her Riku drew closer. His lips were closing in, his breath warm against her mouth. She knew his intentions, she mimicked him.

The moment their lips were about to touch, a banging sounded outside the door. They quickly drew apart and Riku lay down again. Looking towards the entrance way they saw Donald and Goofy standing there.

"We've got through to Aerith, she wants to talk to you about it, since you're the expert on the Night Warriors." Goofy explained.

Zelda nodded her head, she didn't dare speak, fearing a stammer in her words. Slowly she got to her feet and made her way out the room, following behind the duck and dog. She stole a glance at the resting Riku, put her fingers to her lips, released and blew. After that she ran to catch up with the others.

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"Is everything going okay back on Radiant Garden, Leon?" Sora asked, arms folded in front of him.

"The Nobodies and Heartless are still roaming around, but they aren't causing trouble, it's more like...there's looking for something." Leon explained over the monitor. The others stood in the background silently.

"They could be looking for the Prince of Heart." Kairi offered. "He's pretty much got a bounty on his head right now."

Merlin nodded his head, leafing through a book.

"It is most likely, although I can't say who he is. Even from Ansem the Wise's reports, it mentions nothing about him."

Sora smiled to himself.

"Looks like Tron's going to be hacking the Grid," he laughed. "Maybe he can turn up something, or at least the name of his world before it was destroyed. Knowing Ansem, he'll have found something and hid it from even Xenmas."


It was at that moment that Zelda walked in with Donald and Goofy. The girl practically ran to the monitor and yelled for Aerith.

"Aerith! There's got to be something to help Riku! Tell me what you know!"

Aerith stepped to the screen.

"Okay, first you need to calm down. You're not going to be able to help Riku if you're panicking," she explained softly.

Zelda took a deep breath and relaxed, allowing the woman to continue.

"Okay, you first need to explain to me his symptoms. That will give us a place to start."

The girl explained his symptoms and waited as Aerith thought about a possible solution.

"Well, from what you say, I think you need a modified Elixir, with extra magic put into it. Though I think the only place you can find it is in Atlantica, the King's Triton might be able to help."

Sora nodded his head and made his way to the console.

"Thanks for the advice, and keep us posted with anything you find. We've dropped off Alice at Disney Castle so we'll make Atlantica our next stop. Gummi out."

The connection was cut off.


Sora turned to the others slowly, his brow furrowed in determination and his hand clutched around his silver crown chain.

"Any objections to going to Atlantica as our next destination?" he asked firmly.

Even if anyone wanted to disagree, his voice left no room for arguments.

"Sir, no, sir!" the group said in unison, their hands went up in a mock salute.

Zelda glanced at the doorway, a flush spread across her cheeks as she thought about what happened in Riku's room, what they nearly did. She didn't know whether he meant it, or if he was delusional from the poison. Either way it might her heart go so fast it was a drum in between her ears.

"We'll help you, Riku, no matter what," she whispered.

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Okay, bit of a mini chapter...interlude...whatever you want to call it.

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