Sydney: Well, hello readers. Here is a new chapter that I had just finished.
Roxas: She is really happy to finally finish something.
Sydney: Yeah, either way, I don't own anything
except myself.
Roxas: Enjoy, favourite, review, etc. and hope to see you next time.

Chapter 28: The Second Task

"Morning sweet heart." I heard Roxas whisper in my ear as I was finally regaining conscious. I opened my eyes to see his smiling face staring down at me.

"How long was I out this time?" I asked as I stretched my arms out over my head with a small smile on my face.

"Just a couple of hours. Sora, Donald and Goofy went down to Agrabah a while ago. " He said as he helped me sit up in bed.

"I guess that means that we're all alone again." I said with a huge smile on my face.

"No, we are not hijacking the ship again. Donald will kill us if we do it again." Roxas said putting a stop to my plan.

"Well, now what?" I asked him after I sighed about my plan being stopped.

"Sora and them should be back in a little bit so we should just hang out for a little bit." He said as my stomach growled from hunger.

"Can we get food first? I'm starving." I said as I flipped the blankets off of me and moved to get off the bed.

"When was the last time you ate?" He asked as he shook his head.

"I don't know, sometime before the simulation started." I told him.

"You are not going to do that to me again. That scared the hell out of me." He said as he pulled me towards him. I turned so that way my head was resting against his shoulder.

"I was really scared too. Imagine if I was actually under the simulation. I could have killed Sora." I said, whispering the last part to myself. I knew that he could hear me since his grip tighten slightly.

"You wouldn't have done it." He said as he lightly kissed the top of my head. "Now lets go get you some food." He said as he led me to the kitchen.

"How are your hands Syd?" Sora asked after the whole you're awake, alive, etc thing.

"Pretty fine. They work fine." I said as took a bit of my grilled cheese sandwich.

"Well that's good to know because you have a task to do." He said as he patted my shoulder as he pasted by.

"Don't tell me that we're going back to Hogwarts?" I asked, more liked whined as I watched Sora sit down on the couch.

"I think that's what he's telling you." Roxas said.

"But I don't want to go! I don't want to go underwater and save somebody!" I whined again, pouting my lips as I whined.

"Would you do it for a kiss?" Roxas asked as he looked over at me.

"I'll do it for ten kisses." I said with a smile on my face.

"Five kisses." Roxas replied.

"Fine, but I want one now." I told him with a smile on my face. He sighed before getting up, coming towards me, and pulled my face up towards his. He pressed his lips against mine and I felt my lips twitch into a smile. After a few seconds, he pulled away as a shoe came flying our way.

"That's mean, Sora!" I shouted at Sora. He just sat there, looking in the other direction with one shoe on.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said as he got up and walked towards the command deck.

"He really is stupid." I said smiling over at Roxas.

"Yes, but not as bad as Demyx." Roxas said before the two of us busted out laughing.

"Where are we?" Sora whispered as we enter the library.

"In the library. Somewhere you never go." I said as I moved further into the room. Roxas and Sora were right on my heels.

"There's nothing. Nothing. Closest was that thing to dry up puddles and ponds, that Drought Charm, but that was nowhere near powerful enough to drain the lake." Ron said somewhere near by.

"There must be something." Hermione stated as she continued to read one of the books in front of her.

"There is always is something but you probably won't find it." I said as the three of us rounded the corner.

"Oh, hey Sydney, didn't realize you were still up." Ron said as he rested his head against one of the books in front of him before jumping up a second later. "Sydney, Sora, Roxas! What are you guys doing here?" He shouted before being sshhed by somebody.

"I believe I have a task to do tomorrow." I said as I leaned against one of the tables.

"Yeah, but you three have been AWOL for months now." Hermione stated without taking her eyes off the book in front of her.

"Well, we've have many problems to deal with lately." Sora said as he sat down in one of the chairs that surrounded us.

"Are you going to tell us about these many problems?" Ron asked as he leaned back in his chair, watching our every move.

"Nope, not at all. They are very secret plans that must stay between the three of us." Roxas said as he sat down next to Harry.

"So back to the idea that we won't find anything in these books. Is it true that we won't?" Ron asked.

"Partly. We probably could find something in one of these books, but it will take a long while just to get it. By that point, we will all probably want to kill each other and these books." I said as I sat down on Roxas' lap.

"Well I didn't expect this shocking turn of events." Fred Weasley said from behind some bookshelves.

"What are you two doing here?" Ron asked once both twins emerged.

"Looking for you. McGonagall wants you, Ron. And you two Hermione and Roxas." George explained.

"I am assuming that this is the part where I will be put to sleep and placed underwater for the second task." Roxas whispered in my ear.

"Yes, it will be." I replied.

"Then I guess that I'll see my knight in shinning armour tomorrow then when we rise to the surface." He whispered, leaning closer to my cheek.

"I guess you will. I'll be the one where Gryffindor colours with my name on the back." I said, getting up from his lap so he could stand and go with the other four.

"Back to studying, anyone?" Sora said once the five had left for McGonagall's office.

"I guess so." Harry and I both said before turning towards some books.

"Sora, wake up." I said the next morning. Sora, Harry and I had taken out a large amount of books last night so we could find something that would work for the second task but it was impossible to find anything when Sora and Harry fell asleep onto of the books.

"Not right now." He muttered, pulling a book closer to him as if he was going to cuddle with it.

"Yes now. We have to make secure the lake. The three of us agreed on that when it happened at the first task." I told him, trying to pull the book out of his grasp.

"Fine, fine. But you owe me breakfast later." He said, opening his eyes to give me a glare.

