Wings of Avalon: Haha, lucky for me it's NOT illegal! Cliffhangers are one of my specialties!

coolmegan123: Sorry for your newfound heart condition! lol

Sometimes as an author you write something that just makes you really happy anytime you think of it. Knowing that Meli was standing right behind Riku with an arrow poking his shoulder the whole time is one of those for me.

Chapter 15

Perspective – Riku

"Meli?"

It was barely above a whisper, but it was loud enough. My heart stopped beating, the pressure disappeared from my shoulder, and an instant later I whirled around to see the hooded figure. Her face was barely visible, but there was a tuft of purple hair draped onto her shoulder, and the clothes...

"Meli. Meli!" I didn't even care that I sounded like a broken record. She was there, right in front of me, alive and okay. My heart had gone from not beating to trying to explode out of my chest.

I stepped forward, arms out, forgetting everything I had told myself about how she might not remember me, might not be exactly the same. I was reminded immediately, though, because she stumbled backwards away from me, tripping over a tree root and landing hard enough on the ground to knock her hood back off of her head.

There she was, her beautiful face, her sapphire eyes regarding me with distrust and uncertainty. It reminded me of the first time we ever met, that look that I had seen on her face for the brief moment that I had lifted my blindfold. Her hair had grown out a bit more over the past few months, long enough that she had it in a braid, leaving auburn roots showing at the top. Other than that, though, she looked the same. My Meli. My Sunshine.

"Who...? How...?"

I stooped down to her level. "Do you...remember us?"

She shook her head vehemently.

Kairi hovered over my shoulder, probably just as anxious as I was to spring forward and gather her up. "We're your friends. We've been looking all over for you."

Meli shook her head again, slower this time. "I don't..."

Then she froze, eyes widening, staring straight at me but not appearing to really see me, at least not in the here and now. I had seen this happen one other time, when she was having some sort of flashback to her time with Saix, though she didn't look nearly as frightened now as she did then.

She did look...something, though, especially as she came out of the momentary trance. I couldn't exactly call it scared, but the confusion and distrust had multiplied. "I...I don't...I can't..."

"Hey, it's okay. Take your time –"

A dark corridor erupted around her, and she vanished. I clenched both my jaw and my fists, the pounding of my heart increasing to a roar in my ears as I realized what had just happened.

I had lost her. Again. After all this time searching, I had finally found her, only to lose her within two minutes.

"What happened? What did you do to her?"

Even at the sound of the bear's voice, I couldn't tear my eyes away from the spot where she had just been, but thankfully, Sora took the lead. "We didn't do anything, that was all her! None of us can even do that."

"Well, I can. Technically." Kaj seemed to realize what he was saying and hurried to add, "But not from way over here."

"We wouldn't send her away," Sora said firmly. "It's like Kairi said, we've been looking everywhere for her."

"And now she's gone again," Kairi murmured.

Silence fell, each of us weighing the implications of the statement in our minds. Gone again. Gone again. Lost in this vast universe, where I may never find her.

"Well, at least we know one thing about her hasn't changed. She still likes to run away through corridors." Sora tried to accompany his unenthusiastic quip with a laugh, but it sounded watery.

"You four...you really do know her, then?" Something about the fox's quiet question made me finally stand and turn back to face the group. He had one paw to his chin, a contemplative look on his face. "You said her name was...?"

"Meli," Kairi filled in.

"Meli." His mouth quirked up to one side. "Well, she was right, it did start with an M."

"She didn't remember her name?" Kaj asked, stepping forward.

"No, she didn't remember anything. We asked around about her in all of the neighboring towns, but no one seemed to know who she was."

The bear lumbered over to where the fox stood, shaking his head and paw in tandem. "Now, hang on a minute, Rob, how do we know these are good guys that are looking for her? Maybe there's a reason M disappeared. Just because they know her doesn't mean they have good intentions."

The fox waved him off. "They were fighting the Heartless just like she was, for starters. Also, the lady here looks just like her. I'll wager that you're related?"

Kairi gave a small smile. "She's my twin sister, yes."

"Besides," the fox continued, cutting off the bear just as he opened his mouth to speak again, "look at all these forlorn faces. These are not the expressions of enemies who just missed their target, these are the expressions of those who are worried for their friend. And that, over there –" he pointed suddenly at me –"that is a man in love and missing his lover."

My face burned hot, and I stared down at my feet, clearing my throat. "Um, yeah, uh...Meli means a lot to me. To all of us."

"One of these days you'll learn to trust my judgment, Little John." The fox smirked as the bear grumbled and crossed his arms.

"So...now what do we do?" Kaj finally voiced the question that was on everyone's minds.

Sora sighed. "Kinda seems like we're back to square one."

