Disclaimer: A few things in this chapter may not make sense unless you've read my other fanfic 'The Legend Begins'. So let me clarify a few things. Carolyn is a hero in a world known as Neopia. She is the Chosen One and her powers are extrodinary. Katie is her best friend, Caitlin is her other best friend, and Tommy is her little brother. Tommy, Caitlin, and Kaite are all guardians to her. The sword Mia has is Carolyn's magic sword that only someone pure of heart can use.
Sora slammed down onto something cold and hard. He looked around. He saw Kairi laying a few feet to his left. Riku was to his right. He stood up and looked around. He recognized the place as Traverse Town's Second District. Riku and Kairi stood up.
"At least we're all together this time." Kairi sighed.
"Hey look!" Riku said pointing.
Sora saw a group of people in their late teens standing nearby. They looked dazed and confused.
"Maybe they're refugees from another world." Sora said shrugging, "Let's go talk to them."
"I feel really funky man." Wakka moaned.
"Don't blow chunks on me!" Tidus said stepping away from him.
"Hey, who's that Tidus?" Yuna asked pointing.
A 15-year old boy with spiky brown hair and blue eyes was running towards them. A 16-year old boy with silver hair and a 15-year old girl with short brown hair followed him closely.
"Um...hi." The first boy said, "Who are you guys?"
Tidus frowned and stared at them. "My name is Tidus, this is Yuna, Wakka, Lulu, and Rikku"
"Nice to meet you guys," The boy said, "My name is Sora, this is my friend Riku and my girlfriend Kairi. Did your world get destroyed by the heartless too?"
"By the what?" Lulu asked.
"The heartless, you know the nasty little black monsters?" Riku said stepping forward.
"Oh you mean like THAT thing!" Wakka said pointing.
Sora spun around. A heartless had materialized and was advancing on Kairi. He shot forward like a bullet and hacked it to pieces.
"Whoa!" Tidus said his eyes widening, "Not bad for a kid!"
"Who you calling a kid buddy?" Riku yelled, "We are teenagers!"
"That's an interesting sword." Yuna said looking at Sora's keyblade.
"It's a legendary weapon called the keyblade, it has the power to stop the heartless."
"Your friend Riku's sword looks very similar," Lulu said frowning, "But it seems darker in a way."
Riku quickly put his keyblade away in shame.
"There's a reason for that." He said turning away.
"What reason would that be?" Rikku asked.
Riku inhaled sharply and let the breath out slowly. "I-I used to be a servant of darkness."
Immediately Tidus and the others took a quick step back away from him. Riku had expected no less.
"He was possessed!" Sora said quickly jumping to his friend's defense, "And besides, he's better now. He's a good guy again!"
Everyone seemed to relax a bit. But only a little bit. Yuna decided to change the subject.
"So what's the deal with those Heartless monsters? What exactly are they?"
"They are creatures without hearts," Kairi explained, "They envy people with hearts so they steal the hearts and devour them. Once a heartless takes your heart you become a lifeless shell unless your heart is restored."
"That's um...kind of confusing." Wakka said scratching his head.
"We'll have to introduce you to some of our friends, they can explain it better than we can. Come on." Sora said motioning for them to follow him.
Mia's head was spinning. She opened her eyes. She was looking up at a boy with brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing black jeans and a white t-shirt with a black short-sleeved leather jacket over it.
"Good news Yuffie!" He called, "I think she's gonna pull through!"
Mia sat up and surveyed her surrounding. She was in a small room sitting up in bed.
Standing behind the boy was a girl with dark hair wearing a ninja suit carrying a bag of ninja stars. On the other side of the room she could see a girl with long brown hair tied back in a braid wearing a long pink dress leaning over some sort of potion. A boy with spiky blond hair sat nearby, a large sword was in his hand. He smiled.
"I guess this means I don't get to kill it right?" The brown hair-girl gave him a playful shove.
"CLOUD! Don't joke about that!" She smiled and turned to Mia, "Don't worry about Cloud, he's perfectly harmless."
"Who are you guys?!" Mia demanded. The brown hair-boy looked offended.
"Hey! I think I'm the one who just saved your life! Or don't you remember?"
