"I was expecting Sora...and not you," Riku commented as he held the unconscious Mitsu in his arms. Yue eyed Marlene's unconscious body next to the silent man behind Riku

"I'm filling in for Sora at the moment, he's busy with your... friends," Yue replied annoyed.

He already knew that he was at a disadvantage, the man behind the white-haired teen was silent but his presence told him enough. He knew that he could handle the teen solo but both he and the unknown man together would be too much.

"You can run back to Sora now and tell him that I'll be back for him," Riku said as he turned his back to the taller man. Yue stepped forward to follow after Riku, instantaneously the man pulsed with energy. Immediately, Yue stopped heeding the warning the man gave.

"Where are you taking her?" Yue questioned. The teen stopped for a moment as if he thought of an answer to his question, but the appearance of a dark portal behind the silent man told him enough. Without a word, Riku stepped into the portal followed by the silent ominous man.

Without hesitation, Yue dashed into the dark portal before it vanished.

"Get back here!" Sora shouted as tendrils of fire surrounded him and darted towards the silver-haired men that seemed to be in retreat. The younger of the three men laughed in delight as he and the other two men easily dodged the magical attack from the teen.

"Perhaps another time, maybe your friend Riku will join us next time," Kadaj laughed as he and the other two men seemingly vanished into the darkness of the forest.

"They know Riku?" Sora scoffed.

"They retreated Into the forest," Yasuto replied with a frown as he discharged a cartridge from his guns.

Despite the adrenaline and rage that rampaged through him, Vincent spoke calmly to the others as he looked in the direction the men had retreated.

"This bodes ill..." Vincent trailed off and suddenly darted off into the forest.

"Where is Mitsu? Yue?" Shige asked as the claws in his gloves retreated into their sheaths. The group looked at each other unsure of where they had ran off.

"Mitsu ran off with Marlene and Yue ran after them," Tifa began. Shige and Yasuto quickly glanced at one another.

"We have to find them," Yasuto began as he started into the forest.

"Wait, I can help pick up their scent" Nanaki began as he lowered his head to the ground in an attempt to pick up their scent.

The soft noises of crickets echoed in the forest, a facade of peace. The air was thick with tension as they waited for Nanaki to pick up their scents.

"I don't like any of this, "Shige muttered. "It's not like Yue to not come back like he normally does,"

"You make it seem like he's a retriever or something," Yasuto commented.

"It's not only that, but I'm more worried about Mitsu, "Shige began. "Yue was telling me that there's something…off about her,"

"What do you mean? Is she ok?" Sora spoke up at the mention of their being something off with the girl.

"Yue told me she had been...more air-headed since we came from Besaid...but he never finished telling me what he thought," Shige replied.

Yasuton nodded in agreement. On Ivalice he noticed something off about the girl too but made no mention of it, but with their sudden inability to sense the pure light of the Princesses of Heart made, the girl's airy liked moments made him reconsider previous thoughts about Mitsu.

"I have located their scent…this way," Nanaki said as he dashed into the forest with the others behind him.

Voices floated around Mitsu as she floated nearly lifelessly in the darkness. Voices that sounded familiar to her, voices unknown to her. Voices. Were they real or just a figment of her imagination, everything seemed to blur together.

You can talk to us…to me if you need to.

Thank you, T—

As she descended to a darkened platform her eyes slowly opened, around her the darkness began to shift, mold into various shapes, images flashed in her mind as if to pair with what the darkness showed her. There was one poignant piece about the images that flashed, molded in her mind, it was the dark-haired woman whose face was never shown in any of the images.

"It's you...I keep dreaming about you and yet...I don't know who you are," Mitsu said to herself.

As the images flashed in Mitsu's mind, there were blurred out faces of people that knew the woman, in a flash, Mitsu turned to look behind her and saw the same ebony-haired several feet behind her, her back was to Mitsu.

"You..." Mitsu started and stopped suddenly as the woman began to turn to face her. As the woman turned to face Mitsu the floor underneath her shattered and dropped her into the darkness.

" Do you know what she is…" A deep voice echoed around Riku. The teen stood confidently as the voice seemed to circle around him.

"Yes...I already know," Riku replied.

"Soon you will have what you seek, boy," The voice replied, Riku nodded and held out his hand, the keyblade that his friend once held appeared in his hand.

"The power of the key blade, the power to protect those you care about, the power of Kingdom Hearts," the voice whispered.

