Title: Reflections: Kairi ( 4 / ? )
Author name: Ari Powwel
Author email: eight_muses@hotmail.com
Spoilers: . . . a lot . . .
Summary: **speeds up story-time** Monstro arrives this chapter.
DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by various publishers including but not limited to Disney Interactive and Square Co., Ltd. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: So I'm confusing a lot of you? Good, cos Kairi's confuseled, too. ^_^ all WILL be explained, though . . .
Yeah. Sorry for taking so long on this, but . . . Kairi sort of pissed me off. ((Quote: 'You didn't see Riku? He'll be all right. He can take care of himself.'))
Plus the PotO/KH bunny caught up to me. It's a rabid one, and it's all I can do to keep it under control. (Underneath desk, bunny gnaws on the hem of Ari's jeans. 'Stoppit!' Ari tells it, but will it listen? No.) 40 handwritten pages in three weeks . . . O.O
Note: this chapter is choppy; Kairi jumps around a lot. I'd prefer her not to, but it wouldn't work out any other way.
Note: This will get extremely confusing later on, so here's the code:
Italics: Kairi's thoughts
// slashes \\: Sora's thoughts
|| lines ||: Riku's thoughts
~ tildes ~: Someone's thoughts (muaha. Mysteriousness? Probably not. -_-")
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I watched through Riku's eyes again, saddened. Riku had just kidnapped someone. I still couldn't understand the logic behind his actions. Why would he have done that?

'That smarmy vizier could've had 'em—if someone had stuck around to give him a hand.' A greyish figure glared at Riku, hair burning brightly. ||Why? Do I really want to hurt Sora?||

'Hey, I did my part,' Riku defended himself. ||Even if he is being an annoying git, I don't want to harm my friends . . .|| 'I brought the princess, didn't I?' I felt a stab of resentment flow through him. So far, I'd been learning about my current state. Apparently, I could enter someone's body and listen to their thoughts, as well as know what they felt and such. However, it had only worked with two people at the present: Riku and Sora.

'Jafar was beyond help,' Maleficent pardoned, 'consumed by his own hatred. One should beware of letting it burn too fiercely.'

||I wonder if she knows how much I hate her,|| Riku and I both thought. ||Is she cautioning me? Or him?|| Riku wondered.

Apparently, the other man thought she meant him. 'Whoa, whoa, whoa,' he waved his hands. 'Lighten up. I'm as cool as they come, okay?' He turned to Riku and me. 'By the way, kid, have we got something special for you.'

'Huh?' ||Why would they do anything for me . . . what do they want now?||

'We had a deal, yes?' Maleficent 'questioned'. 'You helped us, and we grant you your wish . . .' she gestured, and an image of my unconscious body appeared over the table.

'Kairi!' Riku said, mentally shouting the same.

'Go to her,' Maleficent told him. 'Your vessel is waiting.' ||So . . . they are following through on what they said . . . more than I could say for Sora, at least.||

'Aww . . .' I whispered. Poor Riku. He couldn't tell I was there, and Sora was with those other two . . . he must have been feeling rather abandoned.

'Just remember, this is no pleasure cruise,' a man ordered. He stepped forward from out of the shadows, and I saw he was wearing a sort of pirate's outfit. 'It won't be a pleasant voyage.' He seemed extremely annoyed that Riku was coming with him.

'Why are you doing all this for me? What's the catch?' Riku asked suspiciously.

'Catch? What's the catch? Silly boy,' Maleficent let out a fake chuckle. 'You're like a son to me.' She touched a bony hand to Riku's face; I felt him shudder mentally, though he didn't on the outside. Typical Riku, never showing his emotions. 'I only want you to be happy.'

You do not! I hollered. You only want him to do your bidding, you lying hag!

Riku seemed to catch my train of thought and he stepped back, shoving Maleficent's hand away. 'I seriously doubt that.'

'Believe what you wish. But lest we forget, I kept my end of the bargain.' Maleficent drawled, infuriating me.

If you'd kept—you—YOU! You lying oban, I can't believe you! As Riku left the room, I continued ranting, barely noticing when we boarded a ship.

*        *        *

'Activate Warp-G!' Captain Hook shouted. As the ship shot forward, Riku seized the railing, slightly off-balance.

'What is it?'

'A whale!'

'A giant whale!'

'It's Monstro!'

'Monstro?'

