AN: So, here's the scoop, I gave Sora a little action scene in this chappy! But don't expect anything amazing or anything, cuz u kno I'm still leaning on Riku's side :P hey has anyone else noticed that my so called 'fans' haven't shown up for a while? Well, I guess I can't blame them *sigh*
Disclaimers: Ok, sure I don't own Disney, Squaresoft or Kingdom Hearts, but now I get to own TWO things!! MUHWAHAHAHAHA!!! *Mariha and Natia: Hey! U don't own us!* Now I do! *evil grin* *Mariha and Natia beat me up* Owww x_X ok never mind then...
Plan B
Riku was in a place where there was noting but darkness. He couldn't see anything. But strangely enough, a spot light seemed to shine right over him. Suddenly, he saw a little ray of light following someone who was running toward him. It was Sora!
Am I dreaming again, thought Riku and he rubbed his eyes. Sora was still coming.
"Riku!" he called, stopping right in front of Riku, "Is that you?"
"Sora?" replied Riku, "Am I dreaming?"
"I don't think so, not unless we're having the same dream," he said.
"Good because I was worried that I'd -"
"Riku I can't believe it's you!" Sora cut off. He grinned, "I've been looking for you."
"You have?" said Riku a little surprised. Doesn't he still hate me, he thought.
"Of course!" replied Sora, "You didn't think that I'd just leave you trapped in Kingdom Hearts!"
"Oh, yea..." Riku couldn't think of anything to say, Sora didn't hate him! And he actually did doubt that Sora would come looking for him, but he didn't tell the other boy that.
"It's so good to see you Riku," Sora went on, "I just want to tell you now that I'm sorry for ignoring you back in Traverse Town."
"You're sorry?" said Riku in disbelief, "I'm the one who should be sorry! I caused you so much grief..."
"Well, I guess we can't do anything about it now," said Sora and Riku took this as forgiveness, "So lets go home."
"Alright!" cheered Riku, eagerness filling him, he would finally go home! But then he paused, what about Mariha? He couldn't just leave her all alone.
"Wait, I can't go yet," he said.
"What! Why not?" asked Sora.
"Someone else is trapped with me, I can't just leave," he said.
"Another person!" Sora exclaimed, but he nodded, "Ok, I understand, I think, but how are both of you going to get out?"
Riku thought for a moment. Mariha had been attempting to use that Tela Crystal to teleport them out. Maybe that plan would still work. But what if it didn't? Then he remembered about that light Sora had talked about before; a light in the darkest depths of Kingdom Hearts. Time for plan B.
"Sora," he said, "Go to Destiny Island, our island, and wait six days. If I haven't returned by then, go into the secret place. I'll find that light you talked about and release it. That wooden door, if you really want me to come home, it'll turn into the doors to Kingdom Hearts."
"Right, I got it," said Sora, "Ok, I hope this works!"
"Don't forget now," said Riku with a wink.
"Not a chance," replied Sora.
"I'll see you then I guess," said Riku, giving Sora the thumbs up.
"Yep!" said Sora and returned the gesture.
Then, Sora was surrounded in a beam of light and as the light shrunk and faded, so did Sora.
This better work, thought Riku. He blacked out.
~*~
"Sora!" yelled the familiar annoying voice of Donald.
Sora felt himself being grabbed by the arm and yanked backwards. In doing so, his hand lost contact with the crystal ball.
"Huh?" said Sora, slightly dazed.
"Are you ok?" asked Goofy.
"Hmm? Oh, yea,"
"What happened?" asked Simba.
At first Sora couldn't remember. It all seemed like a dream. Then it came back to him.
"Riku!" he said, "I saw Riku! We talked."
"What?!" said Donald and Goofy together.
Suddenly, the crystal ball glowed ever brighter then turned completely black. The four of them looked over at it in surprise. Then the darkness itself lifted from the ball and jumped up at them. They only moved away just in time. The darkness blob began to take shape. It formed a long, dark brown body, a tail, four legs and a head with a shaggy black main.
