"So you finally made it. About time, we've been waiting for you. I've been waiting for you..." Riku began. Sora eyed the teen warily as he, Shige and Yasuto stood at the bottom of the broken stairs.

"We've always been rivals. You pushed me and I pushed you,"

"Riku…" Sora began and quickly noticed that his best friend had a completely different aura around him. The aura around the teen did nothing but fuel the dread that had been pooling in his stomach since Mitsu suddenly disappeared. He kept his head high and his fears to himself as he continued with the hope that he would find Riku, Mitsu and Kairi. He knew that he and Mitsu had gotten wrapped up in their task of sealing off the worlds and protect them from the Heartless, but this was not what he was expected.

The trio had arrived an unknown and seemingly broken castle surrounded by a giant waterfall and quickly made their way to the weathered castle that loomed in the distance. As they made their way up stairs they witnessed a short battle between Riku and Steiner and nearly watched at Riku dealt the final blow to Steiner but Sora reached the armor-clad man just in time to block the blow with his key blade.

And now the two faced each other, tension hung in the air as the three men watched the two teens.

"Well, it's going to end now. There can only be one true key blade master," Riku said casually.

"Riku what are you talking about?" Sora asked confused and took a step forward.

"It's time to let the key blade choose its rightful master," Riku smirked and held his hand out.

At that moment Sora's key blade appeared in his hand and started to pull away. Confused, Sora held on to the key blade in an attempt to stop the older teen from taking it. Despite Sora's hold on the key blade vanished into small orbs of light and suddenly reappeared in Riku's hand. The three stood in shock as they watched the white haired teen and with the key blade that Sora once held.

"W-What?" Sora stuttered in shock as he saw the key blade that was once his in his friend's hand, Sora looked at his hand and then to the two men behind him in confirmation about what had just happened, the two men returned the confused look.

"He was right…you don't have what it takes to save Kairi or protect Mitsu. It's up to me..." Riku trailed off. "Only the key blade master can open the secret door and change the world," Riku said as he studied the key blade.

"What? No way! I-I'm the one that fought my way here with the key blade!" Sora fell to his knees, defeated almost at the loss of the key blade.

"You were just the delivery boy. Good job, here's your reward," Riku laughed slightly as he tossed the wooden sword to Sora.

"I'll say hi to Kairi when she wakes up and to Mitsu for you. So you can go play now," Riku said as he walked towards the looming castle.

Sora grimaced as he looked down at the wooden sword at his feet, and clenched his fists. In a wave of unspoken anger, Sora slammed his fits onto the ground. The two men stood next to Sora as he watched Riku ascend the castle stairs, discarded him as if he was a piece of useless trash.

He had fought through the worlds with the hope that he would be reunited with his friends, he had searched far and wide for the teen and now he was being left behind, again. Silently, Shige stood next to Sora and kept his attention on the teen on his hands and knees.

"Was that really the person you were looking for Sora? Is that him? He sounds like a complete asshole," Shige asked quietly. Sora remained silent, Shige sighed

"Shige…" Yasuto trailed off.

"I know…hey kid…Sora listen," Shige started.

Sora looked up at the taller and older man, Shige could see disappointment and hurt written all over Sora's face. Shige remembered a time where he was disappointed just as much as Sora this was just a blockade in the teen's path.

"Look…I don't trust your friend…Riku…something is going on but you can't lose hope, you have a lot of promises to keep," Shige started. "We'll go on a head to find out what's going on. I'm expecting you to meet us in there ok?" Shige started.

Sora remained silent and turned away from Shige.

"Pick up your pride Sora and meet us in there," Yasuto said bluntly as he watched Riku disappear up the stairs and into the castle.

Yasuto took one more glance at the teen before began he headed up the stairs, both of the men knew what their orders were and were expected to follow them by any means necessary. Their orders were to follow the key blade and to make sure it didn't fall into the wrong hands.

Shige sighed softly as he stepped backwards and towards the stairs, his focus still on the teen, without a word Shige turned and started up the stairs, Sora clenched his fists tighter in anger, not at the two men, but at himself.

He had come this far only to have everything he had taken away from him, it made him doubt himself.

Was he really enough?

Was he that weak?

Behind him, Sora heard the clanking of Steiner's armor and quickly turned around to glance at the man.

"Steiner—" Sora started before the old knight silenced him.

"I am fine, your pride is wounded…mine as well…but I have a mission to save Princess Garnet…and I will not stop till she is safe in Alexandria," Steiner began as he stumbled towards him. "You have a mission as well, correct?" Steiner added as he straightened himself.

