Disclaimer: as I have stated in previous chapters, I do not own the rights to this. If I did Kingdom Hearts 2 would be released already.

A/N: Yada yada yada makes perfect sense!

Songs, singing, movies, television, etc.

"…"dialog

Lalalalala- description, side notes, narrations, some random thoughts, etc….

(Rikku's POV)

"Baralai?"

That's right Baralai was standing in the door looking at me lying on top of a shirtless Gippal, after taking time to digest the scene I noticed something was off with him. He had some sort of mark on his clothing. It looked like a heart with an X through it.

"Baralai?" I asked him again. Something was off with the polite pacartor. I sat up and so did Gippal. He had his arms loosely wrapped around my waist, as if he was protecting me.

"Rikku your presence has been requested," his eyes shifted nervously, "the boss requests you be ready in four hours. They want you to wear this." He handed me an emerald green sundress. It had a long bodice and curved in at the waist. I fingered the delicate lacy-like stitching. It was a spectacular dress. Baralai exited the room and slammed the door, locking it once again.

"So Rikku, where do you plan on getting changed?" Gippal asked me with a smirk.

"In here, while you're on the balcony." I got off of his lap and pointed to the double doors. He sighed lightly and sulked over to the doors. I giggled slightly and peeled off my sweat-soaked clothing. I pulled the refreshing clean green dress over my head. It fit me perfectly, which made me wonder how did "the boss" know my size? Nevertheless the dress felt great and when I called Gippal back into the room his eyes widened and his jaw almost dropped at the sight of me.

"Like what you see?" I teased, mimicking his words from earlier. He nodded and licked his lips and trying a second attempt at winking. I sauntered over to the card table and nibbled on some leftover Macaroni and Cheese, which Gippal and Riku had eaten for lunch. It was the first bit of food I've had in three days. I had been avoiding the food Riku bought because whenever he came into the room I was busy pretending to be asleep in order to avoid any awkward encounters.

"It's good to see you eating. I was starting to get worried." I spun around at the sound of Riku's voice. I swallowed the food in my mouth and blushed despite myself.

"I…ate when you weren't in here." I lied and Gippal shook his head before putting an arm around my waist. I blushed harder and tensed at the feel of his touch. Riku looked at me angrily and looked at Gippal with a distrust and distaste in his eyes. I planned on explaining things to Riku, to try to work them out. I guess really I didn't have anything to explain to him, except the fact that I kissed him and failed to inform him that I had a boyfriend…

"No you never ate, until now. But that doesn't matter right now. You are coming with me. The boss requests your presence." Riku paused, watched me put down the forkful of food and slowly walk across the room to him. When I got there Riku smirked at Gippal and escorted me out of the room.

After we were a safe distance down the hallway I figured I could try to strike up a conversation. "So who exactly is "the boss"?" I asked, using my fingers as a prop to try to make my question some sort of semi-humorous ice breaker.

"You'll see soon enough." he said quietly. He looked strait ahead the whole time. Never losing focus. Always in one path never letting his guard down.

What was wrong with him anyways? It's not like that kiss meant anything to him. He seemed surprised when it happened and when she was kissing him she had some feeling in the pit of her stomach that he didn't like her the way she…liked him. Yes she could admit it to herself. She had a bit of a crush on Riku. Maybe not a bit of a crush, a HUGE crush. She couldn't act on instinct like some sort of animal though, she was Gippal's girlfriend and she had to remain loyal to him in this strange time. They were in some other world basically kidnapped and dangers unknown to them were probably lurking around every corner.

"We have arrived!" Riku shouted to a closed door. The doors were humongous and tall. Riku began pounding on them with immense power. They cracked open slightly and then after some hesitation they swung open to reveal some sort of Castle Chapel. Odd looking people were sitting at a long table. At the head of the table a woman with bright red hair sat. She had her elbows on the table and rested her head on her chin.

"Come in won't you darlings?" she cooed. Riku took my hand and led me to an empty seat at the foot of the table. He looked around the room, mumbled something about attending to the matters in the cell, and exited. Once again I felt myself shutter at the noise the doors made when they slammed behind me. She was wearing a tacky red dress and large earrings. (a/n think 'The Rescuers Down Under')

"Darling tell me, what is your name?" she cooed at me. I looked at her skeptically, shouldn't she already know that?

"Ri-Rikku…" I whispered. She heard me regardless and smiled. I looked around the table; it was filled with unique looking characters; a fat man with black hair, a shrewd looking business man, a woman with a salt-and-pepper hair style and fur coat, and a man with a pointed nose cowboy hat sitting next to a large lizard. I shivered slightly and waited for someone to speak. I had no idea why they had called me here. And was the red-headed woman 'Maleficent'?

