Okay. Here is the next chapter to the story. I hope you like it and I do realize that I'm leaving you with a cliffy that won't be completed in this chpater. I have to edit the next one a bit before I put it so it won't take long to find out what happened to Sora, Mecan, and Lauri. So please read, enjoy, and reveiw.

Chapter 7: Riku

Riku walked into a dimly lit room. He just looked ahead of him at a woman dressed in long black robes with a headdress that looked as if two horns were coming out of her head. "Your friends have abandoned you," she said in a monotone voice. "They have gone on to find other friends. Thus, leaving you. What will you do now?"

She walked closer to him. Her long staff hit the ground with each step she made.

"I will…They didn't leave me!" Riku said in anger. This woman was lying to him. They couldn't have left him, they were just waiting for him to come find them so that they could all be together, just the three of them.

"But they have," the woman said persistently. "They have and now you're all alone."

"No! It's not true! S-Sora wouldn't…Kairi….Luk…..Lauri…." Riku wasn't accepting it. He wouldn't allow it. They were his friends and they wouldn't leave him.

"They're all gone. Now, what will you do?"

"NO!" Riku yelled, sitting straight up on the couch. Panting, he looked around. He saw Luk lying on another couch sound asleep. Riku wiped a sweat drop that was running down his face. It was just a dream, he thought to himself. Just a dream.

Riku got off the couch and walked over to the door of the beach house. He looked back at the inside of the house. He turned the knob and walked out.

Riku felt the cool beach breeze wash over his face as he sat down on a rock near the waves. He started to think about how Sora, Mecan, and Lauri were doing. They sure are taking long, he thought. Riku started to get a little worried about them. He knew Kingdom Hearts was far, but it wouldn't take this long to close the door.

His thoughts drifted to Lauri, the only girl that got to him ever since the doors to Kingdom Hearts closed with him behind them. Lauri helped him get out of Kingdom Hearts, along with Mecan. They opened an exit for him to escape from and he ended up on this beach while his wounds healed.

Kingdom Hearts left Riku with many bad memories and many physical scars. The Heartless were really strong in Kingdom Hearts, well those were what he called them. The "Heartless" were really guardian creatures of Kingdom Hearts and they fought against anyone who enter except for a few people. Some of those people were Lauri and Mecan.

Riku started to think about the first time he met Mecan and Lauri. It went like this:

Riku fell down on the ground, panting. "Those…Heartless…were….strong…" he said between his gasps for breath.

"Those…weren't….Heartless…" Mecan snapped, trying to suppress his own gasps for breath but was unsuccessful.

"Shut…up…both…of you," Lauri panted, holding onto her arm as blood started to ooze out from between her fingers. "We need…to get….home."

Riku nodded and got up. He blinked a lot, the place was too bright for him.

"Here," Mecan said, hold a blindfold towards him. Riku accepted it and tied it around, covering his eyes.

"Thanks," Riku said as he opened his eyes to see everything dark, but could still make out everything.

They all started to walk towards the beach house. When they got in, Lauri disappeared into a room while Mecan and Riku sat down on two different couches. When Lauri came back out, she had a wrap around her arm. A small red spot could been seen, but that was it. Riku looked at both of them and said, "Thank you."

Riku turned as he heard footsteps walking towards him. He saw Kairi walking over to him. He grinned. He hadn't seen Kairi in a long time and she had changed a lot.

"Hey," Riku said as Kairi came up to him.

"Hello. I thought I'd find you around here if you weren't sleeping," Kairi said. She looked at his tired face and added, "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Okay. Well, if you ever feel like talking…"

"Thanks," Riku said and turned back to face the ocean. Even though Kairi's company was comforting, he still wanted to think about the first time he met Mecan and Lauri.

"So, Riku," Kairi started as she sat down nearby in the sand.

"Hm?" he said to show that he was listening.

"How do you know Lauri and that other guy that she hangs around with?"

"Lauri and Mecan, he's the 'other guy,' helped me get out of Kingdom Hearts. Without them," Riku dropped his head, staring down at the rock he sat on, "I'd still be in there."

"But what's so special about them?" Kairi asked, seizing the chance to know a little but about her rescuers from Traverse Town.

Riku lifted up his head and looked down at Kairi who looked back up at him, "I think they should tell you that themselves," he said.

"Okay," Kairi said sounding a bit disheartened that she couldn't learn more about Lauri and Mecan at that time.

Both Kairi and Riku fell into silence as they both stared out into the ocean lost in thought about two different things.

Okay, personally Riku is my favorite character in the game so I had to write a chapetr completely dedicated to him, just look at the title of this chapter. I also needed to figure out a way to say how my original characters found their way into the story by telling some of their story in this chapter and the last one. Just so everybody knows, and so that you won't correct me if I'm wrong, I have not and probably will not play CoM so I don't know if they say how Riku got out. If they did say how he did, well this is a fan fic...

-Eissalande