AN: ok sorry that took so long!!! I had such a crazy day yesterday XD and now my mouth hurts cuza my stupid braces!! *is dead* But enjoy the chapter then! O and u may noticed the rating has been changed from PG to PG-13 cuz there's some swearing and stuff.... This is what happens when I write after listening to Eminem o.O *Fans: hey I thought u were dead!* o yea *is dead again*
Disclaimers: I really think you've gotten the message that I don't own anything really thought I'd love to! But my life is full of too much laziness to own anything. *Mariha: hey! Wut about us!* *Natia, Naomi and Alee nodd* umm, u guys were a cookie I ate gone bad... *all: o.O* ha! Jks! Ok just read....
Lesson Learned
Riku woke up in the same jail cell he had been in before. At least he thought it was the same one. If it wasn't, it looked exactly the same. He rubbed the back of his soar neck where the hard, blunt end of Ansems dagger hilt had hit him. As his head cleared, he started to remember what had happened. A heartless had carried him into a chamber, Ansem was there and... Mariha! No, what had happened to her?
Riku jumped to his feet. He looked around but it did nothing because everything seemed darker than it had been before. Then, from the corner of his eye, Riku thought he saw something move in the far corner of the cell. He walked over to it cautiously.
Without a weapon Riku raised his fists, ready for any sudden attack. He inched closer. It was so dark. Then, as Riku stood over the black figure, the slightest flicker of the torchlight enabled him to see what he was up against. It was Mariha!
"Mariha?" said Riku, a bit confused. Why is she here now but not before? She didn't move. Riku panicked and remembered what Ansem had done. She was dead; he put her there to toy with Riku. Riku looked away, he could feel tears stinging the corner of his eyes.
"Owwww," groaned Mariha suddenly, opening her eyes and getting up. "Huh?" She looked at Riku.
"You're ok!" he exclaimed in shock. He flung his arms around her and hugged her close.
"Um, ok... what's up?" asked Mariha, totally puzzled.
Riku let go of her and she gave him a questioning look. Realizing what he had just done, Riku blushed so deeply that it was lucky for him that the lighting was so low. He looked down in embarrassment.
"Hey what happened? Where are we?" asked Mariha not noticing Riku's face turning bight red and looked around. "Ouch!"
Riku looked up. Mariha had her hand on her right cheek. "Where'd I get this?" she said. She took her hand away to show Riku. Her hand was covered in blood. Riku gasped and looked at her face. There on her cheek was a cut vertical to the floor from just below her eye down to her chin. It was a clean cut and kept bleeding.
That's what Ansem must have done! That bastard sliced her cheek, thought Riku. Then a shock came over him, he really does lover her. So mush as to spare her life!
"Here let me see," said Riku holding out his hand. He touched the cut gently.
"Oww," said Mariha wincing and Riku pulled back.
"Does it hurt a lot?" he asked.
"A little," Mariha replied.
Riku thought for a moment then remembered the handkerchief Mariha had giving him for his injury. He pulled it out of his pocket. So this was the reason he held back from giving it to her again, she needed it now.
"Hold on," he said. Mariha nodded.
Riku went over to the stone slab of a bed where beside it sat a little dish filled with water. He soaked the cloth in it. It couldn't be that clean, but it was better than nothing. He rung it out and called to Mariha.
"Come on over here, there's more light."
Mariha got up from where she had been sitting on the cold floor and sat cross-legged on the bed thing.
"Now stay still for a second," Riku said. He took his wet hand and washed away the blood from Mariha's face. She winced in pain but Riku needed to ignore it so he could finish. He took the cloth and folded it up and pressed it gently against her cheek to cover the cut.
"K, hold this in place until the bleeding stops," he said and moved his had away when she put hers up to hold it.
"Yes Doctor!" she laughed. Riku still thought it amazing that she could be so joking at a time like this. It made him smile but hers soon vanished from her face. "Um, Riku?"
"Yea?" he said sitting on the stone slab with his back against the wall and his hands behind his head.
