Author's Note: Yay! I'm on chapter 4!!!...Ok enough of that, you probably want me to start with the next chapter now don't you? Even though I haven't had that many reviewers..*mumbles under breathe* *::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::* ::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*

Chapter 4: The Training

Ryo walked into her room after climbing the flight of stairs and collapsed on her bed with her head in the pillow. She was so tired she didn't even bother moving her face so she could continue the redundancy of breathing. But the little task to survive finally got the best of her and she flipped onto her back and took a huge breathe. Wyverns were soaring outside her window up and around all of the castle's outer twists and turns. As she saw this she remembered how sad she felt each time she had to fight one in the game because they reminded her so much of the dragons she grew up loving and cherishing. A smile appeared on her face as she remembered the one dragon, yes, the one that had looked after her right after the horrible night when that turned the course of her life completely around. But enough walking down the long road of memories, it was time for sleep. Ryo turned to face the window completely and right before she fell asleep after closing her eyes she took a deep breathe and sighed, "Malicima."

Riku was in a huge room that seemed like it could go on forever. There was a dark purple door about 25 feet away from him as he swung his shadowblade around causing it to release slashes of energy out into the unknown. He stopped for a moment feeling a presence behind him but didn't even bother turning around to acknowledge it. "What do you want?" Riku asked in an annoyed tone.

"I can see your mission didn't go exactly as you planned," stated Maleficent who was standing in front of the door. Riku sighed and took a moment to cool down from his angered moment at the evil fairy's understatement.

"Look it wasn't my fault," he started hastily, "the puppet escaped when I wasn't looking and-" he sighed and hung his head while shaking it side to side. "Look I'll just have to find some other way, that's all.

"Of course you will, I trust you will find it soon though," she said while lifting an eyebrow hoping he would. "Well, since you are here I will send Ryo down shortly so you can begin her training," said Maleficent with an unusual smile for such news.

"Fine, just send her here with that sword you gave her and we can begin," he said as he turned around to resume his training.

Later on Ryo was sent to the huge room as Riku was taking a break so he would have enough strength to help her. He watched her enter and waited for the door to close behind her before he would say anything. The boy jumped up and strode over to her.

"So where shall we start?" she asked as she held her sword over her right shoulder.

"I thought we would start with some sparring, then after I see what you need work with we'll just work on those, okay?" he replied.

She nodded her head and drew her dragonblade in front of her ready to start. Riku did the same and looked deep into her eyes to see if he could tell what was going on through her mind. He saw she was very determined, but not just that; it was as if there was a fire in her eyes burning from everything she had grown to fight for, and this was one of them. He could see she was doing this to prove herself, to show she was defiantly not a push over. Riku took a deep breathe and without warning charged at her while giving a barbaric-like cry. She did the same and the two were immediately engaged in combat.

The two would charge at each other clanging their blades against one another's and try to push the other back. He was surprised at her strength not expecting a girl with such a mediocre frame to be so powerful. But he could still manage to push her back just enough to take a step back and try to hit her again hoping he would be faster than her but she saw through this and blocked again. Riku could see the smirk on her face and gritted his teeth not liking having another worthy opponent, but as he thought of this he noticed he didn't mind this new challenge being her, in fact he was glad she was a challenge.

"You're holding back!" yelled Ryo.

"So what if I am?"

"Just don't," she said flatly as she tried to get another hit in. He dodged just in time and used Strike Raid causing his blade to fly at her and return to his hand after it hit her giving him time for another strike. The blunt end of the blade hit her face but enough to cause her to bleed. She didn't even hesitate enough to show she felt the pain in her cheek and continued to fight. The boy smiled at her concentration and continued until both of them were too worn down to even lift up their swords.

They kept one another's gaze as they stood slumped over across from each other gasping for air. After a few moments Ryo's expression changed to one of confusion as Riku started laughing hysterically. The girl slowly walked over to him to see what was wrong but when he looked up at her still laughing all she could do was the same. As soon as they started to calm down a soldier heartless entered carrying a tray of food for them. After the two took what they wanted the small mindless pawn disappeared with the tray as Riku and Ryo sat down for their break.

"That was pretty good," said Riku after taking a bite from his sandwich.

'Thanks," replied Ryo just before she took a bite from hers. She thought for a moment and looked over to Riku. "Man, you guys have it pretty easy here, but it's kinda weird to use the fiends that you use to fight to bring you food," she said with an anime sweat drop.

"Yeah, I guess so, but you get use to it. Where did you learn to fight like that anyway?"

"Well, I've always wanted to be a dragon valkyrie so I would go to the training academy after school and I became a cadet, and I've been doing it until a few days ago," she said as she looked into her cup of water staring at her reflection.

