A/N: So... I should stop typing and posting multiple chapters at once, it's gotta be really confusing if I'm on anyone's author alert list.

Teek: You're confusing.

Me: We knew that.

Mizu: On with Chapter 12!

Me&Teek: Okay...

Chapter 13

Raft needs a name my hiney. Those boys just want to race... Mizu thought as she watched Riku and Sora come up with names for the raft, then decide to race.

"You guys at it again?" Kairi asked. "All right, I'll be the judge. The usual rules apply: Take any rout you want... First one to tag that tree and make it back here wins."

Sora and Riku stepped up to the starting line.

"If I win," Sora was saying, "I'm captain! And if you win..."

"I get to share the Paopu with Kairi," Riku finished.

"Huh?"

"Deal? The winner gets to share a Paopu with Kairi."

"Wha... Wait a minute..."

"Okay," Kairi called, completely oblivious to the boys' conversation. "On my count! Three, two, one, go!"

And they were off. But Mizu wasn't really paying attention, not even when Kairi asked her who she thought would win. In all honesty, Mizu wanted Riku to win. But after what he said about the Paopu...

She knew the legend. Kairi had told it to her at the campfire the night Riku gave her the seashell she now had around her neck. It was just a legend of course. No fruit could have the power to connect people's destinies. But still... She wanted to share one with Riku so badly...

Riku won the race. (A/N: I sucked so bad at the race when I was playing...) So the raft was named Highwind, and the little group went about finishing gathering provisions and necessities for the raft.

While Sora was gathering the provisions they needed, he went into his " Secret Place" for a mushroom. He saw and old carving of himself and Kairi that the two had drawn when they were younger. Sora looked at it, then drew a Paopu fruit between him and Kairi, showing that he was giving her the fruit. A hooded man had appeared behind Sora.

"Wh-who's there?" Sora called out into the darkness of the cave.

"I've come to see the door to this world," the man said.

"Huh?"

"This world has been connected."

"Wh-what are you talking about?"

"Tied to the darkness... soon to be completely eclipsed."

"Well, whoever you are, stop freaking me out like this! Huh? Wh-where did you come from?"

"You do not yet know what lies beyond the door."

"So, you're from another world!"

"There is so very much to learn. You understand so little."

"Oh, yeah? Well, you'll see. I'm gonna get out and learn what's out there!"

"A meaningless effort. One who knows nothing can understand nothing."

The man disappeared into the shadows, and so Sora shrugged and returned with all his provisions.

While Sora was having his adventure with the hooded man, Riku and Mizu were again up on the island with the Paopu trees, talking about what they were going to do when they got off the islands.

"I'm going to look for any clues to my past. See what significance that dream of mine has in my conscious life."

"Are you sure you want to?"

"Yeah. So, what about you? Do you have any plans?"

"Not really."

"Come on, you have to have some plans! Why else would you want to leave the islands?"

"I just want to see what all's out there."

"Tch, not much, I can tell you that."

"You remember something?"

"Not really. It's just a feeling I have." Mizu lifted her head up a little, letting the breeze pull her hair into her face, her eyes half closed. "It's like... ever since I got here, I've been thinking this place is paradise. Judging by the old calluses on my hands, the place I grew up in wasn't as peaceful as these islands. I've been through so many fights for my life you'd never even be able to imagine what my old life was like. I can't. I try not too. Partially because when I do, I get a headache, but that's not the point."

"What is the point?"

Mizu was silent for a moment, and hooked a strand of hair behind her ear as an excuse to not answer for a second, lame excuse though it may be.

"I don't know... It's just... the few times I tried to remember anything about my past, anything at all, I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I feel... afraid. Some part of me, a very deep part of me, remembers what my past was like, and as near as I can tell, I was in an almost constant state of fear. Fear for my life, but mostly fear for the lives of others. I can't remember who. Whenever I try, I see this face. But it's not the actual face that frightens me. It's the look on that face."

"What's the look?"

"Madness. Somebody was driven mad by something, and tried to kill people for reasons only he knew."

"Whoah..."

Mizu ran her hand over the thin scar on her stomach.

"Yes. This scar is from that mad man. I had another dream a few months ago about it. Again, I was younger. In that dream, I was five years old."

"Can I have the details?"

"You're the only one I'd trust with them. I was in a battle, with a man and... I can't remember if the other person was man, woman, or if it was something else. But anyway, we were fighting that man I told you about, the one who had gone mad. The mad man swung this huge, thin sword at one of my allies, and I jumped in the way to protect him. The man tried to stop his attack at the last second, and the blade caught me in the side."

"If he was mad, why did he try to avoid hurting you?"

"Do you think I can accurately tell what a madman was thinking? Maybe he didn't want to kill a child, maybe he regained his sanity and realized that he was going to kill someone who was only trying to defend herself and her friends, maybe he knew and cared about me, maybe it was part of some sick, twisted plot, how should I know?"