"What happened?" How'd we get here?" she asked. Riku flinched a little but Mariha didn't notice. He didn't want to have to explain it all. Just thinking about that grimy darkness-loving freak being in love with Mariha made him want to throw up.
"Well it's kind of a long story..." said Riku for the lack of a better excuse.
"It's not like we'll be going anywhere any time soon," replied Mariha with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"O all right!" sighed Riku. There was no escaping it.
So Riku told Mariha everything he could remember after their teleporting didn't work. The spell Ansem cast on her seemed to fry her memory for she didn't even remember when they bumped into those heartless well after they got dropped out of the teleporting vortex. He told her everything, everything except the fact that Ansem was in love with her. Riku figured that it would probably just freak her out he and still couldn't stand the thought of it either.
"Ansem..." said Mariha quietly when Riku finished. Riku's heart skipped a beat. Did she remember? Did she remember Ansem calling her that 'flower' thing?
"Ansem is the one who tricked me and turned me into that horrible demon isn't he?" she said softly with a saddened look on her face. She brought the cloth away from her face, which had stopped bleeding but left a red cut line across her cheek.
Riku relaxed in relief that she didn't remember but looked at Mariha concerned. She sounded so sad. It was amazing how her feelings seemed to affect him. This sort of thing had never happened to him before.
"Yea, it was," said Riku in an equally as small voice, "He also tricked me. To betray a friend in a hopeless attempt to save another..."
"What?" said Mariha loudly in surprise that made Riku jump a little.
"What, he didn't tell you? Figures..." said Riku, "I did betray my friend Sora, because I was trying to help my other friend Kairi who had lost her heart."
Riku looked down in shame so his eyes were hidden in the shadows. Mariha listened without a sound. It was so hard, so why was he doing it? It was so hard to remember, it hurt to.
"Back on my island Sora, Kairi, and I we're all good friends. But one day, something happened that changed our lives.
"The heartless had connected with our world and soon it was plunged into darkness. I thought I was a way off the tiny island I sometimes considered a prison, a chance to see the outside worlds. I took that chance and fell into the darkness.
"I was transported to a world unknown to me. I searched for Sora and Kairi but couldn't find them. Finally, I bumped into Sora in Traverse Town. I was surprised to see that he had changed so mush since I saw him last.
"He had two new friends. And, he hand what was called the Keyblade. It was a weapon to use against the heartless and could seal the heart of a world to prevent the heartless from over running it. So he was supposedly some sort of big hero. I was jealous, certain that such a power should be mine, not his. After all, I was the stronger one back on our island. So when he chose to stick with his new friends rather than me, I fled out of sight.
"I was then approached by Maleficent, a witch who used the heartless. She convinced me that Sora no longer cared for me as a friend and he was too caught up in being the hero he had always dreamed of being. She offered me a deal. I help her get what she wants and pay no heed to Sora, and I get what I want, Kairi.
"Maleficent had wanted me to get her the seven princesses of heart so she could open the final door to darkness. I got six. Kairi was the seventh. But she had lost her heart, and without it, the door would never open by now I was so deep in the darkness that I didn't care about Kairi for her safe being, but for her heart to open the door. I was possessed by Ansem.
"The only way for Kairi to get her heart back was to find it. And I did. Sora and her hand such a strong love for each other that some how Kairi's heart was a part of Soras. So we fought. He won. But he sacrificed himself to give Kairi her heart back. Then Ansem used my defeated body to re-create his own. Aware of my mistakes, I was able to hold Ansem off so Kairi could escape.
"Sora was turned into a heartless. He caught up with Kairi and because she cared so much about him, he returned. He then went off to defeat Ansem. I was lost in the darkness. I was so jealous because the Keyblade, it WAS destined to be mine. But when I joined the darkness to escape my island, it chose Sora instead. So after Sora defeated Ansem, he and King Mickey used their Keyblades to seal Kingdom Hearts. Mickey and I were both trapped inside but Mickey found a way to escape. I was fighting the Cerberus remember?"