'What's that?'

'Never heard of it.'

A giant whale passed by the ship; I gawked. How could this whale fly around in . . . well, wherever we were. 'Whoops,' one of the pirates smirked, 'accidentally' swinging into Riku and knocking him overboard. What was that?! Pirates . . . more trouble than they're worth. Not that they're worth any trouble in the first place . . . Riku let out a yell; I heard Captain Hook calling something that sounded suspiciously like, 'Excellent work, lads! No-one commands the crew but me.'

I looked down. Possibly not the best idea . . . no, definitely not the best idea. Monstro circled under us, mouth opened wide in anticipation. Eew . . . about to be eaten by a whale. I wrinkled my nose in disgust, but there was nothing to be done as Monstro's giant jaws closed around us.

*        *        *

'A deal's a deal, Genie. Now, you can go anywhere you want. You're your own master. But if you can, it'd be great if you could go along with them and help Sora find Jasmine,' a dark haired boy said, apparently to the vivid blue genie.

Genie sniffed. 'Sorry, Al, I'm done taking orders from others.' He turned, crossing his arms. After a moment, however, his shoulders lowered, and he turned around, smiling. 'But . . . a favour, now that's entirely different. I guess I could give that a try. After all, we're pals, right, Al?'

//That's Genie . . .\\ Sora said to himself, and unintentionally, me. //Always trying to help . . . well, Aladdin, at least.\\

'Genie . . .' Aladdin was at a loss for words.

'Just leave it to me.' Genie grinned, and I smiled. It was nice, how Genie was willing to help Aladdin, who just sighed, though he smiled, and ran his fingers through his hair.

'So, you're coming along with us, Genie?' Sora asked.

Genie grinned. 'Looks like it!'

'Where should we go next? Where would they all be . . .' Sora wondered.

Well, Riku's kinda troubled right now, I mean, he's stuck inside a whale. Speaking of which, I wonder how he is . . .

*        *        *

Riku woke slowly; I watched with a worried feeling pounding at me. He shook his head, looking around.

'What are you doing here?' asked a small wooden puppet. Riku looked at him with a confused expression.

'What? Where . . . where are we?' He looked around. 'Are we inside that whale?'

'Yep,' the puppet nodded. 'Welcome to Monstro.'

'Who . . . are you?'

'I'm Pinocchio!' He smiled. 'Who're you?'

'I'm Riku. Do you know how to get out of here?'

'Yeah! . . . no. Well, I know how to get out of here,' Pinocchio gestured to their surroundings, 'but not how to get out of Monstro.'

'You mean you don't have any gummis?'

'What's a gummi?'

They hadn't heard of gummis? I thought everyone had heard of them. At least, most people I'd met knew what they were and what they did.

Riku sighed. 'A gummi is a large, brightly coloured substance. You could use it to blast out of here . . . but if you don't have any—'

'Hey, I think we have some of those!' Pinocchio dashed through a tunnel. Riku tried to follow him, but the puppet had gotten a bit of a start: Riku had just regained consciousness, and he'd been on his back. Even one of his vaults that had always knocked Sora down couldn't get him up fast enough to catch the wooden boy.

'Pinocchio!' he shouted, but the living marionette was too far gone and didn't reply. Riku cursed, then took a few steps into the next chamber. 'Which way did he go?'

I wonder why he took off so suddenly . . . what was so important he left Riku back here? I watched Riku close his eyes, concentrating, then choose a direction and stride through the darkened doorway. After passing through this one, he did the same thing.

What is he doing? Can he tell where Pinocchio went?

After awhile, we reached another doorway. Riku strode through without hesitation; I followed behind him. In front of us was obviously the mouth of Monstro. Wood was heaped everywhere, and a light was shining from the deck of what seemed to be half a ship. Sora and his two other friends stood on deck with Pinocchio and another, white-haired man, clad in the same type of attire the former had. 'Oh, my. So the whale swallowed all of you, too? My goodness . . .' the white-haired man said.

'Yeah, looks like it,' Sora confirmed.

'My name is Geppetto. I'm Pinocchio's father. When we were separated, I travelled all over, looking for him. Thank goodness we're together again.'

Pinocchio looked over at us, but Riku surprised me by running back into the bowels of Monstro. Aware that I couldn't let him go off by himself, I followed.

