PrismRain13: Hey guys! Guess who's back in school. Yep, this girl. But summer was great, got to earn some money, go to conventions and go on some pretty sweet vacations.

Phil: Great. Now you can get back to work on us!

PrismRain13: yes, that is my plan; work nonstop on my stories in my spare period.

Phil: I got two words for you readers; Prism owns nothing!

PrismRain13: and for anyone who hasn't seen it yet; go check out Fandom Hearts the musical!

Chapter 26: Not the Only Survivor

Honestly, Riku was beginning to loathe West's overly perky attitude. It had only been half an hour and she was literally dragging the silver-haired youth all around the coliseum grounds and museum of famous heroes, stopping every second. She'd drag him to look at the pieces and get excited over everything from artistically crafted statues to old scoreboards from games who knows how long ago.

And to Riku's annoyance; on more than one occasion, West had somehow managed to trip, loose her balance, or touch something causing many artifacts to break. Luckily the people here didn't seem too distressed at the loss of their merchandise and were more focused on today's violent events. Riku placed a hand on his head as a headache started to form. While West was still happily looking at everything the museum had to offer for her short attention span.

"Can't we just go do some training or wait in the bleachers like normal people?" Riku grumbled.

"Hey! I've never been to a museum before! Let me enjoy this!" West retorted with a giggle. "We don't have any on Traverse Town."

"Honestly, I didn't see you as the museum type." Admitted Riku. "After you broke that last vase I was expecting you to want to ditch this place."

"I like anything that can tell me a good story." West shrugged before picking up a small discarded gold coin with the symbol of Olympus on it. "Finally! I was wondering when I'd find something to add to my collection." She exclaimed as she pocketed the coin.

"Collection?" Riku asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You know that shoebox I brought with me? I collect random artifacts from different worlds. Cid and the moogles get them sometimes when the worlds they came from dissapear."

"Any particular reason?"

West shrugged. "Not really; it just seems like a waste to leave them."

Riku groaned at the useless piece of information, rubbing his temples and trying to soothe his headache. "Can we please just go back now?!" He demanded. "I want to get this stupid training over with."

"Fine mister grumpy." Pouted West, setting down the scoreboard. Both teenagers barely said a word to each other as they strode out of the museum and back to the Coliseum. Riku grumbled in annoyance as West skipped along beside him. How in the name of Paopu fruit did she manage to stay so perky?! With a night terrors and a past like hers, most people wouldn't be able to function, so what made West so different?

Soon, after a few minutes of walking and skipping in silence, they were back at the colliseum's entrance. And Riku noticed that there were a lot more people piling into the arena, all entering with excited looks on their faces.

"Wow." West gasped. "Looks like we're gonna have a huge audience for the games! Look at all these people!"

Riku only gave her a short, emotionless nod in response, allowing his eyes to wander. Everyone who entered the arena was just like the last; excited and ready to see some blood. Riku groaned at the crowd they were attracting. But as he turned around, his eyes widened at a familiar sight. A boy, a little younger than himself looking up in awe at one of the golden statues. Sandy blond hair, open yellow shirt, navy pants with uneven legs. No. It wasn't possible! Was it?

"Tidus?" Riku called out to the boy, instantly attracting his attention. He turned around and sure enough, it was the exact same high-energy, athletic boy from his island. He broke into a huge smile before running over to Riku and nearly knocking the older boy to the ground in an attack-hug.

"Riku!" Tidus exclaimed in excitement. "You're okay! No way man! What happened to you?!"

"Friend of yours?" West asked with a smile.

"He's from my home world." Riku quickly explained when Tidus finally let go of him. "Tidus, what're you doing here?"

"What? You thought you were the only one that survived?" Tidus laughed, playfully punching Riku in the arm. "Believe it or not; we have strong hearts too!"

"We?" Riku questioned.

"Me, Wakka and Selphie." Replied Tidus. "We all ended up on another world. We were lucky someone came and helped us when they did otherwise we'd be heartless chow!"

"Wakka and Selphie are here too?!" Riku exclaimed in complete shock. Tidus nodded. "Where are they?!"

