Yumi's POV

I was really excited to go back to Deep Jungle. Last time I was there, Jane had decided to stay with Tarzan in the jungle. It may not sound all too exciting, but after FINALLY getting those two to find common ground, I was glad to see them happy together.

"Are you excited to see Jane and Tarzan again?" I asked Sora.

"Always! It's been so long since I've seen them. I wonder what's changed since then..."

"That was on your first trip right?"

I turned to Sora and he nodded with a sad smile on his face.

"It was the world where I thought I saw Kairi for the first time after our world disappeared."

He bent his head down.

Don't get me wrong, as much as I wasn't Kairi's biggest fan, I didn't understand why he was so upset when he knew she was in good hands. I get that the first few times around he didn't have that reassurance. But she was with Riku, and he was, well, Riku. He could handle anything someone threw at him...right?

"Hey...it'll be ok. You gotta keep your head up," I said in a quiet tone, nudging his shoulder.

"I know...I just...I wish I knew where they were. Every time this happens, all I can think about is what they're doing."

"You can't do that Sora. You're going to stress yourself out. You just gotta trust that they'll be ok. They're both big kids, and they can take care of themselves. Just like we can take care of ourselves. As long as we're ok, they'll be okay too."

He still didn't look convinced. Trying to make this kid happy is so much harder than everyone said.

"Listen blade boy, I'm not too good at this reassuring thing. So you're just going to have to take my word for it! Besides, you're on the better end of things."

He looked up at me with a semi-angry face.

"How am I on the good end of things?" he asked in a confused tone.

I smirked.

'Manipulation...my type of style here.'

"Well you know Riku can take care of himself. I mean, he survived the dark side. All you did was wander in the non-threatening light. And you know Riku can protect people, since that's what he's basically done for me and you his whole life, so Kairi is safe too. We all know I can carry my weight, since I've done this all on my own before too. So that just leaves all of us to be worried about innocent little Sora, but I guess I can always just protect you..." I trailed off.

He seemed to be deep in thought. The seeds have been planted...he was now in my trap.

"But...but I saved the worlds!" he said in a sad tone.

I let out a small smile. He was so cute...NO...he was so...innocent? Yes...innocent.

"With help. But don't worry, that's why I'm here!" I told him.

He pouted.

"But I can do it all by myself too! This was just convenient!" he said.

"No Sora, you needed the help. Remember, you came to me. Besides, I know you'll need my help to keep faith in the safety of Riku and Kairi too."

"No I don't! I can keep faith in them. They're my best friends! I know they'll be ok!"

Cue a moment of silence...

"...HEY, YOU TRICKED ME."

"What are you talking about Sora? I've done no such thing."

He huffed and slumped in his chair.

"Oh, poor Sora. But you know what I said was true."

He crossed his arms and turned away.

"Baby..." I trailed off.

Riku's POV

'Where am I?'

I felt like I had been asleep forever. The last thing I remembered was talking to Yumi about her past.

'Then I brought her to see Sora and Kairi...and then...OH MY GOSH KAIRI.'

I opened my eyes and looked around. I didn't process anything that was happening. I just needed to see that I wasn't the only one okay. I quickly laid my eyes on Kairi and took a deep breath.

I walked over to her still body and had a slight moment of panic, but then I realized she was asleep.

"Kairi...Kairi wake up," I said softly as I bent down and nudged her.

It took a few nudges, but eventually she began to stir.

"R-Riku?" she mumbled as I helped her sit up. "Where are we?"

I finally looked around and realized I had no idea where we were. We were in a white walled room with white bars keeping us locked in.

"I'm not too sure," I answered.

This was weird. I had never seen this place before and I knew Kairi hadn't either by the look on her face. Something just wasn't sitting well.

"I'm telling you, that chick was off her rocker," I heard a voice say.

It sounded like a man's voice, but I couldn't make out whose it was.

"Yeah, but did Malurxia really have to steal her heart?" another male voice said.

"Probably not, but he thought her dark heart would help him harness the darkness. Guess he was wrong," voice one said.

"Guess so! What happens now anyway? With her heart I mean," voice two asked.

"As long as her will is strong enough her heart will find her and she'll be back to normal in no time. Whatever normal is for a Queen of Hearts! Ahahaha."

The two voices continued laughing as they, I assumed, rounded a corner.

"Riku, what were they talking about?" Kairi asked me.

"I don't really know...but I know it can't be good," I answered.

"Well, let's get out of here and look for Sora and Yumi. Chances are if we got caught, so did they," Kairi said.

For some reason I knew she was wrong, but I didn't have the heart to tell her. I knew though, that we wouldn't be able to break out of this prison cell without them.

