Mikenno says:

News Flash: Kris lied and skipped the side story this time. Now back to the following two chapters.

AGRABAAAAAAH. I hope this chapter turns out okay. I'm just getting over a bad writer's block. Had a really bad two weeks. T-T

P.S. OMG! T-T I had all this stuff written out and for some reason it didn't save! ;-; I had to rewrite it all and it doesn't sound nearly as good as it had...

P.S.S Sorry this chapter took so long. I caught the stomach flu and died for about a week and a half. I wrote a lot of this while sick so.. ;.;

Agrabah

I represented the image of a king at a loss on his throne. My one leg crossed over the other; my chin propped up on my palm of my hand, elbow pressured into the arm rest; my eyes gazed out into the open space. Contemplating war, peace, finances, and my children that will pave the road to our future. Well, that was getting a little far ahead, but all the same...

"Never seen ya look so... out of it," Cid's voice presented itself before me. I looked up at his strong, bristled chin with only a swish of my eyes. I spoke through blinking whenever I needed to. "Really."

"Where did you go after I followed Leon?" I finally asked him after having been on the ship for a couple days. "You just disappeared before we got to his house." Cid scraped the back of his head with his nails, humming an explanation to everything. I think the mystery of life was somewhere in that mess.

"Well, to be honest," He sighed and leaned closer to the camera to tell a secret. "Leon was from Traverse Town. Not originally - his home world was destroyed." I was blinking in emotional responses as well. "Eh.. There's just a couple o' girls here that I wanted him to stay and take care of." He leaned back again to show himself off more and keep my interests, which he had regardless. "While they keep telling me they're fine without him, It offends me ta see a lady left behind without care. He just took fascination in Cloud and ran off after I said what I thought."

"So you didn't want to see him because of what you said to him?" Cid nodded. I finally let my eye exit the stage. "Well, you can take care of them, right?" I smiled up at him, the first real smile I felt in days. "Don't tell me you're really an incapable old man, Cid."

"Don't push it, kid. I'll blow the ship up," He was grinning past his threat and gave a deep sigh just after. He seemed ready to talk again when I caught him staring at my chest. I looked down at myself and back up at him. When inquired, he replied, "Nothin'. You look stronger for some reason."

"Good to know," Which it was. I didn't feel as powerful as I apparently looked. My mind was beginning to wander again, my fingers tangling in Sora's scarf ever since I left Olympus Colliseum.

Tears.

My lips parted to take some air.

"It's okay!"

The image was burned in my mind.

"Open your eyes!"

I blinked again and again.

"Light..."

Darkness... I clutched my chest.

"Remember that in your heart."

"You carry a contorted and endless darkness..."

Inside me... In my heart there was -

"Riku." Sora's smile. His eyes darkened, the color in his face melting away like a wax candle in a burning house. Eye falling out of his skull, a shadow fuming out of his socket. He reached forward, fingers rotten and bones crackling - "Die."

"Riku," I gasped a little and looked up toward Cid. He was looking at another monitor on his end. "Look ahead." I stood up from my chair and walked up to the plate of glass, resting a hand on its frigid surface. From what I could see, there was a small orange dot in the distance. "It's another world. The ship's locked onto its coordinates." My fingers slid down the window, clearing away the mist and fog that blanketed it. I hadn't noticed how warm the cockpit felt; I felt particularly chilly.

"Wonder what kind of world it is," I thought aloud and Cid tapped his chin to perform for me. Neither of us declared any idea of an answer to that and I sat back down to watch the ship migrate toward it. I found my eyes returning downward as they had been for a good while and resting in peace on the silver amulet. I still find it funny how something so small and simple could mean the world to you when you detach the chains that make it matter in the first place. It becomes all you have left to care for and hold onto when everything else falls away from you. Wearing it makes you feel as if they're sitting beside you.

"I bet that world has a lot of candy," I looked toward the arm of the chair, Sora sitting on it and smiling toward the stars; they shimmered in those glamorous sapphire eyes. "Candy and good food. It looks like an orange gumball from here." He reached forward to snatch it up in his hand. I only watched him. "Yeah." He smiled down at me, pearly whites and all. "Candy land, Riku! Let's go together."

