Chapter 10: Trickery

Riku received news of Leon's new headquarters from the nice Moogle had been kind to him before. Headquarters was now located in a small house in the Third District. Riku figured he should talk to Leon, and maybe ask if Leon could find a place for Namine to stay. He didn't want to drag her around while he continued searching.

"Hey kid," Cid said when they walked in. "You look like something's eating at you. What's up?"

Riku paused, unsure of how to explain what just happened. "Well, I just ran into my friend Sora, and we kind of got into a fight-"

"So that was you!" Cid laughed.

Riku looked up in shock. "You heard?"

"Kid, are you kidding? The whole TOWN heard! You two were shouting pretty loud."

"Oh," Riku muttered, not quite sure if he should be embarrassed or not.

"What were you two yelling about?" Yuffie asked.

Riku scowled, not too happy about that subject. "Sora's got it in his head that I don't care anymore. He got all mad that I didn't find Kairi, and started shouting. I don't get what his problem is…" he trailed off, not daring to say anymore to keep his anger in check.

"Riku, please do try not to get mad at him" Namine said quietly.

Everyone looked up in shock, as if they had only noticed that Namine was standing behind Riku. They probably had only noticed, considering Namine was good about going unnoticed. She waved shyly, obviously a bit nervous that everyone was staring at her. Leon, Yuffie and Cid seemed quite shocked. Aerith, though, smiled and said:

"I'm so happy you found one of your friends!"

"Oh, yeah," Riku said, sounding a lot calmer. "This is Namine. Namine, this is; Leon, Cid, Yuffie, and Aerith." He pointed at each in turn, and they each waved in response.

"Hi" Namine said, smiling.

"Do you still have other friends to find?" Leon asked.

Riku nodded once. "Yeah."

"Anything we can do to help?"

"Actually, yeah," Riku said, turning to look at Leon. "I was wondering if, maybe, you guys could look after Namine while I went and figured out where Sora ran off to. And I should probably look for Kairi, to make him stop yelling at me." Then, as an afterthought he muttered under his breath: "that'll at least solve one of our problems."

Not to his surprise, it was Yuffie who responded: "Yeah, we could definitely do that!"

"Thanks guys, you don't realize how much this means to me," Riku said

"Yeah yeah," Cid grumbled. "Save your 'thank you's for later. In the meantime, have you ever heard of Maleficent? I hear she's in town."

Namine politely shook her head no. Riku, however, paused. This was the second time being confronted with a question such as this, and for the second time, something in the dark depths of Riku's mind jumped at mention of the name. But again, he knew not what it was or where it came from. So, he asked: "Who's she?"

"She's a witch, man" Cid shouted. "A witch!"

"She's the reason this town is full of heartless," Leon further explained. "Don't take her lightly."

"I won't," Riku laughed.

"She's been using the heartless for years," Aerith sighed.

"We lost our world, thanks to her," Yuffie mumbled, not at all happy. "A swarm of heartless just showed up one day and took over our whole world!"

"That's awful…" Namine whispered.

"When was this?" Riku asked

"Three years ago," Leon replied roughly.

"Yeah, I helped these guys out of that mess, and we ended up here" Cid explained.

Namine and Riku exchanged glances, unsure of what to say. It seemed there was nothing too say. They room faded into silence.

xxx

"How did it go?" Maleficent asked as he approached.

"Terrible," Sora muttered. "He doesn't care anymore."

A smile played on Maleficent's lips. "See, it's just as I told you. He obviously cares more about her than he does about you. You're better off without him."

"I know" Sora muttered. "I can stay with you, right?"

"Of course" Maleficent said, all-too-sweetly. "I can help you find what you're searching for…"

xxx

Riku was about ready to head off. Namine was standing there watching him go.

"Hey," she called, as he was halfway through the dark corridor. He paused, stepping out of it, as he did not want to have a conversation while standing halfway between two worlds.

"Yeah?" he asked

She paused, not sure if she wanted to ask the question now. "So, what you said back there, you don't want me to come with you? Any reason why?"

He started to say something, and then stopped. After thinking for a second he said: "It's not that I don't want you to. It's just-"

"I'd kinda get in your way," Namine finished for him.

Riku looked at her, unsure if she had just finished his sentence how he wanted it. But, she had. "Yeah," he agreed. "That, and it's probably dangerous."

"I get it," she laughed. He smiled.

"Bye," he said, stepping through the dark corridor.

"Good luck," she called. She watched as the corridor faded away, and looked down at her open sketchbook. The picture she had just drawn was of Riku and Sora locked in combat. She frowned at the picture, and added under her breath. "You'll need it."