Man, writing Monstro was a bit of a pain in my rear. I have to wonder how anyone had the patience to play through that level. But then again, the next one up is Atlantica... Hoo, boy, that one's gonna be a really fun ride...

Y'know, there's something that didn't cross my mind up till now: if Luna and Medea had voice actresses, who could they be? By all means, let me what you think.

That being said, hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

I own nothing of Kingdom Hearts except my OCs.

Read, leave me a review, but no flames allowed.

Chapter 11: Monstro

Later on, during their traversing through the roads, Luna got a surprise when Sora knocked on the door and opened it carefully (probably to make sure he wasn't bothering her). She could immediately tell that something was on his mind, and that it was a personal matter.

"Hey, Luna? Could I talk to you a moment?" he asked nervously.

"Of course you can, Sora. What's on your mind?" Luna asked, patting the bed for him to sit down.

As soon as Sora sat next to her, he asked his question straight away. "Luna…Do you miss Kairi a lot?"

She couldn't help nodding sadly. "I do miss her, Sora. She was a good sister to me." She paused a second. "But I miss Hiroshi and Yoko, too. It's so hard to cope with…It's almost like…"

Luna couldn't say anything else because she realized that she was making mention of the tragedies of the past all those years ago. It hurt too much just thinking about it, even more so since she wasn't too eager to discuss about it to her close friends.

"I just have to wonder where Kairi could possibly be. We've searched in several worlds, and we still found nothing," Sora admitted, his disappointment strongly evident.

Luna was silent for a moment, but then said something she never thought she would. "Well…a person I once called 'grandpa' once told me that even if someone is not directly with me, they are still with me in my heart. It felt so long ago…"

"That sounds like quite a wise grandfather you had," Sora commented.

"I don't know why I said that…Maybe I know the feeling of something important missing with ourselves," Luna mused. Then, she shook her head. "Don't worry, Sora. Wherever Kairi is, I'm sure she's okay. I'm sure she wants to be back with us, too, and is looking for a way. Until we know where she is, we need to pull through together…and find both our friends again."

Sora couldn't help smiling brightly at that. "You're right, Luna. We're just gonna have to stick together until we find them, and when we do, we'll find a way home together!"

Luna couldn't help giggling at the sudden joviality of her goofball of a friend, almost reminding her of the girl she used to be in the past.

"In any case, perhaps we should take some time to get our minds out of the sadness and do something useful," she said as she got up, "I think it's my turn in the kitchen. I wonder what I should make…"

"You want me to help?" Sora asked.

"No…I'll be fine," Luna declined politely.

On their way to the next world, the party got a surprise when they discovered they had a fax message sent to them from Traverse Town; it was pretty clear that Cid must've set that up while he was modifying the gummi ship for them.

It was wonderful that they had a way to keep touch with their friends in Traverse Town, especially when the message they were given asked if any of Ansem's lost reports had been found during their travels. Donald took liberties of sending what reports had been picked up in their previous visit, but not without sending an angry not that questioned why they weren't told about it in the meantime.

Luna arrived at the cockpit with their lunch when she heard about this, and even Medea emerged from her master's shadow when she got curious about what the fuss was all about.

"So, the kooky mechanic set up some means of chatting from afar, huh?" Medea questioned, "That'd make getting info a hell of a lot easier, if you ask me."

"It would help us get any updates on what we need to know," Luna couldn't help agreeing.

"He could've told us before we left," Donald grumbled as he started eating.

But then, when nobody expected it, everyone heard a low bellow as though it belonged to an enormous sea creature; it startled everyone the instant they heard it. Upon looking out the cockpit window, though, they were shocked to find that – straight ahead of them – just ahead of them was a whale of gigantic proportions heading towards their direction!

"What is that?" Donald was dumbfounded.

"Wow, it's huge!" Sora exclaimed in shock.

"What the hell's that thing doing out here?!" Medea cried out.