I curled my fingers together; resting my elbows on the cold, empty arm rests. "Yeah," I mumbled to myself. "Let's go together."

"Yer gettin' better at landing, Riku," Cid tried complimenting but I found myself mostly untouched. I was a crappy pilot, I knew that much, but I didn't want to hear I was getting better. I wasn't intending to become good at it. I didn't want to be flying it as long as I already had.

"Thanks," I said anyway. I lowered the ladder down and descended cautiously. As I jumped off the last bar, my feet dug their toes into the burning hot sand, which I only knew was hot because my black boots became open-toe sandals. I felt the whirl of a desert storm dancing around me, her gentle finger tips scaling every inch of my body to dress me. Baggy black pants with barely a partition from the ankles to the crotch puffed out from my hips and grasped at the bones above my feet; I could feel the scratches of dust and dirt against my bare stomach and the weight of white robes draping over my shoulders as if I were a curtain rod. The silver hair that would normally brush against my cheeks was being tugged back by black and crimson amulets, which also upheld part of the blank cloths that kept the sun off my neck. My chain binded the fabric against my chest, half a silver crown holding the pieces together.

I lifted my fingers to graze over the clasps on either side of my head and I outlined them precisely. I knew the shape, oddly enough. They were both small, beautifully detailed black scorpions with red jewels encrusted into their backs. I smiled a little sadistically and reached behind my head to pull the leftover sheet over the rest of my hair. I was obviously in some form of an Arabian-based world.

"I'm staying here again," I looked back to Cid with surprise. He shouldn't have had a reason that time. "I don't think my little tin can here will function in the extreme heat."

I scoffed. "You make me feel so lonely, Cid. I'm almost starting to miss your big mouth." He mumbled his precious curses after me as I carried on. It was hard to blend in with a UFO following you anyway. I followed my ears to the crowds and their psychotic mass of noise pollution, among other things. It was such an amazing flow of life to behold for simply a marketplace. Caravans gobbled up the dirt roads, the clogging heels of camels distracting my own foot steps. I wanted to move in sync with them, their rhythm conquering most of anything else I could hear. Yells of upset trades and exploding fists, the pleased clapping of fulfilled promises and money deals ringing with satiable laughter. The atmosphere was overwhelming, to say the least.

I found myself to be noticed by random beats of eyelashes and many older men with greasy hair and black eyes watching me from their stands in the shadows. I must've appeared rich in my attire, though far from the case was the harshness of reality.

"Hold it! STOP! HALT! Damn it, Street Rat!" I ducked as if I had been found out but instead I discovered a man with black hair fleeing. His purple vest flapped behind him and his pants were similar to mine only white and were dirtier and worn from his running and obvious long-time ownership. I turned away, assuming him to be a reckless thief but then as he looked over his shoulder from climbing up windows and bricks, I caught a glimpse of his eyes. They were huge, almost surreal to investigate. I wanted to slap myself to see if they'd become thin and beady but they never did change. He didn't look like a bad person. This may have lead to my sudden impulse to run toward the commotion.

I was careful in my approach, looking around for anything that could help him. He was hanging by a second story window, the men chasing him closing in. They wore big hats with royal feathers and I could only assume they were like police officers. Their curved swords were bigger than most heads, wiggling like pitchforks from Hell under the poor man. I turned my head just in time to spot a stand with handmade blankets hanging off rods erect from the poles holding it together. I ran up to it and snatched one off, ignoring the poor merchant hollering behind me. I snuck through the crowds as swiftly as I could until I was close enough to do any decent damage.

While nothing serious, I merely flung the blanket right over the three heads of authority. It was huge and thick to lay on anyone so to see them struggling in a bubbling pile was amusing - then the sword stabbed through. I made eye contact with the young man and received a smile of thanks. He climbed into the window and disappeared. Relieved, I quickly came to the decision to do just the same. Those swords looked sharp as a mother and I wasn't about to test their capabilities head on. I escaped toward the same building into an alley way.

My foot steps echoing were beginning to terrify me, constantly leading me to believe I was being pursued. Luckily they must not have seen me run away because they never followed. However, I did meet someone.

