We'll Meet Again

Chapter 8

Finally, after a long trip, they had made it to another world. When Sora stepped outside, the view took his breath away. The place was huge, and sorrounded by waterfalls and ice crystals. Up ahead, at the very top, was a large caslte. I seemed like travelling to that castle would take ages. But of course, that's just how it looked.

"Well, let's get moving." said Riku. The way up to the top required jumping on large icicles that bounced up and down.

"Slow down!" Sora called after Riku. "You're going way too fast."

Riku stopped once he jumped onto another large icicle. He turned to Sora and laughed. "I'm not fast. You're just slow." FInally, Sora had caught up with him. They stopped for a while to admire their sorroundings.

"It's beautiful..." said Sora, still amazed by the place.

"...yeah..." said Riku, paying more attention to Sora than his sorroundings.

Those blue eyes...he thought to himself. They're so...so...

Riku tried his best to ignore the thoughts in his head, but it was just too difficult. He could not stop staring at him. Riku felt his heart pounding. He looked away from Sora, hoping all of this would stop.

What's going on? he asked himself. Why do I...

"Something wrong, Riku?" Sora asked.

He turned back to face Sora. "No! I'm fine. Let's just get going."

After a while, they had made it to the top. The castle in front of them was larger than they had expected it to be. Excited to see what was inside, they proceeded through the entrance. The inside was absolutely beautiful. It was like walking into the mansion of a wealthy person. However, they were only able to enjoy looking at the place for a short period of time, because it suddenly grew dark and they could not see a thing.

"What happened?" Sora asked.

"I dunno." Riku replied. "I got a bad feeling about all of this."

Sora felt himself getting dizzy. It was as if the room had begun to spin. Surprisingly, it was!

Neither Sora nor Riku could tell what was happening. They felt themselevs being thrown all over the place. They were so frightened, they didn't know what to do.

Riku wasn't aware of this, but he was suddenly disappearing. As for Sora, he had blacked out. Riku suddenly found himself in another room. He could actually see in this one.

"My head..." said Riku, falling on his knees. "Where am I?"

"Hello there." he heard a voice. He spun around to see a young girl standing in front of him.

"I'm Kairi." she said, helping him up.

"Kairi? You're...Sora's friend, right?"

"Hmpf! I hate him. He's no friend of mine. Isn't your name Riku? I've seen you before. You've been hanging out with Sora. Well, forget about him. I'm a much better friend than him. You're gonna like being with me."

"What?"

"Come here." she said, grabbing Riku. She stared deeply into his eyes. Riku felt his emotions changing in some strange way.

"Forget all about Sora." she whispered in his ear. "Let your soul be full of hatred when the thought of him comes to mind."

Sora woke up later to find he could see again. Everything had gone back to normal. But he noticed Riku was no longer there with him. He wondered what could have possibly happened to him. He immediately began searching for him. Unfortunately, just about every room he checked, he found nothing but heartless, and it was a lot harder defeating them on his own.

Where could he possibly be? he asked himself. He wouldn't have just left me. Wherever he is, I hope he's all right.

He continued his searching. He refused to give up. Riku had to be around somewhere. There was one room left he had not checked. When he walked through the doors, he found himself in a large room with stairs that led up to somewhere. When he walked up them, he had finally found Riku.

"Thank God you're ok!" he said, running to him.

"Get away from me." said Riku, backing up. "Get out of my sight."

"What are you talking about?"

"Just looking at you irritates me. Get lost."

"But Riku, I don't understa--" He stopped when he noticed something different about Riku's eyes. He noticed Riku's eyes were now pitch black. Something had been done to him, most likely some type of spell.

"Well it's about time you arrived." said Kairi, suddenly appearing.

"Kairi...is that you? Or am I imagining things?"

"Nope. It's me." she said, and wrapped her arm around Riku's waist. "But we're getting sick of you being here so you better just leave."

"What? What did you do to Riku?"

"Oh my what are you talking about? I can't help it if Riku likes me more than you." After saying that, she gave Riku a kiss on the cheek. Sora's heart sank.

"Kairi," Riku said embracing her. "you mean more to me than anything else. I wanna be by your side forever."

"Oh Riku, you mean so much to me as well!" said Kairi. "Do me a favor. Since this obnoxious boy refuses to leave, KILL HIM!"

Riku took out his sword and ran after Sora.

"Riku, no!" Sora cried, pulling out his sowrd to block Riku's attacks."Riku stop! You know you don't really like her!"

"Of course I like her!" said Riku, continuing to attack. "It is you who I despise though!"

Kairi watched the two and giggled. It's all going so well! Maleficent is going to be so pleased.

Sora was not so sure how much longer he could continue to block Riku's attacks. He knew he had to find a way to free Riku from this spell, but he was not sure how he would do so. He didn't have it in him to fight back.

"Riku, please stop!" he cried, throwing his arms around Riku and hugging him. Riku stood still, confused and unsure of what he should do.

Sora felt tears buliding up in his eyes. "Riku this isn't who you really are! Don't let the darkness take over your heart...please..."

Riku stood still for a moment with Sora still holding on to him. He then swung his sword at Sora, knocking him onto the ground. It was a powerful blow. Sora could hardly move now.

He carefully picked his head up and looked at Riku. A tear rolled down his cheek. "Ri...Rku..." He let his head fall back down. Riku suddenly felt horrible. The spell had no longer affected him and his eyes were no longer black. He dropped his sword and knelt down by Sora.

"Sora! I'm so sorry! Please don't die! Forgive me!"

Kairi became furious. Her plan had failed.

"I HATE YOU BOTH!" she yelled. "Because of you two I didn't get to finish my plan! I won't let you live for much longer! Enjoy your few precious moments while you can! I will fucking kill you both!" And after that, she vanished. At the moment, all Riku could worry about was if Sora was ok or not.

"I...I forgive you, Riku." Sora said weakly. "I'm just glad you're no longer under that spell."

"I'm so sorry. I just--I don't know...just please hang in there."

All of a sudden, the two keyblades that were on the wall nearby, fell off the wall and landed near them. The one that represented courage went by Sora, and the one that represented hope went by Riku. Sora suddenly felt his strength come back. He sat up.

"Hey, I feel much better now!" he said cheerfully.

"You think it's got something to do with these weapons?" Riku asked.

"I dunno. Maybe. They look kind of odd. But if it's really what healed me then I think I'll hold onto it for a while."

"Yeah I guess we could give them a try."

Riku helped Sora stand up.

"What do we do now?" Sora asked.

"We find that bitch who tricked me into nearly killing you! We'll get rid of her once and for all!"

"I wouldn't feel right simply killing her! She's been my friend for so long..."

"Some friend she is!" Riku said sarcastically. "After what she's done, she doesn't seem like much of a friend. I guess we wouldn't be any better if we killed her though. But maybe if we at least help her turn away from the darkness, she'll be nice or whatever."

"Yeah. That might work."

They left the room and went to find Kairi. They knew there was a chance that more trouble was ahead, but they also knew that as long as they worked together, they would be unstoppable.

To be continued...

Don't worry! I'm not close to the end yet! We got a good way to go. What will happen next? We'll see when the next chapter arrives!