"Scar!" roared Simba. The other lion chuckled.
"Why hello there dear Simba!" said Scar, "I'm terribly sorry about not being able to greet you sooner, but I was taking a little nap."
"Scar, you're supposed to be dead!" said Simba.
"Yes, but so were you all those years ago," said Scar simply. He sighed, "That's what I get I guess for entrusting those dim witted hyenas to take care of you."
"Scar, what are you doing here!" said Simba with a frightening, roaring voice.
"You cam back to ruin all my planes last time we met Simba," continued Scar, "So I'm now I'm back to ruin yours!"
Scar then lunged at Simba swiping at the other lion with one big and powerful claw. Simba jumped aside.
"Simba!" called Sora.
"What?" said Scar, now staring at Sora. Then he laughed gleefully, "You brought the Key bearer here too? Oh you are making my job too easy Simba!"
"Come on," said Sora, getting into his fighting pose, Keyblade drawn, "We can take him!"
"Right!" coursed Donald and Goofy and they all joined the fight. Scar roared loudly and a band of hyena's appeared.
"Lets do this!"
~*~
Riku awoke. He had just talked with Sora, or was it a dream? No, it had to be real. He slowly sat up from his comfortable bed. He still ached so he plopped himself back down. He looked to the side of the bed. There, Mariha was sitting on her chair she had pulled up beside the bed. She had her head down on the edge of the soft bed mattress and was fast asleep.
Riku noticed a fire burning brightly in the fireplace. He felt a small pang of pain in his side and looked down to find that it had been bandaged up under his shirt. His head had one too, around his forehead like a bandana. He screwed up his face, imagining how stupid he must look and carefully unwrapped the cloth from his head. Mariha must have found it somewhere for he didn't remember her having all this before.
He pulled the little white handkerchief that Mariha had used on his arm a while back. He had kept it and washed the blood off. He had been meaning to give it back, but something stopped him. A part of him wanted to keep it, for what reason he really had no idea. He stuffed it back into his pocket and touched his cheek where Natia had hit him. There was defiantly a bruise as it stung when he touched it.
Riku flopped his hand to his side and stared at the ceiling. He had told Sora to open the door in six days. Within that time, Mariha should be ready to teleport them. And just in case that didn't work, he'd search for the light and wait for Sora to unlock the door. Then he and Mariha would finally be free. He just hoped that Sora really cared enough to want him to come home, or the plan would be meaningless.
"I hope we'll have enough time," he said to himself aloud.
Riku the rolled over onto his unhurt side, the one Mariha was sleeping on, and leaned over to her. She looked so calm. Suddenly, something came over Riku and he reached down to gently touch her cheek. Her eyes fluttered open.
Riku quickly pulled back and blushed. "Oh, sorry," he said uneasily, "I didn't mean to wake you."
"That's ok," she said, not seeming to notice his uneasiness. She looked up at him and made a little smile, which caused Riku to blush even deeper. Then a sharp pain pierced his side and flinched, not realizing that he had cried out, mostly out of surprise, as well.
"Are you ok?" Mariha asked now looking over to where his hand was, over his side.
"I'm a lot better than before, but maybe a rib is fractured," he said, "Hey, thanks for all this though."
Mariha looked down. "Well, I had to make up for all the trouble I've caused," she said and Riku was surprised at how much she sounded like himself, "I still think -"
"Don't," cut in Riku and she lifted her head to look at him, "It was all worth it for you friendship."
"Thanks," she said.
Riku didn't really know what he was doing, but he suddenly raised his hand to touch her cheek. She then put her hand over his and held it. Surprisingly he didn't feel uncomfortable anymore and he smiled a bit at that. With the pause came a long silence.
"Mariha," he said, breaking the silence and taking his hand away from her face, "I want to tell you that, I -I'm... well," what am I babbling about, he thought. He was so confused. He didn't know how he felt anymore, "Sorry. Yea, I'm so sorry that I lied to you."
"Riku..." started Mariha, but couldn't find the words to continue.
