6H: I bet you are all mad at me because I never told you what happened to Aru in the last chapter. Well now, you find out where she is, and with who!

Jack: Plus, there is only two more chapters till the chapter 50 party! YAY!

6H:dances around yeah!

Anaretsu: I should've never left my soul room for this. (walks out of room)

Jack: What's her problem?

6H: Don't know. Here's the chapter!


Kingdom Hearts-Shattered Fragments

Fragment 48-Riku's Secret World


When Aru became aware of herself after being knocked out, she could feel she wasn't in water anymore. She breathed in deep, welcoming air into her lungs. The next thing she noticed is that she was cold, but was covered by a blanket and her hair had been taken down. Her robe was gone and so were her shoes and glasses. She still lacked the energy to open her eyes, so she layed there in the silence. Soon, footsteps echoed off the walls and approached her. She didn't move, not even when someone sat down to her right. There was a rustling of movement, it was very quiet, and then felt a sudden cold on her left cheek. She winced at first, but then, the hand became warm and she snuggled against it.

'Where am I? This hand...it feels so gentle...' she slowly opened her red eyes and saw the pools of artic ice.

"You're awake...I was worried...because you slept for a long time..." he said, smiling a bit. Aru sat upright, looking around at where she was. It was a dark room and the walls strecth up to infinity, or so it seemed. She was resting on a curvy couch thing-the only way she could think to describe it- placed in the middle of the floor. A small square table had her glasses and her blue hair ribbon. Her robe was folded up neatly on the floor, and her shoes leaned next to it. "I bet you can't see without your glasses. Hold still..." through her blurry vision, she saw him gingerly lift them off the table and, like a doctor with something fragile, unfolded them and slipped them onto her face. Her vision became much clearer. He stood up, walking around the end of the bed and going towards a source of light.

"Riku..." Aru breathed, breaking the quiet moment. He stopped walking. "Was it you...? Did you bring me here?" she asked.

"I did. I saw...you used that spell again...the one of light."

"Light magic? How would I know light magic? It's the most advanced and powerful of all elements! If I tried a spell like Light...I'd be crushed by my own magic energy and be killed instantly."

"But you did use it. And you used it on me in Monstro, during that first time we met. Lightra...that was what I heard you say. Well, it didn't sound like you, but it was you." She looked at him in disbelief. "Well, forget it. I saw you were in trouble. I couldn't just leave you to drown. So I brought you here after you passed out."

"What about Ryu and Cedeile? Are they alright?" she asked, remembering the battle. She knew that if she had passed out and the form shift had lifted off her, there was a good chance that it lifted off of Ryu and Cedeile as well.

"They are fine. I was a little worried for a moment, but they made it out of there. And they got a nice haul of fragments."


"18...19...20.." Ryu counted, setting the fragments on the console of his gummi ship.

"Wow! All the effort was worth it for you guys, then, huh?" Sora asked.

"Yes. Thank you for bringing these to us. I didn't believe so many would be in one place. Anyway, Cedeile and I are going to look for Aru. That shadow, whatever it was, transported her someplace." Cedeile stood by the glass, looking out at space, being extremely quiet. The two boys looked over at her.

"I suppose we'll have to wait to meet again." Sora said, concern for his best friend clearly in his voice.

"Yeah. We'll be leaving soon. Say goodbye to Ariel for us, okay?" Sora nodded, and walked over to the heartblade master. He rested a hand on her shoulder, but she didn't move.

"Cedeile...I guess this is goodbye...again..." he said, giving a kind of sad smile. Without saying anything else, he let his hand slip off of her, and walked out of the ship, the door sliding closed behind him. Ryu walked over and stood next to her, looking out at space. He knew that Cedeile didn't want to talk now, but just wanted to be alone and think. He knew that all she wanted him to do was nothing. After a long while, he spoke.

"Before you hurt yourself thinking about it, we have 36 fragments." he told her bluntly. The two of them just stood there in silence for a while.


"You were watching over us this whole time?" Aru asked him.

"Yes. Aru...lately, I've been feeling, weird...like there are times when something is controling me in the back of my head. A dark voice is there...and sometimes, I become this strange person that I try to hold back." He turned to look at her, and she felt his eyes looking directly into hers, even from a distance. "And it scares me. " Aru stood up and walked over to him.

"Then why did you save me? Did this evil voice want to kill me?" she asked, looking at the ground. "I wouldn't mind death...it'd be painless, and then it wouldn't matter that I don't remember anything before I woke up in Traverse Town."

