AN: I'm very happy!
Ryu: Why is that?
DT: I'm updating!
Rikku: I guess that's something to celebrate.
DT: It should be. I mean, it must suck for the readers when I leave them hanging. I should stop doing that to them.
Ryu: I highly doubt you'll stop using cliffhangers.
DT: You're right. I could never stop using those. They are a very valuable writers tool.
Rikku: No matter how evil they are, right?
DT: Correct Rikku. Okay that's enough rambling, on to the Reviewer Feedback.
Faye Leingod: I'm glad you liked my story. I'm also glad you liked my pic. Most of all, I'm glad I could help you with your story. Congrats on posting it and I recommend you guys check it out too.
Neko-Yuff16: Yup, that's one way to find family. It can lead to confusion, confusion and more confusion. I'm sure they'll sort it out….or it'll just lead to chaos.
Blood Pixie: Now that the groups are together, they'll have their hands full foiling Ansem's evil plans. Ryu is also going to have his hands full accepting his new found family.
Blu Rose: I can completely sympathize with you. School can be a real pain, especially when your trying to find time between homework and sleep to update your story. Don't despair though. That's what holidays and vacations are for!
DT: That's the end of that. Ryu do the disclaimer.
Ryu: Why?
DT: I get tired of doing it.
Ryu: Fine. Desert-tiger does not own Final Fantasy X-2 or Kingdom Hearts. She just owns me and the plot. Now please go on and read.
Ch 8 Reunion
The Gullwings, the Leblanc Syndicate and the strange group of teenagers sat in Château Leblanc. Ryu was sitting between Karen and Maya, who had refused to let go of him. Speaking of Ryu, he was handling this situation quite calmly. Unless his silence meant he was having trouble accepting any of this. In fact, he hadn't said a word since the girls told him they were his sisters. Yuna decided to break the ice.
"So, umm, who are you guys?"
The two boys looked at them. Then one of them nodded to the other.
"Well, my name is Kai. These are my friends: Yuri, Karen, and Maya."
"Nice to meet you all. So, what brings you here?"
Yuki scratched the back of his head. "Well, it's kind of a long story……"
"We don't mind hearing it. Right guys?" Rikku asked everyone.
"Of course." Yuna said.
"Why not." Paine shrugged.
"Exactly how long is this gonna take?" Leblanc asked.
"We can't spend too long." Kai told Yuri. "If you guys don't interrupt then it shouldn't take that long. However, if you have any questions then we can answer them at the end. Is that okay?"
"Of course." Yuna said.
Yuri nodded. "Okay well, first off we're not from this world. We come from a world called Destiny Islands. There are a lot more worlds other than this. When you look up at the sky at night, what do you see?"
"Stars." Rikku answered.
"Right, those stars are actually other worlds."
"All of them?" Paine asked skeptically.
"All of them." Yuri confirmed. "Years ago, my dad lived on Destiny Islands with my mom and his best friend Riku, Kai's dad. One day my dad found this door in a cave on the island. Through that door a hooded man appeared and our world was taken over by the Heartless. Those things we were fighting earlier are Heartless. Anyway, the Heartless took over the world and it was destroyed. My dad, mom, and Riku got separated. My dad went on a journey across many worlds to find them. Along the way he met many new friends, like Maya and Karen's parent, but he also found many enemies. One of these people he encountered was the one controlling the Heartless. His name is Ansem. He wanted to plunge all worlds into darkness. To do this he needed the hearts of seven people, but he couldn't use just anyone's heart. There were seven princesses of heart he needed to get and he did. Of course my dad made sure Ansem didn't use them since my mom turned out to be one of the princess."
At the mention of princesses, Ryu's interest perked up. Yuri continued. "My dad beat Ansem and we thought he was dead, but we were wrong. In fact he's here right now. You see he found a….back up set of princesses. We've tracked those princesses down and so far have kept him from getting his grimy little hands on any of them."
"So he's here to find a princess I presume." Ryu asked Yuri.
"That's right and we're here to make sure he doesn't. Once we find him we'll take him down for good!" he said as he stood up and pumped his fist in the air.
"Do you have any idea where this princess is?" Paine asked them.
"Uh…no." Yuri said and he sat down.
"We're still looking." Kai added.
Ryu managed to get Maya and Karen to let go of him and he stood up. He walked over to Rikku and grabbed her by the arm.
"Hey what are you doing!" Rikku asked a little annoyed as she was forced to stand up.
"This is the princess you've been looking for." Ryu said.
"What?" they all said.