"It's a giant whale!" Goofy exclaimed.

Suddenly, a small cricket came hopping up onto the control board to see what was up. Luna turned to see that the well-dressed bug was quite shocked at the find as well as them, but with more terror than fascination.

"It's Monstro! He's a whale of a whale, and vicious besides!" the cricket panicked.

Donald was horrified at this. "Are you serious, Jiminy?! We've gotta get away from here!"

In an instant, Donald took control of the wheel and made every effort to turn the ship away from the whale. But try as he did, the whale came closer and closer, and before long opened its mouth as though to catch them into his enormous maw.

"Hurry the hell up and get us outta here, duck!" Medea shouted.

"I can't! It's gonna swallow us!" Donald panicked.

"That thing is coming closer!" Luna cried out in fear.

For a few moments, it was nothing but panic and chaos as the gummi ship was sucked in by the powerful force of the whale Monstro; by the time the ship had been completely swallowed up, everything went completely black for the party…

When Luna regained consciousness, she found herself on a squishy surface which she was pretty sure had something to do with the insides of an animal. That was when she remembered that Monstro had swallowed them up and now they are trapped inside the whale itself! How mortifying that had to be to deal with such a change of environment; the smell of the place didn't really help things in the slightest.

"You okay, Luna?"

Luna looked up to see Sora kneeling down to her, reaching out as though to help her get back up.

"I'm okay. Are we really in…" Luna was about to ask.

"Knock it off!" she heard Donald shouting.

"Your yelling's not gonna make whoever's up there stop what they're doing," she heard Medea criticizing.

Luna turned around to find that Donald and Goofy were watching the ledge above them, and Goofy had his shield up to brace for anything that might come down. Medea was not far from them, tapping her fingers impatiently as she waited for them to do something other than stand there and taking the punishment form above.

Goofy noticed the rest of them are awake and turned to Sora and Luna. "Sora, Luna, are you both okay?"

"What are you guys doing?" Sora asked them. "Where are we, anyway?"

"Oh, lemme see…We're practically inside a giant ass whale's body, it smells like dead fish and who the hell knows what else," Medea replied sarcastically, "and someone's been throwing crap at us without giving a real good reason and without showing who the hell he or she is that's doing it! Need I go on?"

"Yup, and for today's weather: expect showers," Goofy added. Suddenly, another item came down and banged on his shield. "Heavy showers!"

"Hey! Who's there?" Donald shouted.

Then, a small boy popped his head out from the ledge, allowing them to see who the new face is in person. But unlike the average child, it was apparent that there was something out of the ordinary with him: his body had wooden joints; he was also dressed in a little boy's old-fashioned villager's clothes that would also fit a normal child.

"It's me," the boy replied.

"Oh, it's just Pinocchio," Donald said. But then he had a double take. "Pinocchio!?"

Jiminy jumped onto Sora's shoulder when he heard this. "Pinocchio? Pinnoch, where are you going? Pinocch!"

Luna turned to the others in confusion. "Who is Pinocchio? Did you know him somewhere?"

"Yeah, we saw him at one of the shops when we were getting materials," Sora told her, "Jiminy knew him, apparently, and they were together before. Plus, Jiminy mentioned something about being his conscience."

"Come on, everyone after him! Quick!" Jiminy urged.

Luna looked over toward what seems to be water. "Are we going to have to swim in that? It doesn't look clean…"

"If we're gonna reach him, we'll have to," Sora answered, about to jump right in.

"Hell, no! I'm not going in that stuff," Medea objected, "If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna fly over it."

"You're just a chicken, Medea," Donald criticized her.

"Says the duck who nearly fried his ass because of a Heartless," Medea shot back.

"If it's all the same, I think I'll use my own way of moving around," Luna agreed with her guardian.