"Breakfast is free here. I don't owe you anything." I told him as I headed towards the door. We hastily made our way down to the lake, and walked around the edge of it. I know it was impossible to actually protect under the water at the moment because people would have a fit if they found out.

"I think we're pretty clear over the water Syd. If there is anything underneath, you'll have to deal with them when the time comes." Sora said as the two of us started heading back to the castle.

"Yeah. It will just be a major pain if something happened underwater. I won't have you or Roxas there to watch my back." I said, sighing at the though of fighting alone.

"You'll do fine Sydney. You always do which is why I am proud of you." He said as he threw an arm over my shoulders.

"We better go get some breakfast in you." I said as we walked inside the castle and headed to the Great Hall.

"He's late." Sora said to me as we stood near the judges' table.

"I believe that was our fault this time. We did leave him in the library last night." I said, whispering the last part so nobody heard it.

"He insisted! It's not like we really had a choice in the matter." He said as I managed to see Harry running towards us.

"There he is. You better go find a seat with the twins." I told Sora as I shooed him towards the stands.

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three then. One…two…three!" Ludo Bagman said after a few minutes. Once he said three, the whistle sounded off and the five of us were running towards the water. I was so happy that I had time to change into a tank top and shorts before coming down to the late. It would have been hard to move in my jeans. Before jumping into the water, I casted an air bubble charm on myself that should last an hour. The water itself was cold once I jumped in. It slowly became warm the more I moved around. I didn't know which way to go underwater so I just swam straight forward in hopes that I could hear the haunting mer-song. As I swam, I could see dark figures swimming around me out of the corners of my eyes. I wasn't completely sure if they were heartless or fish so I just left them alone for the time being.

"An hour long you'll have to look,

And to recover what we took…" The mer-song rang out through the water, piercing my ears as I swam. 'Roxas, you better be there." I thought to myself as I moved closer. A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides as I swam.

"Roxas." I said once I saw him tied to the tail of the stone merperson. There were only four people left and I could see Harry attempting to untie Ron. I looked up at Roxas and kicked as fast as I could towards him. Before racing up to cut the rope, I grabbed one of the sharp rocks from the ground. When I swam up to Roxas, I used the sharp rock to slash the rope of weeds. Once Roxas was free, I pulled him towards the surface, leaving Harry to take care of the rest of them.

"Sydney." Roxas grasped when we breached the surface. I took in a deep breath of fresh air that haven't been surrounding my head.

"I am so glad you're alright." I whispered into his ear as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Why wouldn't I be alright? You came to save me after all." He said with a huge smile on his face. After a few seconds, we started to swim to shore where the crowd was waiting for us.

"Sydney, Roxas!" Sora shouted at the two of us once we were closer to shore.

"Hope you have some towels for us Sora." I said as the two of us emerged from the water. We were clinging onto each other to try and share some warmth.

"You guys look like you're freezing." Sora said as he handed us Gryffindor coloured towels. We quickly warmed the towels around ourselves before wrapping ourselves around each other. Krum came up next with Hermione. Once she was on solid ground, she came to join our little huddle as we waited for Harry and Ron to come up next. I couldn't tell how long it was until they came up. All I knew was that nothing was happening and the hour time limit was shortening.

"I think I see them." Hermione said as she broke away from the group. It was a few seconds later that Harry and Ron emerged from the water with Fleur's sister. I let out a breath that I was holding earlier.

"They are all safe." I said as the three of them came towards us.

"I had no doubt." Roxas said with a smile.

"Almost like we have no doubts that Sora will always come back like a little puppy dog." I said as I pulled away from the other two.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Sora shouted before a shout could be heard from the stands. The three of us looked over to see a number of nobodies and heartless terrorizing the other students. We quickly moved into action, running towards the stands. Sora and Roxas summoned their keyblades while I summoned my daggers. I slashed at the heartless that was about to attack a Hufflepuff.

"Sora, get them out of here!" Roxas shouted at Sora who was already leading other students out of the area. Roxas and I continued to slash at the Heartless and Nobodies, dodging their attacks and destroying them with ours. It wasn't long until only Harry, Ron, and Hermione were the only ones left.

"What are those things?" Ron asked as kicked one of the heartless in the head.

"Get out of here, now!" I shouted as I tried to make a path towards them. I wasn't completely sure if they were just multiplying or more were coming. Either way, it was becoming impossible to move.

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed." A voice said in the distance but was clear as day. I knew this quote from a novel that I had to study for school.

"No, no, no!" I shouted as I turned towards the direction of the voice. A man dressed in an organization XIII cloak was holding my copy of my English novel. It was Night by Elle Wiesel, one of the most terrifying novels that I have ever read. "How the hell did you get in my room?!" I shouted once more as I started moving towards the cloaked figure.

"Sydney! Don't let him get to you!" Roxas shouted as he tried to move closer to me.

"Your world would call these events terrifying but I will show you want is truly terrifying in the days to come. Just you wait." The figure said before creating a portal of darkness and stepped through it. I moved as quick as I could in order to get to the portal but as I was closing the distance, the portal disappeared. The heartless and nobodies also disappeared. I fell to the ground, my face rubbing into the ground and my arms stretched out in front of me. My hands touched the cover of the novel that the cloaked figure must have dropped.

"Sydney!" Sora, Roxas, Hermione, Ron, and Harry shouted as they all rushed towards me.

"No, no, no, no." I kept saying over and over again as my hand clutched the edge of my novel. Tears fell from my eyes as many things started passing through my mind. He was inside my room, inside my house. My family lives inside that house, he could have hurt any of them in they got in his way.

"Sydney." Roxas whispered as he picked me up from the ground and pulled me closer to his chest.

"No, no, no." I whimpered as I clutched the book tighter to my chest. I couldn't help but cry harder into Roxas' chest.