"I remember," said Mariha nodding, then viciously adding, "If it hadn't been for me you'd be dead!"
Riku laughed, "O yea, did I ever thank you for that?"
Suddenly Mariha leaned against Riku's chest and closed her eyes. Riku blushed a bit and froze. What was he supposed to do?
"Thank you for letting me know the truth," she said.
"No problem," replied Riku relaxing a little. But Mariha was fast asleep. Then he suddenly felt a wave of sleepiness come over him. He yawned.
He had just done something that he had never done, had been afraid of doing; facing his past. All through his childhood, if he did something to terribly wrong that no forgiveness could come upon him, he'd concentrate all his energy into blocking it form his memory. Making it seem like it never happened, it didn't exist. That was probably why he remembered so little from his childhood. The only things he could remember were hanging around with Sora, but everything before the age of six was a blur, an empty hole.
He had after all blocked out Naomi's existence because he was so ashamed, ashamed and angry with himself for letting her drown. That was something he could never forgive himself for doing. Now, when he wanted to know, all he had were dreams. Come to think of it, why was he having these dreams all of a sudden? Maybe it was this place, Kingdom Hearts, where all hearts were born. So maybe that affected him somehow.
But he would now learn from his mistakes in the past rather than block them out. He couldn't run from them forever. No, he'd stop blocking out things he was ashamed of from his memory. He had already started. There was no way he was going to forget this journey. With a last little chuckle, he fell asleep
~*~
Sora didn't know how long he'd been sitting there in their ship thinking, but suddenly he felt a big thump. Had they landed already? Yep, sure enough when Sora looked out the window, their ship had landed in a new world.
"Hey, how long did that take?" asked Sora.
"Not long at all really, we practically took off 2 minutes ago," replied Donald.
Wow, nice going Cid, thought Sora as he stepped outside and looked over the ship. Not only had he made it faster, but there were better weapons on it, as well as a better navigational system.
Sora was so busy checking out the new upgrades on the ship that he didn't realize where they had landed.
"A-a-ah, Sora?" stammered Donald from behind Sora.
"Yea? O man! Have you seen what Cid did to the gummi ship!" said Sora without turning around, "It's so awesome!"
"S-S-Sora!" Goofy said in the same stuttery voice.
"Hey? What's up with you two?" said Sora slowly turning around towards them, "You sound like you've seen a -"
Sora was stopped short for as soon as he turned around and saw what Donald and Goofy were talking about; he almost had a heart attack himself. There, standing over them was a giant wiener dog.
"Monster," finished Sora in a small voice.
~*~
It had been a while since Riku had dreamt of her. He hadn't dreamt of Naomi since the day he found out she had died out on the water. But there they were, making sand sculptures on the beach.
Riku and Naomi laughed together as they tried to figure out what the other had made. Riku was back in his six-year-old body and couldn't remember the last time he'd had so much fun.
"Um, it kinda looks like a seahorse," said Naomi, "Can you guess mine?"
Riku looked at the sculpture in front of her. It started out as a starfish then, suddenly the sand started shifting. It shifted around until it formed a face he knew all to well. Ansem. His face in the sand smiled wide and jumped up to reveal Ansem in the flesh. Riku could only stare as Ansem rose his arms and everything turned black; the sun, the sky, the sand and the ocean. With all the darkness, Ansem began to grow lager and larger until Riku was only the size of his thumb.
"Riku!" screamed Naomi and Riku watched in horror as Ansem snatched her up into an enormous hand. The last thing Riku saw of her were two terror stricken eyes he would never forget before Ansem crushed her into darkness.
"Naomi!" cried Riku and awoke. He was panting and it felt like his life had been sucked out of him for a second.
"Who is she?" said a small voice from a dark corner. It was Mariha, "I've heard that name before."
"I don't remember who she is," said Riku truthfully, "She keeps appearing in my dreams."
Riku didn't want to tell Mariha about Naomi. Not yet anyways. What would she think of him if she knew he had let his own best friend down? No Riku, he thought, this is what happened when you didn't tell her about Sora and the others... But he wouldn't tell her. No, he couldn't. Besides, he still didn't know a lot about her anyway.
