Author's note: Thanks for all of your reviews! I greatly appreciate them!!! (especially review lord: thanks for taking your time to add your comments! U rock!)

Kingdom Hearts: Return of the Heartless

Chap. 17 Return to Hollow Bastion

When they reached the castle, Sora pushed the doors open, revealing a thick, black smoke.

"Do we have to come here again?" Kairi asked.

"Yep…" said Sora.

"…I was afraid of that."

Riku laughed, "What's the matter, Kairi? Scared?"

"No! Of course not. It's just smoke…and spooky noises…and…"

"Stop faking. You are scared."

"Just leave her alone, Riku. She has a right to be frightened if she wants to. Hollow Bastion is kinda a spooky place, you know," Sora admitted.

"Oh, great! Am I the only one fearless here?" Riku complained.

"Hey, if you can remember, I have beaten Maleficant before…..But, somehow…I don't know…she came back."

"C'mon, guys. Let's get this over with…if we can," Kairi had her doubts. Riku laughed again.

So, they moved on their way down the hall and then walked down a long flight of stairs. They soon came upon an opening. When they peeked inside, groups of heartless stood guarding the prison gates.

"This isn't going to be easy," Kairi told them.

"There's only, like, 80 of them…" Sora was pretty confident.

"We can take them…I know I can," said Riku.

"Riku, stop being a showoff!!! Let's go!"

The heartless didn't notice them sneak in, and they attacked.

"I'll take the ones on the left! Sora, you and Kairi take the ones on the right!"

"Ok!" Sora grabbed his keyblade and swung it at the nearest heartless. All of them came after him and Kairi.

"Take that!" Kairi destroyed three of them in one shot, This electric whip sure comes in handy.

"This is too easy," Riku only used one hand. He yawned, "Don't you think they should make this more challenging?"

"That's easy for you to say!" Kairi shouted back.

All of a sudden, the heartless had disappeared.

"Where'd they go?" she wondered.

The earth beneath them began to shake.

"This can't be good!" Sora thought.

"Let's get out of here, and fast!" exclaimed Riku.

"But, what about Goofy and Donald? They're still locked up down here!"

"Who cares! We need to leave!"

Riku and Kairi started heading up the stairs to the highest tower.

Sora was going to follow then, but refused, "I have to go help them!" he ran to the dungeon.

"Sora, no!" Riku yelled when he turned around.

Kairi cried, "Come back, Sora!"

Sora didn't listen and kept running. He reached Donald and Goofy's cell.

"I'm glad you guys are OK!"

"Hurry up and get us out of here!" Donald shrieked.

"Yeah, we don't want to get caught in the middle of this earthquake!" Goofy reminded them.

Sora thought for a moment, then used Firaga. The jail bars began to melt.

"Nice goin'!" Goofy congratulated.

The ground rumbled intensely.

"Run!" exclaimed Donald.

Sora spoke, "We need to go catch up with Riku and Kairi!"

They ran as fast as they could toward the exit, with pieces of the ceiling falling behind them.

"Hurry up guys!"

"We're trying!" Donald told Sora.

"We can't run any faster!...WHOA!" Goofy stopped talking.

Sora turned around. They were nowhere in sight, "Where are you? Goofy! Donald!" Sora heard something above him. When he looked up, a hug piece of concrete was about to fall and smash him. Sora dodged out of the way seconds before it hit the ground, "That was close…Huh?" For some odd reason, everything was normal again, "That's strange. It looks like there was no earthquake at all. How could that happen?…..Maleficant."

Somewhere underground…

"Donald, are you okay?" pondered Goofy.

"Oh…my head hurts…"

"Looks like we fell into a trap door."

"Where's Sora?"

"He still must be up there. I hope he's all right."

"Oh, I'm sure he's just fine…"

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"Where could he be?" Kairi was worried.

"I don't know. Maybe…" Riku knew Sora would be okay, "He'll make it. I'm positive."

"I sure hope you're right…We should go back down there, though."

"Hmmm…the ground's not shaking anymore. All right. Let's go…" Riku thought he heard something.

"What is it?"

"Nothing…"

Kairi gasped, "Riku…don't move…"

"Why not?.....Whoa!" Something had grabbed onto his leg.

"It's trying to pull you though!"

"Through what?!?"

"The floor!"

The floor had started to dissolve, and Riku was being pulled under.

Kairi yelled, "Grab my hand!"

She pulled with all her might. Another slimy arm grabbed Riku's other leg.

"They're too strong!" he admitted.

Both Riku and Kairi were soon pulled under.

Author's note: So, what do you think? Please keep up the reviewing! Next chapter: Fight the Good Fight