"But you didn't come until yesterday," he looked at her intently waiting to hear her reply. "Well, I couldn't go the day before because I had after school detention," she sighed and looked over to him.

"What's detention?" he asked.

"It's a punishment students get for various things; either you stay in the classroom during lunch or after school," she saw the look of bedazzlement on his face and chuckled. "I'm sorry, I forgot, you've never heard of any of those things have you? Well, a school, is a place children go to ever since they're about 4 years old until they're about 18 to learn almost everything you need for life.and then a bunch of crap you're never going to use but they make you study anyway," she added with a smile to lighten the mood.

"Heh, all right, so what did you do to make you stay after school?" he said still smirking.

"Oh, well, I got in this fight in class with this girl," she took a deep breathe and scowled as she thought of the one person who played a great deal in making her life a living Hell. "Her name is Arora; she's this prissy snot-nosed girl I went to school with. We always fought and since she was the daughter of one of the most financially powerful men ever she never got in trouble and it will all just go on top of me," she looked over to him and was surprised to see him snickering, "what's so funny?" she asked.

"You said her name was Arora?" he said while keeping a smile on his face. (by the way, this spelling of the name is the Japanese spelling which is the one I intended to use, just thought you should know) She smirked and shook her head and looked up at him realizing the humor in this coincidence. "To make it worse classmates would even call me Maleficent just because of the other girl's name; guess they thought it was clever or something," she chuckled slightly as she smiled at him after the remark. Ryo tried to hide her blushing when she saw he was smiling back.

The two continued to talk for awhile until the training resumed. After a few hours Riku thought it was getting late and decided they should get some rest for tomorrow. Ryo was walking to her room deep in thought. "Riku is a lot friendlier then I had imagined," she thought, "He is unpredictable also, of course I have only known him for a day.but I have also seen how he reacts through the game," she sighed as she started climbing the stairs to her room. "But then again he has been really nice to me, whenever he isn't being as bossy as Hell," her train of thought continued, "It was weird when he was smiling earlier, it almost seemed like he has a crush on me or something.Erg, what am I thinking? Besides, he likes Kairi so there is no way he can get a crush on anyone else, no, no, no!" she sighed again as she entered her room and prepared for bed. She looked out the window as she lied in bed and smiled as she watched the wyvern and other heartless prepare for the night as well.

When Ryo got up she wandered around Hallow Bastion taking in the sights she didn't have much of a chance to see through the game. She was about to enter the main hall when she suddenly froze, there in chambers were the captured princesses. She slowly entered and lingered around as she stared at everything around her. Ryo almost continued if it wasn't for the hand on her shoulder. Maleficent was standing behind her and looking down on her.

"Oh, is there another mission you want me and Riku to do?" she asked as a matter of fact.

"Actually I stopped by to see if you were ready to start your magic training," she replied with a similar tone of voice.

"All right then, but where will we train?" the young girl asked. She looked behind her teacher to see a random door appeared ready to be opened.

"That door will take us to our magic training room. After you my dear," stated Maleficent with a smile that deeply disturbed the girl who was good at not showing it.

Ryo followed Maleficent to the large dark room; these dark rooms were starting to get on her nerves even if she expected them. In the center of the floor there was a huge circular glyph on the ground illuminating the room with a dark green light. The girl looked up at the evil fairy who nodded and watched as the girl stood in the center of the glyph.

"What do I do now?" asked Ryo.

"First I shall explain. Everyone is capable of learning magic really, but only those who can break their magic barrier can learn it," she was walking around the girl as she spoke and looking upon her now and then.

"So I need to break mine, correct?" responded the disoriented girl as she tried to follow Maleficent with her eyes.

"Yes, now first I need you to hold your arms out in front of you and close your eyes," Maleficent continued. She watched as the girl did as she as told and kept her arms parallel with the floor. "Now it's my turn," after that said Maleficent held her hand above the girl's head and a blue aura surrounded the apprentice. "Can you feel something growing inside of you? Like a fire ready to be released through every fiber of your being?" asked the now enthusiastic teacher.

"Yes," responded the apprentice, "it's really hot, I want to let it go but I don't know how," the girl was now starting to sweat and wincing now and then over the extreme heat building inside of her. The glyph under the girl was staring to glow brighter. A blue flame was starting to emerge in the palm of her hands though it was flickering wildly.

