"Please take me with you!" I begged, bouncing up and down like a little kid. "I'm getting tired of the same old routine. I mean, spending the afternoon with Roxas is great, but I want to go with you and see what you do!"

"It's not that I don't want to take you," Riku explained. "It can be dangerous, though, and there are a lot of things to consider first." We were walking through the mansion towards the front door, ready to start our daily trek into town, but I was trying my best to convince him to let me go with him on his daily mission.

"Don't you think it's time that I actually try fighting the Heartless?" I pointed out. "I have to face them at some point."

"Yeah, but..."

"If it gets too hairy, I'll just run and hide somewhere and let you do the rest!" I promised. "I really want to try it. Please?"

Riku stopped walking and stared off into the distance. Finally he turned to face me and sighed. "Okay, you can come." I squealed and clapped my hands, but he cut me off with a wave of his arm. "But dark corridors are not something to mess around with, understand? You don't have a coat to protect you, so you have to stay right next to me at all times."

I nodded solemnly. "Got it. Wait, so that's what the coat is about? It's not just a fashion statement?"

"It protects from the darkness and makes you less visible to the Heartless and Nobodies," he responded. "Okay, now...hold onto my arm, and don't let go until we get there."

Feeling awkward, I reached out and put my hand on his left arm, then stepped in closer and wrapped both of my forearms around it. I could feel his muscles through the coat sleeves, and it made my cheeks burn slightly.

Riku must have felt the awkwardness of the moment, too, because he cleared his throat and seemed to be at a rare loss for words. "Um...yeah. Okay. Uh...here we go." Throwing his hands out in front of him, he opened the corridor and we walked through.

I had expected to go straight through and end up wherever our destination was, just like a portal, but instead we found ourselves in an open, dark space that seemed to have no beginning or end. There wasn't even a visible floor to walk on, which threw me off and made me stumble if I looked down at my feet. "What is this place?" I whispered.

"It's called the In Between. Not somewhere you want to hang out for very long." He opened another corridor, and this time we stepped out into a forest clearing.

"So, we're in another world now, right?" I looked around, taking in the trees and the colorful mushrooms growing all over the forest floor. Riku had explained the separation of the worlds to me, but it was all still a little confusing.

"Yeah, and I'll go ahead and warn you, this is a strange one." Riku left my side and walked towards the edge of the trees.

"What are we supposed to do here? Fight Heartless?"

"Only if we happen to run into some. The real mission is to keep an eye on some Organization members that are supposed to be here. See what they're up to. And to do that, we have to go through..." He was bent over, searching the tall grass growing around the base of the trees. "Here!" he announced, pointing at a tiny opening.

I laughed, thinking he must be joking. "Yeah, sure we do. What is that, a mouse hole?"

Riku straightened with a smirk. "I told you this place was strange." Crossing to a large tree in the middle of the clearing, he reached up and picked off a strange nut, then broke it in half. "Here, eat up."

I frowned at the nut, not sure I wanted to oblige, but took a bite anyway just as Riku did the same. Suddenly the world around me turned into one big blur. I grabbed onto my head with one hand, stumbling forward a couple of steps as everything came back into focus.

"Whoa! What just happened?" Glancing around, I saw that we seemed to have changed locations. We were now surrounded by towering grasses and very odd looking trees. "Did we portal somewhere?"

"Nope," Riku returned. "Look up."

When I did, I could see giant trees looming over us, and I realized that the strange trees I had barely glanced at a moment ago actually looked like over-sized mushrooms. Then I noticed the doorway, shaped just like the tiny one we had seen, but this one was the perfect size for us to walk through.

"Wait a minute." I placed a hand on my forehead, trying to comprehend what I was seeing, shocked I was even thinking of asking what I was about to ask. "Did we just...shrink?"

Riku smiled. "That we did. Now come on, through here."

I followed him slowly through the doorway, looking around in awe. I guess this is what it felt like to be a bug, not that I had ever wondered such a thing before. I just hoped we didn't encounter any normal-sized humans or animals who wanted to eat us or step on us.

On the other side of the doorway was a bright, open area, surrounded by green hedges. It was nice to actually see clear blue sky for the first time in weeks. While I was staring up at it, however, I heard a strange noise, followed by the sound of Riku summoning Soul Eater. I snapped my head back down to see multiple white, ghost-like creatures dancing around in front of us.

"Uh, what are those?" I asked uncertainly. They did not look like any Heartless I had seen so far.

"Nobodies," Riku answered.

"Nobodies?" I exclaimed. "Wait, but..."

"I'll explain later. Are you ready for this?"

"Um..." I stretched out my hand and summoned my Keyblade, keeping an eye on the creepy things. Was I ready? Not really. But I wanted to be ready. I wanted to prove to Riku, and to myself, that I could handle myself, that I was worthy of having this Keyblade. "Yeah," I responded, trying to sound more confident than I felt. "Yeah, I'm ready."

"Okay." Just before he began to fight, Riku looked back over his shoulder at me with a reassuring smile. "You've got this." Then he charged forward into the midst of the group, slicing left and right with his sword.

I edged my way over to the creature that was the furthest out from the rest, but didn't get too close yet. I figured that since magic was my strongest suite, I might as well try to get some damage done from a distance while I could. "Fire!" I commanded. The white monster flailed as the flame hit it, and I smirked. That seemed to work well, so why not try another one? "Blizzard!"

