Well…not feeling like chatting much today, so…let's get to the point, shall we?

Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, the second KH would already be here

Phase 1: Widening Crevices

It hadn't been long since Riku arrived back at Traverse Town. He was getting ready to enter the hotel to get some rest when he heard happy shouts nearby. He spun around to see three familiar faces running towards him. It was none other than Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka.

"'Ey man! Wha'cha doing?" Wakka yelled over to him.

"How come you guys are here?" Riku asked tiredly.

"Why, to pay you a visit of course!" Tidus replied cheerfully. "Don't get to see you that much, you know, so we decided to come visit!"

"You shouldn't have," Riku answered, half glad to see them, but at the same time...

"Aw, cheer up!" Selphie said smiling, hugging him.

While she was busy hugging Riku, Tidus snuck up behind Selphie and pushed her, sending both of Selphie and Riku crashing down onto the pavement.

Selphie got up and dusted herself off. 'Tidus!"

"What?' he asked, putting on a big innocent smile.

Wakka's obvious effort to not burst out laughing betrayed him though, and Selphie charged at Tidus.

"WAH!" Tidus cried out as he sprinted as fast as he could from the enraged Selphie.

"I'm gonna get you for this!" she shouted, running at full steam.

"Not if you don't catch me!" Tidus yelled back.

As Wakka watched the hunt commence, he noticed Riku was still on the ground. While he was sitting up, it seemed the slightest breeze might knock him back down again. "You 'kay?" he asked.

"Yeah...' Riku answered with a smile. 'Been a long day, that's all."

'' 'Ey, Where's Sora anyway?' Wakka added.

Riku stayed quiet for a moment, then just said, "Oh, somewhere."

He wasn't sure how he was going to tell Aerith the news, much less Wakka, so for now that was all he needed to know. He would never believe the truth anyway.

They began laughing when the chase concluded with Selphie tackling Tidus to the ground, then complaining about how her very best skirt was now all dirty.

"Riku!" a very familiar voice called out.

Riku was immediately silent as Kairi ran over to greet him.

Hey, Kairi," Riku greeted her, with a slight smile on his face.

"So how are you?" she asked cheerfully, leaning over him with her hands behind her back.

"Oh, alright, I guess..." Riku answered.

Kairi easily picked up on his gloominess. "What's the matter?"

"Oh, nothing," Riku replied quickly, looking away. "Just a bit sleepy."

Kairi let her annoyed curiosity leak out on her face. "C'mon, Riku, you can tell me."

"Yeah, tell us man," Wakka chimed in.

Kairi gave him an irritated glare.

"Heheheh...or not," Wakka replied uneasily. "I'll just leave you two alone while I'll...go find Tidus and Selphie." With that he rushed off in another direction.

When Wakka was completely out of sight, Kairi turned sat down next to Riku. "Now, do you wanna tell me what's wrong?" she asked with a smile.

"No," was Riku's cold reply.

"Oh," Kairi mumbled. "Why not?"

"Look! I just don't, okay!" he snapped, stomping off to the hotel. "Just leave me alone!"

Kairi was shocked by the sudden outburst and could only quietly murmur "Riku...?"

Kairi sulked off to find out where Wakka and the others had run off to. She wasn't sure whether to feel sorry for him or to go off on him next time she laid eyes on him. Oh well, Riku would tell her eventually.

Suddenly there was a sound of something exploding and familiar screams nearby.

Tidus, Selphie and Wakka darted towards Kairi in a panic as fireballs charred a nearby wall. In fact, they were so spooked that one of them slammed into Kairi, which ended up causing a four-person pile-up.

"What happened!" Kairi asked worriedly.

"Waaaaah! What's with Donald today?" Tidus whined. "We went five feet near him and he went berserk and started shooting fireballs at us!"

"What'd you do?" Kairi questioned flatly.

"I didn't do nothing!" Tidus answered.

"It's true, mahn," Wakka chimed in. "I was there too."