True to her word, Luna conjured a Shadow Hand big enough to hold her whilst carrying her across the odorous water just as Medea sprouted her wings again and began to fly over the rest of the group; Sora and the rest of the party simply swam through until they reached a small ship where they could Pinocchio with an elder man and apparently talking about the big green block the boy was carrying over.

"What have you got there, Pinocchio?" the elder man was asking.

"With this, we can get out of here, Father," Pinocchio replied excitedly.

The old man inspected the block diligently, trying to figure out what it could do. "Really? With this big block? You think so?"

At this point, the party was able to get on board the broken ship and meet up with the new people stranded in the whale with them.

"It's true. So, how did you end up here, Pinocchio?" Sora questioned.

Luna simply took in the presence of the new person, and suspected that the elder with them was the puppet boy's father. It was rather uncanny to her since he's human and his appearance gives off a humble common man's position, but she could tell that despite his age, he was a very gentle and caring soul; in a way, this reminded her of Eraqus when she knew him as a child (though, she didn't see him as a parental figure like her old friends did).

"Oh, my. So the whale swallowed all of you, too?" the good elder asked in concern, "My goodness…"

"It was terrible…We didn't get the chance to escape that enormous animal," Luna admitted shamefully.

"So, you're the one Pinocchio was talking to?" Medea asked, trying not to be rude.

"Yes. My name is Geppetto. I'm Pinocchio's father," Geppetto introduced himself. "When we got separated, I traveled all over, looking for him. Thank goodness we're together again." He turned his attention to the block and proceeded to carry it elsewhere. "So, you seem to know Pinocchio quite well. I hope he was a good boy in my absence."

"I'm sure it must be difficult being separated from loved ones," Luna confessed, "Who knows what would've happened if someone gets separated from people they love for too long?"

"Yeah, I'm with Luna on that," Sora agreed.

Geppetto set the block on the bed before he continued to talk. "Well, we've had quite a journey. Right, Pinocchio? Pinocchio?"

But then, that was when everyone quickly realized that something was amiss: Pinocchio was not on the ship with them! That meant that he had gone off on his own, and without telling them anything.

"How the hell was he able to slip off like that? Shouldn't he know better than to wander in a weird place like this?" Medea questioned, confounded at what happened.

"I've warned him not to wander off from here," Geppetto said with worry in his voice, "He can be a naughty boy. Even so, he's very precious to me."

"We'll go look for him, Geppetto. When we find him, we'll bring him back here," Sora promised.

"I hope he hasn't gotten hurt or something," Luna agreed with worry.

"The cricket oughta stay here, though. The place might have some hazards in it of itself," Medea pointed out.

At least Jiminy wasn't going to argue about that. "Well, then, I'll stay here until he comes back. But if he goes off again, I'll have to come along to make sure he hasn't been too naughty."

"Fair enough," Sora agreed.

At full haste, the party hurried down the ship and into the deeper section of Monstro's insides; by the time they got into spongy place, they could see Pinocchio hanging around near another tunnel leading deeper into the whale's insides.

"There you are!" Donald exclaimed in relief.

"What are you doing? Come on, let's go back," Sora asked him, trying to get his attention.

"You know, Geppetto's awfully worried about you," Goofy added.

But Pinocchio didn't seem to be listening to them, so Luna approached him and tried to gently lead him over to her.

"It's okay, Pinocchio. We just don't want you to get hurt," Luna promised him gently.

Even though she extended her hand out, Pinocchio didn't take it. This didn't sit too well with Sora, who was running out of patience.

"Pinocchio, stop fooling around!" Sora scolded, "This is no time for games!"

Medea groaned at this. "Jeez, children these days… And Luna was a handful enough when she was small."

Sora and the others started to turn and walk away in defeat, but Luna somehow stayed behind to try and convince the child to come along with them. Perhaps if she could just try and reason with him one more time, he might be willing to listen to her and come with her…

"Pinocchio, why wouldn't you come back with us?" Luna asked him, "We just don't want any harm to come to you."