However, he only dashed through the near doorway and stopped, watching. Pinocchio appeared, looking around. 'Riku?!' he cried out. 'Where are you?'

'What are you doing?' asked Sora. 'Come on, let's go back.'

'You know, Geppetto's awfully worried about you,' Goofy said.

When Pinocchio didn't move, Sora seemed to get a bit frustrated. 'Pinocchio, stop fooling around! This is no time for games!' He turned and began walking out of the chamber, assuming that Pinocchio was following him.

||Why is he automatically fooling around? Is there no way he could possibly be doing something worthwhile?||
I jumped. How could I hear Riku's thoughts? I wasn't with him at the moment . . . Riku . . . you know Sora's not like that! Geppetto hasn't seen his boy in awhile; Sora only wants to reunite them . . .

'But Sora, I thought you liked games,' Riku said, stepping from the shadows.
//Riku!\\
Now I was hearing Sora's thoughts? How could this be?
'Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade?' Riku asked.

'Riku!' Sora shouted. 'Wh—what are you doing here?'

'Just playing with Pinocchio.'

'You know what I mean!'

||I do, do I?||

'What about Kairi?' Sora questioned. 'Did you find her?'

||As if you care.||

Of course he cares, Riku! He cares about all of us!

'Maybe,' Riku replied coolly. 'Catch us, and maybe I'll tell you what I know.'

//This is no time for games! What about Kairi?!\\ 'Come on!'

Riku grabbed Pinocchio's hand, and the two of them dashed off through an opening. I followed them; I couldn't trust Riku not to get into trouble now. Not with people like Maleficent getting into his head . . .

'Why do you still care about that boy?' Maleficent asked. 'He has all but deserted you for the Keyblade and his new companions, after all.'

||He has. He doesn't care anymore. He only cares about showing off the Keyblade. But . . . it's still Sora.|| 'I don't care about him. I was just,' Riku paused, 'messing with him a little.'

Riku, you know you're lying. I glared at Maleficent. Why did she have to prey upon innocent people? She'd been messing with Riku's mind since before we'd even left the island! Why couldn't she just leave him alone?

'Oh, really?' Maleficent didn't seem to be questioning his answer, but the validity of it. 'Of course you were. Beware the darkness in your heart. The Heartless prey upon it.'

Riku glared at her. 'Mind your own business.'

Maleficent merely smiled her odd, scary smile and exited, a la a dark portal. I glared after her. What place did she have, making friends turn against each other?

||I don't care what she says. I don't care about him. I can't. He doesn't care about Kairi nor me. Only his friends.||

Riku, you are his friend! You know that! Of course he still cares about us.

Riku roamed through the endless maze with Pinocchio some more, aimlessly traipsing the chambers. But finally—'Riku!' Sora cried, as he, Donald, and Goofy caught up to us. 'What's the matter with you, Riku? What are you thinking? Don't you realise what you're doing?'

||What I'm doing? What about what you're doing?!|| 'I was about to ask you the same thing, Sora. You only seem interested in running around and showing off that Keyblade these days. Do you even want to save Kairi?'

Sora stopped short. //Kairi . . .\\ 'I do.'

||Do you really? Do you—||

'Help!!' Pinocchio's cry carried through the room. Riku and Sora both ran through the door it was coming from, and we were all met by a strange sight. Pinocchio was trapped inside a pinkish, living, gel-like cage. 'It's scary in here!' he shouted at us.

'You up for this?' Riku asked Sora, drawing a blade. It was like a reddish wing, with a blue-black handle.

'No problem,' responded Sora, the Keyblade appearing in his hand. He stepped back into an offensive stance. 'Let's do it!'

'Hmph.'

As Riku leapt off the ledge towards the cage, the three of us, simultaneously, thought the same thing:

|| // This is the way it should be. \\ ||

With the two boys working together, the cage-like thing was defeated easily. The cage grabbed something in the upper part of the chamber and, lifting itself off the ground, spat out Pinocchio, who hurtled through a hole that opened up in the floor. Riku, without hesitation, jumped through after him, regardless of what lay below. Sora, after a moment of hesitation, followed, as did I.

I let out a shout as I saw the 'water' of the mouth coming up to meet me, and as I dropped into it, a single thought passed through my mind. Eew . . .

//Riku, what are you doing?\\

'Pinocchio! Pinocchio!' Geppetto was shouting as I climbed out of the liquid, onto the boat. 'Please, give me back my son!'

