Yay! Second chapter. I get to write about Cid! Yay! (Favorite FFVII character!) Lots of Yaying going on! Yay!

I kind of do some problem solving with how to deal with Kairi and I'm happy to say I found a way to get Riku to be able to travel around. Sort of...the same, though. Anyway, you can read about it. I hope this chapter isn't too boring. I tried to use Cid to liven up the tense atmosphere it has.

I guess Riku's attitude and way of speaking changes a bit as it goes along. Probably because things get considerably happier later on. But you know... What comes up!

Worlds, here we come!

Traverse Town

A year had past; a whole year of me practically living on that island as I salvaged what I could in information to get Sora back. I had destroyed nearly all the pictures drawn on the cave walls in an effort to maybe dig the door out, which I think was just anger trying to release itself before I exploded. I knew it wouldn't work, after all. Everyday, all day, sometimes all night I would conceal myself in that realm of pain, trying to set him free.

At times I would lie crying on the cave floor in doubt. What if Sora had been killed already? What if all my efforts were futile and I would never see him again? What if Sora found himself happier in this other place? What if he actually didn't want to come back? I came up with so many hypothesis's that I started to go to the cave and just sit there day in and day out. Waiting. Quietly. Maybe Dooru would come back and laugh at me again. I named him Dooru. He was my pet project of sorts. I hadn't seen Dooru since Sora was taken away, though.

But then a morning that felt like every other morning rose into the sky. I was on the beach, ready to head out. Kairi and Selphie stood behind me, watching me like a caged monkey trying to escape. They were dressed and ready for school. I hadn't seen homework in months.

"Riku," Kairi started. Every morning she said the same thing and every morning she got the same answer. It was beginning to get annoying and my replies were all programmed into my brain. I might've felt better about it if we tried doing the routine in, say, German.

'Why don't you give up, Riku? Sora's gone. He just isn't coming back.' Every morning I would hear her weakened will jabber about my everyday endeavors and their ultimate failures. One just wanted to turn around and throw a rock at her face. I love Kairi. Honestly. Day by day, however, since she quickly gave up on Sora ever returning, she was losing Love Points. I was at the stage where the saying "You don't have to like someone to love them" was as sincere as the sky is blue.

"I give up." I almost replied to her with the usual, 'Because Sora wouldn't want me to give up if there's hope.' It took me a moment of thought and the ability to be a sponge again to absorb the words she had just spoken. I turned toward her as she continued. "Everyday I watch you sail out there and come back empty-handed and I'm getting tired of watching it." I gave her a look like I honestly didn't care. Well...I didn't care. "Tomorrow I'll take another route to school. I don't want to see you anymore until you give up."

Did she expect anything other than the hurtful answer she received? I was sitting in the cave, thinking about her tear-filled eyes and angry glare and it didn't affect me whatsoever. If she wanted to leave Sora to the shadow sharks, that's fine. I wasn't about to do the same thing. I clutched the crown hanging from my neck, the only piece of Sora I had left. Well, and the scarf I wore everyday, no matter the temperature. I was sorry to Kairi, though. But I don't think she ever knew that.

"Then I guess I'll never see you again."

Irony decided that he was particularly bored that day as well. I planned the 24 hours to be another day of sitting and waiting in silence, letting memories and ghosts haunt me of my times with Sora. I could occasionally see us drawing on the wall with Kairi, or when she bashfully drew herself and Sora drew himself giving her a Paopu fruit. I don't think they knew I was there that time but I was watching from the dark. When I consider it now, that's very stalker-like, isn't it? What did we know then anyway?

I began to lean back against the cave wall to relax but something of great definition was strange about the texture behind me. As I leaned further and further into it, I hadn't pinned the exact difference as of yet. I had sat in that spot before. I don't think the wall had mutated any since the previous day and I'm almost sure I'd overcome that impaling phase of my loss. Maybe I had sat further away from it than the norm and the extra space behind me was confusing my senses. I still can't believe it took me being flat on my back and hanging off what looked like a cliff of eternal light to realize that I had just leaned back into Dooru.