"But I promise," he continued, "I'll never turn on you. We're friends right? We're going to get out of here together."
Mariha smiled. "Thanks," she said, "That means a lot."
~*~
Sora kept hacking at Scar but he didn't seem to be causing any damage. He was getting desperate. Scar was relentless and the hyenas kept coming out of nowhere to top it all off. He decided to take out the hyenas first then maybe he'd have figured out a way to defeat Scar then. So, as soon as he had cleared away all the hyenas, he turned back to face Scar.
"Your pretty good," Scar said to Sora, "Defeating all my hyenas already."
"Humph," snorted Sora, he really didn't care about Scars small talk that was obviously stalling for something.
"But now you're mine!" Scar lunged at Sora who wasn't expecting anything but suddenly Simba jumped in front to block the attack. All Sora saw was a blur of fur teeth and claws.
"Simba!" Sora called.
"Sora, quickly, destroy the orb," said Simba dodging a swipe from Scars paw.
"But..." He didn't want to leave Simba alone to fight Scar.
"GO!"
Sora nodded, even though Simba was no longer watching him but had gotten back into a rolling fight with Scar, and ran over to the crystal ball.
"No, you'll never defeat me!" roared Scar and went for Sora. But Simba pulled him back by the tail.
"We're not done!" he said.
"Simba!" roared Scar, "I should have killed you myself all those years ago!"
"Should've, could've, would've, didn't," smirked Simba.
"I'll have great pleasure in killing you now with my own two paws," said Scar, "Though I do wish it were more like Mufasa's death."
That made Simba mad. He charged ragingly at Scar.
"No I'll have the pleasure in making you pay for killing my father!" he roared.
While the two lions fought, Sora reached the pedestal on which the crystal orb stood on.
I need to dispel the darkness, thought Sora. He closed and concentrated with the light of his heart. He wished for the balance of good and evil to be restored to this world. There, deep inside him, a light shone. He needed to get the light to conceal the darkness.
Sora felt the light of his heart inside him reached out to the orb. He felt it enter it, but the darkness wasn't backing down. He began to distress. His light, it wasn't working!
Why won't it work, he thought, I'm the Keyblade master, I have the purest heart, so why does it have no effect on the darkness?
Then a thought hit him. Of course! The Keyblade! He'd just use the Keyblade to help his light. He raised it and pointed at the orb. A beam of light darted from the Keyblade to the crystal ball of darkness. The light of Sora's heart and the light of the Keyblade reached the darkness and it exploded outwards. The crystal didn't break, but Sora felt the wave of the darkness flow past him and he looked over at where Simba and Scar where fighting.
"Nooo!" shrieked Scar, "How could you beat me? I'm not finished with you Simba! I'll get yoooooou..."
His voice died away as he began to disintegrate into darkness, which floated away.
"Um, what happened?" asked Goofy when everything was totally quiet for a few seconds.
"It wasn't really Scar," replied Sora, "It was like his ghost that had taken a physical form with the help of the darkness."
"Oh! I get it!" said Goofy, "Um, what'd you say again?"
"Never mind!" said Donald. Simba and Sora laughed but stopped when Donald gave them the this-is-not-at-all-funny-don't-you-dare-laugh-at-me look.
"I guess we should head back to Pride Rock," said Simba.
They all followed him out of the cave, and into the sunlight.
~*~
"Oh Mariha I almost forgot!" exclaimed Riku.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I -I spoke with Sora in my dream," he said.
"What!"
"Yea," continued Riku, "I told him that you were with me and that you were working on teleporting us to an outside world."
"Yes..."
"So," Riku continued, "I told him that if we weren't on Destiny Islands in six days, that he should open this door to get us out."
"But I don't understand," said Mariha, "How is he going to find the door? If no one's found it so far, why would it suddenly appear for him?"
"Well, it's a little complicated," replied Riku, "See, there's this light that is deep within Kingdom Hearts. If we find the light and release it, Sora will be able to find the door, seeing as he is the Keyblade Mater, so he can open it and we can all go home."