The girl called Yuffie nudged him aside. "Of course she doesn't remember Leon, she was knocked out when it happened." She smiled at Mia. "Don't mind him. So what's your name? Mine's Yuffie. This is Leon, Cloud, and Aerith."
"My name's Mia." She said groggily, "What happened?"
"Well Mia, I found you in the alley just as that witch Maleficent was about to take you," Leon said nodding towards his sword, "I managed to get you out of there."
"Witch?" Mia said frowning, "Why would she want me?"
"We don't know," Aerith said walking up to her holding the potion in her hand, "Here, drink this."
"HOLY SMOKES! I JUST REMEMBERED! KATIE!" Mia cried ignoring Aerith.
"Katie?" Aerith said looking confused, "Here, just lie down and drink this."
"Please-" Mia started to say, but she was cut off when Aerith tipped the potion down her throat. It had a nasty peppery taste that made her eyes water. She spat in out in disgust. It flew across the room and hit Cloud in the face.
"Oops!" Mia gulped, "Sorry."
"Yeah," Cloud said wiping the potion off his face, "That's just what I've always wanted. A nasty potion smacking me in the face."
Mia leaned back and yanked the covers over her head. She wanted this all to be a dream. She wanted to wake up back home. Katie would be outside playing blitzball. Mia would come outside and say what a crazy dream she'd had, and they'd both have a good laugh about it before challenging the neighborhood boys to a match.
But when she lowered the covers Leon and the others were still there, staring at her strangely. She pulled the covers over her head again and shut her eyes and didn't open them.
Leon stared at her. "What the hell is the matter with that kid?" He sighed.
Just then the door to the house swung open. Sora came in followed closely by Kairi, Riku, and a group of teens he didn't recognize.
"Sora?" Everyone said at once. (Except for Mia who was still under the blankets). They sighed. "Oh no. Not your world too."
Sora nodded. "Yeah, the Heartless destroyed our world too."
"They destroy worlds too?" Tidus moaned, "Aw man, this is heavy!"
"Weight has nothing to do with it." Cloud said rolling his eyes.
"If the heartless can destroy worlds, then that must mean that Spira..." Yuna trailed off sadly. Tidus put his arm around her.
"Spira was our world before the Heartless came." He explained.
"We got another worldly visitor here." Yuffie said nodding towards the lump on the bed that was Mia. "She was attacked by Maleficent right before we found her."
"MALEFICENT?!" Riku yelled. His face flushed red with anger.
"Maleficent was the one who brought Riku over to the dark side." Sora sighed.
"How could she still be alive?!" Kairi cried, "I thought you killed her Sora!"
"That's what's scaring me, I did."
"I'm gonna ask this person a few questions about Maleficent!" Riku said storming up to the bed.
"Hold on she doesn't know anything..." Yuffie started to say. But Riku had already yanked down the blankets. His eyes widened. He stared down a pretty girl with long red hair tied back in a braid wearing a yellow t-shirt and jeans and white sneakers. She stared back up at him with deep blue eyes.
"Um...hi." He said, "I heard you were attacked by Maleficent. Was she alive?"
She shrugged. "I was unconscious so I don't remember."
"Oh," Riku said sighing with disappointment, "Well, what's your name?"
"Mia, what's yours?" She was gazing at him in a weird sort of way.
"Riku, these are my friends Sora and Kairi."
"Nice to meet you." She said tearing her gaze away from Riku.
"So you said that a witch was trying to kidnap her?" Wakka asked, "Was anyone else there?"
"A few heartless." Aerith said dabbing Mia's head with a wet washcloth. A sharp pain went through Mia's skull. She reached up and felt her forehead. She looked down at her hand. It was covered in blood from a gash on her forehead.
"How'd that happen?" Lulu asked with concern in her voice. Mia shrugged.
"I guess it must have happened while me and my friend Katie were fighting the heartless..." Her voice trailed off and tears began to form in her eyes. Mia still had no idea of what had happened to Katie. She buried her face in her hands and cried.
"What's wrong?" Riku asked leaning towards her.
