Kingdom Hearts: Between

Chapter One - Journey Begins

There are barriers to be brought down before Sora can reach the Door. Who else to bring them down, but Riku? One thing leads to another, and everything, troublesome or not, seems to slowly point to one thing: Between.

We pray for redeeming light.

We wish for that connection of heart.

We have a deep-down guilt.

But we must remember: In every heart, there is a shadow.

Kairi stared out at the shimmering ocean as it reflected the bright afternoon sun back up towards the heavens. The patterns of light danced across her face with the movements of the ocean beneath her dangling feet.

Her gaze switched from the water, to the small island only a few yards offshore. Kairi smiled sadly as she found herself wishing to be sitting on the Paopu tree that grew from the sands of Riku's island. How much would she give to sit there for one day with the silver haired boy and Sora, just watching the sun dance on the waves… talking about anything and everything?

"Whatcha thinking about?"

Kairi nearly fell off of the pier and into the salty ocean water as Selphie suddenly broke the tranquil silence the redhead had been sitting in for the past hour and plopped down beside her with an impish grin.

"I was just –" Kairi began, but Selphie cut her off by holding up one finger and winking.

"Waiting for Sora to come back?"

Kairi smiled slightly, nodding. "Yeah, it's been a year…"

"Two," Selphie corrected reflexively as she too focused her attention on the gentle ocean swells.

"Almost two," Kairi retorted irritably.

Selphie shrugged, grinning slightly as she brushed a few strands of hair back from her face. "Well then," she chirped brightly. "Sora and Riku should be back any day now!"

Kairi nodded, matching the grin. She was thankful for the faith that her friend was showing by saying that, instead of trying to convince Kairi that Sora and Riku were gone for good.

Selphie bounced to her feet, reaching out her hand. "Up you go! You have to hear what Tidus and Wakka have been talking about all day!" The hyper girl motioned to where the two boys sat on the beach, making it quite clear that she wouldn't allow Kairi to mope in memories when there was fun to be had.

Kairi reluctantly allowed herself to be dragged from her sitting position and led across the sand to the two boys. At Selphie's direction she stopped obediently and listened to Tidus and Wakka's ongoing conversation. The redhead blinked, confusion marking her features as she noticed that both boys were slightly misty eyed.

"And… and she's pretty, and talented… You should have seen her! She used magic to summon up this huge bird. And her name is... Yuna." Tidus said the last with a happy sigh and cupped his head in his hands, a look of bliss on his smiling face.

Wakka grinned, still misty eyed himself. He didn't seem to have heard a word Tidus had just uttered. "I wonder if Lu's home? I think I'll row o'er and talk to her... Ya, I'll do that."

Selphie smiled conspiratorially at Kairi and placed one hand beside her mouth as if she were about to tell some huge secret. "Those two went over to the big island west of town with Tidus's dad, Jecht. Now they're both in love with two girls they met over there! Isn't it romantic?"

"I – I'm not in love!" Tidus spluttered, his eyes widening in horror.

Wakka didn't seem to be noticing anyone around him anymore.

Selphie giggled at these reactions and rolled her eyes.

Kairi laughed as well, unable to help herself. The expression on the blond boy's face was just too priceless. Her laughter died away, and she clasped her hands together, watching as Tidus leapt up from the sand to tell Selphie off.

Were Sora and Riku this happy wherever they were?

"Kairi! Hey, Kairi? You don't want to stay here all day, ya?"

Kairi blinked, looking up to see that the threesome were about ready to head back to their island home.

"Oh!" Kairi nodded quickly and ran towards them, kicking up sand along the way. "Yes! I'm coming!"

The afternoon sun was invisible to anyone on the street. Dark clouds rolled across the sky, buffeted by strong gusts of wind. They tumbled forever onward, yet they never cleared, more would roll in to take the place of the former bringers of rain.

And it did indeed rain.

The town was cast into an eternal night that would only break during the few minutes of the day when the storm paused for breath. Such breaks were few and far between, but they were looked forward to nonetheless as there was always the small hope that, in those precious moments, elusive sunshine might finally get the chance to filter down on the world.

Twilight Town. It was an appropriate name for such a place.

Torrents of rain fell from the sky, catching unwary pedestrians in a downpour that might last only hours, or could go on for days.

One young man seemed to barely acknowledge the rain as he strode down the street heedless of the neon signs that lit the city. In fact, he didn't appear to notice much of anything around him. He bothered not to sidestep the deep puddles that reflected the glowing lights, but instead treaded through them heedlessly.

The young man came to a halt before the giant tower that stretched, almost literally, into the cloud cover. A giant TV screen was the prominent feature of the building, but the boy didn't even glance at it, instead staring straight ahead.

"I couldn't find him… are you still here?"

The voice that came from under the hood was quiet, barely perceptible next to the continuous beat of rain against pavement, but despite this, another voice answered the question matter-of-factly.

"I told ya Sora wouldn't be here yet."

