Kiyomisa: Yeay! Dea loves me! hugs Dea I'm putting this chapter up early just for you! Hope you likes!

Ansem frowned as he gazed into his crystal and watched Riku. "He's in the oubliette."

Some nearby heartless snickered.

"Silence! He shouldn't have gotten this far. He should have given up by now," Ansem muttered, staring at the image as if Riku were a specimen in a cage.

"He'll never give up," Ithlain said quietly.

Ansem's frown turned into a smirk. "Won't he? The swordsman's about to lead him back to the beginning. He'll give up when he finds out he ahs to start all over again." The Heartless King chuckled and soon most of the Heartless in the room were laughing too. Italian however remained silent and contemplative.

The cave was dark and silent until the noise of a footfall caught Riku's ear. "Who's there?" he demanded, dropping into a fighting stance, even though there was no light to see by.

"Me," came the calm reply, a soft tenor voice. A 'puff' sound and a slight smell of sulfur permeated the air and a flamed appeared near Riku atop a lone candle on a rock.

"Cloud?" the youth said as he spied his companion. The man nodded.

"There's nothing to see, just this hole," he said as Riku looked at his surrounding. And he was right. It was just a small cave about twenty square feet and seven feet high.

"This is an oubliette," Cloud informed him.

"From Oublier?" Riku asked, looking curiously at the blond.

Cloud nodded. "French 'to forget'."

Silence draped over them, but Riku didn't mind. He was busy thinking of how he was going to get out.

"You should get out of here."

Riku glared up at the swordsman. "Gee, why didn't I think of that?"

Cloud looked up at the ceiling. "I know a shortcut out of the Labyrinth. You could go home."

"I'm not giving up! Sora needs me! And I'm doing fine," Riku added, almost petulantly, but not quite.

Cloud reached over to touch Riku's shoulder gently. "It gets worse further in," the blonde said, his blue eyes gazing sincerely into Riku's.

"Why do you care?" the youth found himself asking defensively.

"I need a reason? I just do," Cloud answered.

Riku studied the handsome swordsman for a minute and he wondered why the terse man kept reminding him of Sora. Something about the eyes he decided. "Do you care enough to help me solve the Labyrinth?" he challenged.

Cloud looked to the side and removed his hand from Riku's shoulder. "I can get you safely to the beginning, that's all."

Reacting on instinct, on the feeling that Cloud was somehow like Sora, Riku grabbed Cloud's hand, forcing the man's gaze back on him. "Look, I understand that you can't take me to the castle, but take me as far as you can and I'll do the rest on my own. Please?"

Cloud looked uncertain, then sighed. "All right. I can't promise much, but I'll take you as far as I can."

Riku squeezed the man's hand. "Thank you."

Cloud nodded and gently took his hand back. Then he walked over to a wooden plank lying on the floor, lifted it up and pressed it to the wall. He tapped the left side with the hilt of his sword, and pulled the right side away. A pile of buckets, a mop and a broom fell out of a small hollow behind the door.

"Damn broom closet," Riku heard Cloud mutter as he shut the door and tapped the right side with his hilt. This time when he swung it open, a tunnel with fresh air and light was behind it.

"This way," cloud said, and Riku got the impression that the man was embarrassed. Feeling closer to the swordsman than before, now that it was evident that he was only human, Riku followed him into the tunnel.

The tunnel widened and grew turn, twists and spin-offs, but Cloud strode unerringly forward, and Riku stayed close, trusting that the man knew where he was going.

As they walked, they passed a stone carving of a face, which called out, "This is not the way!"

"Ignore them," Cloud advised. "They're here to put people off the right track."

Riku did so, but couldn't help studying the faces as they passed, thinking of how Sora would've enjoyed them. He was brought back from his thoughts when he heard Cloud arguing with one of the faces. Apparently the swordsman had gotten fed up with being told to go another way.

"Just, shut up."

"Please?" the face begged. "I haven't gotten to say it for such a long time!"

Cloud pinched the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache and glanced at Riku. Riku shrugged; the warnings didn't really bother him.

"Fine," Cloud said in disgust.

"Thank you! Ahem, this path will lead you to certain destruction!"

Cloud and Riku nodded to the face and were about to go when a small tinkling sound caught their attention. A small round crystal, much like the one Ansem had tried to tempt Riku with, rolled past their feet and into a small dark alcove, where it jumped into the hands of someone hidden in the shadows.

"Well well, what have we here?" a deep, familiar voice asked. Cloud knelt down and bowed his head. "Majesty."

Ansem stepped out of the shadows, his ember eyes glowing. "Hello Cloud. I just wanted to make sure you weren't helping this boy, " the king purred dangerously.

"Helping? In what sense?" Cloud responded, and Riku thought the man seemed slightly nervous. He couldn't hear it in his voice, but cloud's fingers were twitching slightly in the dust.

"In the sense that you're leading him towards the castle," Ansem replied, grabbing Cloud's chin and forcing him to look up.

"Lies your Majesty, to get him to follow me," Cloud replied steadily, though Riku saw his fingers clench.

"Good," Ansem replied, moving his hand to entwine his fingers in the hair on the back of Cloud's head. The Heartless King jerked on the blonde strands, pulling Cloud's head back. The swordsman grimaced in pain, but made no sound.

"Because if you'd betrayed me, I would've banished you to the Glade of Sleepless Death."

"I…understand," Cloud gritted out. Ansem let go and patted him on the head as if he were a dog, then turned to Riku.

"And you, my dear Riku. How are you enjoying the Labyrinth?"

"Piece of cake," Riku replied cockily, glaring at the silver-haired man.

Ansem's eyes flashed, standing out against his dark skin. "Is that so? Then why don't we make it a bit more challenging?" He produced a clock, whose hands moved forward rapidly to take two hours off of Riku's remaining eight.

"Hey! You can't do that!" Riku yelled, taking a step forward, though what he was going to do to the king, he didn't know.

"I can't? I believe I just did," Ansem replied heatedly. "You say it's a piece of cake? Then try this slice." The king snapped his fingers and a strange rumbling sound occurred. Cloud stood up and gazed into the darkness. Light glinted off metal in the distance.

"The Cleaners," Cloud said.

Kiyomisa: Didja like it?? The next one's coming up soon -