"Yeah, for once it wasn't his fault, really!" Selphie agreed.

Seeing that they all seemed to share the same opinion, Kairi decided that it was more likely than not that they were telling the truth.

"What was he doing?" she asked.

"Well, nothing really," Tidus replied. "He was just sitting in the middle of the road clutching his magic wand, so I went over to see what was wrong and he went off on me and shot a bunch of fireballs.

"Huh, weird..." Kairi mumbled. That sounded oddly violent, even for Donald. It reminded her of something else strange earlier...

'You know, I ran into Leon earlier," she began "He wouldn't even talk to me."

"What's so different about that?" Selphie asked.

"Well, he seemed so depressed..." Kairi replied.

'He's ALWAYS depressed," Tidus responded casually.

"But this time he seemed...more depressed, I guess," Kairi tried to explain.

'Meh, I wouldn't worreh about it, ya," Wakka reassured. 'That Master of Darkness got them all stressed out, ya."

'Yeah, I guess you're right," Kairi stated with a smile. But she just couldn't shake the feeling that something about this was very, very wrong. But she didn't let it show. After all, she had no proof. She was probably just her getting worked up over nothing...even if her conscience said otherwise.

Phase 2: Dark Light or White Darkness?

Yuffie strolled along the town, looking for the perfect thing to steal. Swords? Nah. Jewelry? Not right now. Some Gummi parts from Cid? No, she did that a couple of days ago.

Then she spotted it. A genuine super-rare most wanted Ruby infused with Mythril that was bigger than her head. It was being displayed in a petty store's front window, bathing all who laid eyes upon it in its most magnificent glory.

Just the thing to take. Who cared if the sale of that precious item was the only thing that could save the store from going under? She wanted it, and she wanted it NOW.

She walked casually into the store, whistling all innocent-like. She pretended to look at some common knives that could be obtained anywhere, but what she was really doing was planting a smoke bomb that would go off in about thirty seconds. She began to stroll over the door as if to leave.

Soon thirty seconds was up and the store was choked with thick purple smoke. During all this chaos she darted for the gem, snatched it away from its pedestal, and rushed out of the vapor and into a nearby alley before anyone there even knew what was happening.

She sat down and hugged her prize in joy. 'I can make at least 1,000,000 munny with this baby." She giggled in glee.

"Are you nuts?" a voice growled.

Yuffie sprang back up and looked around frantically for Leon.

"Look, I'm not just gonna turn my back on him like this!" another familiar voice snapped.

She let out a sigh of relief. He was talking to Donald, not her.

But what were they talking about, she wondered? Out of sheer curiosity she stayed and listened.

"He wouldn't been chosen as the Keyblade Master if he was EVIL!" Donald yelled at him.

"But look at what else destiny chose him for," Leon replied. "We don't have a choice in this matter. We must destroy him."

Hold on.

...What?

Sora, that naive kid who such a goody-two shoes that it's sickening and saved the whole universe from Ansem...evil? And Leon says that he wants to kill him!

This was turning out to be an interesting conversation...

"NOOOOOOOOOOO! I WON'T ALLOW IT!" Donald screamed, thrusting his magic wand out in front of him. "The king told me to protect the Keyblade Master Sora, and that's what I'm gonna do!"

"I'm sure he didn't mean it to go this far," Leon hissed. "Besides, we don't need him. We can use Riku to seal the keyholes."

"ARE YOU GONNA BELIEVE IT JUST LIKE THAT!" Donald shouted. "YOU WOULD KILL HIM WITHOUT EVER THINKING THAT IT MIGHT BE A SET-UP!"

"I know what I saw," Leon barked. "And I'm sure Riku is not fooled easily."

"LOOK SOMETHING ABOUT THIS JUST ISN'T RIGHT!" Donald screeched. "AND I WON'T LET ANYONE DO ANYTHING TO HIM UNTIL I HAVE MORE PROOF!"

"What more proof do you need than what you saw back there?" Leon growled.