I followed his gaze and groaned. Riku, why?

'Sorry, old man,' responded Riku, the unconscious puppet tucked under his arm. 'I have some unfinished business with this puppet.'

'He's no puppet!' argued Geppetto. 'Pinocchio is my little boy!'

'He is unusual,' allowed Riku. 'Not many puppets have hearts. I'm not sure, but maybe he can help someone who's lost theirs.' ||Kairi . . . maybe this one's pure heart can help you.||

I blinked hard. What? I had lost my heart? But . . . I was right here!

//Lost their heart? Who—\\ 'Wait a minute,' Sora realised. 'Are you talking about Kairi?'

'What do you care about her?' Riku spat. ||Maleficent was right; all you care about is that Keyblade.|| Riku strode away, ignoring Sora and my shouts at him.

'Don't worry,' Sora assured Geppetto. 'We'll get him back.' //I hope . . .\\

I was already gone, leading the way to Riku. I knew where he was, almost instinctively. It seemed that Sora did, too, as we reached him rather quickly. As we entered the chamber, Sora shouted, 'Hey! Let Pinocchio go, Riku!'

||Why?|| 'A puppet that's lost its heart to the Heartless . . . maybe it holds the key to helping Kairi. How about it, Sora? Let's join forces to save her. We can do it, together.'

Riku, this isn't you. Why are you like this all of a sudden?

//He's changed. At first I thought it was just his protective-ness of all of us, but . . . something's changed. It's like he's barely himself, anymore.\\

You're right, Sora.

Sora readied his Keyblade, a golden claw-like end. //Three Wishes. I wish . . . I wish everything was back to normal!\\

'What?' Riku sounded astounded. 'You'd rather fight me? Over a puppet that has no heart?' ||So your loyalties lie to a puppet over your oldest friend . . .||

'Heart or no heart, at least he still has a conscience.' Sora answered.

'Conscience?' Riku repeated. ||But . . . all I want to do is save Kairi. My conscience tells me I'm in the right.||

~That's right, Riku. You are in the right. That horror, Sora, is in the wrong. He's left you and Kairi behind in exchange for a fancy weapon that's not even his!~

I started. Who was that?

'You might not hear it, but right now, it's loud and clear,' said Sora, as a small cricket hopped across to Pinocchio. 'And it's telling me you're on the wrong side!'

~The boy lies, Riku. He only wants you to agree with him, so that everything will be his glory!~

'Then you leave me no choice,' stated Riku.

I missed the conversation between Pinocchio and the cricket, as a separate, rather interesting exchange was taking place.

//Riku, I don't believe that you've really turned. I can't.\\

He hasn't! Riku, you're still you, right?

~You see? That boy doesn't care about you, or Kairi either! He's only focused on furthering his own power.~

||Sora's not like that!||

You tell him!

~Maybe not before, but look at him now. That smug smile, the arrogant stride . . .~

What? Sora doesn't have those!

||I don't see that in him—||

~Look closer . . . see it in him.~

||. . . I see.||

~Look up, now.~

Riku looked up, his eyes widened slightly, and he stepped back. The same pinkish-reddish cage from before dropped to where he'd been standing, and a blueish-purpleish-blackish portal appeared behind him. Sora shouted his name as he reached a hand into the portal and disappeared into it. I followed him; that voice was worth investigating . . . with a last look at Sora, I followed him through.

//Riku! Riku, where are you?!\\

'So . . . Kairi's like a lifeless puppet now?' Riku asked Maleficent, oblivious to Sora's shouts. I glared at Maleficent; she had brought Riku back to the ship and presented him with my lifeless body. What a welcoming.

||Kairi . . .||

'Precisely,' answered the witch.

'And her heart . . . was . . .' Riku's voice held an unmistakable tremor in it, which surprised me. He'd rarely shown emotion on the islands, holding it inside. It had irritated me sometimes, but now, I'd prefer his normal, emotion-less tones. Nothing's like before.

'Taken by the Heartless, no doubt,' Maleficent supplied.

'Tell me!' Riku cried suddenly, turning around quickly to face the witch. His fists were clenched, and a dash of red brushed his cheeks. 'What can I do?'

Don't do anything for her, Riku. I'll be fine, I swear! Just don't do anything rash!