"Yeah, she's the one. Not too long ago, a man tried to kidnap Rikku. This man was being aided by those Heartless. My guess is that Ansem sent them to retrieve Rikku and that man was just a puppet."
"It is possible that Ansem is sending others to do his dirty work so he isn't found." Kai deduced.
"At least we know why they're after Rikku." Yuna said.
Ryu nodded and let go of Rikku. "Now I have a question."
Maya and Karen knew what it was and nodded for him to continue.
"How?"
Maya sighed and decided to take this one. "You were born on a world called Hallow Bastion. This was back when they though that the Heartless were gone and our parents though they could finally start a family. However, the Heartless appeared one day and began to destroy the world. A man named Axel appeared and created a black hole that sucked everything in. Mom, dad, you, and everyone else living in the world got sucked in and disappeared. Mom, dad and their friends were sent to another world called Traverse Town. Apparently, you were sent here. You can bet dad kicked Axel's butt for what he did. Anyway, I was born on Traverse Town and so was Karen. Mom and dad told us that we had another sibling and they told us how you were separated from us. Mom and dad couldn't just hop from world to world looking for you because they had been protecting Traverse Town. However, once Karen and I were old enough to helping, we began to fight the Heartless with Kai and Yuri. We've been looking for you ever since we started. Whenever any of us went to a world, we would look for you….and we finally found you."
"How can you be so sure it's me?"
"Well you do look a lot like Cloud." Yuri spoke up.
'Cloud? Isn't that what Sephiroth called me?' Ryu though.
"That necklace." Karen spoke up.
"What of it?" Ryu asked.
"Your named is engraved in the back."
"How'd you know?"
Karen smiled at him. "Dad told us he had it made for you before you were born."
Ryu wasn't sure what to say anymore. These girls were convinced that they were his sisters and he had a feeling at the pit of his stomach that it was true. Well, even if they were, what now? His thoughts were interrupted when Karen stood up next to Maya.
"This is gonna be so awesome! Once we kick Ansem's butt we can all go home! Mom and dad will be so happy to see you!" Maya said excitedly.
Rikku felt her heart tightened. Would Ryu really leave? Ryu frowned. Maya and Karen noticed this and their cheerful faces fell.
"What's wrong?" Maya asked.
"I can't leave." Ryu answered simply.
"Why not?" Karen asked a little panicked.
"I have to protect Rikku."
Said girl felt relieved to know that. Maya and Karen looked at Rikku suspiciously. They stomped up to her and looked her in the eyes. Rikku could feel herself get more nervous by the second.
"Oh boy." Yuri said as he rolled his eyes.
"Girls." Kai added.
The girls shifted their attention back to Ryu.
"Is she your girlfriend?" they both asked. "If she is she can come with us. I'm sure mom and dad would be happy to know you have one."
Rikku felt herself blush and Paine and Yuna snickered. Leblanc looked on with interest while Ormi and Logos didn't really care. Ryu's eye twitched as he looked at his…..sisters.
"No." he answered.
"Then do you like her or something." They continued with the interrogation.
"I'm her bodyguard. I have a contract to keep."
"Oh, well then we'll just stick around until the contract is over. Then we can go home together!" they said excited again.
Ryu remained silent this time. The boys got up along side Karen and Maya.
"Well, we have to go. Ansem is somewhere around here and….."
"He's here!" Yuna and Rikku said alarmed.
Kai nodded. "Yes, now we have to look for him."
"We're coming with you." Yuna said determined.
"Perhaps you are, but I'm not." Leblanc said.
They ignored her. "Are you sure." Kai asked. "This might get really dangerous."
"I think we can handle ourselves." Paine said.
Kai shrugged. "Whatever you say. Then lets get going."
"Right." They all said.
They walked out of Chateau Leblanc and split up. Well that actually took them a bit to sort out. Karen and Maya wanted to go with Ryu, but he was going to go with Rikku since he had to protect her. Kai had to sort it out. Kai, Maya and Yuna went in a group and Yuri, Karen and Paine were another. Since the Gullwings had a comlink and they knew their way around Guadosalam, they decided to use that to communicate with each other. Rikku watched them go. Karen and Maya gave her a glare as they walked off. Rikku smiled weakly at them. She then turned to Ryu.
"I don't think your sisters like me very much."
Ryu began to walk and Rikku followed. "I don't think it's you they don't like. I just think they're jealous because they want to spend time with me."
"Oh, so umm, can I ask you something."
"Sure."
"Are you really going to leave."