"Don't say that!" Riku said, grabbing the girl by the shoulders. "Just because you don't have a past, doesn't mean you don't desevre a furture! And right now, you're my only reason to live and I-" He stopped, turnning away and covering his mouth, like he had said something he didn't mean to. He looked behind him at the magician. She appeared confused, so he dropped it. "What I mean is that there are people who care about you, and they would be sad if you died."

"I guess." he breathed out hard and turned to her, smiling.

"Anyway, I want to show you something. Get your shoes and we'll go."


He pulled her down a hall and led her to a dead end. She was about to ask what was so great about this, but he put a finer to her lips and shook his head no, to keep silent. With a wave of his hand, a small door appeared. He moved away from her, opened the door, and jumped down.

"Aru!" he whispered. "Jump in. I'll catch you!" She ventured forward and then lept into the uncertain darkness. True to his word, Riku caught her tightly and set her down. She hugged her robe closer to her body, trying to keep off the cold.

"Where is this?"

"I found it one day while exploring around here. Mallificent has never been down here-I don't think she knows where it is. Anyway, just a little more..." He led her by the hand, slowly through the passage until they were in some picth dark room. She felt his gloved hand leave hers.

"Riku!"

"Easy now. Just wait a mintue." A curtain rustled and a dull glowing blue light appeared and then came into full force. White dots appeared all over the blue light and formed into shapes as lines of different colors connected some of them together. Riku stood in front of it. "What do you think?" She walked forward, some of her hair falling over her shoulder.

"It's beautiful...what is it?"

"It's a map of stars in the sky. A long time ago, when the worlds were all one, they used to try and find patterens and shapes formed by stars. Over time, they developed legends and myths about them, and soon they began to believe that they controled certain aspects of magic, so mages began to study these maps. See the lines? Their color shows which constellation controls what. Aqua, Fire, Ice, Wood, Earth, Thunder, Gravity, Time, Wind and Light are all represented in this map." She smiled softly.

"It's like looking at the night sky..."

"It's how it looked thousands of years ago, until the worlds split apart. Now, the sky is all screwed up, so it doesn't look the same. Huh?" He watched as she stepped forward, squinting at the display. "What is it, Aru?"

"Doesn't this look famillar at all?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that...I've seen these stars before. I recall laying in the grass one night...I wasn't alone, there was someone else there. Umm...we pointed out the constellations and talked...and laughed, I remember laughing and then..."

"What?" Riku asked, kneeling next to her. "Who were you with? If you can remember that, than you'll now what world you're from. You could find that person and then they could tell you everything about your past."

"I can't remember. The person...had a black scarf...that's all I recall..." she sighed, dissapointed. Riku looked disapointed for a moment, but then cheered up a bit.

"But you did remember something. You have a memory now. That's something...right?" Aru turned to look at him. His eyes widened. Her eyes didn't look like hers at first-they seemed sharper, older...but then they were their usual crimson glow.

"Yes. I have something I can fall back on...I-" There was a clattering noise from upstairs. Riku shut off the map, and then took Aru and dragged her under a table with a cloth draped over it. He held her close, making sure she stayed quiet, while he listened to what was going on outside. He heard footsteps enter the room, and a dull green glow came with it.

"Mallificent, what brings us down here?" asked a male voice.

"I thought I felt a great amount of power come from down here. But now it's gone..." Mallificent replied.

"A surge of power? Here? This place is so full of different auras that I'm surprised you mages could distinguish them all."

"Normally, the clashing of power here would not let a surge of power come through, but this one must've been particularly strong..." She came close to the table they were hiding under. Riku snatched Aru closer and turned away from the light, sneering at it's glow. "Well, I've never seen this room before. Never mind. We should head back. Our plans are failling rapidly." The two left the room, taking the light with them. Riku waited a full five mintues until he crawled out from under the table, Aru still clutched to him.

"That was way too close..."he whispered.

"Will they come back?" Aru asked, letting go of him.

"No, I don't think so. But I wonder what that power surge could've been from." he thought out loud.

"The star map, perhaps?"

"No, I've turned it on tons of times and it never attracted anyone down here. Let's leave here, Aru. There might be something here..." He reached for her hand in the darkness and the two of them walked out of the room quietly, both deep in thought.

'A memory...it's so blurry, but at least it's something...'


6H:I know you're all hating me right now for not going much into this. But thinking about you guys reading this and having no idea about the ending and wondering what's up with Aru makes me laugh.

Anaretsu: Yeah! It makes me laugh too! You're all pathetic!

6H:Anaretsu, cut it out baka!

Jack: One chapter till the chapter 50 party.

6H:That's right! We need to get food and stuff for the party! Plus, I havefta get redy for the special surprises...hee hee hee. I love having the power to leave you people in suspense.

Anaretsu: And I love having power! HA HA HA!