A/N: Okay, except for the Prologue, this fic is also going to be mostly in Riku's POV, like "Whisper" was. As usual, I'll try my best not to get anyone too OOC, but I can't guarantee anything. I'm planning on this being the final fic in the series dealing with the original Kingdom Hearts, but there will be fics for Chain of Memories and KH2. Just so you're warned. I will also be doing a compilation fic called "Hikari", so be expecting that at some point. There will also be random crossovers here and there, so watch out for those, too!
"What are you doing?" Sora demanded of the puppet, anger slightly tinting the young boy's voice. "Come on, let's go back."
"You know," Sora's friend, Goofy, said in a paternal sort of voice, "Geppetto's awfully worried about you."
"Pinocchio," Sora said, his impatience mounting and obvious, "stop fooling around! This is no time for games!"
"But Sora," Riku said teasingly, stepping up behind the puppet, grinning mockingly at his former best friend, "I thought you liked games. Or are you to cool to play them, now that you have the Keyblade?"
"Riku!" Sora exclaimed, his surprise as evident as his annoyance was a moment ago. "Wh-what are you doing here?"
"Just playing with Pinocchio," Riku replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"You know what I mean!" Sora exclaimed, his voice now carrying a hint of desperation. "What about Kairi? Did you find her?"
"Maybe," Riku answered scornfully. "Catch us and maybe I'll tell you what I know."
"Come on!" Sora snapped, sounding angry yet again. Riku decided not to push Sora any further, and so grabbed Pinocchio by the arm and ran to a different chamber in the giant whale.
"Why do you still care about that boy?" Maleficent asked when he got to the chamber she had been waiting for him in. "He has all but abandoned you for the Keyblade and his new companions, after all."
"I don't care about him," Riku retorted. He was getting more and more snappy with her every day, but that was probably due to his severe lack of sleep lately. He kept waking up from nightmares he knew weren't coming from his own mind, but he couldn't ever remember them or who they were coming from. "I was just messing with him a little," he continued, not wanting to dwell on the dreams.
"Oh, really?" Maleficent asked, making it quite evident that she didn't believe him one bit. "Of course you were." Sarcasm dripped from her voice far more often and thickly than it did from Riku's, and it was starting to get on his already too-tight nerves. "Beware the darkness in your heart. The Heartless prey upon it."
"Mind your own business," Riku growled, glaring at the witch. Maleficent shrugged and left through a portal of darkness. Riku didn't have to strain to figure out where she had retreated to. He watched as Sora and the other two chased after Pinocchio into the chamber, and his lip curled in contempt as it did so often lately.
"Riku!" Sora called upon seeing him. "What's the matter with you? What are you thinking? Don't you realise what you're doing?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing, Sora," Riku sneered. "You only seem interested in running around and showing off that Keyblade these days. Do you even want to save Kairi?"
"I do," Sora said, though he hung his head slightly and his voice was quiet as he said it. Riku snorted, then they all heard Pinocchio's scream. Before he realised what he was doing, Riku had followed that scream to Monstro's bowels (he tried not to think about that. He lost enough of his food after the nightmares as it was), and there, he, Sora, and Sora's friends saw the puppet trapped by a Heartless.
"You up for this?" Riku asked, and knowing the answer before Sora could give it.
"No problem," Sora replied, his voice filled with self-assured arrogance. "Let's do it!"
"Hmph," was Riku's only reply before they attacked. Together, they managed to bash the Parasite Cage up enough that it spat Pinocchio out and down a pit, and Riku jumped in after the puppet. He knelt and scooped Pinocchio up, tucking him under his arm, thankful that the thing wasn't concious to struggle.
"Pinocchio!" Riku heard the old clockmaker, Geppetto, call. He turned back to the old man and scolwed at him, not knowing why he would be so desperate to have back a mere puppet. "Pinocchio! Please! Give me back my son!"
Son? Riku thought. It's a puppet. It's not even alive. This old man is going senile.
"Sorry, old man," Riku said, though he in truth didn't really mean it. In fact, he kind of pittied the old coot. "I have some unfinished business with this puppet."
"He's no puppet!" Geppetto protested. "Pinocchio is my little boy!"
"He is unusual," Riku replied. "Not many puppets have hearts." Riku looked straight at Sora, who was glaring at him in anger, but there was also a hint of sadness in his blue eyes. "I'm not sure," Riku continued, aiming this remark more at Sora than the old clockmaker, "but maybe he can help someone who's lost theirs."
"Wait a minute," Sora exclaimed. "Are you talking about Kairi?"
"What do you care about her?" Riku spat. He left, but not before seeing the look of intense pain crossing Sora's face. Maybe Riku was wrong. Maybe Sora did care about Kairi. But if that was true, he should be out trying to help her like Riku was, not running around showing off his new toy.
Riku went into Monstro's stomach (somewhere in the back of his mind hearing a female voice saying "Oh, great, now you get to be fish food.") and waited for Sora to show up and act the hero again. He didn't have to wait very long.
"Hey, let Pinocchio go, Riku," Sora demanded right off the bat. Riku did his best not to laugh.
"A puppet that's lost its heart to the Heartless... Maybe it holds the key to helping Kairi," Riku mused, loud enough for Sora to hear. In fact, he was trying to persuade Sora a little. "How about it, Sora? Let's join forces to save her. We can do it, together."
Much to Riku's surprise and slight dismay (how thick could this kid be?), Sora pulled out his Keyblade and took a fighting stance, telling Riku with his body language that he was going to fight.
"What?" Riku said, barely containing a contemptuous laugh. "You'd rather fight me? Over a puppet that has no heart?"
"Heart or no heart," Sora growled, "at least he still has a concience."
"Concience?" Riku scoffed.
"You might not hear it, but right now mine's loud and clear," Sora said, then tightened his grip on the Keyblade's hilt. "And it's telling me you're on the wrong side!"
"Then you leave me no choice," Riku said, ignoring the familiar voice in the back of his head saying "I wasn't gonna tell ya, Riku." Riku sternly told the voice to go burry itself. The voice merely laughed.
"Pinocchio!" the cricket accompanying Sora exclaimed, hopping up and down near the puppet. "Pinocchio!"
"Jiminy," Pinocchio said, barely concious enough to be coherent, "I'm not gonna make it..." There was a slight glow, and Pinocchio's nose lengthened slightly, shocking the puppet into full wakefulness. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "I guess I'm okay!"
The voice in the back of Riku's head sighed in relief, and Riku felt it withdraw suddenly after a slight start of surprise from the other end. He knew he recognized the voice, but it wasn't his own and he couldn't place a name to it.
When Parasite Cage made a dramatic re-entry, dropping from the ceiling to land in a pool of digestive acids, Riku made a break for it through his own portal of darkness.