Thanks for the question. This fic takes place between Chain of Memories and KH2. Surprisingly Chain of Memories reinforces a lot of the things I reveal later. That makes me glad. I hate bending established details or plot. I'll try to post more often. I've got the outcome of this fic planned out.

I'm grateful for everyone that reads of reviews my fic, even if there aren't a lot of you. I hope you will continue to read and enjoy my fic. Maybe there will be more readers in the future. One can only hope.

And I don't own KH. Only the ideas in my head. With that, here's my bonus chappie for my buddy Rikku! Thanks for encouraging me all this time!

Your heart has overcome the darkness.
But you couldn't take back your body.
So only your heart was left behind
In this dark side where stolen hearts are gathered.

He couldn't take it. He couldn't face it. Riku cursed himself as he ran. No matter how strong he ever thought he was the very idea of losing Sora again broke him like glass. If he was alone again, Riku wasn't sure it would be worth living. But all the same when Sora discovered the truth there was no way he'd be forgiven.

The only reason Sora accepted him now was because he didn't understand.

His breaths burned and he slowed to a stalking pace. Human or not Riku still maintained his physical limitations. Two massive doors loomed before him, grey and cold in contrast to the sunlit city, they stood imposing, refusing to be touched by the light. Without even thinking, the amber-eyed boy had come to the temple again. Somehow whenever he was lost he always found himself here.

Not surprisingly, the towering doors parted at the touch of his gloved hands. Their size gave no indication of their slight weight. Not a sound escaped them and he entered with the same purposeful strides he always took, a sigh escaping cold lips.

Claws came to rend the air where he stood, and Riku sprang back, blindfold falling in shreds on the floor. His inhuman eyes met those of a horned beast. It roared and pulled back quickly only to dash at him. With a grace he'd recently come to know Riku stepped aside and the creature rammed into a wall with a crack that resounded through the empty expanse of the abandoned temple. Silvery dust drifted like stars down from the darkness above, the creature shaking its head and meeting his gaze with its own amber eyes. It growled, baring teeth as white as the freshly fallen snow. Riku gave a smirk in return.

A small figure stretched and yawned, rising from one of the wooden seats. Blue eyes slowly came into focus and the youth cast a gaze about the chamber. The blond spotted Riku and the beast and gave a start, leaping to feet that wore oversized boots.

Slender arms were thrown recklessly around the monster's neck, the small blond burying a doll-like face in the beast's violet fur. A long silence fell between them, even the monster rendered silent, though occasionally trying to shift out of the frail hold. "Vincent…" The blond at last spoke in a small voice, eyes still closed. Adorned in mismatched and poorly-fitted clothes, the blond was not a new sight to Riku. The youth's tail swished from one side to the other slowly, and the monster at last settled.

Slowly the beast contorted and shirked into the form of a man, much taller than the blond who had held him still. Raven hair fell haphazardly over his porcelain face and down his back. The last traces of his horns disappeared as his garnet eyes opened, shadowed by dark lashes. His left arm was a strange golden mechanization. For the first few moments he ignored Riku entirely and only regarded the blond.

"I'm sorry. It appears that I will require new clothes again." The man did not attempt to conceal his nakedness. There really wasn't any way to do so. Whence he had transformed his clothes had been torn to shreds. Though the blond still held him fast he did not return nor reject the embrace. He merely watched the face of the blond, who smiled happily.

"I don't mind." The youth sat back, and obviously accustomed to this, took off an oversized blue jacket and handed it to the dark-haired man. This left the youth in a plain white shirt, allowing a slight feminine curve to make itself apparent. Failing to notice the change this incurred, the blond stood and reached her arms heavenward again. Relaxing, her tail drifted lazily behind her and she looked at Riku.

"We haven't seen you in a while." Her sky blue eyes shone with the wide wonder of a kitten. She took a few steps toward the front of the temple, and about-faced to meet the amber gaze again. "I'm afraid we still haven't unlocked the door. At least, not the one you were looking for. We've been a few places since last you came here, but many paths are barred."

Vincent stood, and brushed past Riku. He'd never liked the younger man, and had no reason to. With a silent grace no other man would have after losing his will to the powers that had warped his soul he stalked off and into the shadows, this followed by the click of a door. The girl looked at the place where Riku's eyes lost track of him, and smiled.

"Unlike me, Vincent was human before Ansem came along." She sighed and sat on the wooden bench, tail flicking with anxiety. Riku remembered when first he met them. Then as now the girl was the only thing that seemed to help restore Vincent's sanity. He knew them better than anyone else in this world. These two were the first to meet him in this city. She looked up at Riku. "But that's our story. How has your journey been?"

Their story had not changed much. Both were experiments—failed experiments—of Ansem's design. The girl had never been human, one of several of her make and model. When the ones made before her broke out, she was saved from the wreckage by Vincent. He later became an experiment himself. She professed that it was her fault, but Riku could see that the older man would not have acted differently if given the opportunity. When Riku met them, the girl told him how they had simply slipped into another world after Ansem's fall. It seemed they possessed abilities they could not control.

And from this temple it seemed many worlds were accessible.

"I found Sora." Riku stated the fact, though the memory still burned inside him as a brand. When he went back, he knew it would only be a matter of time before he was cast aside. Sora would leave him and return to Kairi, the one who believed in him, the one who never wronged him. That was how it would be. How he envied these two. No matter what they were inseparable and he knew it from a mere glance.

"That's great!" Then of course, the girl looked at him. The disappointment and pain in the boy's eyes was all too clear. Her tail slowed its pendulum-like motion. "What's the matter?"