I was blinded, to say the least, by the beautiful radiance of the world that lied beyond the very door I had hated for a long, cruel year. I refused to sit up, fear of it snapping shut behind me overtaking the essence of my heart. If I had lost Dooru again, I would've surely had gone insane and probably have drowned myself in the sea. I figured, what the Hell, and I slid myself further into the door until gravity took care of the rest.

I closed my eyes and the first thought was to prepare for death. I may just as well had been falling to my doom, even in such a warm, encircling light. It was gentle with me as I soared downward toward what I hoped to be Sora or at least answers that would lead me to him. I could feel my heart fluttering in my chest, my body in a fitful tingling sensation. I was going in circles, each spiral a question of the faith I had in the wings that carried me away. How long had I been falling? I felt more like I was flying in the air after awhile, no longer supported but taking care of myself with my very own feathers, swirling like water from my shoulder blades. I was convinced on the last spiral...that this was indeed a cruel dream that would end in disappointment and probably me taking my life for having my hopes so torturingly pushed.

When I woke up, I couldn't open my eyes. I was too afraid to find myself back in the cave, still one less Sora in my possession and no reason to properly move on. It had to be Sora. I wanted Sora to be the friend I could spend a lifetime with. Even if I got married and had kids, I would want Sora with me. By me at all times. I'd make him live with me, I swear I would. Heh...Uncle Sora?

It took a long time to convince myself that maybe I wasn't in the cave anymore and to open my eyes and take a good look around. Not that it was actually my own doing that got me to see what was around me. No, it was the cold, wet squishy item that shoved itself right into my ear. My first reaction was to yelp as a shocking ice chill ran down my spine from the impression. I jerked myself into an upright position and opened my eyes. I almost screamed like a school girl.

I wasn't scared but terribly excited! Maybe a little too excited but nevertheless! I got to my feet and let my emerald eyes take control of the situation. Dark atmosphere but buildings of color that rose up in glory on several levels. A clock tower in the distance and what seemed to be a shopping area right up front. Off to my side was a café and a few people to complete it's moody but therapeutic demeanor. I was in a town and I was damned glad to be completely lost in a new place.

I looked down when I heard a soft huff, as if something was agitated. My eyes landed on a long, yellow creature with perky thin black ears and a pointed tail wagging behind him. He barked and jumped, green collar spinning around his thin neck. I'm pretty sure it was a dog.

"Ah," I looked at his cute black nose and smiled. "You must be what was buggin' me just a second ago." He barked again, jumped, and ran off, my guess being that was his way of saying goodbye. I must not had been very interesting.

I had broken it down to three decisions in my situation. I could either: A. Meander aimlessly around the town, B. Go bug people at the café, or C. Follow the weird yellow dog. Well, since I didn't know where I was, and it was likely the people at the café were trying to relax and not be bothered, the dog was my best shot. He had a collar, after all, so he could have just been running home to his master. With a small debate and a shove of reassurance, I trailed after the canine.

Much to my discouragement I discovered very quickly he must've been a stray. I found myself practically in an alley and he jumped over a ledge and onto some boxes, running off elsewhere before I could see. Disheartened, I decided the best way to find out where I had crashed was to start asking. I walked up to the first door I saw and knocked gingerly.

It swung open like a baseball bat trying to hit a home run, a tall, robust, blonde man with a scruffy face and a dented cigarette perched on his lips standing there to greet me. He wasn't very housewarming and I suddenly feared for my life. He chewed on the end of his cigarette, probably because he was getting annoyed with the little boy just standing there and gawking at him like a circus clown.