"So, even if I can't teleport us, there's still another chance that we'll get out?" asked Mariha.
"Yep," replied Riku nodding.
"Alright!" she cheered and grinned. At least she seemed to be her cheerful self again.
"Oh!" said Mariha suddenly, "I almost forgot, I think my magic is strong enough now! While I waited and you slept I concentrated really, really hard and I think all my time on it has paid off! Riku, as soon as you're better, we'll be able to go!"
"Really!" said Riku in excitement, "That's great! Come on, let's go now."
"Whoa, hold on there," said Mariha, "You may be feeling better, but you're not well enough to go."
"But," complained Riku.
"No buts!" Mariha cut off, "I'm the one who'll be taking us so I say when we go. Come on, it won't kill you to wait one day."
"I guess there's no arguing with you," Riku said with a sigh.
"Great," she said, "Then if you're feeling as good as you hope you are, let's get out of this crazy castle."
"No argue there," agreed Riku.
They both grabbed new, clean blankets to sleep on since they didn't think they'd be going back to their little camp and hurried outside. They found that the castle had conveniently settled itself back into the ground.
"Well, this is sure handy," said Mariha. She walked away from the castle gates to where Riku was waiting for her a little ways off.
"The castle!" he cried suddenly, pointing to it, "It's vanishing!"
"Wha?" Mariha turned and looked over to the castle. To her surprise, it had completely disappeared into thin air. Where the castle had been just moments before, was now nothing but a gathering of those strange tree toadstool things. Mariha walked over beside Riku.
"Well, that would explain why we never saw it before," he said as he continued to walk, Mariha to his side, "It never existed. Ansem must have conjured it up our of nothing..."
Riku and Mariha walked slowly down a steep, rocky cliff then reached another forest. But this one was different. It had actual trees in it, only they were all dead. Dried leaves scattered the floor as their owners stood bare. Many of the trees were twisted into crazy knots and bent into strange positions for a tree. Most of them were hollow and had large, head sized holes in there trunks. A home for a shadow heartless maybe?
The forest's trees looked very intimidating with their bare and twisted branches. The forest had not path going through it but it didn't matter since it wasn't that dense. Each tree seemed to have a few good feet apart from the other. No other plants could be seen growing on the ground like they would in a normal forest, partly because of the thick carpet of dead leaves covered it. Not a hint of green was to be seen anywhere.
"Well isn't this inviting," said Mariha sarcastically. She walked up to a tree and examined it closely. It had a big hollow hold in it and she raised her hand to touch it.
"Don't," said Riku, coming beside her and lower her hand, "I don't like it here, this place gives me a bad feeling."
He looked around he could almost hear Ansem's mocking voice laughing at him. Mariha tried to follow his gaze to see what he was looking at.
"We should stay together," Riku said. Mariha nodded. No argue there, this place gave her the creeps."
She went to grab the hilt of her sword to comfort herself when she realized that it wasn't there.
"My sword!" she said in distress, "Where is my sword?"
Riku who had walked further ahead turned and came back to where Mariha was standing.
"What? Where'd you see it last?" he asked.
Mariha tried to think. She closed her eyes and tried to remember when she had it last.
"Ah no," she moaned, opening her eyes suddenly.
"What?"
"No, that stupid other self or yours destroyed it!" she complained.
Riku sighed, annoyed, he'd had just about enough of Ansem.
"It's ok," said Mariha, "I probably won't even need it seeing as we're leaving tomorrow. Besides, I still have my magic."
She smiled at him. Riku couldn't stay annoyed even with Ansem when she smiled like that.
"If you say so," he said.
"Ok, I guess we should walk until we get tired then I'll try teleporting us when we wake tomorrow," suggested Mariha.
"Great," agreed Riku.
The two of them walked side by side through the dark woods until there legs wouldn't carry them any further. They set down their blankets, lay down and fell asleep instantly, exhausted from their long hike through the Dead Forest.
