Chapter II

Silence. The storm thundering outside seemed to be muted, the rain that splattered against the windows made no sound. The Heartless spread through out the room were soundless as they seemed to melt in through the very walls. Panic. That was the first reaction that blitzed through Riku's mind.

'This isn't good...' Pretender shimmered in his hand warningly.

"Thank you, oh Master of the Obvious." Riku slowly backed up. "How do I get out?"

'Door's blocked.'

"Window?" his back met the wall solidly.

'Open.' the Keyblade replied.

"Lets do it then."

He dropped down into an offensive stance and swung into a raid of quick, merciless blows. The Heartless seemed to both scatter and swarm at the same time, hissing and spitting at Riku as the Keyblade wielder slashed through their masses. He cleared himself a path to the window.

'If you're going to do this, Master Riku, I'd suggest you stop playing around and do so now!'

Riku positioned himself in the window with no comment to the Keyblade. Without a second thought, he flung himself into the vicious down pour of the storm, allowing the weightless feeling to over take him. His grip tightened instinctively on Pretender as he pulled the weapon to his chest, crossing his arms for a quicker fall. A mass of Heartless sprung up from the ground, awaiting the boy to land. What looked like a black wave poured from the building, enveloping it's dismal color in no time flat. With a grunt, Riku landed, forcing himself into tucked roll to absorb some of the impact, before springing to his feet again in a dead run.

"Incompetence!" the voice bellowed through the nearly empty chamber, causing the girl kneeled in the center of it to wince. "I simply will NOT stand for it!"

"My lord," the girl started. "I-"

"NONE of your excuses, Julian!" again the girl winced. "You were to deliver your message and return here! How devestatingly difficult is that to understand?!"

Her head lifted at that. "I just wanted to see if he was-" a solid blow to the face cut her words short, forcing her head turned to absorb the impact.

"I care not of what you wanted to see." the other growled. "Do not disobey my orders again, or so help me, you WILL meet the same fate as the others!"

She looked back at him, her eyes narrowed darkly.

"Do you understand?!" he roared, his voice echoing off the stone walls.

Her teeth gritted, tears she refused to let fall welled up in her eyes. "Yes, Lord Teluha..."

"Good." he snorted. "Now get out of my sight."

Her head bowed for a breif moment before she lifted herself to her feet. Turning on a heel, she strode out of the room, her fists clenched tightly at her sides, allowing the doors of the room to slam shut with a hollow echo behind her.

"This is BAD!" Riku shouted, pacing the length of the floor in one of the older buildings. "That clicking sound, I KNOW that clicking sound!" he growled in frustration, running a hand through his hair. "But where...and when?! And the Heartless!" he thundered, throwing his hands up as turning in his steps to pace the opposite direction. "What are THEY doing back?!" he paused, turning his attention elsewhere. "DON'T look at me like that! I'm NOT a looney!"

The fuzzy black tabby cat blinked only once at the human. It merped softly, its tail flicking indignantly, as if insulted by the fact of being accused.

'Master Riku,' Pretender's mental voice was soft. 'This may just be rummor amongst Magical Weapons, but hear me out. When a human, such as yourself, starts talking to animals, and sounding as if they expect them to talk back, that classifies them as a looney.'

Riku ignored the Keyblade and continued to pace, a hand pressed thoughtfully to his chin. "Its so familiar..." he mumbled, half pausing in his steps before turning in the countered direction again.

Pretender sighed heavily. 'Perhaps you should sleep on it, you never know, it may help.'

Again he ignored the Keyblade, mumbling incoherent things to himself as he paced.

'Or, perhaps not. Which ever you choose...' the Keyblade muttered sarcastically.

"I've heard it before!" Riku growled, putting his hands to his forehead. "But where?!"

"It shouldn't be this difficult to figure out." the voice broke in from the door way, breaking Riku's train of frustrating thought.

He turned quickly, bringing Pretender into an offensive hold.

"Jumpy, aren't we?" the figure who spoke was male, Riku could tell that much.

"What do you want?" Pretender remained gripped firmly in his hand.

"Only to help you stop trying to explode what little brain cells you currently have left." the other retorted, folding his arms. "And you can put the Keyblade away. I don't plan on attacking you any time soon, Riku."

Riku started at that, loweing the Keyblade slowly. "How do you know my name...?"

"Boy," the other mused. "Aren't those classic Hollywood words. Seems anytime you have two sets of people, and one knows more then the other, the one who knows less always has a 'How do you know...' type question."

Riku didn't respond to this, he relaxed his stance slowly and arched an eyebrow at the other.

"Let us just say that I know all about you, Riku. Probably more then you yourself know, and I know that you know there are only two people in all the worlds who know you like we do."

The Keyblade in Riku's hand vanished with a small pop of displaced air. "Sora..."

"You know, you're damn near impossible to track down. If it weren't for Avenger, I'd STILL be looking for your skinny ass. You move around pretty well for a blind guy."

"How did you...?" Riku took a half step forward.

"Get here?" Sora mused, folding his arms once again. "That's easy, Riku. You know that clicking sound you heard? Think Big. White. Doors."

Riku froze, every muscle in his body going stiff as his color slowly depleted. The Doors, they were open again? But that would mean...

"How?" he finally choked out.

"With that half of things, you know as much as I do, my friend, which is absolutely nothing."

Riku looked at the other for a long, drawn out moment, his mouth hung slightly open to show he could think of nothing to say in response.

"So," Sora clapped his hands together, his tone a bit too cheery for Riku's liking. "Onto the bad half of things."

((Ok....I'm too tired to really make this go on any further. I shall, however, make up for it with the next Chapter. I don't know what else to say....Uh......I'd show you the Dancing Dragon Duo...But they went on strike for lack of pay....I didn't know they needed to be payed....shrugs))