"Good, good. Now capture the flame and control it, master it," demanded the teacher. She watched as the girl clenched her teeth doing everything she could to command the raging inferno. Ryo's perspiration increased and she gasped before the flames in her hands grew rapidly then diminished before she fell to her hands and knees gasping for air. The outer rim of the glyph caught on fire scaring the young apprentice at first until it disappeared. "Excellent Ryo," Maleficent commended, "You have just mastered the art of fire, after you master the others I will work with you to strengthen them," she said as she walked over and looked upon the panting girl.

Ryo looked up at her then noticed Maleficent had her hand held out for her. The girl looked at it for a second and got up on her own. She noticed the smile on her teacher's face and she gave a weak smile back. "Good," started Maleficent, "Shall we continue?" she asked. After her question was acknowledged with a nod of her head Maleficent continued. "Now, let us move onto the power of ice."

For the next couple of days Ryo trained with her two teachers and she would show them Sora's path. This day would be different however. Today Ryo's training in sword fighting would be taken to a new level; only the girl would find out the hard way. The unexpected student was in the sword fighting room waiting for her teacher. She stood up as Riku entered sword in hand.

"Okay, today we're going to do something different," the boy stated.

"How so?" she asked.

"We're going to use magic along with our blades," he said as he walked over to her.

"Oh, all right then, ready"

"Of course," he smirked. Riku then got into a fighting stance but held the shadowblade with only one hand and held out the other ready to summon a magic spell. Ryo did the same and waited for the right moment, when she found it she charged while powering up a blizzara spell in her hand. Riku saw this and countered with a thundara spell only accidentally hitting her as well as her spell. He cursed mentally but was relieved she escaped only scratched. They continued fighting and apparently Riku had the upper hand since his magic was stronger. Ryo, now bleeding from various scratches and cuts on her body was having trouble standing with the weight of her sword.

"You should stop, you can barely stand," he stated. He watched and waited for the panting girl to respond.

"I'm not stopping.until I can physically.go no more," she replied.

"I won't continue, you're too badly hurt. I can see you trying to hold back your coughing," he exclaimed rather loudly actually sounding very concerned for her.

"I.I said I'm-" she started to fall over but was lucky to have Riku catch her in time. He cursed under his breathe again for letting her continue and letting himself hurt her so much even for a training session. He flipped her onto his shoulder and left the room. It didn't take him long to find Maleficent who was shocked to see her favorite apprentice in such a state.

"I all ready know what to do," she said as she turned around and swung her staff to the side summoning a door and opened it for them to go through. In the middle of the small room there was a stone bed with 1ft walls on the sides to prevent the person in the bed from falling or other various purposes. Riku set the girl gently on the stone furniture and looked at her with regret. Soon a green gel-like substance started to fill the bed and stopped at the girl's chin allowing her to breathe.

"She'll have to stay in here until tomorrow, in the mean time I will look after her," stated Maleficent as she looked down to Riku who had been looking at Ryo the whole time.

"This stuff is going to heal her right? And there won't be any side effects right?" asked the concerned boy. "Of course not, do you not trust me?" she asked.

"Why don't I look after her?" he replied trying to ignore the subject.

"I thought all you wanted was to look after Kairi?" asked the suspicious leader.

"Oh, right," he replied as though the idea had been freshly put in his mind after it was erased willingly. "Speaking of which I'm going to continue my research," with that Riku left the room after getting one more look at the wounded girl and left.

When Riku was gone Maleficent looked over her student and examined her wounds. She looked at the young girl's face then gently brushed some hair from her bangs out of her eyes. The evil fairy suddenly stopped and realized what she was doing and mentally slapped her-self for doing so. She was the Mistress of all Evil after all, why should she care for a child she knows nothing about. This aroused a thought in her brilliant mind. She placed her hand on the girl's forehead and caused a faint green glow around her hand and Ryo's forehead. When the glow dimmed out she placed her hand on the orb of her staff then swirled her fingers around causing a swirling of clouds in the orb until it showed a young girl around the age of 7 with short brown hair running in a field with who Maleficent assumed was the girl's parents.

It was about mid-day and the family was having a wonderful time. The fairy of darkness would've ceased to watch the girl's memories anymore from the fact that she would've thrown up from all the happiness if the image of the golden dragon didn't catch her eye. The dragon looked much like her own alternate ego with a few minor differences in the color and this dragon didn't have any fins on the side of her head.

A few moments later the image grew dark and violent winds gathered around the young girl's home in the fields. A huge black dragon with pure crimson eyes attacked her home and the towns around it. Maleficent watched intently as people were running around trying to stay with their families as the dragon continued to attack the land. The young girl from earlier was separated from her parents but the golden dragon stayed by her and flew the girl as far from danger as possible.