"They're busy training for the games with our new friends. Thought I'd check this world out before the games actually started."

"You're entering the games?" West asked enthusiastically. "So are we!"

"Sweet!" beamed Tidus. "Maybe we'll face each other in the ring! So Riku, you didn't tell me you found a girlfriend!"

Both Riku and West's faces instantly turned bright red at Tidus's comment. They tried desperately to hide their faces from each other while at the same time trying to assure Tidus that they were only friends and partners in the games. Their attempt was a failure as far as Tidus was concerned because he burst out laughing.

"Man, I never thought I'd see Riku get embarrassed like this!" Tidus laughed, whipping away a tear.

"Tidus! Tidus, where are ya brudda?!" A familiar voice called out into the open space.

"Come on already, Tidus! The games are about to start!" Another familiar voice followed the first. Riku's head instantly perked up and his eyes widened in shock at the sound of the two voices. The silver-haired youth turned his head to look behind Tidus. And sure enough, wandering and looking for their friend were Wakka and Selphie, looking exactly as they had the last time Riku had seen them.

They were followed by two people Riku had never seen before; a pretty young girl with wavy brown hair with a long bright blue earring peeking out. One of her eyes was green while the other was blue. She was dressed in a white shirt with separate matching sleeves tied around the waist with a yellow string, a long blue skirt and black sandals.

The other companion was an older man with a grumpy scowl on his face, watching the three kids in front of him like a hawk with a deep scowl on his face full of battle scars. He had one arm cradled in his long, red, detailed jacket like a sling and was dressed completely in black underneath.

Tidus immediately turned around, waving to the group of four over. Selphie, Wakka and the other girl waved back but both island residents stopped in their tracks when Riku came into their line of vision. Both Wakka and Selphie rushed over, grabbed Riku and pulled him into a bone-crushing group hug.

"Riku man!" Wakka exclaimed excitedly. "What happened to ya?!"

"We looked all over for you, Sora and Kairi!" Selphie added, tightening her grip to a point where Riku could barely breathe.

"Great," Riku gasped. "Now can you guys let go?!"

"Selphie, Wakka. That's enough." The older man sternly told them in a cold tone that would make anyone stand still. Both Wakka and Selphie released their hold on Riku and stepped away, allowing him to advance towards the young man. He towered over him, and Riku hated to admit it, but he was a little intimidated. Especially by the glare he was giving him. "So, you're the famous Riku."

No one else seemed to notice his glare, But the tension was soon relieved when the new girl stepped forward. "It's a pleasure to meet you." She said in a sweet voice as she did a soft movement with her hands and bowed. "Your friends have told us a lot about you, Sora, Kairi and your islands."

"This is Auron and Yuna." Tidus explained, coming up beside the older man and the girl. "Auron saved me when the islands were destroyed and helped me find Wakka and Sephie! And Yuna's helped us out a lot with her magic!"

"So, Riku." Selphie smirked with a hint of mischief in her voice. "You didn't introduce to your special new friend yet." Riku couldn't help it as he felt himself blush and found himself unable to speak.

Wait. Since when did he let Selphie get to him? He didn't think of West that way! She was just a friend! She was just here to help him with the games. He kept repeating in his mind, but still, a small part of his heart wasn't convinced.

"Hi! I'm West!" She replied, waving as though she was completely oblivious to Selphie's taunt. "I'm Riku's partner for the games!"

"Keep standing around like this and you won't be." Auron interrupted. "The games are about to start, if anyone here still wants to participate we better get moving." And with that, Auron began to walk over to the arena, not bothering to wait for his younger companions.

"Hey! Auron wait up, ya!" Exclaimed Wakka, running after him with Selphie following closely behind. Meanwhile, Riku, Tidus, Yuna and West took a more leisurely pace after them.

"Geez. What a grump!" West grumbled, turning to Yuna. "Is he always like that?"

"Sadly, yes." Yuna sighed. "But Sir Auron still cares about us, he just has an odd way of showing it."

