A cloudy image began to appear in the crystal, slowly becoming clearer. An image of three women appeared. They were old and dressed in old looking clothes. Certainly, they didn't look like all-powerful goddesses who amuse themselves by terrorizing the planet. They were in what looked like a huge hall, though where the hall was couldn't be said. There were no windows, or anything like a coat of arms. They were sitting on the floor, in a tight circle, speaking quickly in hushed tones. Between them was a loom, made of wood that glowed like gold. Watching them carefully, Emma spoke.

"That's the Fates then…" She murmured. Paine crossed her arms.

"They don't look very intimidating." She observed. Baralai sighed and then frowned.

"I guess it's like they say, things aren't always as they appear." He answered. Rikku looked at him, her head cocked slightly to the side.

"So that means that they look nice, but they act scary?" She asked. Gippal rolled his eyes.

"Yes, Rikku." He paused while she grinned at him. He shook his head. "You are unbelievably slow, you know that?" He noted. Rikku glared at him.

"I am not!" She cried. Gippal grinned at her.

"Yeh?" Without warning his hand snapped out, grabbed her by the wrist and, with a sharp tug, pulled her against him helplessly entwined in his arms. Rikku frowned.

"Lemme go!" She whined. Gippal smirked.

"You wouldn't be in this situation if you weren't so slow to react…" He stated. Rikku pouted at him. Kael blinked, slightly surprised.

"Do they always act like this…?" He asked, watching them curiously. Paine crossed her arms and sighed.

"Oh yes." As she spoke, she elbowed Gippal in the side. He yelped in surprise, letting Rikku go. She grinned triumphantly and hid behind Kairi. Gippal frowned.

"Hey, what was that for?" He demanded. Paine glared at him.

"For being stupid. Be thankful it wasn't worse." She answered. Gippal glanced at Kael.

"Watch out for her. She's scary." He said. Kael nodded. Riku shook his head.

"Aren't we supposed to be doing something?" He asked. Kairi nodded, grinning.

"That's right, the faster we get this Fate thing over, the faster all you can get back to flirting." She stated. Sora walked up behind her and grabbed her around the waist.

"Don't we get to flirt a little too?" He asked her quietly, pouting.

"Of course." She answered, grinning mischievously and running her fingers through his hair. He leaned forward and was about to kiss her when Paine cleared her throat. The two of them turned their attention back to the crystal, blushing, though found that it wasn't them whom Paine was annoyed with. Riku and Emma were apparently doing the same thing, because both of them had turned just as red. Kairi and Rikku looked at each other, saying silently, we jump Emma and make her tell us everything when we get back to the Celcius.

They reached the ship, and were all standing on the bridge, except for Emma, Kairi and Rikku. They'd gone off somewhere, Emma being dragged rather forcibly by the other two, to do god knows what. Paine was lounging on Shinra's chair, having stolen it from the boy-genius while he was up doing something else. Shinra, in turn, was sitting quietly on the floor, glaring at Paine every once in a while. Baralai was eyeing the chair, seemingly looking for a chance to steal it off of Paine. Sora, Kael and Namine were sitting together on one side of said chair, one of the guys on either side of Namine, creating what looked like a slightly skewed mirror image. Gippal was standing with Baralai, looking bored, and Riku was staring at his surroundings, clearly impressed by the ship. Paine sighed.

"So, how are we going to find these Fates? That crystal thing only helped so much. Scratch that, not really at all." She said, sounding aggravated. Riku glared at her.

"At least it gives us something to go on." He answered sharply.

"So what, now we comb the entire planet, looking for a cave, that's probably hidden by some crazy magic?" She asked. Riku's eyes narrowed.

"That's a great idea." He said sarcastically.

"Well what do you propose, oh brilliant one?" She shot back. Sora whacked his Keyblade on the floor.

"Stop fighting! You two are the two stubbornest people I know, so just agree to disagree and we'll get on with it!" He commanded.

"Stoubbornest's not a word." Riku observed after a long silence, smirking. Sora grinned back at him.

"Stubbornest, funnest, you know I could care less."

"Sora, you have a brain the size of a pea." Riku answered, laughing.

"Maybe, but that makes us two peas in a pod, doesn't it?" Sora asked, pushing himself to his feet. Riku grinned back at him.

"Ah, it'll be so nice when things can just go back to the way they were, spend the rest of your lives goofing off on the Islands just like we used to." He said, staring out into the dawn. There was a long silence, and Sora became suddenly interested in his feet. Riku looked at him, surprised by the silence. See Sora's upset expression, he frowned.

"Oh…the Islands are gone, aren't they…?" He asked quietly. Sora nodded slowly. "How did it happen?"

"It was disconnected from the Terminus." Sora answered slowly.

"…and I did it, didn't I?" Riku asked, bitterly. Sora looked up at him.

"No, it's not your fault. For all we know, it could have been me, I could have done something during the fight." He answered reassuringly.

"Like what?" There was a long silence. Riku shook his head. "See? It is my fault."

"No, it was Ansem." Sora insisted.

"And Ansem was me!" Riku stated.

"Ansem possessed you! You couldn't have done anything about it!" Sora argued.

"You don't get it Sora! You're a good kid, I'm not. Maleficent found me, and I agreed to join her. The first time we fought, I was still me. I was doing it of my own free will." He said. Sora blinked. He hadn't been aware of that. Riku crossed his arms, looking rather shaken up. "I'm sorry."