The girl rode on the dragons back with droplets escaping her eyes knowing she might never see her parents again. She looked back and saw the place where she last saw her parents go up in flames. It was necessary for the dragon to fly low to avoid contact with the berserker dragon so as to not harm the little one riding her. Slayers had come in to try to kill the berserker by hurling spears and harpoons at it; this was almost a failure as the weapons were knocked away by his claws except for a few that struck his hide slowing him down. One spear strayed far away near the golden dragon and the girl, the dragon was able to see this and demanded the girl cling tightly as she started to glide with her back facing the ground and attempted to catch it but was stabbed by it instead.

"MALICIMA!" shouted the girl as the dragon let out a moan of pain. Malicima didn't go down that easy however; she managed to fly upright again and fly towards a rock wall that opened up a secret passage just for the dragon leading them to a secluded cave. From there the orb showed the girl and dragon spending their last days together and the girl doing everything she could to extend the dragon's fading life. The orb fast forwarded to a month after the incident still in the cave.

"Toshiko, you need to go to an orphanage, there you might be able to find a new family to look after you; as much I as I would enjoy raising you life with a with a dragon is not best suited for a growing child," stated the dragon who was now a faint shade of yellow.

"But Malicima, you're still not well and I don't want to leave you. Besides, I liked my mommy and daddy and no one can replace them," pleaded the small child.

"I know that but it's what is best for you. After all, your father grew up in an orphanage and he turned out just fine, please Toshiko, this path is the best one you can take right now. I'll be fine in a few days and then as soon as I can I'll come to visit you and do so everyday," replied the dragon with a soothing and calm voice.

The orb stopped the images after that and went back to being it's usual green self. Maleficent looked down at the girl and for the first time felt pity for another person. Something caught her eye again and she looked back to her orb that was flickering more images and started showing solid pictures of the same girl now older and wearing a Japanese sailor-type school uniform of white, green and red. The girl was running to her school with her brown school bag in hand and rushed into her classroom after climbing a flight of stairs and sat down in her seat just as the bell rang. The students snickered and the teacher looked down at her with unhappiness from behind his glasses.

"Late again are we Ms. Toshiko?" asked the teacher in a stern voice.

"But Mr. Hubert, I'm not even late, the school bell was set ahead 5 minutes because of the power outage yesterday remember? And I was in my seat just in time for the bell," she replied. But before the teacher could make his response a girl sitting on the other side of the room raised her hand and stood up to make an announcement. The girl had long wavy hair of sunshine gold and eyes slightly up-lifted to give her a stuck-up appearance.

"Excuse me Mr. Hubert," interrupted the girl.

"Yes Ms. Arora?" he responded.

"But isn't it school policy that if one is late to class even if a technical error has occurred to alter the school's bell schedule that that person must still arrive on time to the new and temporary requirement?" asked Arora.

"Well, that rule isn't really enforced and I probably would've let her slide if I hadn't been reminded but since I have I guess I shall just have to give Ms. Toshiko detention, thank you Ms. Arora," commended the teacher.

"Not a problem sir" responded the student as she sat back down and smirked over to the recently tardy girl. After that fiasco the scene had skipped to later in the day in another class with Toshiko quarrelling with Arora. As a few insults were batted around they both stopped to look at a classmate who had interrupted them by making a comment to Toshiko by saying, "Geez, settle down 'Maleficent'."

The two girls looked at each other and Toshiko sneered at her rival with anger as she just laughed hysterically over the comment. When that was down the orb finally declined from showing it's owner images from the girl's past and resumed back to it's blank state. The evil fairy gazed down to the recuperating youth and watched with sorrow as she realized this was probably the only person she had so much in common with let alone anything at all. This sparked an idea in her head that would change so many things.

Maleficent reached down and picked up the dragonblade that Riku had left when he brought Ryo in. She pulled back the sleeve allowing her wrist to show. With the sword in hand she held it to the back of her hand and made a slit around where her wrist was then stuck her bleeding hand into the substance the girl was lying in and watched with a mischievous smirk as the blood flowed from her body into any of the open wounds of the girl. Ryo winced at first unaware at what was happening but kept her eyes shut and let this new form of life source enter her being.

When the process was over Maleficent drew her already healing arm back and continued to watch the girl. "I now bestow upon you all of my power and magic onto you my child. May this new gift be the key to your success and guide you onto a glorious path" stated Maleficent. A few seconds later she turned around and left the girl alone and blind for now from the new power and abilities given to her.

The night came and left allowing the girl to heal completely. When she sat up from her now dry bed she looked around the room feeling very confused. She had no idea where she was and it was scaring her. To her surprise she was actually relieved to find Maleficent entering the room. "What is this place?" asked the confused girl.