"…I thought I did…" Sora mumbled

"Kairi and Mitsu was it? You said you were going to save them and all, correct?" Steiner questioned as he stood.

Sora remained silent as Steiner spoke.

"You may have lost your blade…but your will is stronger than any weapon that exists and will lead you to success," Steiner said as he continued to pass Sora and up the stairs.

"My will…" Sora trailed off as he watched the armor-clad man barely climbs the stairs.

Sora knew that Steiner was right, his pride was wounded at how easily Riku was able to take away the key blade from him. To wound him more Riku mentioned Kairi and Mitsu's name, the two people he held dear to his heart, was here with Riku the entire time.

"Mitsu…and Kairi would probably kick my butt if they knew I gave up," Sora thought to himself as he turned his attention to the wooden sword at his feet. With his determination renewed, he reached down and snatched the sword from the ground.

"I made promises to everyone…I have to rescue Kairi and Mitsu!" Sora said to himself. "Alright Riku! I'll show you that I'm the true key blade master,"

"Where ever you go Darkness will follow, you're nothing more than a darkness lure," A male and female voice said together.

A darkness lure…

"Don't you get it? He was using me to get to you to change…he was worried about the darkness in your heart…and that's why I came…but now… I don't know if I can stop it…" the female said her voice distressed.

I can't stop it…

"This feeling in my heart… I don't know what it is but I…I…I just really care about you," the male voice confessed.

The once blurry image of a dark haired man in Mitsu's mind began to clear into an image that she could make out but as soon as the man turned to look at her his hair turned white and bright golden eyes stared back at her.

The voices within her mind spoke to her, told her a story of, but suddenly his hair color changed to white and became blurry again. Mitsu hovered lifelessly in the darkness of her mind as she listened to the voices, they seemed to apply to her in more ways than one.

"You can do this…I believe in you," the female voice whispered into Mitsu's ear as if she stood next to her. At that moment, Mitsu stirred from her slumber.

Mitsu slowly opened her eyes and lifted her head from the table. She looked around and noticed she was still alone.

"These voices…," Mitsu trailed off as she placed her hands over her heart and seemed to give thanks to the unknown voices.

With a soft sigh she turned her attention to the neatly placed journals placed neatly in front of her. With her research she discovered that the journals were numbered and some were missing, she placed them in order of the journal number and left a space for the missing journals. She had scoured the library in search of the missing journals but to no avail she found none.

Absentmindedly she picked up the eighth journal and began to glance over its contents.

"The Eighth Princess…The legend of the dual key blade master…how am I connected to all of this?" Mitsu mumbled as she looked out the large window in front of her.

An image of Riku flashed through her mind to remind her that he bought her to this place for what reason she didn't know, he didn't stay around long enough to tell her. But the thought of Riku also reminded her that she needed to talk to him. She needed to find out what happened to him and what was going on with him,

"Riku…where are you?" Mitsu said to herself and stood from the table. As she turned towards the door, the image of a dark haired man flashed in her mind, she hesitated and rubbed her eyes.

"That man…his hair changed to silver in my dreams…but he's not Riku," whispers

"Riku this, Riku that...you sure do like Riku,"

Mitsu quickly spun around to see a cloaked person leaning on the wall near the door.

"You again?" Mitsu frowned.

"Sorry, I don't think we've met, if we did I've forgotten," the man replied

Mitsu narrowed her eyes at the man as she realized the man's voice was indeed different than the first person she had met before.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Mitsu asked as she prepared herself to fight if she needed to. Even though she hadn't encountered any heartless in the library but she was still on alert, just in case.

"Woah now, relax. I'm not here to do anything in particular…just to watch…aaand I can't tell you my name quite yet," the unknown man replied.

"So there's more of you in this castle…" Mitsu trailed off.

"There might be, but you make it sound like it's a bad thing," the man replied with a shrug.

"Are you going to call me the eighth princess too?" Mitsu questioned as she scowled at the figure in front of her.

"I could…but it seems like you already know…and I know that's not your name," the man replied and shrugged again.

"Tell me…what do you know about the eighth princess?" Mitsu asked suddenly.

"As much as you do," the man answered bluntly.

"Are you joking with me?" Mitsu asked firmly.

"My my my…you really are a sensitive girl…just like he said," the man said almost mockingly.

"Who?" Mitsu frowned again, she had hoped that the man would know more about the eighth princess and the dual key blade master. She needed more information, she needed to know what did this so-called legend mean to her and why was she involved in it, as far as she knew there was nothing special about her.

"The door to Kingdom Hearts needs the seven princesses of heart or just the eighth princess, at least that's how the legend goes…got it memorized?" the man began as if he recited the verse from memory and pointed to his head to emphasize the memory.