Under his hood, Riku frowned in confusion, desperately wishing he could see the other speaker.

He fingered the blindfold pulled low over his eyes. It prevented the light from penetrating that Mickey insisted Riku should expose them to. All he needed was to allow his eyes to adjust at night and continuing exposing them to slight fragments of light until they adjusted completely, that was Mickey's set of mind.

As if his Majesty's solution would work for me, he scoffed to himself.

After the darkness of Kingdom Hearts, Mickey had followed his own advice and recovered well, but Riku…

"You still can't see? I told you how to fix that…" the voice – Mickey – trailed off as the short mouse came around the corner of the building. He was suited up in an outfit similar to Riku's own, a dark hooded cloak that fell down to equally dark boots.

It's not the same. Riku clenched one fist as the reason he couldn't look at light without being in pain flickered through the boy's mind. "It's different for me than it is for you… Ansem looked directly into the light of Kingdom Hearts with my eyes. They're not going to heal as fast as yours – if at all."

Riku shook his head slightly, forcing his fist to unclench before 'looking' in Mickey's general direction. "So," the silver haired boy began after a moment of silence. "If we're not here to look for Sora then why are we here?"

"Think more positively, will ya? None of the doom and gloom stuff now. As for the why's and what for's… To purchase a gummi ship for you of course!" the diminutive mouse explained before turning and walking away.

The corners of Riku's lips turned down in a frown as he attempted to navigate through the streets and keep up with the rodent-like king. It was so frustrating to have to rely on his other senses… especially when a certain mouse kept taking advantage of Riku's lack of sight.

He prayed that Mickey wouldn't see fit to walk under any more signs. Either Mickey kept forgetting that Riku couldn't see and was navigating by his footsteps… or the mouse was doing it on purpose to encourage Riku into regaining his vision faster.

Well… at least Riku was fairly certain of where most of the signs in the city were (As well he should be. After arriving on this world he'd only ran into every single one of them that had ever been erected.) and thought that this street was relatively free of objects that could perhaps cause him injury.

Riku walked confidently forward after this, but cried out in pain a moment later and stumbled backwards a few steps when his head collided with some unknown solid object.

After rubbing his wounded forehead, Riku cast about blindly for the mouse. "Mickey…" he hissed through the pain. "I swear…."

"We're here!"

Riku jumped, once again cracking his skull on an unidentifiable object. "Mickey!"

Mickey shook his head plaintively at Riku's actions and let out a long sigh. "If you would just listen…"

"I am listening," Riku interjected with a growl. "The only reason we made it to this world was through you using your Keyblade! Why do I need a gummi ship? The world barriers are back up!"

"Exactly," the mouse replied cryptically.

Riku suppressed a frustrated sigh and followed Mickey into whatever building he had been led to.

Inside a cacophony of sound assaulted Riku's ears, drowning out Mickey's footsteps. Workers yelled back and forth requests for supplies as machines whipped around attaching gummi blocks to a nearly completed ship.

"Hiya, guys!" Mickey yelled and a hail of greetings came back in reply.

"S'almost done," a voice stated and Riku could tell, even with the blindfold on, that the man who spoke towered a good head or so taller than himself. "This the kid we're making the ship for?"

"Sure is."

Riku decided that he now must have been perpetually frowning. If someone didn't start explaining things soon he was going to go insane. Or merely pretend to have gone insane… anything to strangle Mickey right about now.

Riku scowled at where he guessed the man stood. "What do I need a ship for?" he asked again, directing the question towards his shorter companion.

"You've got to destroy the world barriers!" Mickey answered. "I'm sending you to Hollow Bastion, see if you can find Leon, he'll explain the rest of your mission."

Riku opened his mouth to protest, to ask what this was all about, but someone seized his arm and plopped him down into what Riku could only assume was the Gummi Ship.

"Have a nice ride, kid," the man from before said.

Riku couldn't help but gulp at how foreboding those simple words sounded. Only then did it cross his mind that Mickey wasn't coming too – that they were planning on Riku flying the ship himself.

"Mickey! Wait a minute!" Riku called desperately. He could already feel the engines starting to vibrate.

"You'll be fine, just remember that you too are a Keyblade master! Your strongest weapon is your heart!" came Mickey's not-so-assuring words.

As the engines seemed to reach their full charge, Riku opened his mouth, uttering the only thing he could think of. "Oh he–"

And that was when the floor dropped out from beneath the ship and Riku's words were lost in the pull of gravity and the yell that fought free as terror gripped the young man.

His stomach bottomed out and Riku could only hold on to the ship for dear life, praying with all his might that some miracle would save him or that Kairi would at least think fondly of him when he was gone…

Jade's Note:

Yes… I'm re-posting. I've done some rewriting so hopefully the plot has some… plot to it now. Bah. If you spot a grammar mistake or something of the like… point it out to me? I'm horrible with English.

Reviews are nice, y'know.

Edit: Spelling editing Jade has done.