"Power..." Riku trailed off as she looked at his hand.

"A force to be reckoned with, power and strength of the unknown," The voice whispered. Riku frowned as he crossed his arms.

He knew he could have taken Mitsu from Sora when they were at Zanarkand, but he was compelled not to do it. It told him that she wasn't ready, nor was he. Annoyed Riku stared at the cloaked man and the smirk that appeared on his lips. Sin had introduced the cloaked man to him, no name, no big reveal of who he was.

The cloaked man was just someone who gave him what he wanted, what he needed in order to protect Kairi from the darkness and to finally gather enough strength to reunite with Mitsu.

"Do not worry my boy…" the man's deep voice echoed through Riku's ears pulling him from his irritated thoughts.

"Just…do as you are told…and you'll continue to receive power,"

"Power…but is it worth it?" Riku thought to himself.

"You still intend to help them on their fruitless mission," a deep voice asked Riku as he knelt next to the unconscious Mitsu on a small bed.

"Their mission doesn't matter to me anymore," Riku replied.

"It should, it involves her," the voice replied. Riku scoffed as he quickly glanced at the taller figure behind him.

Riku turned his attention back to the unconscious girl for a moment, he knew of what they planned to do and knew he would have to decide on what he would have to do when it came time. He knew what she was, he knew they planned to use her but he would destroy everything if he needed to protect both Kairi and Mitsu.

He had to follow their orders for just a bit longer to get what he wanted and then…

"Do not walk blindly into the darkness because of your false sense of power and pride. She is a keyblade wielder, a Princess of Heart and they will use that against you,"

"What would you do in this situation? Would you let the person you've been searching for, trying to save this entire time slip through your hands?" Riku questioned as he stood and turned to face the taller silver-haired man.

The taller silver-haired man silently stared down at Riku, his green cheshire cat like eyes studied him silently as if he pondered the question before he answered.

"I have achieved what I wanted to do, I know what I need to do and if that means...working with them until I can get Kairi's heart back and protect them both then I'll do it," Riku began. " If I have to open the door to Kingdom Hearts then I will,"

The man remained silent as he watched Riku.

"Sephiroth, What would you do? If you were given the power to protect those that you cared about?" Riku questioned the silver-haired man.

Warmth settled in her limbs and slowly stirred her awake from her tumultuous and distorted dreams. Bit by bit her eyes adjusted to the bright natural sunlight peeked through the parted curtains. Above her, tall and vaulted white ceilings, and a large fine crystal chandelier hung suspended in the middle of the room.

"Where…where am I?" Mitsu mumbled as she sat up. With a hiss she clutched the side of her head in pain. "Ow...my head…?!" Mitsu turned to the two dark figures at the end of the bed.

"W-who are you?" Mitsu asked cautiously.

"Don't be alarmed. We're not here to hurt you," a female voice came from one of the figures. Regardless of the woman's words of neutrality, Mitsu cautiously eyed the figures and readied herself in case she needed to attack or defend herself from them.

"Then who are you?"

"Our names aren't important...yet," A male voice came from the second figure

"We just want to talk to you," the unknown woman began as she looked around the room as if she looked for someone or something.

"Talk...most people would look each other in the eye when speaking to one another," Mitsu commented as she eyed the two.

"This place isn't safe for us," the male simply replied. Mitsu's eyebrow quirked at the mention of the place not being safe

"What do you mean?" Mitsu questioned cautiously as she took looked around the room. It looked to be a simple room, a bed, a fireplace, a small sofa, bookshelves, nothing out of the ordinary. She barely remembered what had happened as to how she came to be in this room.

"If you want to survive here," The female's voice was sharp and firm. Mitsu tensed slightly at the woman's voice but listened attentively.

"Guard your heart carefully. You are a pawn piece for power an obsession and can be perilous for the world of light if not careful," the woman continued. "The one at work is clever and manipulative...be careful not to fall into their hands…"

"Who are you talking about?" Mitsu asked confused, she knew they were a warning but did not know whom she should be guarding against.

"You will know, your heart is your guiding key," the woman replied. Mitsu tensed as a shiver ran through her, she had heard that phrase plenty of times and for some strange reason, it felt as if she had been struck in the chest by the woman's words.

"Be careful on your journey here," The man said as he turned away and vanished into nothing, the woman nodded as followed the man into nothingness. Mitsu remained frozen where she sat, uncertainty, fear, dread-filled her all at once.