Mia took a deep breath and explained about how the heartless had destroyed her world and how Katie had lost something pink from inside her body and gone limp and how the heartless had carried her off. When she was finished Leon's face was white.
"I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news kid, but it sounds to me like your friend's heart was stolen."
"Ok. Let's pretend I don't know what that means." Mia said frowning.
Leon explained about how the heartless devoured people's hearts and how the people became lifeless shells. And then he told how there was no known way to get a person's heart back. When he was finished Mia clenched her fists in anger.
"I see...so Katie's a lifeless puppet now. Well why not?! Infinity Island is gone, why not Katie?! The heartless probably wiped out everything and everyone on the whole damn island!!!"
"What I don't understand is why the heartless carried her off." Cloud said frowning.
Suddenly the door swung open and two familiar faces walked in.
"How nice, a duck and a dog." Rikku joked. But Sora recognized the faces right away.
"DONALD! GOOFY!" He cried. He ran over and embraced his two friends. Kairi and even Riku ran over and hugged them too.
Donald smiled. "Great to see you again Sora! Hi Kairi!" His eyes narrowed, "Hello Riku." He said bitterly. Mia frowned.
"Why are you so mean to him?"
"Because went over to the dar..." Goofy started to say but Riku clamped his hand over his mouth.
"Because I owe them money!" Riku said quickly.
"Oh is that all?" Mia said. She seemed satisfied with that answer. She got up. "Well where do we go from here?"
"We go out and stop the heartless." Sora said drawing his keyblade.
"Count us in!" Tidus said raising his hand.
"Fine, we can use all the help we can get." Donald said smiling.
"And I'll go too." Mia said turning to Leon, "Where's my stuff and my sword?"
"Over in the corner." He said nodding his head to the left.
"Now hold on!" Donald said frowning "Isn't it a bit dangerous for a young girl?"
"If defeating the heartless will restore Katie then I'll go no matter what." Mia said slipping on her backpack.
Donald folded his arms and stared at her sternly. "NO!"
"Come on Donald," Riku said nudging him, "Let her come if she really wants too."
Donald looked hopelessly from Sora to Kairi who were both nodding. He sighed. "Ok fine, you can come. But I'm warning you, if you slow us down then you'll be hauling your ass down lollipop-lane on your own!"
Mia grinned and punched the air. "YES!"
"Why didn't you want Mia to know you were once a tool of darkness?" Wakka asked when Mia couldn't hear them.
"She would hate my guts," Riku said shrugging, "She would distance herself from me, and the closer we all are during this trip the better."
"So where are we headed?" Kairi asked.
"Well if it was Maleficent that Mia saw then we should head to Hollow Bastion," Goofy said thinking. (AMAZING!!)
"Ok then," Sora said nodding, "Then that's where we go."
They walked to Traverse Town's first district to buy some supplies from Cid. They entered the shop but instead of Cid two young girls and a little boy stood at the counter. One had short blond hair that hung down to her shoulder and soft blue eyes. The other girl had long brown hair and brown eyes. The boy had short brown hair and brown eyes.
"Hi!" The blond girl said, "Welcome to the items shop. My name's Carolyn, what do you need?"
"Um...about 20 high potions," Sora said staring at her, "By the way, where's Cid?"
"Cid?" Rikku said. Her eyes widened. "That's my dad's name!"
"Maybe he's a parallel version of him." The boy said. He cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled. "HEY OLD MAN! YOU'VE GOT SOME FRIENDS HERE TO SEE YOU!"
Cid ran in from the back of the store. He glared at him. "Don't call me an old man Tommy." He snapped.
"Fine, I'll stop, you old fart."
"Shut up and get Sora's order!" Tommy ran to the back of the shop.
"You could be a bit nicer to us!" Carolyn snapped, "We're from another world and we're still getting used to this! And if you ever yell at my little brother again you'll pay!"
"Carolyn calm down!" The brown hair girl said sternly.
"NO! Nobody picks on my little brother but me and gets away with it! You know that Caitlin!"
"I know that you've got a really bad temper!"
"HELLO!" A voice yelled. A furry creature that looked like a squirrel wearing ribbons jumped down from the ceiling and grabbed Sora's head.
