Chapter Two: Meeting at the Fountain
Riku woke up with a burning headache. He had almost passed out form the pain. He brought himself to get up from the cold, hard surface he had laid on and leaned on something he was holding in his hand. He couldn't see straight at the moment, but he was pretty sure it was something familiar. After a few blinks of his eyes, his vision was clearer. The item he was using as a walking stick was his sword—his own sword as it was before he succumbed to the darkness. The sight of an old keepsake lightened his heart, but only temporarily for it also brought up the plight that fallen upon him.
"Where am I?" he said to no one out loud. "Hello?" There was only the echo through the silence as a response. And then… the swirling began—the sign of the swarming of the Heartless. Riku held his sword in battle position and studied his surroundings, waiting for the encounter.
One Shadow-type appeared approximately 3 feet away from him. Then it began to creep towards him…actually, he noticed, it was walking quite normally, and for some reason, he stalled in his attack. Removing his hesitation, he struck! But something strange happened: the Heartless avoided its oblivion by holding the sword just inches away from its head. Riku was shocked then, but even more so when he heard this inside his head.
"Why are you doing this?" a feminine voice pleaded to him. He didn't respond but still held his sword exactly were it was. "Is it because I look like this?" and the Heartless, while still holding the sword away with one hand, pointed to itself with its other. Riku nodded to that and cautiously put his sword away. "That's better." The dark figure seemed to exemplify its relief even with out facial expressions. "Hey! Follow me!" The Heartless ran toward what seemed to be a fountain. "Com on," it beckoned. "Don't worry. This fountain's been off for years—nothing's going to hurt you now." Reassured, though by a bare minimum, he complied and arrived at the fountain shortly.
"Hey! Let me show you something!" the silhouette voiced. With that said, she leaned into his face and appeared to kiss him. A bright flash engulfed them. When the light dissipated, a new figure stood before him. It was about the same height as him, and looked primarily lie a Shadow-type Heartless except for the straight, long, white hair falling from its head and the blue jack it was wearing. It had a Heartless symbol on its upper chest but without the cross. It seemed to be completely "whole" now. It even had a distinctive face to make expressions. "So, how do you like me now?"
"Uh…" was all that Riku to muster.
"I bet you have a lot of questions," the now form spoke to his mind, " such as who, am, what am I, and where are you, right?
"Uh, yeah," He said with stupor.
"Oh good! You can talk! To start off, my name is Marie Ques, and I currently I'm an "abhorred but spared" combination of what you know to be a Shadow-type Heartless and a human girl."
"So, where we and why are we here?"
"I was just getting to that" she prompted impatiently. "Let me explain…"