"Yeah, plus if she's remembered how to make corridors now – assuming that was her first one – then she might not be staying in the same place for very long," Kaj pointed out.

"But that was a possibility from the very beginning," I reminded him. "It didn't change how we went about looking for her."

"But guys..." Kairi held out her hands to get our attention, though her eyes were focused on the ground as she thought. "In order to make a corridor, she has to know where she's going. So that narrows it down to places she's been before, right?"

I nodded slowly, catching onto her train of thought. "Right. It's hard to say what places she even remembers at this point, but she has to have remembered somewhere." Unless...unless she's just wandering the In Between right now. I ignored that unhelpful, anxiety-inducing thought and continued. "She did seem like she was remembering something, just before she disappeared. Remembering...us, maybe? So I think it's safe to say that she has at least a few more memories now than she did previously."

"So...where do we think she'd go, if she remembered?" Sora questioned, tilting his head to one side.

Kairi and I looked at each other and answered at the same time. "The play island."

"Makes sense," Sora agreed. "But it'll take us forever to get back there! By the time we get there, she may be gone again."

Groaning, Kairi ran a hand through her hair. "It's not fair that she can travel so much faster than us."

Suddenly there was a burst of darkness, and Kaj vanished. We stared at the dispersing smoke for a moment before Kairi spoke up again. "Right. I kinda forgot he can do that."

"I...didn't know he could, actually, until he mentioned it earlier," I confessed.

The fox rubbed his chin. "Ah, so he went...where, exactly?"

Before we could answer, Kaj appeared again in another swirling corridor, slightly out of breath. "She's not there. I checked all around the play island – no Meli."

"Maybe she went to the mainland?" Sora offered.

"Well, if she did, then I'm sure we'll hear about it from one of our parents soon enough." I rubbed the back of my neck. "Part of me wants to head toward somewhere else that she'd be really familiar with, like Twilight Town maybe, but I also know that we've got contacts there that'll let us know if she shows up. So..." I sighed, hating that this seemed like the best option. "Maybe we should just go back to where we left off, finish searching the places that she's been before, and start over and do them again if we need to."

Kairi nodded, not looking super happy with the idea, either, but somewhere between resigned and supportive. "Yeah. That's fine with me."

"I could pop over to Twilight Town if you want me to. It'll take me a little longer to search than the play island, but..." Kaj shrugged.

I shook my head. "Thanks, but you should keep those trips to a minimum. You don't have anything to protect yourself from the darkness. We'll only use it in case of an emergency."

Sora scratched the back of his head. "Um, only problem is, this world still kinda has a Heartless problem..."

Oh. Right. As I was trying to think of something to say to that – I can't just stay here and fight Heartless when Meli is out there somewhere – he grinned and planted his hands on his hips.

"It's not big deal! You guys go on ahead, and I'll stay here and take care of the Heartless."

"Not by yourself!" Kairi protested.

"Nah, I'll call Donald and Goofy to come help me! It'll be just like old times."

I studied him, hesitant, looking for signs that he was putting on a front. "Are you sure?"

"Yep!" He gave a definitive nod. "Somebody needs to help these guys, and somebody needs to keep looking for Meli. I don't mind being the one to stay here. I'll let you know when I'm done and catch up with you wherever you are."

"You're just happy for an excuse to get out of the smelly ship for a while," Kaj muttered, and I smirked. It was good to hear him getting in on the jokes and teasing every once in a while.

"Alright. It's settled then. We'll head back to the ship, and you –" I pointed sternly at Sora –"stay out of trouble until the other two get here."

"And after they get here, too," Kairi giggled, giving him a quick hug. "Stay safe. We'll see you soon."

Sora's ears turned red, but he returned her smile. "I will. You stay safe, too!"

As we all turned to leave and Kaj and Kairi began the march back through the woods to the Gummiship, I paused and faced the fox and bear. "Thank you for looking out for her. I can tell you care about her, and it...it gives me some relief to know that she's been in such good company."

"Of course," the fox replied. "It was our pleasure. We shall miss having her around, in fact."

The bear sighed. "Yeah. Not gonna be quite the same around here anymore."

"When you find her..." The fox trailed off, trying to decide what to say.

"I'm sure she'll want to see you again." I smiled at him. "Once we've got this whole thing settled and she's...feeling more herself again, we'll come back and say hello."

The fox smiled back. "We would like that very much. In the meantime, we'll keep an eye on your other friend, there."

I glanced back over my shoulder at Sora. "Thanks. I appreciate it." I knew Sora well, which meant I was already anticipating all of the stories of his new friends he'd come back to the ship with.

A/N: *peeks out sheepishly* Okay, how many of you are mad at me now for whisking her away as soon as they found her? I couldn't make it THAT easy for him. But don't worry, no more drawn out searches to come.