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made it sound like you'd know."

"It's all right. I'm the one who should be sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you. It's just so frustrating not being able to remember anything!"

About now was when the hooded man appeared in Sora's secret place, and Mizu felt his presence. She didn't know it, she just felt something out of place, something wrong. She turned and stared at the entrance to the "secret place."

"What's wrong?" Riku asked her when she got an odd look on her face. "You look like a cat that just scented a mouse."

"I feel something. Something... familiar, yet I'm sure I've never felt it before. It doesn't belong here, I know that much. It's... evil, somehow..."

"What?"

"I don't know... Something just... isn't right... Gah, I wish I knew what it was!"

"Can you... tell what it is? Where it's coming from?"

"I can't tell 'what,' but I can tell 'where.'" Mizu lifted a finger and pointed dead at the entrance to the secret place. "It's in there."

"What? But Sora's in there! I saw him go in just a few seconds ago!"

"Then we gotta go get him outta there! C'mon!" Mizu started running for the secret place, Riku not far behind her. After just a few feet, however, Mizu slowed and put an arm out to stop Riku. "It's gone. I can't feel it anymore. Thank goodness. Let's just hope Sora's not hurt."

"Sora's a big boy. I think he'll be fine. Let's go back. He hates it when people worry about him."

And so, they went back to the Paopu trees.

Later that night, Sora and Kairi were sitting on the pier, talking. Mizu was too far away to hear. She was standing on the beech by the little island with the Paopu trees, her arms crossed over her chest, and staring at the setting sun. The waves coming in from the tides lapped against her ankles, spraying her legs in a light mist.

Riku came up behind his kage, and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, gently holding her to him.

"Hey, Mizu," he whispered in her ear. "What's up?" Mizu turned her head away, holding back tears from remembering something he had said earlier.

"Nothin'..." was her only reply.

"Something's gotta be wrong. Why didn't you join us earlier, when we were talking about the raft and our adventure?"

"I figured you'd rather spend time with Kairi," Mizu said a little too heatedly.

"Oh, that," Riku said, trying not to laugh. He thought he knew what she was talking about. "Jealous, huh?"

"Oh, no I'm not jealous! Why would I be jealous? I just thought you--" Mizu let her voice trail off, fearing to continue.

"What? Thought I what?"

"Never mind."

"Okay. So, what's wrong?"

"One word: Paopu."

"Oh, that!" Riku said, finally truly understanding what was wrong and now trying as hard as he could not to laugh. "I just said that to get Sora angry at me. Well, not really angry more like jealous. There's someone else I'd rather share a Paopu with."(A/N: This is where I go hentai!)

"Who, Selphie?"

"No, Wakka."(A/N: Toldja:P)

"What!"

"I'm kidding. No, not Selphie. And definitely not Wakka. There's a special person but, to be honest, I'm too scared to tell her how I feel. I've been trying to hide it from myself, but mostly from her and the others, for a while now. But I think we both have known the truth for a long time. She means more to me than you'd think."

"So who is it?" Mizu snapped, getting a little fed up with this half-truth game they were playing.

"I'll give you a hint: she's in my arms, right now."

Mizu was quick on the uptake, but didn't know how to respond to that, so she twisted around and looked right into Riku's smiling face.

"So," Riku said, seeing that she got it and wanting to know what was really wrong. "That's not all that's bothering you, is it, koishii? You want to tell me what else is wrong?"(A/N: Koishii means "beloved." Originally, I had ashke in there, because I'm a Mercedes Lackey fan and I like the word ashke, but I really wanted the Japanese word for it, so thank God for the Internet!)

"It's... nothing. Nothing important."

"So... tell me."

Mizu let out an exasperated sigh. "It's nothing, really! It's just... this feeling I have in my gut. I get it whenever I think about the trip we're going to take. It's the same feeling I got that I told you about earlier, whenever I tried to remember my past."

"You're afraid?"

Mizu nodded ashamedly. "Mm-hmm."

"Huh... I don't know what to tell you." Riku looked up, into the sky. "There's a storm coming, koishii. Let's get inside."

A/N: Okay, I'm getting waaaaaaaaaay too romantic for my taste, here!

Teek: Aw, c'mon, it's cute!

Me: Bingo!

Mizu: Well, I kind of like it.

Me: You would, you're in it!

Mizu: At least you haven't wrote us kissing.

Teek: Yet. ((impish grin))

Bloopers

Scene: Riku confesses his love, blah blah blah...

Mizu: Who, Selphie?
Riku: No, Wakka.
Wakka: Why, Riku, I didn't know you cared! ((wink))
Director: I'm working with a bunch of perverted children! CUT!

Scene: Same

Mizu: So who is it?
Riku: You, duh!
Director: CUT! And someone get me a beer...