We'll Meet Again

Chapter 3

A few days had passed and Sora and Riku had been talking nonstop about how their lives have been. And meanwhile, Cid was continuing to work on his ship. It was only a matter of time before it was finally finished. Sora was anxious to find Kairi, but when he thought about her, all he could seem to remember were negative things. Kairi had always been the bossy type and in school she was always such a know-it-all. Sora became curious to why he had ever become friends with her. He figured she probably would not even want to see him again after he told her he did not have the same feelings for her that she had for him. However, he knew it would be wrong if he decided not to look for her. After all, she could be in serious danger.

Of course, Sora was unaware that at the moment, she was rather happy. Malificent had been teaching Kairi all kinds of ways to use the darkness. She had become anxious to use her new power. Malificent asked her what she would use her power for. Kairi told her she would use her powers for destruction. It was to be her way of revenge for having such a terrible life and that she did not truly see how horrible her life was until recently. Malificent told Kairi that she is not ready to use her powers outside of Hallow Bastion just yet, but she will be soon.

Finally, after all his hard work, Cid finished building his ship. He stared at his invention for about an hour before he finally decided to tell Riku and Sora that it was finished.

"Hey guys, it's done!" Cid told them. "I finally finished my ship! Come check it out!"

The two followed Cid to see the ship.

"Wow." Sora said, staring in wonder and awe.

"I thought the same thing." Cid said. "Ain't it lovely? And don't worry. I'll give you all instructions on how to use this ship. Believe me, it won't be difficut. I made the controls nice and easy for ANYONE to use."

"Hold up." A thought had crossed Riku's mind. "So...you aren't coming with us?"

"I thought you weren't gonna want me to come." said Cid. "As if you don't know how to protect yourselves."

"Some responsible adult you are." Riku said sarcastically. "Whatever. When can we use it?"

"Come back this afternoon." Cid suggested. "I wanna admire my work one last time."

Later on that afternoon, Sora and Riku prepared to travel to other worlds. For the longest time, Sora had hoped for this moment to come. He did enjoy Traverse Town, but he was hoping that this would be his chance to see some even more exciting places. After all the years of hoping and dreaming, the moment finally came.

"You ready?" Riku asked.

Sora nodded. He couldn't have been anymore prepared than he was now. They climbed into the ship and immediately took off. In an instant, they were already out of Traverse Town. While Riku navigated the ship, Sora stared out the window, still in total shock.

He turned to see Riku did not seem anywhere near as excited as he was.

"What's with you?" Sora asked. "You don't find any of this amazing in any way?"

"It's all amazing." Riku's voice lacked enthusiasm. "Honestly, I'm enjoying it. But I just gotta focus on maneuvering this thing right now."

"What's that up ahead?" Sora pointed to something far away.

"Perhaps a new world."

"I sure hope so. Go faster!"

Riku laughed. "Chill. We're almost to it. Ok, now to hit the 'land' button and we should be able to--"

When Riku pressed the button, nothing happened.

"What's wrong?" Sora asked.

"Nothing's working!" Riku cried, continuing to press the button. "Maybe I need to back up a bit." When he tried putting it in Reverse, nothing happend.

"What the hell?" Riku began trying all the buttons, seeing if any of them would work. Unfortunately, nothing did. "Nothing's working anymore!"

The ship began freaking out and suddenly began to plummet down towards the strange looking world.

"Shit!" Riku shouted, trying all the buttons, hoping at least one would work. "Hang on tight, Sora! We're gonna crash!" Sora did so. He closed his eyes and prayed that they would survive this.

Sora had blacked out as they were about to crash so he had no clue what happened. When he awoke, he was sorrounded by a thick fog. He could hardly see anything that was in front of him.

"Riku?" he called out loud, moving his arms around like crazy. "Riku are you there?"

"Sora?" he heard a voice call back.

"Riku? Where are you?"

"Hard to say. I think I'm getting closer to you. Just keep talkin'."

"Ok. I will. Geez it's hard to see a thing in this fog."

"Yeah I know. I can't believe we survived that crash."

"I guess we're just lucky."

"Yeah, I--there you are!" Riku managed to find Sora.

"Well, now what?" Sora asked. Riku was not so sure of what to say.

