To everyone that left reviews: They are much appreciated, as always! However I have been sick for the past few days and don't have the mental capacity currently to individually answer them. So a group thank you will have to do this week!

Chapter 20

Perspective – Meli

Waking up in a different bed wasn't all that surprising. Rolling over and finding myself face to face with Riku was a bit more surprising. It came back to me an instant later, though, crawling into bed with him and curling up in his arms the night before. I hadn't been lying when I had told him it felt right. Maybe it was just my body craving physical contact, but I couldn't imagine it being the same with anyone else but him.

Tentatively reaching out, I flicked a strand of hair off of his cheek, then let my hand drop again as I studied his features. His eyes were making jerky movements behind his eyelids, his lips parted slightly from the way that his face was squished against the pillow. They were definitely kissable lips. I had liked kissing him. He was unarguably a cute guy, and seemed really nice, too. I had no problem understanding why I would have fallen for him, especially if he had always treated me the way he was the past couple of days.

He sucked in a deep breath through his nose, his lips snapping shut, and arched his back to stretch. One hand slid along the bed until it bumped into my arm. That seemed to be the final thing needed to fully wake him up, as he immediately froze, then blinked open his eyes to stare back at me. A few seconds passed before he melted into a smile. There was something undeniably warm in his eyes – fondness, maybe. Whatever it was, I could almost feel the spark of something in my chest in response to it...almost. It never quite came to fruition, though. Instead, it was more like a far off memory of the way his smile used to make me feel.

"Hi," he whispered.

"Hi."

"Sleep well?"

I hummed in agreement. "I'm hungry." Abruptly, I pushed myself up and began shoving the covers off.

Riku chuckled. "Well, it's good to know that not everything has changed."

Luckily for me, Kairi and Kaj were already awake and ready to go, so we set off for town immediately. "Sora's on his way," Kairi announced cheerfully as soon aw we were out the door. "He and Donald and Goofy should be here in another hour or so. I told him we'd meet them in town."

Donald and Goofy are...the duck and dog that were on FaceTime. Right.

"Great," Riku responded. "Glad the Heartless problem didn't end up taking too long."

Sure enough, not long after we finished our breakfast, said duck and dog sauntered into the town square behind the spiky-haired brunet. Kairi was the first to spot them, running to greet them but stopping just short of actually throwing her arms around Sora's neck. I briefly wondered what the deal was between the two of them. I couldn't quite get a read on their relationship, but then again, I wasn't exactly the expert on such things at the moment.

"Mel!" Suddenly Sora was rushing to my side, with the others on his heels. I was rapidly squished into a group hug that I had no desire to be a part of, but there wasn't much I could do in the way of escaping it.

"Okay, okay guys, get off of her." Riku's voice broke through the huddle, and hands were peeled off of me. "You know she's not the touchy-feely type...especially not right now." He placed his hands on his hips and leveled a stern look at Sora.

The boy rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Right. Sorry. It's just that I'm really excited to have you back, that's all."

I couldn't exactly return the sentiment, but I gave him a half-smile and a nod anyway, since he seemed like the type who would keep worrying if he offended somebody until proven otherwise.

"We were all worried about you." Or at least, I was pretty sure that's what the duck said. He wasn't much easier to understand in person than he had been over the phone.

Goofy nodded vigorously. "We sure were, a-hyuck. And fightin' those Heartless shore wasn't the same without ya."

I had to smile a little more at that. The trio had been extremely enthusiastic about their retelling of our adventures together the day before, so our friendship must have been a pretty good one.

"How did that go, by the way?" Riku to the rescue again, pulling the attention away from me. "Did everything get sealed up?"

Sora scoffed. "Of course it did! What do you think we are, amateurs?"

The chatter continued for a few minutes, mostly consisting of stories from the new arrivals about Heartless, Robin Hood, and the Sheriff of Nottingham. Kairi was the first to break away, pointing across the square at the far sidewalk.

"Hey, is that...Aqua?"

We all squinted in that direction, though I wasn't sure why I bothered since I had no clue who Aqua was. Or if Aqua was even a 'who'. I assumed that she must be referring to the woman with blue hair hanging in a ponytail down her back, and found myself wondering if her parents had a weird sense of humor or if she had dyed her hair to match her name.

"Huh. What would she be doing here?" Sora mused.

"Aqua!" Kairi took off at a jog, waving one hand above her head. "Aqua!"

Exchanging glances, the rest of us followed, with Kaj and me bringing up the rear. The woman she was approaching didn't turn until Kairi was right up on her, and her expression, if you asked me at least, looked more confused and surprised than happy.

"Aqua, hey! We didn't know you were going to be coming to Twilight Town. What brings you all the way out here?"

Before the woman could get a word in to reply, the guy she had been walking with stepped into view, going wide-eyed as he took in the group in front of him and mumbling something along the lines of, "Oh, wow."

Kairi stared back at him. "Oh. Wait." Her gaze shifted back to the woman, then darted back and forth between the two. "You're not...wait. Are...you...?"

The guy looked like Sora. Well, Sora if you aged him a couple of years and changed his signature hairstyle, anyway. He was a little taller, face a little more chiseled and mature, and his skin wasn't quite as tanned. His hair was the same shade of brown, but shorter, and spiked more forward and down than up. There was no mistaking those sky blue eyes, though, or the baby fat that still clung to his cheekbones even when older.

The woman – not Aqua, I now presumed – cleared her throat and smiled softly. "Well. I suppose we have a bit of explaining to do. My name is Invi." She placed a hand delicately on her chest as she spoke.

"Gula." The guy crossed his arms.

Sora crossed his arms, too, seeming to size up his 'twin'. "So, uh...you guys...aren't from this universe, are you?"

"Must be a universe with a different timeline," Riku muttered under his breath.