Yumi's POV

"Hey Sora?" I asked, trying to break the undying silence.

He just looked at me with a pouty face.

"Well fine, if you don't want to have an intelligent conversation ever again that's fine. I can baby talk to you from now on."

"NOOOOOOOOO. I CAN BE A BIG KID!" Sora whined as he pulled on my arm.

"Oh yeah? You really think so?" I teased.

He nodded his head.

"Yeah! Yeah I can!"

I laughed.

"Alright. I was just going to say, we never found that Queen chick in Wonderland. Do you think she's okay?"

Sora let go of my arm and sat back in his chair.

"You know, I'm not really sure. I kind of felt like everything was okay when we left though. Like, everything was back the way it should have been. So maybe that meant she was okay," he said.

I paused for a minute and then shook my head.

"Never distrust that. That feeling is your gut reassuring your heart that what it's thinking is right, and that your head should just agree and not question it. If you say you felt like she was okay, she was. End of story," I told him.

I know it sounded dumb and I figured he wouldn't take what I said to heart, but I meant it. I was always taught that no matter what, if you just knew with every fibre of your being, something was right or wrong, it was. The heart has a weird way of telling you things, and I never questioned it.

I saw deep jungle come into view and I smiled.

"WHOOOOP VINE SWINGING HERE I COME!" I shouted, landing the ship by the tree house.

"Is that all you can think about? Adventures and being reckless when you're INJURED?! No vine swinging for you," Sora said.

I pouted.

"But I wanna VINE SWING," I complained as I opened the door.

Sora shook his head and walked off.

"No and that's final."

I huffed.

"How can you go from tantrum baby to professional adult in like 3 minutes. That's unlawful. I demand we get a third party's opinion."

"Well in that case, I think you should listen to the boy," a British man's voice said from behind me.

I spun around to face none other than Professor Porter. For those of you who don't know who that is, he's Jane's lovely, funny, and witty as hell father. I'm pretty sure in some strange way we're related, and if not, I'm pretty sure he's my idol.

"Well, I think this boy is just all messed up in his mind because he doubts my awesome abilities to be a kick ass fighter," I joked, making a cool karate pose.

Sora rolled his eyes.

"What brings you to the tree house today Big Daddy?" I asked.

"Well I could ask you the same thing!" he teased.

"Well I just missed yeah so gosh darn much that I had to come visit you, yeah crazy old man."

Sora stared at us from afar, and I'm pretty sure he was looking at us like we were on some sort of drug.

"Well I was actually looking for my son-in-law. Blasted young man doesn't know the meaning of 'stay here for a awhile.'"

"He left? I was sure he would have wanted to stay with Jane for every second of every day," I said in a dreamy tone.

"Well, he's been acting like this since you left. Poor Jane's ready to break down and I've had just about enough of this."

"Let's go find him then! Obviously the boy needs to be put in his place."

The professor nodded and we began to walk out the door.

"Come along Sora! We can't leave you here unprotect. Lord knows Sabor had family and they'll seek revenge," the professor teased.

Sora slightly jumped and ran until he was right next to me. I let out a small chuckle and we followed the Professor on an all too familiar path to a very familiar camp site. On the way I took a chance to see what Sora and I were wearing. We were decked out in camo gear, which looked pretty awesome. I had on a pair of converse, cargo capris, a cargo type vest with a black tank top underneath, and a military style cap all decked out in camo. My hair was up in two buns near my neck behind my ears and I had on a black watch and a whistle around my neck. Sora was dressed pretty similar, the only notable difference was that he didn't have on a vest, he was wearing full pants, not capris, and he was wearing combat boots. Upon noticing this, I laughed.

"What?" Sora asked, giving me a funny look.

I laughed harder at this.

"Whaaaaaat?" he asked again.

I shook my head as an indication that I wasn't going to answer. Once I had calmed myself down from my laughter, I realized we were at the tent.

"You guys are still living out of a tent...really..." I asked.

Sora nudged me.

"Yumi, be polite," he scolded.

"Yes, we're still unfortunately in this dump. For the life of me I don't know why we don't build an actual house," the Professor said.

Sora looked a little shocked that he was so blunt, but I was kind of used to it. Like I said, he's just like me.

Professor Porter walked into the tent first, followed by Sora and then myself. Jane was sitting in a corner by herself and didn't even notice us walking in.

"Dear, please get up and greet our guest properly rather than mope in your corner," Professor Porter teased.

Jane looked up and allowed a weak smile to pass her features.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Hello again Sora, Yumi."

"Hi Jane, how are you and things?" Sora asked.

I rolled my eyes. Sora and Jane made awkward small talk before I cut in.

"Yes, this has been great and all, but we were kind of wondering where Tarzan was."