Soon, they had all reached the arena's entrance with the games only minutes away. West seemed to get along rather well quickly with Selphie and Yuna and had gone off to talk more. Wakka and Auron were training together and the Blitzball player was taking every moment of training as seriously as possible and taking every word Auron said to his core. That left Riku and Tidus standing off to the side in awkward silence between the two of them.

Neither boy said a word to one another as the seconds seemed to drag on. Finally, Tidus decided he had enough of the silence and moved to talk to his island friend.

"Sooooo... West seems nice." Tidus remarked. "Where'd you meet her?" Riku still remained quiet for a few more moments. Until he thought about how to awnser his childhood friend without revealing anything about Maleficent or his involvement with the heartless. He didn't get why, but something told him not to reveal too much to Tidus just yet.

"In some town." Replied Riku. "I was looking for Sora and Kairi at the time, and she let me stay with her and her family. One thing led to another and now I'm stuck with her following me on every world I go. What about you? Where'd you pick up the stiff and the girl?"

Tidus looked up at Riku, not fully satisfied with the explanation he received. The younger boy shrugged, stuffing his hands in his pockets when Riku asked him about Auron and Yuna."It's not as exciting as your story."

"Somehow I seriously doubt that." Riku told him. "Come on, tell me."

"Well, after the islands got destroyed, I found myself in the middle of a bunch of dark ruins on another world. It was really cold, so I made a fire. But as soon as I did, the heartless showed up."

"You know about the heartless?!" Riku asked, slightly surprised.

"I didn't then." Tidus explained. "Auron told me what they were. I would have been a goner if he hadn't shown up and saved me. I still don't know why he helped me. Anyway, I told him about my world disappearing and about you and the others. Auron said that it was possible you guys survived and I practically begged to come with him to look for you guys. He said yes and we started travelling together on his ship, looking on all the worlds we could. That's when we met Yuna; she helped us out with a really nasty, big heartless."

"What'd she do, hit it with that stick of hers?" Riku interrupted with a laugh, looking at the innocent-looking girl that was Yuna.

"No way man! She's a summoner!" Exclaimed Tidus. "You should have seen her, she can bring these giant monsters appear out of nowhere and control them! It's so cool! Anyway, after that she joined us and we eventually found Wakka and Selphie."

"Where were they?" Riku asked out of minor curiosity.

"Wakka was on this island hanging out with lost boys and fighting off pirates, one of them could actually fly! Selphie, we found in this town being harassed by their 'disciplinary committee.'"

As Tidus finished telling his story, Riku found himself getting angrier and angrier at the younger boy. First Sora, now Tidus was abandoning him?! Did he mean nothing to them now?! And he had never heard Tidus get so excited about anything before, the same enthusiasm Sora showed the first time he saw him with the duck and dog. So they were happier with him out of the picture? Riku snarled in anger at the younger boy before he finally replied.

"Sounds like you guys have been a lot of fun. Great." Riku grumbled bitterly. "Let me know when the rest of us are going to show up on your list of priorities!"

And with that, Riku stormed away from Tidus, ignoring the sounds of him calling out his name. He kept going until he arrived where West was chatting with Selphie and Yuna. Riku grabbed West's wrist and dragged her alongside him.

"Come on West, we have training to do!" Riku snarled dangerously

"Ouch! Riku take it easy! You're pulling my arm out of its socket!" The thief pleaded as she tried to keep up with his fast paces. "I thought they were your friends, why are you pushing them away?!"

"Like I said before; friends don't abandon you." Was all Riku told her as his eyes once again flashed back to that golden colour.

PrismRain13: Ohh... sounds like the games are gonna get intense! Bonus points if you can guess where Selphie and Wakka ended up! And I actually have no idea where Tidus met Auron and Yuna so if you have any theories on that my ears are wide open. I'm not even going to bother telling you where they're from cuz they're both in KH2.

Phil: Man, sounds like I'm gonna have m hands full with the games. *sarcastically* thanks Prism!

PrismRain13: You're welcome! Don't forget to review guys!

- Guest; I guess she kinda is :) glad you like the story!

- Nasira; cross your fingers and maybe Nomura will add her!