"AHHHH!!!! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" He cried.
"PACHI!" Carolyn yelled grabbing it, "Quit scaring the customers!"
"I don't have my sisters or brother to pick on so the customers will have to do." She said smiling. A small blue creature that looked like a penguin waddled up to her.
"Hyper today, aren't we?" It said smiling.
"Be quiet Snowflakey!" Pachi snapped.
"What are those things?" Riku asked.
"They're called Neopets." Carolyn sighed, "Pachi is mine, and Snowflakey is Caitlin's. People had them as pets in our world before the heartless destroyed it. My other Neopets were separated from me." She said sadly. Then she noticed Mia's sword.
"HEY MY SWORD!" She yelled snatching it from her. "You little dipshit! Do you know what this sword could do if it fell into the wrong hands?!"
"But-but," Mia stuttered, "It was a gift from my friend Katie!"
"KATIE?!" Carolyn shrieked, "YOU SAW KATIE?! WHERE IS SHE?!"
"I don't know!" Mia screamed, "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!"
Carolyn sighed and twirled her sword. "Katie is my best friend from our world. She's been missing for two months." She looked at Mia and sighed. "That little asshole…giving the chosen one's sword to an amateur…what the bloody hell was she thinking?"
"Me and Katie are heroes in our world, Caitlin too." Carolyn handed Mia the sword. "You keep it for now. And if you see Katie tell her that when I find her I'm going to kick her ass. Ok?"
"Ok." Mia squeaked.
Just then Tommy came back with their potions. They paid and left.
"Well that was educational." Tidus said smiling.
Then came to the gummi ship's gate.
"We've remodeled it," Goofy said proudly, "It's much bigger than before. It's even got a kitchen!"
"SWEET!" Sora yelled. He jumped inside. Mia smiled.
"He's a lively person."
Riku smiled. "Lively wasn't the word I was looking for."
"What was the word you were looking for?" Mia asked.
"Stupid."
Mia smiled and giggled. Then that giggle turned into a laugh. Riku smiled and laughed too.
When they were finished laughing Riku was shocked. He hadn't laughed like that since before he went over to darkness. He hadn't even smiled much. But now this girl was making him laugh harder then he ever had before. He smiled at her and she smiled back.
"Come on you two let's go!" Yuna called.
Sora slammed down onto something cold and hard. He looked around. He saw Kairi laying a few feet to his left. Riku was to his right. He stood up and looked around. He recognized the place as Traverse Town's Second District. Riku and Kairi stood up.
"At least we're all together this time." Kairi sighed.
"Hey look!" Riku said pointing.
Sora saw a group of people in their late teens standing nearby. They looked dazed and confused.
"Maybe they're refugees from another world." Sora said shrugging, "Let's go talk to them."
"I feel really funky man." Wakka moaned.
"Don't blow chunks on me!" Tidus said stepping away from him.
"Hey, who's that Tidus?" Yuna asked pointing.
A 15-year old boy with spiky brown hair and blue eyes was running towards them. A 16-year old boy with silver hair and a 15-year old girl with short brown hair followed him closely.
"Um...hi." The first boy said, "Who are you guys?"
Tidus frowned and stared at them. "My name is Tidus, this is Yuna, Wakka, Lulu, and Rikku"
"Nice to meet you guys," The boy said, "My name is Sora, this is my friend Riku and my girlfriend Kairi. Did your world get destroyed by the heartless too?"
"By the what?" Lulu asked.
"The heartless, you know the nasty little black monsters?" Riku said stepping forward.
"Oh you mean like THAT thing!" Wakka said pointing.
Sora spun around. A heartless had materialized and was advancing on Kairi. He shot forward like a bullet and hacked it to pieces.
"Whoa!" Tidus said his eyes widening, "Not bad for a kid!"
"Who you calling a kid buddy?" Riku yelled, "We are teenagers!"
"That's an interesting sword." Yuna said looking at Sora's keyblade.
"It's a legendary weapon called the keyblade, it has the power to stop the heartless."
"Your friend Riku's sword looks very similar," Lulu said frowning, "But it seems darker in a way."