With a yell of rage, Donald summoned a fireball and sent it hurling towards Leon.

He dodged just in time. "So that's how you want to play?"

"IF YOU PLAN TO KILL SORA, YOU GOTTA GO THROUGH ME FIRST!" Donald announced.

Both took their battle stances.

Leon made the first move, dashing at Donald and planning to slice him in half. Donald jumped out of the way and fired a Thundaga spell at him from up above. It was a direct hit and caused Leon to stagger, but only for a little bit. He charged at him again, this time cutting his cap clean in two and barely missing the duck.

Donald summoned a volley of fireballs at him. None struck Leon, and were left to eradicate barrels lying in the way and for Yuffie to dodge frantically in order not to be roasted.

Leon's sword began to glow a bluish white, then almost doubled in size. With this transformed sword he shot out several energy blasts at Donald, one of which rammed Donald into the alley wall.

Yuffie cowered behind a stack of boxes. This was one fight she wanted no business in, and not just because she was carrying a jewel that could be easily fractured either.

"Firega!' Donald yelled, sending a huge sphere of flame Leon's way. Leon dodged it, and it flew out of the alley and exploded into a nearby wall, making a nice huge crater in it and sending whatever pedestrians that happened to be nearby into a panic.

Leon leapt over Donald and attempted to stab him from behind, but was unsuccessful. Then before Donald could do anything else, he fired a volley of blasts at Donald. It was a direct hit that sent Donald soaring into the street, landing flat on his back.

He quickly got up and performed a Blizzaga spell, sending a swarm of ice Leon's way. Leon managed to evade it and leapt out of the alley, smacking Donald with the flat side of the blade.

Donald quickly countered with more Thundaga spells. Some were able to zap Leon, while some missed their mark and zapped something else, like a lamppost or a wayward mutt.

"Stop this at once!" a voice commanded.

They paused to look at Aerith, who seemed quite ticked at the moment. "What is the meaning of this?"

Both remained dead silent, glared at each other, and walked in opposite directions without saying a word.

"Hey wait!" Aerith exclaimed, but her voice was heard by neither of them. Looking both worried and annoyed at the same time, she turned around and walked away as well, not in the mood to deal with them right now.

Yuffie, after hiding away her treasure in one of her secret little cubbyholes to admire later, decided to go follow Leon to wherever he was going. She slinked around in the shadows just behind, careful to make sure she gave birth to no sound as she moved. Leon took his time, his GunBlade perched on his shoulder, muttering something angrily to himself as he traveled across the cement and slashing any Heartless that were foolish enough to dare pop up in his path. It wasn't long until Yuffie could tell where he wanted to go: it seemed that he planned to go sulk in his favorite hidden cave.

As he strolled into the cave's mouth, Yuffie decided it was time for her to make her grand appearance. She leapt down right in front of Leon, put on a big smile, and said 'HIYA! How're ya doing?"

'Buzz off,' Leon growled. 'I really ain't in the mood to deal with you right now."

"Oh allright..." Yuffie replied, looking down at the ground and beginning to move. But almost instantly she perked up. 'But ya gotta tell me what going on first!"

"You don't want to know...' Leon answered. "Now move."

'Not until you tell me!" Yuffie responded in a teasing matter, with a big smile on her face.

"Trust me, you'll find out all too soon," Leon hissed.

'Awwww c'mon, tell me," she crooned. "If I'm gonna find out about it soon anyway, you might as well tell me now."

"I already told you, no!" Leon snapped, pushing her out of the way.

"Hey!" Yuffie protested. "Can you at least give me a hint or something?"

"I told you-" he growled.

"Is this about the Master of Darkness?' she guessed.

Leon stopped. "I can tell you one thing." He eyed Yuffie over his shoulder. "This Master of Darkness is going to tear this alliance apart."

He was able to proceed into the cave without any more interruptions.

Heh, things are beginning to heat up in the group, and it's only going to get hotter. Hope you like.

Cya!