"O," was all Mariha said. She moved her gaze from Riku onto the floor and began drawing on it with her finger. Riku couldn't tell if she believed him or not because she wasn't showing any signs of it. Actually, she wasn't showing any signs of anything. She seemed to be distracted by something.
Riku looked to the floor where Mariha was dragging her finger back and forth but didn't see her trying to draw anything in particular. It was like she was totally cut-off from the world around her and was in a world of her own, lost within her mind.
Riku looked to her with a saddened face but then remembered something that caused him to jump to his feet. His sudden movement caught Mariha's attention and she glanced his way. She seemed to snap out of her little trance.
"Ah shit!" swore Riku loudly.
"What's wrong king of the poo?" asked Mariha jokingly herself again. Well that got her attention, thought Riku and gave her a ha-ha-very-funny-o-and-you-know-that-I'm-saying-this-sarcastically look.
"How are we supposed to get out of here?" he said, back to the point, "We need to meet Sora in four days and we're stuck here!" He groaned in frustration.
Maybe all that thinking was taking a toll on his brain. He sat back down on the cells bed and held his head up with his hands, trying to clear his head from a sudden panic that they'd never get to Sora in time. He didn't notice Mariha walk over to him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry," she said softly, "We'll both get out of here and you'll go home. We'll figure something out, we always do."
"I hope your right," said Riku thought he didn't know how much hope he had left.
"Hey! Since when have you questioned my awesome knowledge and skill?" said Mariha posing as if she were in front of a camera.
"Since you messed up on that teleporting thing," Riku slyly replied. Mariha shot him a playful glare.
"You want more?" he said in return for that look, "There was also that time when you -"
"Yea, yea, we get the point!" cut-off Mariha and she ruffled his hair.
"Hey! Watch it!" he said shooing her off. Mariha laughed and Riku tried to fix his messed up hair. They both laughed as Riku's efforts to straighten out the mess only resulted in making the matter worse. Then, they fell silent immediately as a loud thud came from down the corridor. They waited in silence as the footsteps got closer and closer. Finally, a figure stopped at Riku and Mariha's cell. It was Ansem, and two Fire bandit heartless followed him.
"You," said Riku. He was fed up with Ansems little games, "What do you want you creep!"
"Just wanted to say hello," said Ansem causally.
Riku had such a loathing towards Ansem that he couldn't control. He charged at Ansem and tried to grab him through the bars of his prison. Ansem easily avoided the assault.
"What do you want with us!" demanded Riku and spit at the tall man. Ansem calmly walked up to Riku and grabbed his wrist with great agility. He grasped them tightly and leaned down to stare Riku straight in the eye.
"Like I said," Ansem replied, keeping his voice calm, "I just came to say hello." He looked over at Mariha and she shrunk back into a corner when his yellowy eyes fell on her. Riku saw that and tried to hit Ansem right in his face but, as if he sensed the boy's anger, Ansems grip tightened slightly. Riku forced himself not to call out in pain as Ansems grip on him was cutting off his circulation. Then Ansem leaned down further to whisper in Riku's ear, "And to say goodbye."
He released Riku who grasped his wrists, rubbing them to get the blood moving again. As Riku did this he didn't take his eyes of Ansem, nor did he take them off Riku. Finally, Ansem turned to the two heartless behind him. "Take him."
Frantically, Riku tried to run to Mariha, but the big heartless were fast for their size. Just as Riku's hand was about to grab Mariha's hand but the heartless grabbed him just before he could grasp it. The other Fire bandit went over to Mariha and caught her as well.
"Mariha!" he called.
"Riku!" she called back. They were both hopelessly caught.
Riku was then carried away down the passageway and when they were out of sight, Mariha was released and the heartless followed the others. They had taken him. They had taken Riku.