So much had happened on that night back on Destiny Island, she and her friends had just begun their summer vacation and planned to explore the seas around Destiny Island just for fun. But all of that was ripped away from them when the storm hit the islands, the creatures called Heartless appeared and attacked them, separated them and transported them to different worlds.

And now, She and Sora were locked in a war of light versus dark, the battle to protect the innocents from being devoured by the darkness.

"I just...want to go home…" Mitsu whimpered softly as she buried her face in her hands in an attempt to stop the tears that welled in the corner of her eyes from falling.

"Kairi...Sora...Riku…" Mitsu murmured as she wiped away tears.

All of the stress, confusion, dread, and fear began to consume her as she sat frozen. A hand gently began to stroke her head in an attempt to soothe her tears. She immediately looked up to see Riku with signs of worry etched in his boyish features.

"R-Riku?" Mitsu gurgled between her tears, he nodded. Immediately, Mitsu threw her arms around the teen's neck and began to cry harder. Riku wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace and allowed her to cry as much as she needed.

After a few moments, she calmed down enough to catch her breath and to speak.

"It's weird to see you cry…" Riku commented with a chuckle, she gave a weak laugh as she looked away from him.

"It...happens sometimes," She replied quietly.

"I also didn't expect to come in to see you crying, you had been out for a while," Riku began.

"A lot has happened since...Destiny Island," Mitsu sighed as she looked at the white-haired teen. Riku nodded in a silent agreement, they had gone through their own individual struggles that led to this moment, the moment that Riku worked so hard to achieve.

The two teens sat in silence, he looked at her, studied her unbeknownst to the knowledge he knew about her. She wasn't a part of their plan in the beginning but now that she was here with him they wanted to use her as a contingency plan.

"W-why are you, ow-!" Mitsu began, immediately Riku reacted to her pain.

"What is it?" Riku touched her thigh.

"M-My ankle...I think I sprained it," Mitsu replied as her cheeks turned a bright red. Riku swiftly knelt in front of her as he took her ankle into this gloved hand and cast a healing spell. The familiar warmth surrounded her ankle as the pain she had moments ago vanished.

"You have to be more careful, and graceful Mitsu," Riku quipped. "That should do the trick..."

"Thank you..." Mitsu murmured as she looked down at the teen, as she looked at him she could feel her chest tighten, a dull pain in her heart. Again, dread threatened to consume her and drag her back into the darkness as she looked at the teen.

There was something wrong.

"Where are the others?" Mitsu managed to ask before her voice seemed to fail her.

"You don't have to worry about them," Riku replied.

"Riku…" Mitsu began. An apprehensive silence fell between the two, the silence was suffocating as she waited for him to say anything, something to let her know that what she felt was fake.

"I promised I would come back for you…and that's what I did…" Riku trailed off as he continued to kneel in front of her. His gaze was soft as he looked up at her.

"They...shouldn't matter as long as you're with me,"

Another wave of anxiousness and dread washed through her further solidifying how she felt about everything.

"I even have Kairi and have been protecting her from the darkness. And I've been finding ways of getting her heart back," Riku began. "If I can protect Kairi for as long as I have, I can protect you too, Mitsu," Riku extended an arm to gently caress her cheek.

"Riku..." Mitsu began as her heart throbbed. "What happened to you-!"

Still, on his knees Riku gently cupped her face, shocked by the sudden gesture Mitsu looked at the white-haired teen confused. Her heart beat faster and faster as she looked into his eyes when suddenly he kissed her. Back on Destiny Island this would have been a dream come true but it felt as if the Riku in front of her was not the Riku she knew on Destiny Island. He felt unknown to her, she didn't want it to be this way. She didn't want her first kiss to be laced with the unknown, her kiss to be with this Riku.

You will know. Your heart is your guiding key.

"As long as you are with me I don't care…" Riku murmured softly as he hesitantly stood and back away from the girl.

"Riku…" Mitsu began when a soft knock on the door echoed through the room.

"Promise me that you'll stay in this room, it's not safe outside," Riku said as he began to step back towards the door. Mitsu nodded silently as she watched the teen disappear out of the room.

"What just happened?" Mitsu exhaled. "What is going on?"

Riku exhaled the breath he didn't know he held as he stood in front of the door. His attention now solely focused on the person who had disturbed him.