"I guess we should try to find the ship." he suggested. "It shouldn't be too far away. We must have been thrown out of it when we crashed. I sure hope it isn't in too bad of shape."

They felt as if they had been walking forever. At this moment they could not really tell if they were close or far from the ship. They had a good feeling they were just getting further away. One thing the two realized though was that the fog was beginning to go away.

From far away, Sora could see something. It seemed to be a person. As they moved closer, they saw it was a young woman crying. She had brown hair, green eyes, and a pink dress.

"Are you ok?" Sora asked.

Instead of answering his question, the woman said, "This world used to be so peaceful. Then...the heartless came. They slowly began destroying everything in sight. Now not much remains. Soon I will probably die as well. Who are you two?"

"Sora."

"Riku."

"I don't recognize you two." the woman said.

"We're not from around here, actually." Riku said.

"We came here from another world." Sora added.

"That's impossible." the woman said as she dried her tears. "There are no other worlds."

"Oh believe me, there are." said Riku.

"Whatever. I'm Aerith." said the woman. "Ok well if you two are from other worlds, then explain how you got here."

"Someone we know built us a ship." Riku explained to her. "But when we got near this world, something happened to our ship we ended up crashing."

Aerith thought about this for a moment. "There may be a strong aura from the heartless that caused some strange thing to make your ship crash. I'm not sure."

"But our ship just may have had something mess it up." said Sora.

"Who knows." Aerith said. "Well, if you guys are stuck here, then you're probaby doomed too. Like me. The heartless will probably be here any minute to destroy us. My friends and I got separated when the heartless began attacking our homes. I don't even know if they're alive or not."

"I've been fighting heartless for sometime now." Riku said as he pulled out his sword. "They shouldn't be too much of a problem for me to handle."

"I wish I had a weapon." Sora sighed. "I used to practice fighting with some of my friends back at my world. I'd be able to help too."

"Well," Aerith began. "actually one of my friends had a whole bunch of weapons. But they were in the place where a lot of heartless attacked. Those heartless are probably still there."

"That isn't gonna stop me." said Riku. "C'mon. Take me there. I'll get rid of those obnoxious heartless."

"Are you sure about this?" Aerith asked.

"Hell yeah!" Riku replied.

"Ok then." Aerith then took them there.

It was as bad as Aerith imagined it would be. Heartless were all over the place. There were many different kinds. Aerith noticed that her friends were there fighting the heartless.

"Yuffie! Leon!" she called to them.

"Aerith!" one of them called back. "You're alive!" She seemed to be a teenager. She had short, black hair, purple eyes, and an obnoxious smile. The other was a young man with brown hair and had a much more serious look on his face.

"Stay out of the way, Aerith!" the man called. "We'll take care of these heartless."

"I'm gonna help them out." Riku said to Aerith. "There's too many heartless for just those two to fight by themselves."

"Wait! I wanna help!" Sora called after Riku.

"But you don't have a weapon." Riku said. "I'm sure you're a good fighter but for now, just...I dunno...you and Aerith should get to safety."

Sora pouted. "Fine, whatever. Just please be careful."

Riku grinned. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

Later on, after all the fighting, the heartless were finally defeated.

"I'm so glad you guys are alright." Aerith said, walking up to her two friends.

"Thanks for the help." the man said to Riku. "I'm Leon."

"I'm Yuffie!" the girl cheerfully said.

"This is Sora and this is Riku." Aerith said to Leon and Yuffie. "Anyways, Leon, are any of your other weapons unharmed?"

"Those ones I never even use anymore? Yeah." Leon replied. "I don't need them when I have my Gunblade."

"Oh boy." Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Don't go bragging about that stupid thing."

"I wanted to help you guys fight." Sora said. "I didn't have a weapon though."

"Well here." Leon went and got one of his swords. "This one's the best one I got. Other than my Gunblade anyways."

"Thanks." Sora said.

"So, everyone else is...dead?" Aerith asked.

"Unfortunately, yes." Leon said. "We're the only ones left."

Riku suddenly noticed an enormous heartless come out of nowhere. And it was headed straight for Sora!

"Sora, look out!" he cried, and immediately pushed Sora out the way. The heartless ended up injuring Riku instead.

"Riku!" Sora cried. Riku fell onto the ground, wounded.

To be continued...