"Hey!" I screamed at the man hanging upside down before me. It was the Arabian Tarzan! "Woah, woah" He flipped around onto his feet with a small blush in his tanned cheeks. "Sorry! Didn't mean to scare you."

Little late for that, I thought as I clutched at my chest.

"Thank you," He cocked his head at me, looking rather sweet for being really dirty. "For helping me out back there, I mean."

"Yeah, sure... You didn't seem like a bad person but what was that about?" I figured I may as well see what I had just done. For all I know, I just let an insane criminal run free.

He took a seat on the sturdiest crate he could find. "Well, they were - Oh!" He stood up again; snap stretching his arm out toward me, fingers spread widely. "I'm Aladdin." I accepted his hand, said my name and he nodded. What a dork, I couldn't help but think. He was slick, though, I could tell that much about him. He sat back down and continued. "Those were royal guards." A sudden feeling of gloom displaced me. Maybe I had truly just helped a criminal. "But Jafar made them go after me! He kidnapped her! He has Jasmine!"

I stared at him rather blankly. Jafar? Jasmine? Was I supposed to know those names? Yes. I was. I was from this world, after all. "I'm sorry. I'm not from around here," I slipped in. "Who are they?" Smooth.

Aladdin pointed toward the sky just after I shut my mouth. "Princess Jasmine." I looked over my shoulder, expecting to see an angel descending or at least this Jasmine girl falling out of a window, but my eyes betrothed a huge palace. I turned back to him. "She was taken by Jafar, one of the royal viziers. I don't know what he has planned but... I can't begin to imagine what's happened to the sultan. He has the whole palace in the palm of his hand. No - everything!" His eyes filled with a pained look, as if his imagination really couldn't handle what happened to the sultan person. Something had bothered me, though, so I decided to ask him a question and spare him his thought process.

"Aladdin, not to be rude but you don't look like someone who has anything to do with royalty." We both looked at his clothes and then each other. "Why are you so worried about them?" By the sudden creep of a blush on his face, I could only assume one of two things: He was in love with the princess or he had an odd infatuation for the sultan. I begged it to be the former because the latter would've made me walk right away.

"Well, don't say this to anyone but me and Jasmine... Well, we're kind of a secret... I mean - "

"What? Secret rendezvous?" I finished for him. He nodded. With a small smirk I felt bad for him. So it was the "prince" saving the princess, or trying to. Aladdin hugged one of his knees, the expression on his face timelessly miserable.

"I can't save her, though," He burrowed his eyes into his pants. "I just don't have that kind of power."

"But, Al! You forget me so soon? Your best buddy!" The voice that rang in my ears was playful and loud, someone who had attention at a party but could probably annoy you after awhile. Yeah, them. Aladdin looked up, as did I, and when I saw a huge blue man floating beside the Arabian boy my mind drew a white palette. The man looked toward me, his voice a rectangle of expressions unheard of. "Who's this, Al?"

"Riku," He replied and stood up. "Genie, I don't know if you can help this time. I mean I only have two wishes left and..."

"Wishes?" I asked, looking between them. He said genie. "Genie?" A genie! This was right out of a storybook I read as a child. "Amazing." Was all I could manage into the situation.

"That's right!" He cried and threw his huge arm around me. He pulled me close, that enormous blueberry face in mine. "The famous Genie from the lamp! But no time for introductions. We have a princess to save! Just give me the word, Al!"

"Wish for Jasmine to be here, Aladdin," I suggested. "It'd save you the trouble of finding her and facing Jafar, right?" By the look on his face, however, I learned quickly that my suggestion must've already been considered.

"It's not that easy. Even if I wish for Jasmine and her father to be here and okay, Jafar still holds the palace. He could easily take her back from me with that power."

"Use the last wish to save the palace of Jafar then!" He looked even more dismayed by that. "What? What's wrong with i. that?"

"I promised Genie I'd free him with my last wish!" Aladdin looked at him with a warm smile, sincere and not of guilt. I hadn't seen someone so genuinely thoughtful for a long time. "So I can't."

I rested my fingertips on my lips, thoughts fluttering in my skull in search of answers for this predicament. "Then..." He clenched my fist and grinned at him. "We'll fight for it!" Aladdin perked up with my enthusiasm, which is all I think he really needed. A pat on the back, a small shove, and the right way to go. "By the way you were dodging those guards, I wouldn't be able to believe ya if you said you didn't have some moves."