Riku quickly put his keyblade away in shame.
"There's a reason for that." He said turning away.
"What reason would that be?" Rikku asked.
Riku inhaled sharply and let the breath out slowly. "I-I used to be a servant of darkness."
Immediately Tidus and the others took a quick step back away from him. Riku had expected no less.
"He was possessed!" Sora said quickly jumping to his friend's defense, "And besides, he's better now. He's a good guy again!"
Everyone seemed to relax a bit. But only a little bit. Yuna decided to change the subject.
"So what's the deal with those Heartless monsters? What exactly are they?"
"They are creatures without hearts," Kairi explained, "They envy people with hearts so they steal the hearts and devour them. Once a heartless takes your heart you become a lifeless shell unless your heart is restored."
"That's um...kind of confusing." Wakka said scratching his head.
"We'll have to introduce you to some of our friends, they can explain it better than we can. Come on." Sora said motioning for them to follow him.
Mia's head was spinning. She opened her eyes. She was looking up at a boy with brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing black jeans and a white t-shirt with a black short-sleeved leather jacket over it.
"Good news Yuffie!" He called, "I think she's gonna pull through!"
Mia sat up and surveyed her surrounding. She was in a small room sitting up in bed.
Standing behind the boy was a girl with dark hair wearing a ninja suit carrying a bag of ninja stars. On the other side of the room she could see a girl with long brown hair tied back in a braid wearing a long pink dress leaning over some sort of potion. A boy with spiky blond hair sat nearby, a large sword was in his hand. He smiled.
"I guess this means I don't get to kill it right?" The brown hair-girl gave him a playful shove.
"CLOUD! Don't joke about that!" She smiled and turned to Mia, "Don't worry about Cloud, he's perfectly harmless."
"Who are you guys?!" Mia demanded. The brown hair-boy looked offended.
"Hey! I think I'm the one who just saved your life! Or don't you remember?"
The girl called Yuffie nudged him aside. "Of course she doesn't remember Leon, she was knocked out when it happened." She smiled at Mia. "Don't mind him. So what's your name? Mine's Yuffie. This is Leon, Cloud, and Aerith."
"My name's Mia." She said groggily, "What happened?"
"Well Mia, I found you in the alley just as that witch Maleficent was about to take you," Leon said nodding towards his sword, "I managed to get you out of there."
"Witch?" Mia said frowning, "Why would she want me?"
"We don't know," Aerith said walking up to her holding the potion in her hand, "Here, drink this."
"HOLY SMOKES! I JUST REMEMBERED! KATIE!" Mia cried ignoring Aerith.
"Katie?" Aerith said looking confused, "Here, just lie down and drink this."
"Please-" Mia started to say, but she was cut off when Aerith tipped the potion down her throat. It had a nasty peppery taste that made her eyes water. She spat in out in disgust. It flew across the room and hit Cloud in the face.
"Oops!" Mia gulped, "Sorry."
"Yeah," Cloud said wiping the potion off his face, "That's just what I've always wanted. A nasty potion smacking me in the face."
Mia leaned back and yanked the covers over her head. She wanted this all to be a dream. She wanted to wake up back home. Katie would be outside playing blitzball. Mia would come outside and say what a crazy dream she'd had, and they'd both have a good laugh about it before challenging the neighborhood boys to a match.
But when she lowered the covers Leon and the others were still there, staring at her strangely. She pulled the covers over her head again and shut her eyes and didn't open them.
Leon stared at her. "What the hell is the matter with that kid?" He sighed.
Just then the door to the house swung open. Sora came in followed closely by Kairi, Riku, and a group of teens he didn't recognize.
"Sora?" Everyone said at once. (Except for Mia who was still under the blankets). They sighed. "Oh no. Not your world too."
Sora nodded. "Yeah, the Heartless destroyed our world too."
"They destroy worlds too?" Tidus moaned, "Aw man, this is heavy!"
"Weight has nothing to do with it." Cloud said rolling his eyes.
"If the heartless can destroy worlds, then that must mean that Spira..." Yuna trailed off sadly. Tidus put his arm around her.
"Spira was our world before the Heartless came." He explained.