"You can call me Madame Medusa. Going clockwise around the table please recite your name to Rikku here." She clapped her hands and pointed at the figures. The fat man's name was Radcliff, the shrewd looking man was Sykes, the salt-and-pepper woman's name was Curella De Vil, and the man with the cowboy hat was Percival McLeach. They all had some cruel look to them. The large doors swung open again and a pale-looking Chinese man entered. Madame Medusa glared at him and ordered him to speak his name to me.

"Shan-Yu." He mumbled. I nodded in reply and sank into the semi-soft seat. Madame looked at me accusingly and I sat up strait again.

"You might be wondering why we, the DEK, have called you here," she began. I felt courageous and interrupted her.

"Umm, what's the DEK stand for, or does it just not stand for anything?" I asked shyly. She laughed and snorted in response.

"I didn't come up with the name. Ask Maleficent that one." She snorted once more before continuing with what she was saying. I felt myself blushing slightly at her response. How was I supposed to ask Maleficent anything? "As I was saying before, we have called you here because we need your help. There is a door, not an ordinary door to be opened with a key," she continued. My mind wandered to Sora and his huge key. Riku had taken it from him, where was that key now?

"This door is opened with hearts. Not ordinary hearts though, the hearts of eight princess' of heart. We have found seven of them. We have the eighth in custody; however she remains heartless at the moment." She paused. "Surely you know of the heartless by now?"

"No ma'am." I put my head down in embarrassment. I had been locked up in that stupid room practically since I got here, how was I supposed to know about anything?

"Well then, you're just going to have to trust me. The heartless are monsters. Surely you've seen one before. They attack out of no where and attempt to steal your heart. The essence that makes you who you are. The attempt to bring you out of the light and into the darkness. And this darkness has great power. It is so powerful if one found the means to control it-" she stopped herself. "Never mind, I'm getting ahead of myself." She smiled slightly and patted her hair. Then she stood up and motioned for me. She never got to finish what she was going to tell me before she got off on the heartless rant. At least now I knew something, even if it didn't make sense.

"Baralai!" she called out. I felt my heart stop when I saw him. He was wearing chains on his wrists and ankles. His regular clothing had morphed into an all-black ensemble with the simple symbol of a heart with an X through it in the center. His blanched white hair was turning blacker every second and his eyes were empty. Wasn't he fine four hours ago?

"That's not Bara-" I began to say. I knew though deep down it was Baralai. My suspicions were secured when Madame put her hand to my face, revealing talon-like fingernails, and shushed me.

"He is gone. He is not the Baralai you perhaps knew, but all the same he is Baralai. And before long it will be too dangerous for him to be in the presence of us, he will be moved to the castle basement. Follow me and watch your step." She grabbed an object out of Baralai's chained hands and pushed him away. I looked down at my bare feet and hoped there wasn't going to be any outdoors travel involved in getting to wherever we were going. Luckily after about 2000 yards she stopped and pressed some sort of emblem on a wall. The emblem began to glow and the wall skirted aside. The room ahead was dark and sullen. It had an icy-cold air and sent chills down my spine. I noticed I bulge in Madame's dress on her thigh; it looked about the size of a gunner. She has a freaking gun in her garter? I shivered at the thought.

"Took you long enough." A voice boomed. I looked around for its owner.

"I didn't want to move things to fast on the girl." Madame flared back, but I noticed she was shifting uneasily.

"As long as she is here now." The voice boomed back.

"She is." Madame pushed me forward into the deep darkness. I gulped. Two hands came to rest on my shoulders. Two cold lifeless hands. I looked up into yellow-colored eyes and immediately shut my own eyes. I wanted to wake up from this nightmare. The person shook me suddenly and my eyes snapped open. I found myself in the same position, and even though I knew it before I couldn't deny myself any longer; this was for real.

"Are you…Maleficent?" I asked quietly. The figure didn't answer, but shoved me onto a hard, cold, stone table. I felt something warm beside me. Not something, someone. And not just anyone. Yuna.

A/N: mwhahahahahaha! Am I evil for dropping it there? I know I know. Anyways please review so I can get your feedback and begin writing the next chapter. Oh yea and hats off to Tsubame for naming some villains. I used some obsecure ones though, look up their names in Google images if you want a visual of them, they're from

Radcliff: Pocahontos

Sykes: Oliver and Company

Madame Medusa: Rescuers Down Under

Shan-Yu: Mulan

Percival McLeach: Rescuers Down Under

And Cruella De Vil: 101 Dalamtions

I chose them for their business-like sort of nature, because that's the type of villain I need for the story to work. You'll see, and you'll get a kick out of what DEK is :giggles: and please remember to vote!

Gippal: vote for me, because I was barely in this chapter!

Riku: vote for me because he already has Rikku in 1-2-3-4…67-68…I lost count, but he already has Rikku in a million stories!

Me: I have a concert to get to so can you guys please wrap this up?

Sora: I want to be in this part too! Good luck on your long…………… hard…………….. solo…

Me: starts to sweat: ummm, got to go bye!

Lucy!