AN: hey u notice how I'm very good at having really long AN's and even a long disclaimer thing? Lol cuz I have no life XD ok enough of my wallowing in self-pity... R&R!! And BTW, thanks SOOOO much everyone for the encouraging reviews for my story!! You guys are the greatest! ^-^
Disclaimers: I really think you've gotten the message that I don't own anything really thought I'd love to! But my life is full of too much laziness to own anything. *Mariha: hey! Wut about us!* *Natia, Naomi and Alee nodd* umm, u guys were a cookie I ate gone bad... *all: o.O* ha! Jks! Ok just read....
Lesson Learned
Riku woke up in the same jail cell he had been in before. At least he thought it was the same one. If it wasn't, it looked exactly the same. He rubbed the back of his soar neck where the hard, blunt end of Ansems dagger hilt had hit him. As his head cleared, he started to remember what had happened. A heartless had carried him into a chamber, Ansem was there and... Mariha! No, what had happened to her?
Riku jumped to his feet. He looked around but it did nothing because everything seemed darker than it had been before. Then, from the corner of his eye, Riku thought he saw something move in the far corner of the cell. He walked over to it cautiously.
Without a weapon Riku raised his fists, ready for any sudden attack. He inched closer. It was so dark. Then, as Riku stood over the black figure, the slightest flicker of the torchlight enabled him to see what he was up against. It was Mariha!
"Mariha?" said Riku, a bit confused. Why is she here now but not before? She didn't move. Riku panicked and remembered what Ansem had done. She was dead; he put her there to toy with Riku. Riku looked away, he could feel tears stinging the corner of his eyes.
"Owwww," groaned Mariha suddenly, opening her eyes and getting up. "Huh?" She looked at Riku.
"You're ok!" he exclaimed in shock. He flung his arms around her and hugged her close.
"Um, ok... what's up?" asked Mariha, totally puzzled.
Riku let go of her and she gave him a questioning look. Realizing what he had just done, Riku blushed so deeply that it was lucky for him that the lighting was so low. He looked down in embarrassment.
"Hey what happened? Where are we?" asked Mariha not noticing Riku's face turning bight red and looked around. "Ouch!"
Riku looked up. Mariha had her hand on her right cheek. "Where'd I get this?" she said. She took her hand away to show Riku. Her hand was covered in blood. Riku gasped and looked at her face. There on her cheek was a cut vertical to the floor from just below her eye down to her chin. It was a clean cut and kept bleeding.
That's what Ansem must have done! That bastard sliced her cheek, thought Riku. Then a shock came over him, he really does lover her. So mush as to spare her life!
"Here let me see," said Riku holding out his hand. He touched the cut gently.
"Oww," said Mariha wincing and Riku pulled back.
"Does it hurt a lot?" he asked.
"A little," Mariha replied.
Riku thought for a moment then remembered the handkerchief Mariha had giving him for his injury. He pulled it out of his pocket. So this was the reason he held back from giving it to her again, she needed it now.
"Hold on," he said. Mariha nodded.
Riku went over to the stone slab of a bed where beside it sat a little dish filled with water. He soaked the cloth in it. It couldn't be that clean, but it was better than nothing. He rung it out and called to Mariha.
"Come on over here, there's more light."
Mariha got up from where she had been sitting on the cold floor and sat cross-legged on the bed thing.
"Now stay still for a second," Riku said. He took his wet hand and washed away the blood from Mariha's face. She winced in pain but Riku needed to ignore it so he could finish. He took the cloth and folded it up and pressed it gently against her cheek to cover the cut.
"K, hold this in place until the bleeding stops," he said and moved his had away when she put hers up to hold it.
"Yes Doctor!" she laughed. Riku still thought it amazing that she could be so joking at a time like this. It made him smile but hers soon vanished from her face. "Um, Riku?"
"Yea?" he said sitting on the stone slab with his back against the wall and his hands behind his head.
"What happened?" How'd we get here?" she asked. Riku flinched a little but Mariha didn't notice. He didn't want to have to explain it all. Just thinking about that grimy darkness-loving freak being in love with Mariha made him want to throw up.
