Author's Notes: I liiiive! Hehe, I've had writer's block for a little while, and I wasn't getting as many reviews, so I haven't been too inspired. I finally have an idea of what's going to happen to our main couple, Sora and Riku. Lots of action, and a few romantic moments between them, is what I hope for. I'm still making it up as I go along, but it'll turn out all right in the end.
***
The sun rose up with a misty pink glow, casting its light on the outstretched shore of the island. The calm waters sparkled under the sun, giving it almost a magical look. The remains of the once standing oasis were floating atop the surface of the water, rocking back and forth in the calm tides. Two young boys of fourteen and fifteen were laying on the shore, peacefully asleep in the serenity of the newborn day.
A pair of brilliant green eyes slowly revealed themselves, as they squinted in the sun shining directly into them. He opened them up all of the way and saw the younger boy peacefully asleep. He seemed to be undisturbed by the troubles that had suddenly occurred with him these past few days. Riku smiled, stroked the boy's face, and hoped that he was not having an uneasy rest. The way he broke down yesterday was still bothering Riku for more than one reason. First of all, he couldn't stand to see Sora in such a state as he was the previous evening. Secondly, while he knew the boy had feelings for him, there was still Kairi involved. The fear remained, no matter how hard he had tried to push it away, that Sora would choose Kairi instead of him in the end, especially if he was so bothered by her absence. He really hoped that Sora was not just using him as a replacement for Kairi, but he was sure that his Sora would never do something as selfish as that.
His Sora…could he really call him that? Their relationship was still questionable, and undecided. Although he desperately wanted to work this out with Sora, he knew that Sora had more than enough on his mind than to think about something as petty as a relationship…or that is how it seemed like in comparison to their current situation. If Sora needed to know as much as he did, eventually he would definitely bring it up.
He saw two deep blue eyes opening from his friend's pretty face. Suddenly, he sat up which startled Riku a little bit.
"Where am I…oh…right…"? Sora said sheepishly. "I seem to be doing a lot of this these days."
"Doing a lot of what?" Riku inquired.
"Waking up in another place besides my room," Sora said with a grin.
Riku smiled gently at him, and stroked Sora's bangs away from his face. Of course, having hair as stubborn as Sora's, the strands of hair only moved back, but it only gave Riku more of an excuse to touch the boy's beautiful face. Sora sighed dreamily and placed his own hand on top of Riku's. This was always one of the most favorite things that he and Riku did together. Even when he was troubled, he could still enjoy moments like these.
"Riku…I'm sorry," Sora said.
"What for?"
"For…yesterday. I didn't mean…I mean…I feel bad for getting so upset over Kairi and I know that you like me and everything…and.... and," but Sora was hushed by a finger being placed over his mouth.
"You don't have to apologize for something like that. You should never apologize for the way you feel," Riku said sternly. Sora shrunk back, feeling a little guilty that he made Riku angry with him.
For a little while, the two of them sat there awkwardly, not able to look at each other. Finally, Sora decided to ask something that had been weighing on his and Riku's mind, (although he did not know that Riku had wanted to know too,).
"Um…Riku? I know we said we shouldn't be officially together until we find Kairi…but I still want to know if you would consider us a 'couple'," Sora said.
"Well, I was thinking about that too, and…I think we should at least consider ourselves together," Riku said, relieved that Sora had broken the silence and had asked this.
"Yeah…me too. I really want to be with you, Riku," Sora said softly.
"I want to be with you, too."
Sora reached his arms around Riku's waist and leaned his head against Riku's chest. He placed his legs across Riku's lap and snuggled close to him. He needed Riku right now to be secure with him…he needed him more than ever.
Riku lifted Sora's chin up and met with a pair of deep blue innocent eyes. Sora's eyes, in Riku's opinion, had to be the most beautiful pair of eyes that had ever existed. He leaned his face down to Sora's mouth and placed his own mouth upon it. He deepened the kiss, making it more passionate than the usual light pecks they gave each other during the day. Sora sighed and felt his waist being caressed by Riku's strong hands. He pulled Riku closer to him, only making their kiss deeper. He felt up Riku's upper body, from the top of his chest down to his lower waist.
They pulled apart and slowly ran their hands over the parts of their bodies that they were currently caressing. They looked into each other's eyes, but then Sora suddenly looked away.
"I'm sorry, Riku. I still…it's just not right," Sora muttered. "I still feel so guilty."
Riku felt part of his stomach jerk with the all too familiar feeling whenever Sora would mention Kairi. He hated feeling this jealous, but he also hated the fact that Sora still had lingering feelings for Kairi. He had a bad feeling that this would create even worse problems for them if they were going to try to be together.