"We got another worldly visitor here." Yuffie said nodding towards the lump on the bed that was Mia. "She was attacked by Maleficent right before we found her."
"MALEFICENT?!" Riku yelled. His face flushed red with anger.
"Maleficent was the one who brought Riku over to the dark side." Sora sighed.
"How could she still be alive?!" Kairi cried, "I thought you killed her Sora!"
"That's what's scaring me, I did."
"I'm gonna ask this person a few questions about Maleficent!" Riku said storming up to the bed.
"Hold on she doesn't know anything..." Yuffie started to say. But Riku had already yanked down the blankets. His eyes widened. He stared down a pretty girl with long red hair tied back in a braid wearing a yellow t-shirt and jeans and white sneakers. She stared back up at him with deep blue eyes.
"Um...hi." He said, "I heard you were attacked by Maleficent. Was she alive?"
She shrugged. "I was unconscious so I don't remember."
"Oh," Riku said sighing with disappointment, "Well, what's your name?"
"Mia, what's yours?" She was gazing at him in a weird sort of way.
"Riku, these are my friends Sora and Kairi."
"Nice to meet you." She said tearing her gaze away from Riku.
"So you said that a witch was trying to kidnap her?" Wakka asked, "Was anyone else there?"
"A few heartless." Aerith said dabbing Mia's head with a wet washcloth. A sharp pain went through Mia's skull. She reached up and felt her forehead. She looked down at her hand. It was covered in blood from a gash on her forehead.
"How'd that happen?" Lulu asked with concern in her voice. Mia shrugged.
"I guess it must have happened while me and my friend Katie were fighting the heartless..." Her voice trailed off and tears began to form in her eyes. Mia still had no idea of what had happened to Katie. She buried her face in her hands and cried.
"What's wrong?" Riku asked leaning towards her.
Mia took a deep breath and explained about how the heartless had destroyed her world and how Katie had lost something pink from inside her body and gone limp and how the heartless had carried her off. When she was finished Leon's face was white.
"I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news kid, but it sounds to me like your friend's heart was stolen."
"Ok. Let's pretend I don't know what that means." Mia said frowning.
Leon explained about how the heartless devoured people's hearts and how the people became lifeless shells. And then he told how there was no known way to get a person's heart back. When he was finished Mia clenched her fists in anger.
"I see...so Katie's a lifeless puppet now. Well why not?! Infinity Island is gone, why not Katie?! The heartless probably wiped out everything and everyone on the whole damn island!!!"
"What I don't understand is why the heartless carried her off." Cloud said frowning.
Suddenly the door swung open and two familiar faces walked in.
"How nice, a duck and a dog." Rikku joked. But Sora recognized the faces right away.
"DONALD! GOOFY!" He cried. He ran over and embraced his two friends. Kairi and even Riku ran over and hugged them too.
Donald smiled. "Great to see you again Sora! Hi Kairi!" His eyes narrowed, "Hello Riku." He said bitterly. Mia frowned.
"Why are you so mean to him?"
"Because went over to the dar..." Goofy started to say but Riku clamped his hand over his mouth.
"Because I owe them money!" Riku said quickly.
"Oh is that all?" Mia said. She seemed satisfied with that answer. She got up. "Well where do we go from here?"
"We go out and stop the heartless." Sora said drawing his keyblade.
"Count us in!" Tidus said raising his hand.
"Fine, we can use all the help we can get." Donald said smiling.
"And I'll go too." Mia said turning to Leon, "Where's my stuff and my sword?"
"Over in the corner." He said nodding his head to the left.
"Now hold on!" Donald said frowning "Isn't it a bit dangerous for a young girl?"
"If defeating the heartless will restore Katie then I'll go no matter what." Mia said slipping on her backpack.
Donald folded his arms and stared at her sternly. "NO!"
"Come on Donald," Riku said nudging him, "Let her come if she really wants too."
Donald looked hopelessly from Sora to Kairi who were both nodding. He sighed. "Ok fine, you can come. But I'm warning you, if you slow us down then you'll be hauling your ass down lollipop-lane on your own!"
Mia grinned and punched the air. "YES!"