"Who the Hell are you?" He growled. I quivered at the intensity he pushed off so quickly. I was about to run away when I realized a man like this may actually have been helpful. He was covered with grease stains and a tool belt was hanging onto his hips. His cotton white shirt had holes torn through them, albeit small but still enough to see the dark flesh beneath. He looked like a mechanic, a much older one, who actually looked rather wise in his years. He began to shift impatiently and was ready to swing the door shut.

"I'm Ri - !" The door slammed closed. "Ku. Wait!" I began banging on the door but to no avail. He wasn't going to answer again. It was understandable to want to keep me away, considering I had just disturbed him to merely stare at his figure. Freaky kid, he must've been thinking. I turned away, ready to walk off, but I found myself clutching onto my pendant. Sora's crown. I could recall the powerful face Sora had when we were sailing to the island, so determined and strong, ready to face an unknown world without a second whim on it.

It hurt to consider how Sora would handle a situation like this. He was so reckless but that's what made him so attractive. His innocent nature just caught people's attention, even if it got him and everyone else into trouble. I decided that even though I was one of the people attracted to that nature, not of it, that in order to get back to the one I had loved that feature in I was going to have to try and think a little more like him. I went back to the door and knocked on it again. The time it took for me to reallocate my feelings properly, the man must've thought it was someone else. He opened the door again and looked fit to be tied.

"What now!" He snapped. He was completely prepared to lock me out again if I had another staring contest with him but I spoke up before he could do anything more.

"I'm Riku," I started but couldn't finish immediately.

"I don't know any Riku." The man snarled.

"No! I don't know any... you, either! I just need a little help, that's all."

"I don't have any munny to give."

"I don't want money."

"Then what the Hell do you want!"

"Where am I!"

"TRAVERSE TOWN!"

"OKAY!"

He slammed the door shut. It took a moment of trying to pull my fleeting soul back into my body and down my throat to realize that I didn't learn anything except the town's name. Traverse Town? I've never even heard of such a place. It was bewildering since I couldn't imagine it to be in any country anywhere. It looked too... unreal. I knocked again and heard something break inside. The door flung open and I began to ramble out everything I could think of before he killed me with whatever he happened to have nearby. Probably the wrench on his belt.

"I'm lost! I fell through a doorway of light and landed here and I have no idea where I am! I just want to get out of here and find Sora but I have no one to help me!" I took a cowardly step back and he leaned closer to make up for it.

"You really aren't looking for munny?" I snarled my answer and he seemed satisfied with that. "Hm. Well, you just look like a stupid kid but come inside." Finally, I thought. I walked in once he took his large form away from the doorway and I was rather enchanted to find a very warm home greeting me. A cozy fireplace, a big, plumpy red chair to relax in, and a kitchen area that gave an aura of great home-cooked meals having been concocted within. It was everything he was working on off to the right that slaughtered the atmosphere.

Oil, tools, a long, metal working table. Papers and pens everywhere, photos hanging off strings as if in a red room in a photo center. A red light was swinging from the ceiling to top that image off as well. The two sides of the building were completely different, a split personality of housing, you could say. It made me terribly, terribly nervous. More so than I already was.

"I'm Cid," He suddenly had introduced himself out of the blue, nearly giving me a heart attack when his loud voice boomed it out. If anything could shed the lives off a cat, this man could by simply speaking. "Where ya from?"

"Destiny Islands..." I was a bit flustered to say my home's name. In a place such as this with seemingly no water anywhere in sight, it sounded ridiculous. Where would an island be in this vicinity?

"Another world?" Cid asked. My heart slammed into the front of my chest. What did he just ask me, I thought wildly, searching for an answer at the same time. The prospect of being in another world had never even occurred to me. It was entirely different, after all, but... I realized logic couldn't solve my problems now. I fell through a door of light and flew to Traverse Town without even knowing it. Logic was but a distant dream.

"Not sure," I tried. "I was hoping you could tell me." Cid gave me the look of Satan himself. I didn't know the answer! I couldn't help it! I had already said I was lost and he was throwing a fit. What a bastard, I kept telling myself.