"Tell me about the legends," Mitsu started.

"You're smart enough, why don't you go find out?" he replied with a shrug.

"Well, I thought you would be nice and at least tell me a little bit about it since you know…you seem to have it memorized," Mitsu as she mocked the man's movement and pointed to her head in the same way he did.

"Oh! She has bite," the man chortled.

"But…it would probably be best for you to find out about the eighth by yourself. You know, learn more about yourself," the man suggested.

"Maybe I will since you're not helping," Mitsu scoffed.

"She's determined. Nice," the man quipped.

Mitsu glared at the man as she walked pass him and out of the library. The man chuckled and summoned a black portal with the wave of his hand.

"Heh, maybe we did know each other… but don't remember…" the man said to himself as he walked into the dark portal.

"Kairi!" Sora darted into the large chamber and towards the unconscious girl laying in the middle of the room. Shige and Yasuto followed cautiously followed after the teen and stopped a few feet behind him as they looked at the large chamber.

"Kairi! Kairi! Wake up!" Sora shouted as he gently lifted the girl's head from the floor.

After he battled Riku and regained his key blade he joined up with Shige and Yasuto before they fought the man known as Sin and the heartless produced. Despite all of the battles he was near exhaustion but with his promise, he pushed forward.

"Something isn't right here Yasu…" Shige whispered as he looked at the dark ominous looking portal, Yasuto nodded in a silent agreement.

In the large chamber, an eerie presence permeated through the room, its unknown energy sunk into their pores, seemed to attach itself to them.

A feeling of dread and darkness.

The two men searched the room and found nothing out of the ordinary besides the ominous portal at the top of the stairs.

"Kairi—" Sora started again when a deeper voice cut him off.

"It's no use. That girl has lost her heart…she cannot wake up,"

The teen and the two men turned their attention to the white-haired boy lounging on the stairs in front of the portal. Yasuto and Shige quickly stepped back from the portal and stood in front of Sora as if to shield him and Kairi.

"You decided to show your face again huh Riku," Shige sneered as he prepared for a fight.

"Wait—" Yasuto started before Sora spoke up as he gently laid Kairi back on to the ground and stood.

"I don't know who you are, but you're not Riku," Sora said as he glared at the person who impersonated his friend. Riku smirked as he continued to watch Sora and his movements, Sora gently laid Kairi's head down.

"The keyhole cannot be completed so long as the seventh princess of heart still sleeps," Riku continued, his voice deeper than normal.

"Kairi's a princess?" Sora asked surprised.

"Is it because she's asleep that we can't tell?" Yasuto thought to himself as he looked at the girl behind him, they were trained to sense the light in people but ever since Besaid they were unable to sense light within anything. Riku stood and began to hover above the stair he once sat on.

"Yes, without her power, the keyhole will remain incomplete. It is time she awakened," Riku replied his voice became deeper, distorted as wisps of sickly green energy flowed around him.

"Whoever you are…let Riku go! Give him back his heart!" Sora shouted, Riku, in turn, smirked at the teen.

"First…you must give the princess back her heart," Riku replied as he extended towards Sora and pointed a finger at him. Sora suddenly clutched his chest and began to fall back as if he had been pushed off an edge. Everything seemed to slow as he fell backward, Shige and Yasuto turned to reach out for the teen but he was suddenly caught by the shoulder and pulled up.

"W-What?" Sora asked confused as he looked at the person who reached out to him and helped him stand. "Yue?"

"Y-Yue?!" The two men said confused as they looked at him. As Sora straightened himself he looked at the man confused, his clothes were tattered and his face slightly bruised.

"Stop slacking," Yue replied as he stood next to Sora.

"What the hell happened to you—" Shige started.

"Ah…the elusive Eighth Princess…how wonderful of you to join us," Riku replied as he smirked. Yasuto, Shige and Sora turned around to see Mitsu step next to Sora, her head held high as she looked at the teen.

"M-Mitsu-!" Sora said breathlessly.

"Hey, Sora," Mitsu replied with a smiled.

A/N: Everything belongs to Square-Enix except for Yue, and Mitsu. Sorry for the long delay, as stated on my profile page I'm studying in Japan so school work comes first, then life, then fanfiction. So updating will be sporadic for a while, but finally an update!

This took me a long time to flush out because I was losing my motivation to write it and I don't have the script I was using...I forgot it. Anyways...

Sora finally caught up with Riku, but it isn't the meeting he wanted. Riku took his key blade, wounded his pride and it seems like Riku is a different person completely.

Whose the person talking to Mitsu, and the dark haired man? the dreams & voice? the cloaked people? journals?! What's going on?!