He offered me a coy smile and simply nodded in response. Genie gave a strong holler and began to swing his arms wildly. He suddenly looked like a cheerleader with pink pom-poms, bouncing back and forth with curly blonde pigtails flailing off his head.

"GOOOOO Al! GOOOOO Riku! Riku! Al! Riku and Al! Riku and Al! Sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-!"

"Genie!" We both shouted at him, not wanting him to continue that any further. He laughed it off with an apology and Aladdin and I shared a mutual chuckle.

He led the way to his home, which for a "street rat" was very comfortable. The room was made from his dreams, his escapades, and any empty spots held hopes for future endeavors. It was built for him, I thought. The way he'd sway through the piles of timeless treasures, every path memorized in the lot he had formed. I could only follow and hope I wouldn't bump into anything. Aladdin had gathered what he felt he would need, including a nice falchion that would probably cut through a tree if sharpened a little more. While he got ready, I hung out his window and watched the Marketplace go by.

The atmosphere was still powerful, even when risen above it. Watching children play, despite their lineage or birth rights of being absolutely poor, was a wonderful experience to see. They didn't need money to enjoy the time they had with each other. I believed that is what kept Aladdin going. But by the looks of his room, he seemed to be a bit of a thief. I highly doubt he bought the golden pendants hanging on his wall. I didn't mind, however. His kind heart overlapped any minor details such as thievery.

I leaned out the window further to watch a boy chase a ball into the alley way. It was interesting for two reasons. The boy looked like Tidus back home. Same crazed blonde hair and dark skin. I almost swore he had followed me somehow. He was way too small to be Tidus, though. The second reason didn't show up until after I had followed Tidus-boy with my eyes down that outside hall, because it was then the ball bumped into someone. The taller figure, draped in robes, slowly bent over and picked up the ball. The atmosphere they presented made me sickeningly nervous, the weight of the oxygen increasing, growing into thick chunks I'd have to suck through a straw just to survive. The boy only smiled.

"Hey! It's you again, mister!" The robed man handed the ball back to him with no response. "Why don't you come play with us?" He shook his head very slowly. "Ya sure?" He nodded just as leisurely. "Well, like I said before, if you change your mind, we're always here to play!" He turned away from him and tap tapped his way down the sandy stones back to the other children. The man stood still until he ran away. His hand then rose to the base of his neck and rested there. With that he looked up and around, seemingly missing me since I couldn't see his face, and walked away.

I looked down to my chest, my hand resting just over my neck's base, too. My necklace no longer was there, the crown holding the sashes on my shoulders together for me. I looked away to see how Aladdin was doing and when I found him levitating, it shot right over my head. I looked up at him and just held a hand up in inquiry.

"It's a magic carpet," Came a quick explanation. I nodded and waved it off, the shock not even taking the time to get to me. I didn't want to ask.

An Arabian night indeed. The city was the opposite of what it had been in the day time, the myriad of dark alleys and darker figures lurking every nook and cranny of Agrabah, the name of the kingdom I found myself in. Luckily for me, I was soaring above it all on the mystical throw rug and was far from harm's way, should it come. This was ironic, really, since we were heading right for it anyway.

I suddenly grabbed at my chest, something inside of me burning. It was a different sensation than when the keyblade would draw forth and was almost too painful to just ignore as something like heart burn. I squeezed my eyes shut, singed to tears, and felt Aladdin's hand on my back.

"I'm fine," I quickly answered. A bit snappy, to boot. He took his hand back and looked ahead on the path we had set forth. I didn't have the time to feel guilty or apologize when the Arabian boy jerked his finger out.

"The palace!" He bellowed against the wind. The agony in my body subsided in time for me to catch his call and give the rightfully large palace a respectful gaze. It wasn't long after the carpet had dropped us just inside the gate and soared off to keep out of danger and away from the one's who'd bring it. I looked up at Aladdin.