"Kuja. What is it?" Riku asked and moved away from the door. With a small smirk on his thin lips Kuja glanced over the teen and crossed his arms.

"Intimate pleasantries with the Princess is not recommended, my friend," Kuja suggested casually, Riku scoffed at the man's suggestion.

"She has always been my friend and what I do is none of your business," Riku replied firmly.

"Right…do as you please just be ready for the consequences," Kuja replied bored. "However, the Princesses of Gaia is prime for the picking, will you assist or will I have to do this myself?"

"You found them?" Riku asked.

"I am a man of my word...," Kuja replied and rolled his eyes as he began down the hall. Riku took a step forward and turned to look back at the door, with a heavy sigh he followed after Kuja.

Sora ploddingly walked between Shige and Yasuto through the hallways of the Alexandria Castle on a world referred to as Gaia. While on Midgar they were unable to find Mitsu and Yue but was able to find Marlene unscathed. The girl was able to tell them what had happened before she fainted but couldn't offer more information as to where the two had vanished to.

Shige and Yasuto knew that the disappearance of Mitsu had a large impact on Sora, he no longer spoke as much as he used to, he still kept his enthusiasm during battles but after he returned to his new melancholic state. After they had helped, Tifa and Vincent meet up with their other comrades and rid the city of Migar of the heartless they located the keyhole to the world in the dilapidated Shin-RA building or what was left and safe to traverse. It was a symbol of the nearly cataphoric event that nearly destroyed the earth.

As much as Sora wanted to stay in Midgar to search for his friend, they knew they couldn't and needed to continue on with their duties of sealing the worlds off as they once were. The two older men occasionally glanced at each other in silent conversation and motioned to the young teen. They had some semblance of how the boy felt and was surprised at how well he managed to handle everything that they threw at him.

Up until her disappearance.

"We'll find them. Don't worry Sora," Shige said as he ruffled Sora's hair. Sora glared at the man and pushed his hand away as he silently continued down the hall.

"For once Shige is right Sora. We're going to find Riku also," Yasuto added. "Those three silver-haired men mentioned Riku so we know that he's alive and hopefully safe,"

There was no reaction from Sora as they continued, Shige and Yasuto glanced at each other again, Shige shrugged while Yasuto sighed quietly.

The two men had some information on this world as well as the last one, they were in search of the Queen of Alexandria to begin their search for the keyhole to this world and if she would know of any information regarding Sora's lost friends. Although, when they arrived at the castle, it seemed to be empty.

"Waaaaaah!"

A squeaky scream and footsteps echoed in the halls, immediately the trio was on alert for anything and prepared themselves for what was headed their way.

"Is it coming towards us?" Sora asked as he looked forward and behind him.

"Front," Shige replied as he saw two figures that ran towards them.

"It's a girl and a…moogle," Yasuto said. The group lowered their weapons as the girl and the Moogle ran behind Sora.

"W-Wha? What's a Moogle-" Sora started

"Heartless!" The girl yelled.

The trio quickly turned their attention to where the girl had run from and in the shadows, they saw a new form of heartless as it slinked towards them.

"tch…" Yasuto clicked his tongue as he watched the heartless bounce closer to them.

"Shige-" Yasuto started and noticed that Shige already had his gloves on.

"Yeah Yeah…" Shige sighed as he prepared to charge the bulbous heartless. Yasuto began emitting a lavender-colored aura and suddenly the heartless stopped in midair. Shige quickly slid behind the heartless. Within moments the two men had dealt with the heartless that seemingly chased after the girl.

"They got rid of them-Ow you can stop poking me!" Sora yelped as he felt a sharp poke in his lower back. Despite the heartless being dealt with the girl continued to hide behind Sora.

"I'm not poking you!" the girl replied as she peeked from behind Sora. The girl looked more like a child to Sora and he gave the girl a disgruntled look and quickly noticed the small horn on the girl's forehead.

"Huh?" Sora started as he looked at her horn and tilted his head in confusion.

"Staring is rude, you know," the girl frowned at Sora. Shige looked around the immediate area for more heartless and found none. Yasuto turned his attention to Sora and the girl, purple hair, green eyes and his attention focused on the girl and her horn.

"That horn…are…you a summoner?" Yasuto questioned.

"A summoner?" Sora asked.

"Well…we are in Gaia…Summoners are all over Gaia," Yasuto replied. The purple haired girl looked up at Yasuto and crossed her arms.