"Maleficent…she messed with your mind I thought…" Sora started to say, fumbling with his thoughts. Riku sighed.

"She did, kind of. I thought I was protecting Kairi."

"Then you're not a bad kid either." Sora said resolutely.

"So what, you're okay with what happened? Just like that?" Riku asked, sounding surprised.

"Riku, I've been okay with it since…I dunno, since you helped me close Kingdom Hearts." Sora answered with a goofy grin. Riku grinned back at him.

"That's good." He paused, hearing a noise. Kairi, Emma and Rikku came racing onto the bridge. They ran past Riku and Sora, Riku grabbed Emma by the arm and looked at her questioningly. She giggle.

"Hi." She planted a quick kiss on his lips. "Bye. We needa talk to Namine." She said. The other two girls and grabbed Namine by the hands and were leading the bewildered girl back towards the elevator. Emma grinned and bounded after them. Riku blinked. He looked like he was going to say something to Sora, but his attention was drawn to the ship's sudden lurching movement. The Celcius was lifting off the ground and flying away. "Where are we going?" He asked. Everyone else looked like they were wondering the same thing. Shinra walked around the bridge, hands folded behind his back like a little army general.

"You have me to thank for this." He said. "I have slightly altered the radar to pick up on unnatural divine activity." He stated. Gippal blinked.

"You can do that?" He asked incredulously. Shinra nodded.

"I can do that. As we speak the Celcius is homing in on the strongest divine activity within range."

"Oh. Cool."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Kairi and Rikku ran up the stairs in the cabin, dragging Emma up behind them.

"Hey!" She protested, grinning. Kairi grinned back at her.

"Oh no, you can't get away from us this time!" She stated with a grin. Emma flopped down on the bed.

"Okay okay, what do you guys want?" She asked. Rikku gave her a look.

"Come on, spill." She demanded.

"We wanna know all the juicy details." Kairi added. Emma blushed a little.

"Umm, okay. The first time I dreamt myself into the darkness was the night that I ended up in Fa'Diel with you guys. That's when I first met Riku."

"Okay skip that!" Rikku said with a grin. "We said juicy details. That's the stuff you already told us about." She said. Emma grinned back at her.

"Okay okay. So after we ended up at the university, I dreamt myself into the darkness, just about every night. Every time I woke up though, I kept forgetting…"

The girls talked for a good while, giggling like little girls at a slumber party. After Emma had finished her story, they each lay down on one of the beds and looked at each other.

"So what do we do now?" Kairi asked. Then she sat up and grinned. "Hey, let's get Namine!" She suggested. Both the others gave her a strange look.

"…why?"

"Because she's got that connection to me right? And Kael has a connection to Sora, right?" She said. Emma sat up really fast.

"And you've been in love with Sora for how long?" She asked with a grin. Rikku giggled.

"Oh, so that means Namine's probably got a thing for Kael?"

"Most definitely." Kairi answered. "Besides, I saw them at the ball. It's obvious Kael at least likes her." She stated. With that, the three of them dashed down the stairs and into the elevator. They returned again a few minutes later with a very confused Namine. Sitting her down on one of the bed, Rikku grinned at her.

"So, let's get straight to the point. When are you going to make your move on Kael?" She asked. Namine turned red.

"What?"

The girl talk continued for a long time, and it took them quite a while for the three other girls to get anything out of Namine.

"I can't say anything." She decided.

"Why not?" Kairi asked, surprised. "I mean, he practically offered to die for you at the ball. He might as well have said 'I love Namine' instead of 'You'll have to go through me first.' It meant the same thing."

"No it didn't, it's not right."

"How not?" Emma asked. All the girls were watching Namine, totally confused.

"See, he's a knight. He's from one of the most wealthy families in this kingdom. My dad was an assistant at the stable at his manor. He could have any girl he wants."

"Aww! It's like Aladdin!" Kairi said with starry eyes. "That's so romantic. You even grew up together."

"Grew up together? I was the stable boy's daughter and he was the heir. Ha. Grow up together." Namine said with a sigh. Kairi rolled her eyes.

"So? I can't imagine him having anyone else to play with when he was a kid." She answered. Namine blew a piece of hair out of her face.

"There were always kids around. The merchants' kids."

"Maybe, but they never stuck around, did they? I still say you were probably the only friend he had at the manor." Kairi argued. Namine sighed again.

"I guess, but even so, it's not right. He's like the highest of the high class and I'm the lowest of the low." She replied. Rikku crossed her arms.

"Big deal. I'm supposed to be the princess of the Al Bhed, and Gippal was orphaned when he was five. He never had any money, he joined the Crimson Squad which meant working with the same people who were outcasting us, and my dad always hated him." She said. Kairi grinned.

"But you always hated him too." She answered. Both Namine and Emma looked at her in surprise. Kairi's grin widened. "We were fighting a Chocobo Eater and Gippal fell off a cliff. Rikku went after him. Before the fight they hated each other, and when we found them at the bottom of the cliff, they were making out at the side of the road." She explained, giggling.

"We were not!" Rikku argued heatedly, whacking Kairi with a pillow. They all burst into fits of laughter. The ship pulled to a quick stop, throwing all of them off the bed they were sitting on. They looked at each other. None of them had even noticed that it had begun to move. Someone cleared their throat and they looked to the top of the stairs. Baralai was standing there, watching them.

"Girls. I'll never understand." He decided. Emma laughed.

"That's okay, we don't understand ourselves half the time."