The creature reacted to the hit again, but then leapt forward suddenly and landed only a couple of feet away. My first reaction was to shrink back in fear, but I stopped myself. Gritting my teeth, I lunged forward and swung my Keyblade, landing a hit with no problem. The monster tried to come at me in return, but I cut my weapon back the opposite direction and hit it again. To my surprise, that was all it took. The monster wavered, then vanished into thin air.

My confidence much higher now, I glanced over and saw that Riku was still battling a few more of the creatures. Moving over to get a good angle, I used Fire on one of them and Blizzard on another. Riku must have already done some damage to the first one, because it disappeared as soon as it was hit. The second one started towards me, and I ran to meet it, now eager for some real combat. Its claws were swinging, but I managed to duck under them and slice across the legs as I passed.. Then I spun around and clobbered it across the back, and it, too vanished.

"Nice work!"

I turned to see Riku grinning at me. "Thanks!" I replied, a bit out of breath. "You, too!"

Riku gave a laugh. "Thanks. I was keeping an eye on you, though – so to speak – and you did a great job with both your magic and your sword work."

I could feel my cheeks burning again and I stared at the ground. I still wasn't used to being praised. "Thanks," I repeated, not knowing what else to say.

"So, I owe you an explanation." Riku dismissed his weapon, and I did the same. "There are many different types of Nobodies. Those that we just fought are called Dusks, and they're the very lowest form. Only those of the highest form look and talk and think like real people, and they can control the lower forms. Which means that when you see those guys," he gestured to indicate the empty clearing where the Dusks had been, "Organization XIII is often right around the corner." Riku nodded towards an opening in the hedges. "Come on, this way."

We wandered through the hedges for quite a while, keeping quiet so as not to alert anyone of our presence. I was almost convinced that we were completely lost, but Riku didn't seem to be worried. Finally, he thrust out his hand to stop me, then silently motioned for me to join him up against the wall of the maze.

"What do you see?" he asked in a whisper, indicating the intersecting path with his head.

Inching forward, I peered around the corner. In the distance, I could see two figures with their backs turned to us. "Two guys in coats like yours," I whispered when I turned back to Riku. "One tall, one short. Looks like they're walking away from us." I poked my head back past the hedge, watching. The shorter one turned his face, and I pulled back quickly before freezing in realization of what I had just seen.

"Did they see you?" Riku questioned, sensing my movement.

"No, but...that was Roxas!" I exclaimed. "The short one is Roxas, my friend from town."

Riku didn't seem surprised. "I figured that he was a member of the Organization as soon as you mentioned his coat."

"And you still let me hang out with him?" I asked, incredulous.

Riku frowned. "I can't tell you who to be friends with. Besides, from what you said he seemed fine. I don't think that every member of the Organization is necessarily evil. Some of the lower ranking ones may not even have any idea what the higher-ups are doing. If I had thought you were in danger, I would have said something, but I don't think you were."

Sighing, I looked around the corner again, but the two were no longer in sight. I certainly hoped Riku was right. I would hate to find out that my friend was really one of the bad guys. "They're gone," I told Riku in a slightly louder voice. "Should we follow them?"

We didn't have to go much farther before we found out what the Organization was after in this world. When we caught up with Roxas and his companion again, there were sounds of a heated battle coming from the other side of the hedge. I peeked around to see again, but the sight that met my eyes paralyzed me with fear.

"What are they fighting?" Riku queried.

I opened my mouth, but couldn't make the words come out for a second. "It's...it's a..." It kind of reminded me of a jester, in a way, which in and of itself shouldn't be frightening. But this thing was giant, towering up above the Organization members, and it had multiple heads with glaring faces stacked up on top of each other. It had clubs in its hands that it did occasionally juggle, but mostly used to smash everything in sight.

Prying my eyes away, I fell back against the hedge next to Riku. "It's huge!" I finally managed to squeak out. "Is that a Heartless?"

"Most likely," Riku replied, not seeming surprised by the implied size. "They probably came here just to get rid of it. It wouldn't be the first time."

I looked again, curiosity getting the best of me. Roxas seemed to be doing most of the fighting, while his companion stood back and watched. Every once in a while the man would throw what looked like playing cards towards the monster if it got too close to him. In a moment, Roxas dealt the final blow, and the creature collapsed, shuddering, to the ground, its long arms waving in the air as it disappeared. A large pink heart floated up towards the sky.

"They killed it," I whispered to Riku.

He nodded. "Let's get out of here." Reaching out his hand, he opened up a dark corridor, and I clung to his arm again as we traveled back to the forest we had started in.

"I didn't know Heartless could be that big." I was still a bit shaken up by that huge thing. Dropping my grip on Riku's arm, I walked a few steps away. "I don't know if I'm cut out for all of this."

"Sure you are," Riku countered, following me. He put a gentle hand on my shoulder and made me turn to face him. "Hey, listen. It's understandable that seeing a Heartless that size for the first time would be scary. But the Keyblade wouldn't have chosen you if you couldn't handle it. And I wouldn't still be training you, and bringing you on missions with me, if I didn't think you could handle it."

Swallowing hard, I looked down at my feet, unsure of how to reply. "Okay," I said finally. Then a thought occurred to me, and I changed the subject. "Speaking of Keyblades...I think Roxas was using one."

Riku frowned. "Really?"

"It definitely looked like a key," I shrugged.

He looked away, seeming to process this information. "Okay. Thanks, that was a good observation. Ready to go back?"

I nodded. "Ready."