'There are seven maidens of the purest heart. We call them the princesses of heart. Gther them together, and a door will open to the heart of all worlds. Within lies untold wisdom. There, you will surely find a way to recover Kairi's heart. Now, I'll grant you a marvellous gift: the power to control the Heartless.' Maleficent held up a hand, covering Riku in a green light. He closed his eyes, breathing deeply as it covered and penetrated his soul.

~Excellent . . . all goes according to plan . . .~

Riku turned to my body, an unknown emotion flashing through his eyes. 'Soon, Kairi. Soon.'

Nothing's like before . . .

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O.O that took SO long to do . . . I couldn't write after I saw what Kairi said.

Good news: Ari finished Kingdom Hearts in Expert Mode, she acquired the Ultima Weapon, and thought that it was über-easy to defeat Ansem at the end.

Thanks to the following reviewers:

~ Mizutaka ~
**parties at the Sophomores' pride party** Yeah! And the first six weeks is over and I have all As . . . O.O last year I got two Cs. Maybe this year won't be so bad after all! **celebrates**
O.O I'm doing Kairi's characterisation right?! I really didn't think so . . . I seriously don't like Kairi at all **giggles** so why am I writing this? I don't know . . . XD but really, she doesn't do anything through the game except be a little . . . annoying thing. Growl. But hey, she's there and I need to stop hating her.
Fwee! I'm original! I feel special!!
(Tom: Hey! We said you weren't allowed feeling special! **thwaps**
Ari: x.x itai . . .)
Yeah, I always thought that something had happened with Riku. There's no way he'd ever do anything he did if he hadn't been . . . **tries to find a word** told otherwise? Biased? Ehh, you know what I mean.
I'm confused about Riku, too . . . dammit, he needs to help me out again. But actually, I need a Kairi muse to help . . . **starts looking**
Well, Kairi can't really do anything else **giggles** but I dunno if she's having the time of her life . . . her two best friends are in this fight and she can't do anything. (OOH! Pink elephant song! **grins**) But I happy, I know what's happening . . . I just need to write it **snerk** but I don't think it'll happen **sweatdrops** My ygo addiction is starting up again and I'm scripting episodes for my webpages . . . O.
This chapter took awhile, don't you think? **laughs** ah well, I hope it was worth the wait!

~ Yami Marita ~
Ahh, it's all coming together now. (**cracks up** I use that line a lot, it's from The Emperor's New Groove . . . oh, yay, it's the Peter Pan part!)
No . . . time . . . I'm at school Monday—Thursday until 5PM at the earliest, except Fridays, in which case I leave at 2:30 and come back at 4:30, then stay til around 10 . . . x.x
Yay! Wonderful job from Ari? (**hides to avoid another thwapping**) I feel bad for making everyone wait so long for this chapter . . . (ooh, swordfight! **bursts out laughing again**)

~ DClick ~
**nods** must speed up story . . . XD I couldn't write Kairi just jumping around watching everyone's thoughts . . . ehh, boring!
You're confuseled, but I'm not. I know exactly what's happening, and I have the explanation included in a later chapter, as part of the story! **beams**
Well, I just got a one-shot bunny last night, so it could be four . . . **thinks** Five: this one, Crossed Trails, that PotO/KH bunny caught up (I know you know that one ^^;), the one shot, and I need to get started on my contest entry for Zoo's contest . . . hmm.
I find it hard to get on people's Favourite Authors lists . . . -_-" I've been on since November 2001, though I never posted anything . . . only a Mary-Sue HP story (O.O) which was taken down a long time ago, and then I've only been writing since July, I guess you could say.
And your stories ARE good! **thwaps for saying they're not** I like 'em! **beams** Muaha. (Yes . . . I caught the ^^;, just didn't acknowledge it :p)

~ Safire Ranmako ~
You almost didn't read it? Will you tell me why? (don't take it as a 'omfg someone said they wouldn't read my story grr', I just want to know why so that I could possibly fix it . . . XD)
Glad to hear you think it's good, and . . . I'm trying to keep going . . . not sure if it'll move though . . . XD

Ari's patented method of hiding papers parent's shouldn't find: Hide them in the back of the paper shredder (take off the top and put the papers in the back) XD

Again, I apologise for the delay in this chapter.

Question: Would you prefer this to be written
     ~ As from Reflections: Riku (i.e., the added part where Riku and Sora talk during the battle)
     ~ Normal (script)