Joe: NOO!
Sora53: I would've taken a break a while ago, or at least waited a bit inbetween chapters if CORITA hadn't decided to become an experiment.
Corita: So this is my fault? DON'T MAKE ME BLAST YOU INTO OBLIVION!
Sora Fangirls: SORA GOES CRAZY! -sob-
Riku Fangirls: Riku dressed up for Halloween! Corita, you rule!
Corita: -bows- Thank you.
Sora53: Here we are. A nice chapter with a blend of darkness and comic relief.
Fans: Darkness? WHERE?-
Disclaimer: I own nothing but Corita. -glares at lawyers-
Riku shot a glance to his side, looking at Corita. She was walking next to him happily, humming some strange tune.
"Corita? What are you humming?" Riku asked.
"It's called The Gummi Ship Song." Corita answered. "When Sora, Donald, Goofy and I traveled between worlds on our gummi ship, Sora and Goofy sang it all the time. Once they sang it 127 times in a row."
"127? You counted?"
"Yep." Corita sighed.
Corita hung her head, the happiness that had been in her eyes moments before gone. Riku noticed this, and he frowned.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you think of them...I know it must be hard now..."
Corita lifted her head again, and turned to look at Riku. "No, don't worry about it. It's not their fault they forgot me. It's not Sora's OR Naminé's fault."
"I still don't know who Naminé is, but whatever you say. Whose fault is it?"
"It's..." Corita started, but then she remembered something she and Larxene had said...
'You're saying this is all my fault?'
'I guess it depends on the way you look at it. But yeah, that's what I'm saying.'
"It's...their fault." Corita answered, trying to shake off the memory of Larxene's words. "All those people in the black-robed cult...they did this. But let's not concentrate on the past. What about now? It's great to see you again, Riku." She said with a smile.
Riku grinned. "It's nice to see you, though I wish it were under different circumstances."
"Well, you win some and you lose some."
"Corita, that world we were in before..."
"Wonderland? What about it?"
"You've been there before, right?"
"Yeah...so what?"
"I've never been there. In fact, there were a couple worlds that I've never been too..."
"Really? That's odd...maybe you're visiting worlds from Sora's memory as well as your own."
"What? Why?"
"I don't know. It was the only explanation I could think of."
"
Well, let's keep going. I only have one card left."
"I'LL USE IT!" Corita cried, grabbing the card from Riku's grip and running to the top of the stairs.
"Hey!" Riku yelled, and then chased after Corita. He was too late, however; Corita had already held up the card and the door was opening.
"HALLOWEEN TOWN!" Corita squealed, running forward from where she'd arrived in the town. "NOW it's a party! Candy and merriment...COME ON OUT, EVERYONE!"
As she stood in the middle of the square, she was greeted only by silence. After a few moments, she sighed. "There's really no one here, huh?"
"Nope." Riku said as he came up next to her.
"Man, that's really depressing...good thing I still have my werewolf ears!" Corita said happily, shoving the ears she'd made for Halloween Town previously onto her head. "Here, Riku...I'm sure we can manage something with you..."
Corita led the confused Riku to Dr. Finkelstein's lab which was, of course, empty. She dug through a few drawers and cabinets until she found what she wanted.
"Jackpot!" she cried. "Now I just need some glue..."
After 20 minutes, Riku was wearing a headpiece like Corita's, but instead of werewolf ears, Heartless Shadow antenna made of dark fabric (which Corita had conveniently found in one of Dr. Finkelstein's drawers) jutted out of it, flopping in front of his face.
"Corita? What's the point of this?" Riku asked as Corita threw the leftover materials back into their drawers.
"Well, I want to keep the place tidy, even if there's no one-"
"Not that! I mean this thing on my head!"
"Because, it's HALLOWEEN TOWN!" Corita explained, as if that answered all his questions.
"But there's no one around to-"
"WEAR IT WITH PRIDE!" Corita roared. "Wearing these werewolf ears caused me to get a free hotel! Any more questions?"
Riku didn't answer; he was busy glowing with embarrassment as Corita marched him out of the lab.
"There, now...don't you feel ready to take on the town where it's Halloween all the time?"
"No...I just feel stupid."
"You're no fun." Corita said as she marched along in front of him.
"Heartless!" Corita cried once they'd reached the square again.
"Let me deal with this." Riku said cooly, grabbing his sword and racing into battle.
"Yeah yeah...you defeat ONE giant Heartless in Wonderland and suddenly you think you're a big shot!" Corita yelled after him. "DON'T FORGET; SORA AND I BEAT YOU TONS OF TIMES BEFORE! Ack...meanie."
Riku busily slashed away at most of the Heartless as Corita watched. As angry as she was that Riku wasn't really letting her battle right now, she did have to admit: it was nice to not turn into a card every time a Heartless popped up.
"Corita, watch it!" Riku called from 20 feet away. He was pointing to her left; Corita grabbed her staff and quickly spun around to face it.