A part of him wanted Sora to forget about Kairi, to only love him. But another part of him only wanted Sora's happiness. Of course, that was all he wanted in the world, but a more selfish part only wanted Sora to be happy with him. However, he tried to not show his frustrations to him, so that Sora would not have even MORE to worry about.
"It's okay…just give it time. Let's go look for more hints of where Kairi may be," Riku offered. Sora nodded, and the two of them, while holding hands, set off to the one place they have not yet searched…the Secret Place.
***
The two boys walked to the familiar entrance and carefully examined the surroundings of the large opening. They looked the best that they could in the darkness of the tunnel as they slowly began to walk through.
"Anything on your side?" Riku asked.
"Not that I see, although I can hardly see at all," Sora said.
They continued to look alongside the walls, but there were no clues whatsoever. They arrived at the main opening deep in the cave with the many childish scribbles engraved onto the rocks and on the walls. They saw nothing out of the ordinary; if there were something different on the walls or rocks, they would be the ones to know.
As Sora was looking around, he saw out of the corner of his eye a strange message on the usual plain wooden door. At first, he thought it was only a trick of his mind, but then he looked all the way over and saw what the message said:
NOS HABEMUS LUCET IGITUR ADVESPERASCIT
"Riku! Look! It's that message again! The one I said I saw in Kairi's room!" Sora exclaimed. Riku whirled around from the spot where he was previously looking and glanced over where Sora was pointing. He only saw the wooden door, which was without any messages.
"I don't see it," Riku said.
"It's right there! Why can't you see it?" Sora questioned.
"I don't know…maybe I'm not meant to…" Riku wondered.
"What do you mean, not meant to? Why wouldn't you be?" Sora asked.
"There has to be some kind of connection with you and Kairi," Riku reasoned.
"Yeah…I did see it when I found out she disappeared," Sora said.
Suddenly the words on the door circled around and rearranged themselves in a different order. The message now read:
WE HAVE THE LIGHT, THEREFORE, IT GETS DARK
At first, Sora just stood there in disbelief. Then he finally voiced the right words that he was thinking.
"Is that supposed to be helpful??"
"What? What does it say?" Riku questioned.
"It says, 'we have the light, therefore, it gets dark.' Is THAT suppose to lead us to Kairi?" Sora said in disbelief.
"We have the light…is the light suppose to be Kairi?" Riku wondered.
"Maybe…it gets dark…is something going to happen now that she's gone?" Sora said.
At that moment, the ground began to shake. They could hear a rumbling from outside the Secret Place, and heard trees being ripped out of their roots. Immediately, they held onto each other as tightly as they could, as the cave began to collapse onto them. The entire island was blown to smithereens.
***
Kairi sat on the hard ground, waiting for Danielle to return. She went off to find out why Kairi had been taken prisoner of the ASHA.
"It'll be no big deal. Trust me, I've done this for a few years…and if I get caught, they'll just think that since I'm a prison guard I won't know any better," Danielle had told her before she snuck off. Still, despite the fact that she obviously had experience in this matter, she was still worried about her new friend. This place looked loaded with security and she didn't want Danielle to get in trouble just because of her.
Meanwhile, Danielle was waiting on word of the new prisoner in her usual spying spot; a spot in the ceiling of the main office where she could just barely fit herself without making it noticeable from the office below.
She saw the familiar face of her boss, one that she was never suppose to lay eyes on according to the rules of the company. Since she was on the lowest level besides the prisoners, she had the fewest amounts of rights. She saw another man that she had never seen before, talking to the leader.
"So we have her now?" the man asked.
"Yes, we do. She is being taken care of by prison guard 41288, age sixteen," the leader informed him.
"Yukio, is it truly wise to leave a prisoner as important as she in the hands of somebody so young?" the man challenged.
::Yukio? Is that his name? I thought no one was allowed to know it. Who is this man?:: Danielle wondered to herself.
"I couldn't put her with somebody older. She has to trust the guard enough so that we can carry out our plans," Yukio answered. Danielle listened in even closer.
"Right…what will happen to her once her purpose is done?" the man asked.
"Her home will be destroyed without her there. Of course, it was not her original home, but somehow, she is the key to holding that place together. When she left, the world itself slowly began to collapse. I do not know why that is, but we must keep her away from her island or else…he…could ruin all of our plans."
" 'He', sir?" the man wanted to know.
"The future Keyblade Master. He has not been decided yet, but he lives, or lived rather, on the island. Now both the boys in prospect of becoming the Keyblade Master have most likely been killed. After we have confirmed their deaths, we'll kill the girl for good measure," Yukio explained.
"HELL, no!" Danielle said a little louder than she had intended. Immediately, the two men looked up at the source of the voice.
"And it looks like number 41288 is having a little trouble in the ceiling," Yukio said in a deadly voice.