"Really are a..." He suddenly fell silent as his eyes landed on what seemed to be just below my face. My first thought was my life was in an immediate threat: Cid was about to ring my neck. I tossed myself up against the wall when he reached his giant hand out for my throat. I couldn't get away. I thought for sure he was going to kill me and this would be the end of everything I had been working for. I survived the fall from the door of Light and now this! It was terrifying, to be in such a new place with such a fearsome man.

"I've seen this necklace before," Came a curious tone of voice. My eyes snapped open to see Cid investigating the pendant on my chain. "At least this thing 'ere, anyway." He stood up straight, half the crown in his palm, and rested his fingers on his chin in deep study. A glow in his eyes and a smile advertised his recognition. "Yeah! Another kid was wearin' this a long time ago. He fell in this 'ere town, too."

I immediately knew it was Sora. He fell into Traverse Town with a half crown pendant on his neck? It couldn't be coincidence. I knew it couldn't be.

"Was he a brown-haired kid named Sora?" I quickly asked, practically begging for an answer. Cid gave a queer look and nodded.

"He was a brunette kid but I dunno 'bout his name or nothin'," Cid walked over to his chair and flopped into it with a loud poof. The chair groaned as he made himself comfortable. "But now that I think 'bout it..." Cid sat and thought about it. The suspense had me hanging by my toes; I thought I was going to die just from impatience with an old geezer's memory. My throat was retching with whimpers and screams, holding them down and keeping them low. He bounced his head a couple times and then proceeded on. "Yeah. He asked me if I saw a kid with silver hair and a - " He jerked a finger in attention toward my chain. I put it into my own hand and evaluated it as if I had never seen it before in my life. "Riku, ya said?"

"Yes," I answered, my voice unable to uplift past the whisper of trees. I could feel my cheeks tightening, my throat clenching, my eyes bubbling over. That meant Sora had last been seen alive and well. Alive and asking about me, worried about me, quite possibly. Hearing that erased all doubts in my heart. I felt reborn with a new spirit and I knew then that if I wasn't going to find Sora, no one would, not even Sora himself. It was a weird way of putting my goal at first, but later in the adventure of it all, it began to make much more sense. But later is later and we're still stuck in earlier.

"Well, I gave the kid a gummi ship and haven't seen 'im since. That was...oh, say, 'bout a year ago?" He scratched his chin to be sure that a year had definitely passed since he last shaved. "He could very well be dead by now. He was a bit of an idiot, too. Little more than you are, though." I grabbed the closest thing I could find and flung it at him. Unfortunately my wrath toward him came forth as a winter glove hanging by the door. It did a quick swish back and forth before flopping on the floor. I can still recall how pathetic I felt to have unveiled vengeance with a mitten.

Cid looked down then up from it and continued to talk as if it had never happened. I can never describe how grateful I truly was it went ignored. "You seem like a desperate kid," He tore himself from his chair and approached me with a hand on his hip and a twinkle in his eye. "I'll do for you what I did for the other idiot." I was, to say the least, not so sure what he meant at first.

We left the house and entered into a much larger area after some time of walking around. I got to see the gloomy, moody atmosphere of Traverse Town some more before Cid showed me where he creates art. Ships galore were pounded into garages and a rather colorful, strange-looking machine was the one we strided upon and stopped before. I jumped when I heard two squeaky voices crack out of no where.

"Well, gee! Company, company!"

"When's the last time we've seen someone like him?"

"Years and years!"

"Maybe just one..."

Two little critters, one with a big red nose and a goofy face, and the other with a tiny black nose and a more managerial demeanor, came flying off the rocket and crashing onto my head. I almost thought with the way they came soaring down like owls on a mouse that I was going to end up with two bald spots on my head and two chipmunks with new hair to turn into wigs. However my head persevered and they just sat on it for the convenience.