AN: Yup, that'll prolly be the extent of my action scene writing skills *sigh* but no one's perfect! *random crow: well you should be!* hey! Who said you had anything to do this? *random crow attacks me* this is not my day! *is dead*
Disclaimers: Ok, sure I don't own Disney, Squaresoft or Kingdom Hearts, but now I get to own TWO things!! MUHWAHAHAHAHA!!! *Mariha and Natia: Hey! U don't own us!* Now I do! *evil grin* *Mariha and Natia beat me up* Owww x_X ok never mind then...
Plan B
Riku was in a place where there was noting but darkness. He couldn't see anything. But strangely enough, a spot light seemed to shine right over him. Suddenly, he saw a little ray of light following someone who was running toward him. It was Sora!
Am I dreaming again, thought Riku and he rubbed his eyes. Sora was still coming.
"Riku!" he called, stopping right in front of Riku, "Is that you?"
"Sora?" replied Riku, "Am I dreaming?"
"I don't think so, not unless we're having the same dream," he said.
"Good because I was worried that I'd -"
"Riku I can't believe it's you!" Sora cut off. He grinned, "I've been looking for you."
"You have?" said Riku a little surprised. Doesn't he still hate me, he thought.
"Of course!" replied Sora, "You didn't think that I'd just leave you trapped in Kingdom Hearts!"
"Oh, yea..." Riku couldn't think of anything to say, Sora didn't hate him! And he actually did doubt that Sora would come looking for him, but he didn't tell the other boy that.
"It's so good to see you Riku," Sora went on, "I just want to tell you now that I'm sorry for ignoring you back in Traverse Town."
"You're sorry?" said Riku in disbelief, "I'm the one who should be sorry! I caused you so much grief..."
"Well, I guess we can't do anything about it now," said Sora and Riku took this as forgiveness, "So lets go home."
"Alright!" cheered Riku, eagerness filling him, he would finally go home! But then he paused, what about Mariha? He couldn't just leave her all alone.
"Wait, I can't go yet," he said.
"What! Why not?" asked Sora.
"Someone else is trapped with me, I can't just leave," he said.
"Another person!" Sora exclaimed, but he nodded, "Ok, I understand, I think, but how are both of you going to get out?"
Riku thought for a moment. Mariha had been attempting to use that Tela Crystal to teleport them out. Maybe that plan would still work. But what if it didn't? Then he remembered about that light Sora had talked about before; a light in the darkest depths of Kingdom Hearts. Time for plan B.
"Sora," he said, "Go to Destiny Island, our island, and wait six days. If I haven't returned by then, go into the secret place. I'll find that light you talked about and release it. That wooden door, if you really want me to come home, it'll turn into the doors to Kingdom Hearts."
"Right, I got it," said Sora, "Ok, I hope this works!"
"Don't forget now," said Riku with a wink.
"Not a chance," replied Sora.
"I'll see you then I guess," said Riku, giving Sora the thumbs up.
"Yep!" said Sora and returned the gesture.
Then, Sora was surrounded in a beam of light and as the light shrunk and faded, so did Sora.
This better work, thought Riku. He blacked out.
~*~
"Sora!" yelled the familiar annoying voice of Donald.
Sora felt himself being grabbed by the arm and yanked backwards. In doing so, his hand lost contact with the crystal ball.
"Huh?" said Sora, slightly dazed.
"Are you ok?" asked Goofy.
"Hmm? Oh, yea,"
"What happened?" asked Simba.
At first Sora couldn't remember. It all seemed like a dream. Then it came back to him.
"Riku!" he said, "I saw Riku! We talked."
"What?!" said Donald and Goofy together.
Suddenly, the crystal ball glowed ever brighter then turned completely black. The four of them looked over at it in surprise. Then the darkness itself lifted from the ball and jumped up at them. They only moved away just in time. The darkness blob began to take shape. It formed a long, dark brown body, a tail, four legs and a head with a shaggy black main.
"Scar!" roared Simba. The other lion chuckled.
"Why hello there dear Simba!" said Scar, "I'm terribly sorry about not being able to greet you sooner, but I was taking a little nap."