"Why didn't you want Mia to know you were once a tool of darkness?" Wakka asked when Mia couldn't hear them.
"She would hate my guts," Riku said shrugging, "She would distance herself from me, and the closer we all are during this trip the better."
"So where are we headed?" Kairi asked.
"Well if it was Maleficent that Mia saw then we should head to Hollow Bastion," Goofy said thinking. (AMAZING!!)
"Ok then," Sora said nodding, "Then that's where we go."
They walked to Traverse Town's first district to buy some supplies from Cid. They entered the shop but instead of Cid two young girls and a little boy stood at the counter. One had short blond hair that hung down to her shoulder and soft blue eyes. The other girl had long brown hair and brown eyes. The boy had short brown hair and brown eyes.
"Hi!" The blond girl said, "Welcome to the items shop. My name's Carolyn, what do you need?"
"Um...about 20 high potions," Sora said staring at her, "By the way, where's Cid?"
"Cid?" Rikku said. Her eyes widened. "That's my dad's name!"
"Maybe he's a parallel version of him." The boy said. He cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled. "HEY OLD MAN! YOU'VE GOT SOME FRIENDS HERE TO SEE YOU!"
Cid ran in from the back of the store. He glared at him. "Don't call me an old man Tommy." He snapped.
"Fine, I'll stop, you old fart."
"Shut up and get Sora's order!" Tommy ran to the back of the shop.
"You could be a bit nicer to us!" Carolyn snapped, "We're from another world and we're still getting used to this! And if you ever yell at my little brother again you'll pay!"
"Carolyn calm down!" The brown hair girl said sternly.
"NO! Nobody picks on my little brother but me and gets away with it! You know that Caitlin!"
"I know that you've got a really bad temper!"
"HELLO!" A voice yelled. A furry creature that looked like a squirrel wearing ribbons jumped down from the ceiling and grabbed Sora's head.
"AHHHH!!!! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" He cried.
"PACHI!" Carolyn yelled grabbing it, "Quit scaring the customers!"
"I don't have my sisters or brother to pick on so the customers will have to do." She said smiling. A small blue creature that looked like a penguin waddled up to her.
"Hyper today, aren't we?" It said smiling.
"Be quiet Snowflakey!" Pachi snapped.
"What are those things?" Riku asked.
"They're called Neopets." Carolyn sighed, "Pachi is mine, and Snowflakey is Caitlin's. People had them as pets in our world before the heartless destroyed it. My other Neopets were separated from me." She said sadly. Then she noticed Mia's sword.
"HEY MY SWORD!" She yelled snatching it from her. "You little dipshit! Do you know what this sword could do if it fell into the wrong hands?!"
"But-but," Mia stuttered, "It was a gift from my friend Katie!"
"KATIE?!" Carolyn shrieked, "YOU SAW KATIE?! WHERE IS SHE?!"
"I don't know!" Mia screamed, "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!"
Carolyn sighed and twirled her sword. "Katie is my best friend from our world. She's been missing for two months." She looked at Mia and sighed. "That little asshole…giving the chosen one's sword to an amateur…what the bloody hell was she thinking?"
"Me and Katie are heroes in our world, Caitlin too." Carolyn handed Mia the sword. "You keep it for now. And if you see Katie tell her that when I find her I'm going to kick her ass. Ok?"
"Ok." Mia squeaked.
Just then Tommy came back with their potions. They paid and left.
"Well that was educational." Tidus said smiling.
Then came to the gummi ship's gate.
"We've remodeled it," Goofy said proudly, "It's much bigger than before. It's even got a kitchen!"
"SWEET!" Sora yelled. He jumped inside. Mia smiled.
"He's a lively person."
Riku smiled. "Lively wasn't the word I was looking for."
"What was the word you were looking for?" Mia asked.
"Stupid."
Mia smiled and giggled. Then that giggle turned into a laugh. Riku smiled and laughed too.
When they were finished laughing Riku was shocked. He hadn't laughed like that since before he went over to darkness. He hadn't even smiled much. But now this girl was making him laugh harder then he ever had before. He smiled at her and she smiled back.
"Come on you two let's go!" Yuna called.