"Well it's kind of a long story..." said Riku for the lack of a better excuse.
"It's not like we'll be going anywhere any time soon," replied Mariha with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"O all right!" sighed Riku. There was no escaping it.
So Riku told Mariha everything he could remember after their teleporting didn't work. The spell Ansem cast on her seemed to fry her memory for she didn't even remember when they bumped into those heartless well after they got dropped out of the teleporting vortex. He told her everything, everything except the fact that Ansem was in love with her. Riku figured that it would probably just freak her out he and still couldn't stand the thought of it either.
"Ansem..." said Mariha quietly when Riku finished. Riku's heart skipped a beat. Did she remember? Did she remember Ansem calling her that 'flower' thing?
"Ansem is the one who tricked me and turned me into that horrible demon isn't he?" she said softly with a saddened look on her face. She brought the cloth away from her face, which had stopped bleeding but left a red cut line across her cheek.
Riku relaxed in relief that she didn't remember but looked at Mariha concerned. She sounded so sad. It was amazing how her feelings seemed to affect him. This sort of thing had never happened to him before.
"Yea, it was," said Riku in an equally as small voice, "He also tricked me. To betray a friend in a hopeless attempt to save another..."
"What?" said Mariha loudly in surprise that made Riku jump a little.
"What, he didn't tell you? Figures..." said Riku, "I did betray my friend Sora, because I was trying to help my other friend Kairi who had lost her heart."
Riku looked down in shame so his eyes were hidden in the shadows. Mariha listened without a sound. It was so hard, so why was he doing it? It was so hard to remember, it hurt to.
"Back on my island Sora, Kairi, and I we're all good friends. But one day, something happened that changed our lives.
"The heartless had connected with our world and soon it was plunged into darkness. I thought I was a way off the tiny island I sometimes considered a prison, a chance to see the outside worlds. I took that chance and fell into the darkness.
"I was transported to a world unknown to me. I searched for Sora and Kairi but couldn't find them. Finally, I bumped into Sora in Traverse Town. I was surprised to see that he had changed so mush since I saw him last.
"He had two new friends. And, he hand what was called the Keyblade. It was a weapon to use against the heartless and could seal the heart of a world to prevent the heartless from over running it. So he was supposedly some sort of big hero. I was jealous, certain that such a power should be mine, not his. After all, I was the stronger one back on our island. So when he chose to stick with his new friends rather than me, I fled out of sight.
"I was then approached by Maleficent, a witch who used the heartless. She convinced me that Sora no longer cared for me as a friend and he was too caught up in being the hero he had always dreamed of being. She offered me a deal. I help her get what she wants and pay no heed to Sora, and I get what I want, Kairi.
"Maleficent had wanted me to get her the seven princesses of heart so she could open the final door to darkness. I got six. Kairi was the seventh. But she had lost her heart, and without it, the door would never open by now I was so deep in the darkness that I didn't care about Kairi for her safe being, but for her heart to open the door. I was possessed by Ansem.
"The only way for Kairi to get her heart back was to find it. And I did. Sora and her hand such a strong love for each other that some how Kairi's heart was a part of Soras. So we fought. He won. But he sacrificed himself to give Kairi her heart back. Then Ansem used my defeated body to re-create his own. Aware of my mistakes, I was able to hold Ansem off so Kairi could escape.
"Sora was turned into a heartless. He caught up with Kairi and because she cared so much about him, he returned. He then went off to defeat Ansem. I was lost in the darkness. I was so jealous because the Keyblade, it WAS destined to be mine. But when I joined the darkness to escape my island, it chose Sora instead. So after Sora defeated Ansem, he and King Mickey used their Keyblades to seal Kingdom Hearts. Mickey and I were both trapped inside but Mickey found a way to escape. I was fighting the Cerberus remember?"
"I remember," said Mariha nodding, then viciously adding, "If it hadn't been for me you'd be dead!"
Riku laughed, "O yea, did I ever thank you for that?"