Just then, Pinocchio looked up at her as though he wanted something from her. "Will you play with us, Luna?"

Luna was startled and confused at this. "Us…?"

"Don't worry. I'm sure she'll play with us." A hand set on her shoulder, causing Luna to turn and find Riku next to her. "But, Sora, I thought you liked games. Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the keyblade?"

The instant Sora heard this; he turned around and was shocked to find him with Luna and Pinocchio. Medea, on the other hand, was not too thrilled that someone was too close to Luna for comfort and readied her hands in case a fight would occur.

"Riku! W-What are you doing here?" Sora asked, dumbfounded.

"Just playing with Pinocchio and Luna," Riku answered casually.

"You know what I mean! Where's Kairi? Did you find her?" Sora pressed for answers.

Riku shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe. Catch us, and maybe I'll tell you what I know."

"Come on!" Sora yelled.

However, Riku turned and began to lead Luna away. "Let's go, Luna."

Before anyone could do anything to stop them, Luna felt herself being pulled along by Riku as she and Pinocchio were being led further into the chambers until a certain point when he let the boy go off on his own, leaving the two of them alone. Then, Riku turned to Luna to speak with her personally.

"Luna, I was able to find Kairi, but not in the state we had hoped she would be in," Riku told her.

"What do you mean? What happened to her?" Luna asked, dreading where this was going.

"She's lost her heart, Luna. Kairi's an empty shell without it," he explained to her, "But it has to be somewhere, or else she would've been long gone. Maybe with your help, we might be able to find it and return it to her."

Luna was completely stunned at this information. She had always worried about Kairi's well-being and safety, but she couldn't believe that she had lost her heart. But what really puzzled her was how he learned about this, and for that matter, who would've discovered Kairi in the first place. Did someone tip him off about where she disappeared to, or was she kept someplace until she was revealed to Riku?

However, it was the notion that he actually wanted her to help that made her uneasy. She couldn't shake off the feeling that something's out of place in his ideas.

"Riku, I wish I could help you, but I don't like where this is going," Luna admitted, "Ever since we met in Agrabah, you didn't sound the same. You sounded…jealous of Sora, angry even. What is going on? Are you thinking I was dragged along against my will?"

Riku frowned in annoyance on the matter with Sora. "You still don't get it, do you? Haven't you noticed how Sora has been pulling you along, and goofing around while playing the hero? The only reason you haven't been making progress as you were hoping to do is because he's holding you back." He held her hands a little tighter, as though he was still vying to change her mind. "Don't you want to help Kairi, the person you called 'sister', Luna? Don't you want to be with her again?"

"I really want to, Riku. But you're hiding something from me. There's something you're not telling me," Luna tried to reason with him, "Something has made you act differently, and I don't know what. It's scaring me, and I'm sure it's making Sora scared for you."

Riku sighed, shaking his head. "You still don't get it, do you? Fine, then. I'll have to show you what Sora's doing with you anyway."

With that, Luna felt herself being led along deeper into the whale's organs until they neared the bowels, when a dark portal formed and a familiar face brought out Luna's anger.

"Why do you still care about that boy?" Maleficent asked. "He has all but deserted you for the keyblade and his new companions, as well as needlessly dragging your other friend everywhere, after all."

"I don't care about him. I'm just messing with him a little," Riku answered coldly, "and showing Luna how pointless traveling with Sora is."

The poor girl was disturbed at this. If Riku was acting this way, she shouldn't even be near him.

"Oh, really? Of course, you were," Maleficent said, a knowing look on her face. "Beware the darkness in your heart. The Heartless prey upon it."

"Mind your own business!" Riku snapped as the witch disappeared through a dark portal.

"I don't like what she was saying, but it's the truth, Riku. I've seen it happen with that sorcerer back in Agrabah, and what resulted was terrible," Luna tried to reason with him again, "And that's not even the worst of it: I've seen what happened to people in the past when the darkness gets involved, and…well…what happens is horrible."