"You are right, I am a summoner and my name is Eiko," Eiko began. "I am one the last remaining Summoners of Madain Sari...well not anymore there's the Dagger-er Garnet, "

"The last one?" Yasuto thought to himself. "Dagger? What happened to the Queen?"

"Well her name isn't Dagger, it's a hard habit to break Garnet is the Queen now, and I was being chased because the heartless thanks for asking," the Eiko began sarcastically.

"We dealt with those lot for you" Shige replied.

"There's heartless in the castle?" Sora asked.

"Yeah! They just suddenly started pouring outta nowhere and into the city!" Eiko began to explain the situation to the Trio.

"Where is Queen Garnet now?" Yasuto questioned.

"I don't know, she told me to run as the heartless started to pour into the castle but Zidane…" Eiko trailed off when suddenly the castle shook from what sounded to be an explosion.

"Garnet!" Eiko shouted and ran back down the hall she retreated from. Sora dashed after her leaving Shige and Yasuto behind. Shige glanced at Yasuto, and Yasuto grimaced.

"You couldn't tell could you?" Shige asked as he started down the hall.

"…No, I couldn't," Yasuto replied as he frowned and followed Shige.

"Me either," Shige replied.

Riku slowly opened the door to the dungeon and approached the man chained and slouched against the dungeon wall. The man slowly lifted his head to Riku and smirked.

"Yue...was it?" Riku began

"What do you want?" Yue spat.

"I suppose I should thank you for protecting Mitsu…" Riku began. Yue scoffed that the teen's gratitude. Riku stood silently in front of him and studied the now ragged man, he knew that the man had indeed been by Mitsu and Sora's side since he managed to locate the two in Traverse Town so long ago.

But there was something else that lured Riku to the dungeons of the castle and to Yue. It was faint but there was something inside of him that responded to the ragged man. It seemed to burn in his chest, into his veins and mind and forced Riku to clutch his chest as he stumbled back.

"W-What...is this-!" Riku gasped as he collapsed to his hands and knees.

"You're already too far gone," Yue commented as he watched the teen who nearly writhed on the floor stand with the dark aura he had sense around Mitsu back in Spira.

"You've already been consumed by the darkness...what will Mitsu think when she finds out," Yue scoffed at the teen's show of the dark power that coursed through him.

"I can control my power of the darkness," Riku replied with a slight hesitation in his voice.

"That's what he wants you to think," Yue muttered. The same darkness was familiar to Yue, it was nearly the same darkness that nearly consumed him years ago.

He knew this darkness.

"You supposedly call yourself Ansem now...what a joke," Yue trailed off.

The image of the white-haired teen vanished as he looked towards him, the teen had been replaced by a taller cloaked man. The man began to chuckle as he lowered the hood of the cloak, Yue frowned at those familiar amber eyes stared down at Yue, burned into him and mind.

"You mock me, Yue, in your condition?" Ansem questioned, a smirk plastered on his face, Yue scoffed.

"You tricked another one into your schemes for Kingdom Hearts...it won't work," Yue started.

"There were no tricks, he wanted power so I gave it to him. Nothing more, nothing less, Ansem replied.

"Liar," Yue yelled. The man referred to as Ansem knelt in front of Yue and smirked.

"What does a fallen knight know? You've failed your one task and your Princess teeters on the precipice of darkness," Ansem's amber stare bore into Yue as he waited for the younger man to respond.

Silence.

"Your silence is telling, Yue," Ansem said jeered as his image began to fade. Seconds later, Riku stood in front of him breathless and heavily fatigued.

"He's taking a toll on your heart," Yue stated bitterly. He knew that he should have been more sympathetic to the teen in an attempt to reason with him, to convince him not to go further into the darkness like he foolishly did years ago. Yue knew that Riku had dove too far but he knew that there was still a shred of light left in the boy. Even if Ansem had Riku's heart in the palm of his hand.

Without a word, Riku staggered from the dungeon. In his condition he knew that he would be useless in any situation, their only hope would be for Sora and the others to arrive. He had no idea where Mitsu was or what state she was in since she had been taken by Riku.

Yue cursed to himself as he tried to pull at the chains that bound him to where he sat. While on Midgar he could sense the darkness around Mitsu had grown like a parasite that fed off her unsaid emotions until it would consume her.

All of his hopes were with Sora.