"I'll watch this side," I pointed toward my right and Aladdin noted he'd do the same on the other side. Genie held the front and back, bulging eyes popping up on the back of his skull. How disturbing that truly is, I thought and immediately kept to watching my side. Halfway in and I knew something wasn't right when nothing had stopped us. We all felt it but no one said anything. All we could do was keep our guard up. Even further in made us even more unnerved.

"Where is everyone? The guards?" Aladdin looked at the back of my neck.

"Watch your side," I instructed, feeling his stare. When it was gone, I answered him. "This is definitely a trap. Jafar doesn't sound like a stupid guy if he's a vizier." I heard Aladdin groan to himself; I must've been right. My feet were sweating in the cold heat of the desert, shifting under me against the convenient stone placing. Little sand degraded the garden we stood inside, everything around us threaded and weaved together by a single string of life. Maybe the palace had been built on an oasis.

Thinking set aside for another time, we kept our moves as slow as possible. Too fast and we surely would've fallen into a trick set by Jafar. Then we all stopped. I felt it, the presence of something hostile, and by Aladdin's swishing head to try and find it, he felt it just as strong as I did. Fear is an amazing enhancer to the senses, isn't it? The strengthening of your sensitivity to the heart's of others, sinister or pure, and the physical adrenaline that flows in your veins. It's steroids without the disgusting side effects.

"Al!" I and Aladdin spun around to see Genie pointing toward the sky. Upon a lower balcony, a hand clinging to the rail beneath his feet, was the man I had seen in the alley. His robes fluttered in the sweet, gentle breeze, the smell of flowers making my nose twitch. It was almost too perfect a night to be draped in the clothes I was.

What a beautiful evening for a battle.

A tall, skinny man with a beard like a snake and a hat that could outmatch boulders approached from behind him, the disdainful atmosphere around that smirk of his allowing me to assume he was the target: Jafar.

"Oh, street rat! Welcome to my humble abode," He chuckled out. Aladdin bared his fangs, pulling the sword from his belt.

"Jafar!" He roared. "Let Jasmine and the sultan go!" Jafar would do no such thing, or so he said for himself, laughing at Aladdin's poor effort to negotiate. "Then fight!"

"I need not to!" I grabbed my chest again, biting my lip enough to eat it whole. "I have people to take care of that for me." He tapped the back of the gargoyle on the railing, sending him to his feet. "Go."

We all leapt away when he landed before us, crouched to the ground in a huddle of robes. He gave the appearance of a phantom without limbs, gliding around to make his kill in an unpleasant and creepy way. I almost couldn't concentrate on him. Then something strange happened. He lifted his arm up enough to trail away the robes from his bare, pale hands. A light of the utmost spectacular facade swirled and swayed from the palm of his hand, tangling and planning with the other sparks on what exactly to do with themselves. They then came up with a brilliant plan: Let's form a giant key.

Everything hit my brain at once: The gold handle; the leather banding around the center bar inside; the silver chain with the triple-circle pendant; The long, grey handle, the crown welded into its tip - "The keyblade." Jane's picture; Sora's expression; Leon and Cloud's arguments; My keyblade.

"Riku...

Die."

When the weight defied gravity and rose from the grave again, his head was leaning back, nose and chin toward the sky. When he curved himself forward, lanky figure much more obvious, his hood slipped away from his messy brunette hair and revealed lifeless blue eyes embedded like dull rocks into a wedding ring. I could ignore the pain in my chest then. It was enough to tear my muscles apart and make my torso explode into a million pieces... but the places I've been and the people I've seen and the trials I have so far faced and this pain, this undeniable and relentless pain... Had nothing on what was right in front of me.

"Go now! Attack!" His eyes met mine and he never moved. Only stared at me, not feeling anything toward me. Just a porcelain doll on a shelf, glass eyes staring out the shop window for all eternity. "Do not delay, boy!"

"His name isn't boy!" I screamed. Aladdin and Genie had their attention on me this time. "Call him by his rightful name!" I gritted my teeth, grinding them in my infuriation.

"His name is SORA! Call him Sora!"

And Sora only gazed on.

Yay! Finally! It's Soorraaa! And I finally finished this chapter. It's not even that long but took me forever. Myrr. ;-; Hope you enjoy it anyway. Agrabah Part 2 coming up then! Sorry for skipping the side story.