"Shit!" Danielle said, not bothering to be quiet now. She crawled quickly through the ceiling as best she could, and then found the way that she had come in. She had managed to make a couple of ceiling tiles fall, making her presence even more obvious. She lowered herself down from the usual opening that she always went in to spy on the leader.
She began to walk at a brisk pace over to Kairi's cell. What would she tell her? That her entire homeland was destroyed because she was taken away, and now after they made sure two people she probably knew were dead, they would kill her too? What would she think if she found out?
But, no matter how hard it was for her, Danielle knew she had to let Kairi know what happened. It was always worse not knowing, and fearing the worst. Only…in her opinion, what happened to her island could be considered "the worst" anyways.
***
Kairi saw Danielle walk in with an anxious expression. She wondered what was wrong…and did it have to do with anything about what was going to happen to her.
"Danielle, what is it? What'd you find out?" Kairi asked.
"I…went over to the office where our leader, whom I now know is addressed as Yukio, and heard him talking to a man I've never seen before. The man knew his name, and nobody in the ASHA is ever suppose to address the leader by his name…or even know his name for that matter. Anyways, they said that you were the key to holding your homeland together…and once I removed you from your home…it was destroyed. They wanted…to kill two certain boys so I guess they had no problem with the whole thing blowing up or whatever happened to it. They also said something about a 'Keyblade Master,' interfering with their plans...whatever they are. Once their deaths are confirmed…they will kill you too," Danielle said, reciting all that she had heard.
Kairi's expression was unreadable. She was trying to let this all sink in…and suddenly she looked extremely upset.
"I'm sorry…I know it's sudden, but I didn't want to keep anything from you," Danielle explained.
"It's okay. Thanks for telling me," Kairi said in barely a whisper. Danielle cautiously put a hand on her shoulder. Kairi began to tremble and then she fell into Danielle's arms. At first, Danielle was a little stunned, not expecting such a reaction. But she put a comforting arm around her friend and held her there as long as she needed to be.
"Don't worry, Kairi. They haven't even confirmed their deaths yet. We still don't know if any of them are alive, but at least we don't know if they're dead either," Danielle assured her. That did help her a little.
"I think…I know who they're talking about. My two friends, Sora and Riku. One of them's my boyfriend, and they're the two strongest people on the island," Kairi said in a shaky voice.
"Boyfriend?" Danielle asked suddenly. Kairi nodded, and Danielle decided not to press on that subject, since it would be a bad time. Kairi was still obviously upset.
"E-even though it's not my real home…I still…I still can't believe it was destroyed! It's where I grew up and now everything's gone…including the one I loved," Kairi said, and then started sobbing. Danielle put her arm back around her and begain to comfort her.
"It's going to be okay, Kairi. Trust me, you have to, and I know this might sound naïve, but you have to have faith in them! If they're really that important, then their hearts will be strong enough to survive," Danielle told her.
"Their hearts?" Kairi asked, still crying.
"It's…an old thing my mother used to talk about. She said our hearts were a part of our spirit, and if we kept our spirit strong, then our hearts would be able to survive anything. That's why, whenever I was sad about anything, she told me to keep my sprits up so that I could manage through my problems," Danielle explained. "I've always believed it though."
"I remember…from a long time ago, a story my grandmother told me. She said that there was light in the world, but then since everybody wanted it, they created darkness in their hearts. But then in the hearts of children, the light remained. So, no matter how much darkness is in your heart, there is a light that will never fade," Kairi said, a lot calmer now.
"Was that in your other world?" Danielle asked.
"Yes. I don't remember anything else besides that, but for some reason, I was thrown out of my own world to Destiny's Island…the world in which you took me from," Kairi said.
"I know…in a way I feel at fault for your world being destroyed," Danielle commented.
"Don't worry, you were only following orders. If there's anyone to blame, it's that Yukio man," Kairi said furiously.
"I understand how you feel. That's why I've been freeing prisoners for so long. It's the only way I can possibly rebel against him," Danielle said.
"Is there any possible way my world can be restored?" Kairi said pleadingly.
"There may be. Whatever was the cause of it blowing up merely because you left has to be found out, and then we can see if it is possible. That's the only thing I can think of," Danielle said.
"And…Sora's alive…I just know he is. And Riku…he's alive too," Kairi said determinately.
Danielle guessed that this 'Sora' was her boyfriend. She felt a little jealous, but she had no idea why. For now she just shook the feeling off. Right now, she needed to help her prisoner, and her new friend, Kairi.
~*** ~
Ending notes: My GOD, I could not get this chapter finished! Anyways, this didn't turn out as good as I wanted it to be. The part with Sora and Riku ended up very bad. I had writer's block for about a week -_- so I'm a little rusty. But, that's okay, because the next chapter will hopefully be a lot more interesting. Well, review if ya want, it helps get chapters up a lot quicker if you do ^^. No pressure or anything =P.