Suddenly Mariha leaned against Riku's chest and closed her eyes. Riku blushed a bit and froze. What was he supposed to do?
"Thank you for letting me know the truth," she said.
"No problem," replied Riku relaxing a little. But Mariha was fast asleep. Then he suddenly felt a wave of sleepiness come over him. He yawned.
He had just done something that he had never done, had been afraid of doing; facing his past. All through his childhood, if he did something to terribly wrong that no forgiveness could come upon him, he'd concentrate all his energy into blocking it form his memory. Making it seem like it never happened, it didn't exist. That was probably why he remembered so little from his childhood. The only things he could remember were hanging around with Sora, but everything before the age of six was a blur, an empty hole.
He had after all blocked out Naomi's existence because he was so ashamed, ashamed and angry with himself for letting her drown. That was something he could never forgive himself for doing. Now, when he wanted to know, all he had were dreams. Come to think of it, why was he having these dreams all of a sudden? Maybe it was this place, Kingdom Hearts, where all hearts were born. So maybe that affected him somehow.
But he would now learn from his mistakes in the past rather than block them out. He couldn't run from them forever. No, he'd stop blocking out things he was ashamed of from his memory. He had already started. There was no way he was going to forget this journey. With a last little chuckle, he fell asleep
~*~
Sora didn't know how long he'd been sitting there in their ship thinking, but suddenly he felt a big thump. Had they landed already? Yep, sure enough when Sora looked out the window, their ship had landed in a new world.
"Hey, how long did that take?" asked Sora.
"Not long at all really, we practically took off 2 minutes ago," replied Donald.
Wow, nice going Cid, thought Sora as he stepped outside and looked over the ship. Not only had he made it faster, but there were better weapons on it, as well as a better navigational system.
Sora was so busy checking out the new upgrades on the ship that he didn't realize where they had landed.
"A-a-ah, Sora?" stammered Donald from behind Sora.
"Yea? O man! Have you seen what Cid did to the gummi ship!" said Sora without turning around, "It's so awesome!"
"S-S-Sora!" Goofy said in the same stuttery voice.
"Hey? What's up with you two?" said Sora slowly turning around towards them, "You sound like you've seen a -"
Sora was stopped short for as soon as he turned around and saw what Donald and Goofy were talking about; he almost had a heart attack himself. There, standing over them was a giant wiener dog.
"Monster," finished Sora in a small voice.
~*~
It had been a while since Riku had dreamt of her. He hadn't dreamt of Naomi since the day he found out she had died out on the water. But there they were, making sand sculptures on the beach.
Riku and Naomi laughed together as they tried to figure out what the other had made. Riku was back in his six-year-old body and couldn't remember the last time he'd had so much fun.
"Um, it kinda looks like a seahorse," said Naomi, "Can you guess mine?"
Riku looked at the sculpture in front of her. It started out as a starfish then, suddenly the sand started shifting. It shifted around until it formed a face he knew all to well. Ansem. His face in the sand smiled wide and jumped up to reveal Ansem in the flesh. Riku could only stare as Ansem rose his arms and everything turned black; the sun, the sky, the sand and the ocean. With all the darkness, Ansem began to grow lager and larger until Riku was only the size of his thumb.
"Riku!" screamed Naomi and Riku watched in horror as Ansem snatched her up into an enormous hand. The last thing Riku saw of her were two terror stricken eyes he would never forget before Ansem crushed her into darkness.
"Naomi!" cried Riku and awoke. He was panting and it felt like his life had been sucked out of him for a second.
"Who is she?" said a small voice from a dark corner. It was Mariha, "I've heard that name before."
"I don't remember who she is," said Riku truthfully, "She keeps appearing in my dreams."
Riku didn't want to tell Mariha about Naomi. Not yet anyways. What would she think of him if she knew he had let his own best friend down? No Riku, he thought, this is what happened when you didn't tell her about Sora and the others... But he wouldn't tell her. No, he couldn't. Besides, he still didn't know a lot about her anyway.