"What's up?" Said the black-nosed one. I didn't reply. It was a chipmunk talking. "I'm Chip! This is Dale!" I wasn't looking, either, but I assumed he meant the red-nosed bugger.

"C'mon, guys," Cid waved his hand grumpily, wanting to hurry it up. "We're givin' Riku a gummi ship so he can go floatin' around the galaxy." They leapt off my head and back toward the ship, climbing up ladders and ramps they made for themselves. Cid slapped a hand harshly on my back, enough to throw me to the floor if I hadn't had a moment of delayed reacting to the impact. I looked back up toward him when he said, "We'll guide you. We'll help ya get through the universe here."

It was strange. Cid didn't want to help me whatsoever initially. Suddenly he seemed very serious about what he was doing for me.

"I just remembered something that kid said..."

"Hey, Cid?"

"What, kid?"

"If another boy comes through here..."

"Hm?"

"Please help him out."

"And then he left on his own, or so it seemed. Something was weird 'bout the way he knew to ask for a ship. He was like you, wasn't he?"

I hadn't heard this before. Cid's memory appeared to be poor or at least selective to what he wanted to recall. "Are you trying to say Sora came here and asked for a ship?"

"He wasn't like ya," Cid was preparing the ship. "He came in acting like he knew what ta say and how ta say it. If he came from the same world as you, then I think it's a little weird he knew who I was an' what I did. I'm a mechanic; I also build ships for inter-world travelin'."

It was weird. How could Sora possibly know Cid? He was taken through the door against his own will by the shadows. Unless, if by the theory of other worlds, he had landed in another world and came here after hearing about Cid elsewhere. However I was getting a ship to travel between worlds. How would Sora have gotten from one world to this? It was unlikely he heard about it from any other place. How did Sora know Cid? How!

"All set!" I looked up as Cid was coming back down the ladder. "You can climb up this to get into the pit. We'll guide you through the communication system to the other worlds along the way. You won't be alone, kid."

I climbed the ladder with a smile. Sora really did me a favor by asking Cid to help. I sat in the cockpit and stared at the controls. It was a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle and I was a blind man. But even as I sat there, I came to another realization. Sora asked Cid to help me. Did he know I would be coming to save him?

"Okay, kid! Push the red button on the right ta close the top and start the engine. You'll need to flood the engine a bit for a good boost and lubing so you'll hit the green button beside that ta do that. Then hit the blue button ta go and stir with all your might 'cause this baby goes thousands of miles per hour!"

"Not really", I heard Chip intervene. "But it does go fast. Be careful, Riku!" I don't think I told them my name. "Sora's waiting for you!" Sora... he must've told them. I hit all the buttons as instructed and clutched onto the steering wheel with a burning crackle. I was gripping it hard enough to leave dents. The door to the garage opened and the ship started to shake insanely. It was a rocket launch from Hell.

"Good luck... Mittens!" Cid shouted through the intercom.

"Oh, you bast - GAAH!" The ship had shot off before I could even get the rest of my word out. My head felt as if a thousand books were smashing it into the seat, my stomach being sat on by a really, heavy person. The pressure was so extremely immense that I swore I'd rather keel over than continue this for too long. By the time I had gotten on path, at least according to Cid's explanation of the navigation system, the pressure was practically gone and almost manageable.

It was amazing. I was just floating on a space highway, heading for a completely different world in the universe. Sora, Kairi, and I always wanted to travel together. It's a shame, though, that I had to do it alone under such conditions. I promised myself one day I'd take them both with me in the machine. Well, Sora could drive it, too, apparently, but still! I was getting enthusiastic about this mission. My chances of seeing Sora again were high, for one, and two, I was about to be allowed to see everything Sora had seen on his leg of the journey. I wondered if Sora could feel how fast my heart was beating. Was he this exhilarated to travel as I am now?

Sora... I would find him. And I would definitely save him!