"STUPID HEARTLESS!" Corita yelled at the Shadow. She lifted her staff and prepared to send a fire spell at it, but something different happened. Before she could muster up the strength to cast the spell, a different force streamed through her body. It was as if she was casting a cure spell, but the feeling was different.
As she held her staff in the air, a blast of dark energy emitted from it, and it struck the Heartless directly. The darkness surrounded the Heartless, and after a few seconds of Riku and Corita watching in wonder, the darkness collapsed in on itself, and the Heartless was gone.
"Corita...what just happened?" Riku asked quietly.
Corita swallowed hard, still staring at the vacant space where the Heartless had been moments before. "I think...I think I just blasted it into oblivion."
"Enough, Sora! You'll just hurt Naminé if you go any further." Riku roared as he stood in the middle of the hallway.
"What, you still want to fight?" Sora asked. "Riku, Vexen's gone...you're free!"
As horrible as it had been to see Axel kill Vexen, Sora couldn't say that he was upset. Vexen was the one who'd done this to Riku.
"What?" Riku asked. "I'm protecting Naminé from you because it's what MY heart tells me to do. I promised her... I promised Naminé I'd keep her safe!"
"You...did?"
"There was a meteor shower one night when she and I were little..." Riku said slowly. "Naminé got scared and said, 'What if a shooting star hits the islands?' So I told her, 'If a shooting star comes this way, I'll protect you' And then —"
"You made a promise!" Sora cried. "You were waving a toy sword around!"
Riku looked at him, stunned. "What? How did you know?"
"That was MY promise!" Sora yelled. "I made her a promise that I'd protect her that night!"
"You're lying!" Riku growled.
"I'm lying? Then how come she gave ME her good luck charm?"
Sora reached into his pocket and pulled out the small paupu-shaped charm as Riku watched in shock.
"Where...did you get that?"
"Naminé gave it to me!" Sora growled.
"Oh, I see." Riku said calmly. "That one's a fake. I've got the real one right here!"
Sora nearly dropped his good luck charm when Riku produced one identical to his out of his pocket. Riku watched it dangle from his hand fondly.
"What? Two of them?" Sora cried.
"I'll teach YOU to make stuff up!" Riku roared, pulling out his sword.
"Riku, wait!" Sora cried as Riku ran off once again. Having been defeated, Riku wasted no time escaping...but he forgot one very important thing.
"This is...Naminé's good luck charm..." Donald said to Sora, reaching down and grabbing the yellow charm.
Sora walked over to Donald and grabbed the charm. "It can't be..."
As Sora held the card, a bright flash of light engulfed them all. It instantly began to fade away, and when Sora looked down again, he was holding something else.
"It turned into a card..."
"Ahh, somebody tell me what's going on here..." Donald muttered as the 3 of them headed up the stairs.
"Let's just keep going, okay? It doesn't matter anymore." Sora said.
"Of course it matters!" Donald cried." Don't you think it's weird that you and Riku have the same exact memory? You can't both be right."
"Oh, so I'm wrong, huh?" Sora yelled, turning around to face Donald, who stepped back in shock.
"That's not what Donald meant. We're just worried." Goofy said sadly.
"Then let's hurry up and ask Naminé. That should clear it up, right? Look, we don't have time to sit around. So LET'S GO."
"Sora...what's happened to you?" Goofy asked.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sora snapped.
"You always get real touchy when it comes to Nahmeenay..."
"It's Naminé. Not 'Nahmeenay'." Sora growled. "Say it right!"
"Before we came to this castle, you didn't even know her name. Now she's all you think about." Donald explained.
"It doesn't make sense. Maybe you should stop and think things through?" Goofy suggested.
"Think things through...you mean abandon her, is that it!"
"No, that's not what we mean..."
"Whatever, do what you want. Lay back, take a nap, I don't care! I'M going to find Naminé!"
"Sora!" Donald cried, but the Keyblade Master had already left them; he ran up the stairs as fast as he could and used the card he'd received from Riku's good luck charm.
"Riku...what happened to me?" Corita asked, trembling slightly.
"Congrats, Corita." Riku said bitterly. "You've just blasted your first Heartless into oblivion with the power of darkness."
"Darkness?" Corita moaned. "No no no! I won't allow it!"
"It's already happened." Riku said grimly.
"ARRGH! What are we doing here, anyway? We've gotta fight the darkness! Let's move, Heartless Boy!"
"Don't call me that! You're the one making me wear this stupid thing on my head!"
Sora53: Poor Goofy! Got yelled at by Sora...
Naminé: Why aren't you saying anything about Donald?
Sora53: Corita'llblastme into oblivionif I feel bad for him O.o
Corita: Yes, yes! I DID blast that Heartless into oblivion! -signs autographs- Hey...where are all the adoring fans? O.o JOE! GET OVER HERE!
Joe: I'm needed! See ya!
Riku Fangirls: Riku Halloween costume! IT'S SO SWEET!
Sora53: All he got was a stupid head thingy.
Riku Fangirls: -gasp-
Sora53: Uh oh.
Riku Fangirls: You'll pay for saying that! -pelts Sora53 with grape lollipops-
Sora53: AHH!-
