A/N: Woo, an insight into the Kage's mind!

Mizu: Oh, like anyone needs that! I'm so friggin' transparent it's disgusting.

Me: You look pretty opaque to me! ((gets beaned by Mizu with the Bat out of Hell)) OW!

Teek: Why do we like the Bat out of Hell so much?

Me: One--look at what it's called. Two--it's just something we'd like!

Mizu: Three--it comes in handy for shutting up smart-ass Twerps.

Me: That's a shot at me ain't it?

----Mizu----

I was lost. I didn't know where I was. I looked around. The forest was actually quite pretty. And the moss-covered ruins of an ancient city only enhanced the beauty of the woods. But I didn't care. I was lost, confused, disoriented. Where was Riku? And Sora? And Kairi? Where were the islands? But more important was the obvious question.

WHO THE HECK WERE THESE PEOPLE!

Nearby, a girl with short, blood-red hair and black, white-less eyes smiled at me reassuringly. Even though I couldn't see her pupils, or the whites of her eyes, I could tell she was looking at me. Her smile was so kind. So understanding. I didn't buy it for a second.

Behind the girl with the freaky eyes was another girl with short red-brown hair and dark-blue-almost-black eyes. Fortunately, her eyes were normal. She stood next to a boy who was obviously her brother, who had purple hair and lighter blue eyes than his sister. And he had a sword strapped to his back. That was not reassuring at all.

The girl with brown hair turned to another girl trotting up behind them, and elbowed her brother in the ribs so he'd turn and look, too. The girl coming up to them had shoulder-length, dirty-blonde hair, steel-blue eyes, glasses, and three necklaces, one a dragon, one a ring on a chain, the other a black metal rose on a chain designed to specifically match the rose. When the girl with glasses was within speaking distance, the boy, his sister, and the girl started talking. It looked more like an interrogation, actually.

The girl with red-brown hair jabbed her thumb at me. The girl with glasses looked right at me and gave me a quick, reassuring smile, the same smile the freaky-eyed girl had given me. She quickly lost her smile as she went back to the interrogation. It was kind of funny how she only came up to the boy's chest, and was about a foot shorter than the girl with red-brown hair, yet it still looked like the boy and girl treated her with a certain amount of respect.

Finally, the girl with glasses nodded, and walked over to me, stopping only long enough to ask the freaky-eyed girl some questions.

She knelt, stared right into my eyes, and smiled.

At the same time I felt something weird. It was... a strange sort of connection to this girl, whom I now knew was called Bobbi. When I felt that odd connection establish, I knew things that I shouldn't have known unless someone told me. Simple things, like names, and a little bit of histories about those names and the people they belonged to. I could tell that my life had suddenly gone straight from weird into totally bizarre.

"Mizu," Bobbi said, startling me out of my thoughts.

"H-how did you--?"

"Know your name?" Bobbi chuckled. "I guess you could say that we are... kindred spirits. Such close kindred spirits, in fact, that we are basically different parts of the same person, given life and personalities of our own. In a way, we are each other. I am you, you are me. Freaky, huh?"

"Uhm... what?"

"It's very complicated. Uhm... Oh dear God, how do I explain this?"

"Let me try, Twerp," said the red-brown haired girl, Teek. "Miyze, it's like this," Teek said, shortening my name. Apparently, these people were overly-fond of nicknames. "Somehow, some way, Bobbi here is linked to us. Something happens in our worlds, something very physically, mentally and emotionally traumatic that sends us into a state of limbo. We go unconscious for an indefinite length of time."

"In the mean time," Bobbi said, apparently knowing what to say due to long practice, "someone in my world is connected to that world through some means or other, and the world somehow has an influence on that person, gives them an inspiration of sorts, and they come up with an anime, manga, or video game, that will eventually be published. I wind up coming into contact with them, which has led me to believe in some extent in the concept of destiny, but that's another story. Anyway, I come into contact with these by some means and become hooked in five minutes or less. We're not entirely certain how events in other worlds trigger some events in this one, but we know that they do. Anyway, I'm connected to certain spirits in those worlds, which I normally name by the anime, manga, or RPG that the world is portrayed in. Example-- Teek and Trunks are from Dragon Ball Z. They are also from the Dragon Ball GT world, since GT is a sequel to DBZ. Technically they're the same worlds, but that's not the point. The point is that Teek, much like yourself, Riku no kage, is from an alternate world." The odd thing was, I understood everything they told me.

"So," I asked, "how do we wind up... here?" I waved my hand vaguely at my surroundings. "If our worlds are destroyed--"

"They're not destroyed, Kage," Teek said, interrupting me. "Something happens that blasts us into an inter-dimensional rift. Your home is fine."

"But that doesn't answer my question!" I protested.

"Well," Bobbi said, rubbing the back of her neck and looking sheepish. "The thing is, we don't know how you get here."

"We're still working that out..." Teek said.

"Okay, then. So, just where, exactly, is here?" I asked. Bobbi gave me an impish grin and tapped a finger to her temple.

"You're in here," she said, quickly switching from sheepish to mischievous.

"Bobbi's like a..." Teek said, trying to explain something that was more than likely impossible to totally understand. "Well, she's like a guardian. While we're here, in her world, we don't have physical bodies, and so technically shouldn't be able to survive. But for some reason, Bobbi is able to house our souls within her own."

As I pondered this, a question slipped through my lips before I even realized I was thinking it.

"Will I ever see Riku again?" As I realized what I said, I started to cry. It was so embarrassing, crying in front of people I didn't even know. As I pulled my knees up to my body, wrapped my arms around them, and started crying into my arms, I became aware of the other people in this world staring at me. There were so many.

Unexpectedly, I felt something coming into my heart from outside it. As my sobs slowly lessened, I realized the feeling was comfort. Bobbi had her arms around me, gently holding my head to her chest. I slowly began to realize that Teek also had her arms around me and around Bobbi as well. Phoe, the girl with the freaky eyes, had her arms around the three of us. Several others were standing around us protectively, and yet more were offering their own comfort along with Bobbi's, Teek's, and Phoe's.

After a long while, I stopped crying.

"I'm sorry," I whispered as one last tear ran down my cheek.

"Don't be, kechara," Bobbi said, using a term from her favorite author, Mercedes Lackey. "I understand. We all do. It's alright."

"It's just... this has never happened to me before. At least, I don't think it has..."

"I know."

"W-will I see Riku again."

Bobbi then gently pulled away from me, and as I looked up at her, she looked me dead in the eye and gave me such a humorous grin that I almost laughed out loud and said, "Tch. Yeah. How d'ya think Trunks got here, huh?"

"I went and got him," Teek said with such a smug look on her face that I burst out laughing.

A/N: Sooooo... I confused the crap outta me there.

Teek: You always confuse me.

Mizu: Is it me, or do I cry a lot?

Me & Teek: You cry a lot.

Bloopers

Scene: Informing Mizu

Mizu: So, just where exactly is here?
Bobbi: ((taps temple))You're in here!
Teek: Bobbi is a complete and total freak.
Director: CUT!