Sora shot me a look and I just shrugged. I wasn't going to sugar coat anything; that's insulting.

"Well, I can show you where I last saw him, but I'm not sure if he'll be there," she said, standing up.

I followed her out the door and walked by her side. I shot a look at the boys when they tried to walk beside us, so they were a few steps behind us.

"Jane, you know you can tell people when something is bothering you," I said to her.

"I know, and there's nothing wrong, really," she said.

I gave her a look and after a few moments she sighed.

"I'm just...tired of waiting around. I made a choice to stay by his side and he won't stay by mine. I don't mind Tarzan having to go off every now and again but what's going to happen when we have a family? And does that mean he doesn't want a family? Not that he'll really have a choice in a few months..."

She mumbled the last part but I still heard it.

"Jane...are you telling me you're going to have a baby?"

Her face flushed and she nodded her head. I squealed and immediately clamped a hand over my mouth. I couldn't believe it. I was so happy, and then suddenly extremely sad.

"He...he doesn't know does he?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"When has he been around for me to tell him? He was barely around long enough to make the baby," she attempted to joke.

"First off, ew, mental image. Second off, I'm ready to kick this dude's butt. Where does he get off thinking this is okay? Jane, don't worry, I'll help you fix this."

Before anything else could be said, we heard a loud roar off in the distance.

"That would be one of Sabor's relatives," Professor Porter said. "Better keep our guard up."

We walked for a few more minutes and then Jane came to a stop.

"This is where I last saw him. He said something about 'completing some unfinished business' and then he was gone. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help to you," she said.

"Don't even worry about it Jane. This is a great place to start, so let's get going," I said back.

We looked around for clues as to where Tarzan went to, but we couldn't find any. Of course, it's not like there was much he could have left behind to hint anything, but it was all we could do to try and find any clues.

"Sora," I said after a few moments, "lift me up so I can climb this tree. I'm going to see if Tarzan left any clues in some of these branches."

He shook his head as he walked over to me.

"No way. You are not climbing some silly tree with a messed up shoulder," he scolded.

"But Sora, I'm the only one who can go up there. You aren't lifting Jane or the professor up there and we know I can't lift your fat butt no matter how strong I am," I grumbled.

"Excuse me, but I am all muscle, minus some water weight. Don't be jealous cause I have a body of god-like proportions," he retorted.

I was taken aback by his response, and I'm assuming my silence and stare at him was the cause of the blush that stained Sora's face. I mean, it's not like I could really argue with the kid, but I never thought he was so full of himself. This made me blush. Eventually the professor laughed, which broke the awkward silence.

"Well, it seems your attitude is rubbing off on the lad, Yumi," he said.

I forced a laugh out and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess so. Now, Sora, please just lift me so I can climb that tree."

"...okay," he mumbled. "But if I think you're in danger you better get down from that tree."

"And how exactly do you expect me to do that?" I asked.

"Either climb down or jump," he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I snorted and rolled my eyes.

"Yes, I'll just jump down from neck breaking heights. Weren't you just complaining about me being safe?"

Sora walked over and put a hand on my shoulder. He smiled at me with his eyes closed and said, "Don't worry. If you jump, I promise I'll catch you."

All I could do was nod as I felt goose bumps cover my body. Sora knelt and cupped his hands and I accepted his boost and climbed a few branches into the tree. I didn't know what just came over me, but I wasn't sure if it was something I could control if it ever happened again.

Sora's POV

I boosted Yumi up into the tree and kept an eye on her as she waded through some branches. I could feel myself making faces as she made some dangerous jumps and when a branch would hit her.

"I see you have a lot of concern for her Sora," Jane said, breaking me from my intense stare.

"Huh? Oh...well yeah, I have to," I said back.

She smiled.

"And why's that?"

"Well...she's seeing my best friend, and since he's not here I have to look out for her in his place."

'That's true, isn't it? I mean, I never really asked her, but I was so sure she was dating Riku. Or at least they like each other. Yumi was all he ever really talked about and her face always lit up when he would take us to go talk to her.'

Jane laughed which broke me out of my train of thought.

"Just because he's not here doesn't mean she's going to go crazy the moment he leaves. And if she does, maybe she's not meant to be with him. Besides, you're keeping a little too close of an eye on her for me to believe that this is only for your friend."

"Wh-what are you talking about?"

"Oh Sora, if you don't know then it's not my place to tell you."

"You're ogling her like a monkey does bananas," the professor piped in.

"I am not! I just can't bear to see her hurt again," I attempted to rebuddle.

"Then you better watch yourself," Jane spoke. "I think she'd be damaged beyond compare if you got hurt."

I didn't really know what she meant by that, but I didn't have time to read too far into it.