"O," was all Mariha said. She moved her gaze from Riku onto the floor and began drawing on it with her finger. Riku couldn't tell if she believed him or not because she wasn't showing any signs of it. Actually, she wasn't showing any signs of anything. She seemed to be distracted by something.
Riku looked to the floor where Mariha was dragging her finger back and forth but didn't see her trying to draw anything in particular. It was like she was totally cut-off from the world around her and was in a world of her own, lost within her mind.
Riku looked to her with a saddened face but then remembered something that caused him to jump to his feet. His sudden movement caught Mariha's attention and she glanced his way. She seemed to snap out of her little trance.
"Ah shit!" swore Riku loudly.
"What's wrong king of the poo?" asked Mariha jokingly herself again. Well that got her attention, thought Riku and gave her a ha-ha-very-funny-o-and-you-know-that-I'm-saying-this-sarcastically look.
"How are we supposed to get out of here?" he said, back to the point, "We need to meet Sora in four days and we're stuck here!" He groaned in frustration.
Maybe all that thinking was taking a toll on his brain. He sat back down on the cells bed and held his head up with his hands, trying to clear his head from a sudden panic that they'd never get to Sora in time. He didn't notice Mariha walk over to him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry," she said softly, "We'll both get out of here and you'll go home. We'll figure something out, we always do."
"I hope your right," said Riku thought he didn't know how much hope he had left.
"Hey! Since when have you questioned my awesome knowledge and skill?" said Mariha posing as if she were in front of a camera.
"Since you messed up on that teleporting thing," Riku slyly replied. Mariha shot him a playful glare.
"You want more?" he said in return for that look, "There was also that time when you -"
"Yea, yea, we get the point!" cut-off Mariha and she ruffled his hair.
"Hey! Watch it!" he said shooing her off. Mariha laughed and Riku tried to fix his messed up hair. They both laughed as Riku's efforts to straighten out the mess only resulted in making the matter worse. Then, they fell silent immediately as a loud thud came from down the corridor. They waited in silence as the footsteps got closer and closer. Finally, a figure stopped at Riku and Mariha's cell. It was Ansem, and two Fire bandit heartless followed him.
"You," said Riku. He was fed up with Ansems little games, "What do you want you creep!"
"Just wanted to say hello," said Ansem causally.
Riku had such a loathing towards Ansem that he couldn't control. He charged at Ansem and tried to grab him through the bars of his prison. Ansem easily avoided the assault.
"What do you want with us!" demanded Riku and spit at the tall man. Ansem calmly walked up to Riku and grabbed his wrist with great agility. He grasped them tightly and leaned down to stare Riku straight in the eye.
"Like I said," Ansem replied, keeping his voice calm, "I just came to say hello." He looked over at Mariha and she shrunk back into a corner when his yellowy eyes fell on her. Riku saw that and tried to hit Ansem right in his face but, as if he sensed the boy's anger, Ansems grip tightened slightly. Riku forced himself not to call out in pain as Ansems grip on him was cutting off his circulation. Then Ansem leaned down further to whisper in Riku's ear, "And to say goodbye."
He released Riku who grasped his wrists, rubbing them to get the blood moving again. As Riku did this he didn't take his eyes of Ansem, nor did he take them off Riku. Finally, Ansem turned to the two heartless behind him. "Take him."
Frantically, Riku tried to run to Mariha, but the big heartless were fast for their size. Just as Riku's hand was about to grab Mariha's hand but the heartless grabbed him just before he could grasp it. The other Fire bandit went over to Mariha and caught her as well.
"Mariha!" he called.
"Riku!" she called back. They were both hopelessly caught.
Riku was then carried away down the passageway and when they were out of sight, Mariha was released and the heartless followed the others. They had taken him. They had taken Riku.
AN: hey u notice how I'm very good at having really long AN's and even a long disclaimer thing? Lol cuz I have no life XD ok enough of my wallowing in self-pity... R&R!! And BTW, thanks SOOOO much everyone for the encouraging reviews for my story!! You guys are the greatest! ^-^