"This is the recovery room. You were severely injured in your training with Riku so he brought you here, he was very worried about you," she mentioned.

"He was, really?" Ryo asked with a hint of joy in her voice.

"Of course he was; but anyway, how are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling great now, in fact I feel like I'm pumped with a lot of energy now," the young girl replied. "Heh, of course I always get hyper after a good nap" she added with a chuckle.

"Good, your next mission will begin soon, if you feel up to it that is" said Maleficent with a teasing tone. The girl hopped over the side and out of the bed landing without a sound.

"It seems kind of soon for me but I'm ready. By the way, what is the next mission?" Ryo asked.

"You and Riku will travel to another world and await Sora's arrival. In the meantime you two must see if this one girl is one of the Princesses of Heart," Maleficent said. Ryo nodded her head and followed her mentor to the main hall where Riku was waiting for them. He saw Ryo and gave her his usual cool smirk which made her smile back.

"So if we are to go to another world, how are we going to get there?" asked Riku.

"I have a vessel prepared, in fact here comes the captain," said Maleficent as she turned around to see Captain Hook walk up to them. "I'll just let you know now that you better prepare yourselves because isn't going to be a pleasure cruise," said the captain. "And I better not hear anymore lip from you little girl," he added. Ryo just let out a sigh of annoyance showing she agreed.

Ryo was exploring the different areas of the ship since she had nothing else to do. She stopped in front of a door where she heard something. The door slowly creaked as she opened it and found none other than Peter Pan trying to break free from his ropes. He stopped when he heard the door open but his shocked face changed to one of relief when he saw it was someone besides Smee.

"Are you a prisoner too?" he asked hopefully.

"Well, you could say that," said the shocked girl.

"Is something wrong? Your eyes are wide and your face is red," chuckled the boy.

"O-oh, sorry, it's just I thought I was never going to meet you Peter Pan" mentioned the stuttering girl.

"I guess old Hook has mentioned me, huh? Say, do you think you can help me out here?" he asked.

"Well." she looked around behind her then entered closing the door silently. "Alright, but we never met okay?" she said as she walked up to him and tried to untie him, she began with his hands that were behind his back.

"Umm, okay, whatever you say," said the confused boy. "What's wrong? Haven't you gotten it untied yet? Guess girls aren't that good at things as boys are," he added.

"Hey, I'm trying my best, and you could be a little more grateful you know. Don't you have a pocket knife, or something?" she said.

"Hook put it out of my reach up there," he said while jerking his head up to show the pocket knife on the chicken wire grid above their heads. "I'd fly up there but these ropes have me tied down too," he added. Ryo sighed as she looked at the difficult ropes with disgust. An idea hit her and suddenly she began to chew at the ropes. For a split second her teeth began to sharpen and become a more triangular shape. The ropes were cut and Ryo backed away and began to feel her teeth with her fingers as Peter rubbed his wrists with his hands enjoying his soon-to-come freedom. The girl was confused as her teeth felt fine and just shrugged and helped the boy with the ropes on his feet.

"Thanks," he said, "what's your name by the way?"

"Oh, I'm Ryo, I need to get going now, if I find Tinker Bell I'll let you know alright?" she said. He replied with a nod and flew through the hole in the wire grid on the ceiling while grabbing his knife. Ryo looked around and thought about if what she did was right, after all, the only reason she was helping the villains was because she had no other choice. Though Maleficent and Riku had been taking good care of her she just tried to block it out from her mind as she walked towards the cabin hoping to find them there.

Just before she opened the door she heard Kairi's name mentioned and decided that since it may not concern her she shouldn't go in just yet. She remembered one of the movie sequences from the game and listened intently to what was being said in the other room.

"So, Kairi's like a lifeless puppet now?" she hard Riku say.

"Precisely," said Maleficent.

"And her heart was."

"Taken by the Heartless, no doubt,"

"Tell me! What can I do?"

"There are seven maidens of the purest heart. We call them the princesses of heart. Gather them together, and a door will open to the heart of all worlds. Within lies untold wisdom. There you will surely find a way to recover Kairi's heart. Now, I'll grant you a marvelous gift. The power to control the Heartless!" she shouted in a loud booming voice while spreading her arms out.

A black aura started engulfing Riku as he looked at himself then to Kairi and said: "Soon Kairi, soon."

@ @

Yes! Another chapter done. I hope I've been staying close to the storyline as possible with this. I even started a new game of Kingdom Hearts just so I could be as accurate as possible. Anyway, please R&R and I'll post the fifth chapter whether you like it or not :P