Ryu stopped walking and bend down to look at her. "Do you want me to leave?"
Rikku resisted the urge to blush with all her might. "Well, umm, no. I mean I still want to be your friend even after all this is over."
Ryu straightened up. "Friends?"
"Uh, yeah, friends. So are you still gonna leave?"
"I don't know, but I think it's too early to decide. Give me some time to think about it."
'I'd bet you'd want me to leave if you found out what I did…..' he though grimly. He shook the thoughts from his head. Now was not the time.
"Anyway, lets look for this guy."
"Right!" Rikku said and they ventured into Guadosalam.
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Yuna had just finished telling Kai and Maya her plot to help Rikku.
"I see. So your cousin is going to marry some guy she doesn't like because her dad says it'll be good for her and her people?"
"That's right. My uncle is the leader of the Al Bhed and you might say that makes her the princess."
"Makes sense." Kai said.
"So, It'd be great if you guys can help."
"We'd love too. Anyway, even if we beat Ansem we can't leave yet." Maya said.
"Why not?"
"There's this psycho named Sephiroth that's also here. He and my dad have had problems in the past and he's even tried to kill my dad." Maya realized Yuna had stopped walking. She and Kai stopped too and looked at Yuna confused.
"What's wrong?" Kai asked.
"Did you say Sephiroth?"
"Yeah, why?"
"There was a man we ran into who's name was Sephiroth. He almost beheaded Ryu."
"What!" Kai and Maya yelled.
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"Oh, this is not fair."
"What's not fair?" Yuri asked Karen.
"That I didn't get to go with Ryu. What else?"
"Oh, come on Karen. You're gonna get to spend plenty of time with him once we beat Ansem."
Karen sighed. "I guess your right."
"Besides," Paine began, "We need to give those two as much alone time as possible."
"Why?" Yuri asked.
"Yuna and I have been trying to get them together."
"Oh." Yuri said. "But why?"
"Because Rikku is going to get married to someone she doesn't want to be with."
Karen did a double take. "She's going to get married? How old is she?"
"She just turned eighteen."
"Isn't that a little….."
"Young?" Yuri finished for Karen.
Paine shrugged. "I suppose."
"So, do you guys need any help?" Karen asked.
"Yuna probably already asked your other friends, so I suppose it would be nice to have you help out."
"You can count on us!" both of them said.
Paine shook her head at their enthusiasm. Then again, they were going to need all the help in the world to get Ryu to notice Rikku.
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Ryu and Rikku both sneezed. They though it was odd, but shrugged it off. They had been searching for awhile now, but so far they hadn't found anything. Suddenly, Ryu caught something out of the corner of his eye. He grabbed Rikku and pushed her up against a wall. Rikku blushed heavily and pounded his chest.
"What are you doing!" she said embarrassed.
"Shh, I see a Heartless."
At the mention of Heartless Rikku's blush disappeared. "Where is it?"
Ryu backed off and let Rikku peek around the wall. The Heartless looked like it was looking around. Then it sunk into the ground and went into the entrance to the Farplane. Ryu and Rikku stepped out of their hiding place.
"Isn't the Farplane unstable?" Ryu questioned Rikku.
"That's what I though too. You think Ansem is in there?"
"We can't rule out the possibility. Actually it would make a good hide out. No one goes in there because it's unstable, so he can hide out there without having to worry about anyone going in."
"Should we go in?" Rikku questioned him.
"I would prefer you didn't." said a voice behind them.
Ryu and Rikku spun around. A man with long white hair and yellow-orange eyes looked at them. Ryu quickly got in front of Rikku.
"It's nice to finally meet you princess. Now come with me." He said and stretched out his hand.
Ryu scowled at him. "I won't allow you to take her."
The man smiled and withdrew his hand. "Then we'll do this the hard way." Something that looked like a Heartless appeared behind him.
"Radio them." He whispered to Rikku.
She nodded and activated her comlink. "Uh, guys, we found him. We're over by the entrance to the Farplane."
Just as she finished Ansem charged at them. Ryu drew his katan and Rikku drew her daggers. She wasn't going to be a helpless princess that needed rescuing.
AN: Okay I'm gonna stop there.
Rikku: I see your using the evil cliff hanger.
DT: (Scratches head) I couldn't resist.
Rikku: (Shrugs) Your funeral.
DT: Oh I'm sure my readers won't be too mad. Right guys? (Looks around nervously) Guys?
Rikku: Please read and review. I'm sure your reviews will encourage DT to write the next chapter sooner. Later!