Riku folded his arms. Even if 233 was someone he could trust, he still did not open himself to anyone. He wished to explain. Perhaps being inhuman herself she might understand his sentiment. He cast his gaze to a stone angel in the front of the chamber, bound by heavy chains. "If you were to suddenly run into Zidane or Kuja what would you do?"

The girl looked to the ground, for the first time it seemed she was hesitant to reply. She cupped a hand under her chin and considered. Perhaps 233 never even thought that she would find the other creatures like her. She only knew of two, and only their names. Of course Riku thought the tail had to be unmistakable. "Well, it's hard to say. I search because I want to belong, and yet…" She laughed airily and ran a hand through her hair. "I never really thought it over."

"Yes. Well, you know what happened back then. You saw me with your powers, right?" Riku sat down across the thin aisle from her, slumping into the wooden frame. Creatures like 233 had unique abilities. Even the others couldn't fully grasp them. She had told him that often she could hear Zidane's thoughts, because he couldn't control their telepathic power. 233 couldn't even use it.

The blond nodded an affirmative.

"How can he forgive me?" Riku looked directly into her eyes, the first time he'd ever done so.

233 seemed almost startled by this sudden change in the silver-haired boy. He had always been so reserved and stoic up until now. She blinked at him in confusion before the question weighed in. "It's the same as that time when we first met. I was injured so badly that Vincent thought I'd never forgive him. I'm not sure about it but… I don't think anyone is unredeemable."

It wasn't a complete answer. Riku knew he couldn't expect one. Up until three years ago, 233 had no heart of her own. Even the way she smiled and laughed had been practiced. She did not understand why she did what she did, nor could she have a handle on what she felt. The blond had made the connection but had no way of expressing it.

"I guess I shouldn't have asked." Riku sighed, and leaned back in his seat. The statue at the head of the room stared back at him emptily, as if daring him to look any different. It was true that up until now he'd only been able to look and act like a stone. It seemed that once Riku found himself alone he could no longer retain the frail hold he'd had on his humanity. When that door shut and he parted from Sora he'd completely lost that part of himself. Now looking at this statue, Riku couldn't help but think how alike he and it really were.

He had started off human, and had become empty inside. The girl he'd been talking to was really the exact opposite. She had resisted the darkness and become human. 233 didn't have a heart to start off with, but she had gained one. That fact made Riku stop to think. If she was without a heart before, what had she been? Was this girl once as he was now?

233 noticed she was being watched, but kept quiet. She didn't know how she was supposed to respond to that yet, Riku figured. The girl simply occupied herself with the familiar scenery, tail swishing back and forth like a pendulum.

"Do you remember what it's like to have no heart?" Riku spoke with no expectations of an answer. It was likely that she had no recollection, or had tried to forget about it.

Her tail stilled a moment, and 233 sighed. For once her smile failed her, and instead of practiced emotions she looked at the statue herself. She seemed to be peering into her past through it, sky blue eyes distant as she sat there in the void of silence. At last, she looked back to Riku, though she had never asked his name herself.

"It was…cold…" 233 seemed to be selecting her words carefully, trying to capture an intangible emotion and put it to words. She'd never seemed so serious, almost as if years had been added to her life as the memories returned. Her eyes never left his. "And it was as if my body wasn't even mine."

To demonstrate, she held up her hands to her chest, clad in red gloves. "There was nothing inside of me, and I was all alone. I didn't know that I was sad, but I had to have been. I wasn't even a person."

"Not a person..?" Riku watched her, letting her words soak in. They were thoughts he had shared, things he had known. He'd never thought of himself as an incomplete person, but maybe he had really made himself one three years ago. All the things people like 233 and Vincent fought so hard to regain he had simply thrown away. Perhaps to the girl's standards, he himself wasn't real.

"Yeah." 233 grinned. "It sucked."

The massive doors opened again, and Riku turned to see Sora peek into the room curiously before stepping inside. A puzzled look came over the boy's features, but when he spotted the silver-haired boy he walked in with the assurance of finding what he'd come for. Sora's gaze roamed the expanse as he walked, and he nearly tripped over his cloak when he looked at the high stained glass windows.

He stopped next to Riku and looked down at him. Riku matched the gaze, though puzzled. Sora had changed so much in such a short time. There appeared to be no end to the extent to which the younger boy had grown, although physically he remained almost the same. Once more, Sora tried to speak, and his smile faded when the words never made it.

"You'll recover soon enough." Riku sighed. He was stuck until Sora could speak and remember again, and then he'd be left alone. He couldn't abandon his friend, even if it meant he would only be hurt a second time. Once again it would be his fault but it would hurt nonetheless.

Riku stood, and nodded to 233. Having done so he turned to leave, and Sora followed.

The two left and the doors shut heavily behind them, leaving 233 to sit on the bench and think. She leaned back against the abrasive wood, arms on the back of her seat at she looked over her shoulder at the massive doors. This had been the first time in quite a while that the silver-haired boy had paid her a visit, and never once had he asked her about her past. He'd never spoken of his own, either.

Vincent came out of the shadows fully clothed, and noted that their visitor had left. His garnet eyes narrowed somewhat as he regarded the exit as well. He'd seen the silent newcomer only for a moment, but be could sense it the same as the young mage could.

"That boy, he…" 233 trailed off, not certain how to explain what she'd felt. Her tail resumed its pendulum-like motion once again as she stood up and stretched again. Vincent could easily pick up on what the girl was thinking, and closed the distance between them, standing at her side. He returned her coat and the mage put it back on. All black mages wore such attire and it had become customary for her as well.

"…Yes. I sensed it was well." Vincent said with his same apathetic voice. It troubled his companion, but he could not feel the same concern. While he did not like the strange boy Vincent still would never have wished such a fate upon him.

233 sighed, and faced the statue. "I just hope he won't go through that pain again."