Invi's eyebrows raised slightly. "No, in fact, we are not. You..." Her gaze wandered over the entire group again, and understanding seemed to spark in her eyes as they flicked between Kairi and me, Riku and Kaj. "Ah. I see. You have had contact with a Traveler before."

"A Traveler?" Kairi echoed.

"People who create portals between universes," Gula explained. "It's not exactly a common ability."

Riku nodded. "Yeah, we know. So which one of you is...?"

"Oh, neither of us. A friend of ours brought us here." Invi smiled at him, then Kaj. "And you?"

"That would be her."

All sets of eyes and several fingers trained in my direction, so I gave an awkward wave, then indicated Kaj. "He and I aren't originally from here, either."

"I see." Invi smiled again. Her attention lingered on me for just a moment too long, making me want to squirm in place, before she turned away. "And I take it from your reactions that I am the doppelganger of someone you know?"

"Yeah, our friend Aqua." Kairi gasped. "Oh my gosh, we should totally call her right now. I mean, it's not every day you get to meet your doppelganger, right?" She was already fumbling her phone out of her pocket and starting to press buttons.

"Speaking of which..." Sora stepped forward and held out his hand for Gula to shake. "Hi. I'm Sora. It's nice to meet you."

Gula gripped the proffered hand and smirked. "Yeah, nice to meet you, too."

"So, uh..." Sora leaned in toward his doppelganger as if sharing a secret. "Since you're familiar with 'Travelers'...does that mean there's magic in your universe? Keyblades?"

"Keyblades? Of course. I'm a Keyblade Master." Gula jabbed a thumb at his chest, then gestured toward Invi. "We all are, actually."

"Really? Wow! Wait, what do you mean by all...?"

"Aqua, hey!" Kairi waved giddily down at her phone screen. "You'll never guess who we just met." Without further introduction, she hopped over to stand next to Invi, holding up the device so that Aqua could see both of them.

Adjusting the thick white scarf that hung around her neck slightly, Invi lifted her hand in a wave. "Um, hello."

"Hi...?" Aqua's voice replied.

"This is Invi. She's your doppelganger from another universe!" Kairi exclaimed. "Isn't that cool?"

"That's...fascinating!"

Sora nudged Gula, trying to pick his conversation back up. "So did you mean there are more of you here?"

Humming in agreement, Gula looked over the group once more. "Several of us, yes. Including another familiar face or two."

"It's a shame you live so far away," Invi was saying. "I would love to be able to meet you in person."

"Yes, that would be n–...oh, Terra! Come look, Kairi and the others have met one of my doppelgangers."

Terra's voice came through the phone's speakers next. "Oh, wow. Hi. You two...definitely look alike."

Invi tilted her head to the side. "And you look just like one of my friends. Terra, you said your name was? His name is Aced."

"Whoa. So I have a doppelganger, too."

"We all have many," Invi agreed with a tinkling laugh. "But as Kairi said, it's not often we get to meet. I would love it if you both came to visit while we were here."

"Yes, you guys totally should!" Kairi interjected. "We need to get a group photo of all of the doppelgangers together."

"Well...maybe we will. We'll let you know for sure. How long will you all be around?"

Invi gave a thoughtful hum. "I'm not certain. We have some...business to attend to, but it's impossible to say yet how long it will take. The sooner you came, the better, just to be safe."

I found myself inching closer to Riku as the phone conversation wrapped up and general chatter resumed. He glanced down at me, placing a hand on my shoulder and giving a gentle squeeze. "Everything okay?"

"I don't like these guys," I answered abruptly, though not loudly enough that anyone else could hear.

Riku huffed in surprise. "Why not?"

Crossing my arms, I shrugged. "Not sure, just...what are they doing here?"

"They could ask the same about you and Kaj," he reminded me, one eyebrow raised.

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. They just...rub me the wrong way. Something's off about them."

"If you say so." He squeezed my shoulder again. "They seem perfectly nice to me."

I supposed I shouldn't have expected anyone to believe the girl with no heart when she didn't trust someone. Still, I felt that the Meli I used to be would have been annoyed at the brush off, and I found myself huffing accordingly and backing away to return to my observations.

Everyone was gabbing away like they were long lost best friends, making plans for lunch and for meeting whatever other people these two had brought with them. There really wasn't anyting I could pinpoint that was wrong with Gula, other than he didn't seem as open and friendly as Sora. But even in the past couple of days, I had seen the differences between Riku and Kaj, so that certianly wasn't a crime.

Invi, on the other hand...she was just too nice. Says the girl with no heart. Maybe I had met other people that acted like her in the past and just couldn't remember it, but even comparing her to super nice people like Kairi and Sora she seemed like she was pouring it on thick.

Besides all of that, I kept seeing both of their eyes roving over the group in an unnatural way, almost as if they were analyzing something. The only ones they seemed to ignore were Donald and Goofy, and Kaj got significantly less glances than the others. I, on the other hand, got the most. I didn't like it, and I didn't care that I was very obviously scowling back at them every time they looked.

The question was, who was right? Did I have no clue what I was talking about because of my own lack of emotions and memories? Or was I the only one who could see clearly, because of those same reasons? As the gathering started moving down the street, I followed silently, unsure of where we were headed but making sure to stay within sight of the newcomers. Just in case I was the one who was right, I was going to keep an eye on these two. It didn't matter if I didn't fully remember these friends. There was something built into my body that needed to make sure they were safe, no matter what.

A/N: We are finally entering the part of the story that is the reason this took soooo long to get finished. Also the part that I'm still not sure I'm 100% happy with to this day. I do like the end portion, it's just these middle chapters that I'm ...ughhh I can't think of my word. Not confident about. Okay I'm gonna stop talking now before my melty brain says something really stupid.