"Scar, you're supposed to be dead!" said Simba.
"Yes, but so were you all those years ago," said Scar simply. He sighed, "That's what I get I guess for entrusting those dim witted hyenas to take care of you."
"Scar, what are you doing here!" said Simba with a frightening, roaring voice.
"You cam back to ruin all my planes last time we met Simba," continued Scar, "So I'm now I'm back to ruin yours!"
Scar then lunged at Simba swiping at the other lion with one big and powerful claw. Simba jumped aside.
"Simba!" called Sora.
"What?" said Scar, now staring at Sora. Then he laughed gleefully, "You brought the Key bearer here too? Oh you are making my job too easy Simba!"
"Come on," said Sora, getting into his fighting pose, Keyblade drawn, "We can take him!"
"Right!" coursed Donald and Goofy and they all joined the fight. Scar roared loudly and a band of hyena's appeared.
"Lets do this!"
~*~
Riku awoke. He had just talked with Sora, or was it a dream? No, it had to be real. He slowly sat up from his comfortable bed. He still ached so he plopped himself back down. He looked to the side of the bed. There, Mariha was sitting on her chair she had pulled up beside the bed. She had her head down on the edge of the soft bed mattress and was fast asleep.
Riku noticed a fire burning brightly in the fireplace. He felt a small pang of pain in his side and looked down to find that it had been bandaged up under his shirt. His head had one too, around his forehead like a bandana. He screwed up his face, imagining how stupid he must look and carefully unwrapped the cloth from his head. Mariha must have found it somewhere for he didn't remember her having all this before.
He pulled the little white handkerchief that Mariha had used on his arm a while back. He had kept it and washed the blood off. He had been meaning to give it back, but something stopped him. A part of him wanted to keep it, for what reason he really had no idea. He stuffed it back into his pocket and touched his cheek where Natia had hit him. There was defiantly a bruise as it stung when he touched it.
Riku flopped his hand to his side and stared at the ceiling. He had told Sora to open the door in six days. Within that time, Mariha should be ready to teleport them. And just in case that didn't work, he'd search for the light and wait for Sora to unlock the door. Then he and Mariha would finally be free. He just hoped that Sora really cared enough to want him to come home, or the plan would be meaningless.
"I hope we'll have enough time," he said to himself aloud.
Riku the rolled over onto his unhurt side, the one Mariha was sleeping on, and leaned over to her. She looked so calm. Suddenly, something came over Riku and he reached down to gently touch her cheek. Her eyes fluttered open.
Riku quickly pulled back and blushed. "Oh, sorry," he said uneasily, "I didn't mean to wake you."
"That's ok," she said, not seeming to notice his uneasiness. She looked up at him and made a little smile, which caused Riku to blush even deeper. Then a sharp pain pierced his side and flinched, not realizing that he had cried out, mostly out of surprise, as well.
"Are you ok?" Mariha asked now looking over to where his hand was, over his side.
"I'm a lot better than before, but maybe a rib is fractured," he said, "Hey, thanks for all this though."
Mariha looked down. "Well, I had to make up for all the trouble I've caused," she said and Riku was surprised at how much she sounded like himself, "I still think -"
"Don't," cut in Riku and she lifted her head to look at him, "It was all worth it for you friendship."
"Thanks," she said.
Riku didn't really know what he was doing, but he suddenly raised his hand to touch her cheek. She then put her hand over his and held it. Surprisingly he didn't feel uncomfortable anymore and he smiled a bit at that. With the pause came a long silence.
"Mariha," he said, breaking the silence and taking his hand away from her face, "I want to tell you that, I -I'm... well," what am I babbling about, he thought. He was so confused. He didn't know how he felt anymore, "Sorry. Yea, I'm so sorry that I lied to you."
"Riku..." started Mariha, but couldn't find the words to continue.
"But I promise," he continued, "I'll never turn on you. We're friends right? We're going to get out of here together."
Mariha smiled. "Thanks," she said, "That means a lot."
~*~
Sora kept hacking at Scar but he didn't seem to be causing any damage. He was getting desperate. Scar was relentless and the hyenas kept coming out of nowhere to top it all off. He decided to take out the hyenas first then maybe he'd have figured out a way to defeat Scar then. So, as soon as he had cleared away all the hyenas, he turned back to face Scar.
"Your pretty good," Scar said to Sora, "Defeating all my hyenas already."
"Humph," snorted Sora, he really didn't care about Scars small talk that was obviously stalling for something.
"But now you're mine!" Scar lunged at Sora who wasn't expecting anything but suddenly Simba jumped in front to block the attack. All Sora saw was a blur of fur teeth and claws.
"Simba!" Sora called.
"Sora, quickly, destroy the orb," said Simba dodging a swipe from Scars paw.
"But..." He didn't want to leave Simba alone to fight Scar.
"GO!"
Sora nodded, even though Simba was no longer watching him but had gotten back into a rolling fight with Scar, and ran over to the crystal ball.
"No, you'll never defeat me!" roared Scar and went for Sora. But Simba pulled him back by the tail.
"We're not done!" he said.
"Simba!" roared Scar, "I should have killed you myself all those years ago!"
"Should've, could've, would've, didn't," smirked Simba.
"I'll have great pleasure in killing you now with my own two paws," said Scar, "Though I do wish it were more like Mufasa's death."
That made Simba mad. He charged ragingly at Scar.
"No I'll have the pleasure in making you pay for killing my father!" he roared.
While the two lions fought, Sora reached the pedestal on which the crystal orb stood on.
I need to dispel the darkness, thought Sora. He closed and concentrated with the light of his heart. He wished for the balance of good and evil to be restored to this world. There, deep inside him, a light shone. He needed to get the light to conceal the darkness.
Sora felt the light of his heart inside him reached out to the orb. He felt it enter it, but the darkness wasn't backing down. He began to distress. His light, it wasn't working!
Why won't it work, he thought, I'm the Keyblade master, I have the purest heart, so why does it have no effect on the darkness?
Then a thought hit him. Of course! The Keyblade! He'd just use the Keyblade to help his light. He raised it and pointed at the orb. A beam of light darted from the Keyblade to the crystal ball of darkness. The light of Sora's heart and the light of the Keyblade reached the darkness and it exploded outwards. The crystal didn't break, but Sora felt the wave of the darkness flow past him and he looked over at where Simba and Scar where fighting.
"Nooo!" shrieked Scar, "How could you beat me? I'm not finished with you Simba! I'll get yoooooou..."
His voice died away as he began to disintegrate into darkness, which floated away.
"Um, what happened?" asked Goofy when everything was totally quiet for a few seconds.
"It wasn't really Scar," replied Sora, "It was like his ghost that had taken a physical form with the help of the darkness."
"Oh! I get it!" said Goofy, "Um, what'd you say again?"
"Never mind!" said Donald. Simba and Sora laughed but stopped when Donald gave them the this-is-not-at-all-funny-don't-you-dare-laugh-at-me look.
"I guess we should head back to Pride Rock," said Simba.
They all followed him out of the cave, and into the sunlight.
~*~
"Oh Mariha I almost forgot!" exclaimed Riku.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I -I spoke with Sora in my dream," he said.
"What!"
"Yea," continued Riku, "I told him that you were with me and that you were working on teleporting us to an outside world."
"Yes..."
"So," Riku continued, "I told him that if we weren't on Destiny Islands in six days, that he should open this door to get us out."
"But I don't understand," said Mariha, "How is he going to find the door? If no one's found it so far, why would it suddenly appear for him?"
"Well, it's a little complicated," replied Riku, "See, there's this light that is deep within Kingdom Hearts. If we find the light and release it, Sora will be able to find the door, seeing as he is the Keyblade Mater, so he can open it and we can all go home."
"So, even if I can't teleport us, there's still another chance that we'll get out?" asked Mariha.
"Yep," replied Riku nodding.
"Alright!" she cheered and grinned. At least she seemed to be her cheerful self again.
"Oh!" said Mariha suddenly, "I almost forgot, I think my magic is strong enough now! While I waited and you slept I concentrated really, really hard and I think all my time on it has paid off! Riku, as soon as you're better, we'll be able to go!"
"Really!" said Riku in excitement, "That's great! Come on, let's go now."
"Whoa, hold on there," said Mariha, "You may be feeling better, but you're not well enough to go."
"But," complained Riku.
"No buts!" Mariha cut off, "I'm the one who'll be taking us so I say when we go. Come on, it won't kill you to wait one day."
"I guess there's no arguing with you," Riku said with a sigh.
"Great," she said, "Then if you're feeling as good as you hope you are, let's get out of this crazy castle."
"No argue there," agreed Riku.
They both grabbed new, clean blankets to sleep on since they didn't think they'd be going back to their little camp and hurried outside. They found that the castle had conveniently settled itself back into the ground.
"Well, this is sure handy," said Mariha. She walked away from the castle gates to where Riku was waiting for her a little ways off.
"The castle!" he cried suddenly, pointing to it, "It's vanishing!"
"Wha?" Mariha turned and looked over to the castle. To her surprise, it had completely disappeared into thin air. Where the castle had been just moments before, was now nothing but a gathering of those strange tree toadstool things. Mariha walked over beside Riku.
"Well, that would explain why we never saw it before," he said as he continued to walk, Mariha to his side, "It never existed. Ansem must have conjured it up our of nothing..."
Riku and Mariha walked slowly down a steep, rocky cliff then reached another forest. But this one was different. It had actual trees in it, only they were all dead. Dried leaves scattered the floor as their owners stood bare. Many of the trees were twisted into crazy knots and bent into strange positions for a tree. Most of them were hollow and had large, head sized holes in there trunks. A home for a shadow heartless maybe?
The forest's trees looked very intimidating with their bare and twisted branches. The forest had not path going through it but it didn't matter since it wasn't that dense. Each tree seemed to have a few good feet apart from the other. No other plants could be seen growing on the ground like they would in a normal forest, partly because of the thick carpet of dead leaves covered it. Not a hint of green was to be seen anywhere.
"Well isn't this inviting," said Mariha sarcastically. She walked up to a tree and examined it closely. It had a big hollow hold in it and she raised her hand to touch it.
"Don't," said Riku, coming beside her and lower her hand, "I don't like it here, this place gives me a bad feeling."
He looked around he could almost hear Ansem's mocking voice laughing at him. Mariha tried to follow his gaze to see what he was looking at.
"We should stay together," Riku said. Mariha nodded. No argue there, this place gave her the creeps."
She went to grab the hilt of her sword to comfort herself when she realized that it wasn't there.
"My sword!" she said in distress, "Where is my sword?"
Riku who had walked further ahead turned and came back to where Mariha was standing.
"What? Where'd you see it last?" he asked.
Mariha tried to think. She closed her eyes and tried to remember when she had it last.
"Ah no," she moaned, opening her eyes suddenly.
"What?"
"No, that stupid other self or yours destroyed it!" she complained.
Riku sighed, annoyed, he'd had just about enough of Ansem.
"It's ok," said Mariha, "I probably won't even need it seeing as we're leaving tomorrow. Besides, I still have my magic."
She smiled at him. Riku couldn't stay annoyed even with Ansem when she smiled like that.
"If you say so," he said.
"Ok, I guess we should walk until we get tired then I'll try teleporting us when we wake tomorrow," suggested Mariha.
"Great," agreed Riku.
The two of them walked side by side through the dark woods until there legs wouldn't carry them any further. They set down their blankets, lay down and fell asleep instantly, exhausted from their long hike through the Dead Forest.
AN: Yup, that'll prolly be the extent of my action scene writing skills *sigh* but no one's perfect! *random crow: well you should be!* hey! Who said you had anything to do this? *random crow attacks me* this is not my day! *is dead*