"Don't worry, Luna. That won't happen to me," Riku assured her, but she wasn't buying it.

Considering what she was seeing thus far, Luna soon detected a dark aura surrounding Riku, and it was quickly unnerving her. It reminded her of the dark parts of her past, specifically what she had seen with her brother and with a friend of hers who acted like her second brother; it reminded her of the horrors of an evil force corrupting an innocent person under the worst of circumstances, even more so with what she last remembered about Terra. It's no wonder her dream warned her about the past so that she wouldn't experience a repeat, but how is she going to be able to save Riku from the same fate as her elder brother?

She didn't get any ideas going when she heard Pinocchio running by, and was surprised that he ran right past them with Sora, Medea and their animal friends following just enough to find the two again.

"About damn time we found ya, Luna!" Medea said, ready to grab her if things go south.

"Sora! Medea!" Luna tried to reach for her companions, but Riku prevented her from doing so.

"Riku! What's the matter with you? What are you thinking?" Sora demanded to know. "Don't you realize what you're doing?"

"I might ask you the same thing, Sora. You only seem interested in running around and showing off that keyblade these days," Riku responded, the cold tone returning. "Do you even want to save Kairi? Do you even want Luna to be with her again?"

"I do," Sora replied honestly, but it didn't seem like Riku was taking it for an answer.

Suddenly, everyone heard Pinocchio's panicked cry from behind them. That meant only one thing: something awful has happened, and it's the boy who's in danger!

"Oh, no! Pinocchio!" Luna cried out as she hurried inside the bowels.

Sora, upon seeing Luna run in, immediately booked it to help her out with Medea, Donald and Goofy coming in right behind them and Riku hurrying ahead of the group. To most of their shock, it could be seen that Pinocchio had gotten himself trapped inside a giant Heartless with its teeth encasing him like a cage and two large tentacles wavering around it.

"So, we've got a parasitic cage monster, eh?" Medea said as she formed her claws. "Sounds like a good challenge."

"You ready for this?" Riku asked.

Sora readied his keyblade. "No problem. Let's do it!"

"Hold on, Pinocchio! We'll get you out of this, just hang on, okay?" Luna called out, hoping to reassure the boy.

"Get me out of here!" Pinocchio called from the cage.

The Parasite Cage proved to be quite the challenge for the party as they struggled to fight off the monstrosity in order to save Pinocchio from any worse problem that could occur. Due to its large tentacles moving all over the place, it was almost easy for it to smack some of them around into the walls around the chamber. However, thanks to Donald's magic, it was possible to take the attack to its small head in conjunction with Medea's mobile attacks and Goofy's defensive attacks while Sora and Riku moved in to attack the tentacles long enough to go after the hulking body. On Luna's part, though, she had other plans for harassing the monster. Not liking the idea of the poor boy being trapped in there (and quite possibly getting hurt in there), she used her Shadow Hands to block away the tentacles while she worked out an alternative way to force her way through.

While the rest of the group was too busy trying to stop being smacked around, Luna summoned two Shadow Hands near the mouth and used the might of the two conjurations to force its mouth open long enough to get in after Pinocchio.

"Are you alright, Pinocchio?" Luna asked in concern as she climbed in, "It's okay now, I'll get you out."

Unbeknownst to her, though, one of the tentacles was about to try and force Luna away; however, Pinocchio noticed it.

"Look out!" he cried.

The instant she noticed it, she adjusted one of the Shadow Hands to turn and block the attack, but not without trapping herself inside the beast in the process! This got everyone else in a panic, knowing that Luna was stuck in there.

"Luna, hang on! We'll get you both out of there!" Sora called out, rushing to help her.

"Luna! What the hell were you thinking?!" Medea criticized her.

Now that left her with a serious predicament at this point. She's trapped inside the monster with Pinocchio with no means to force the Heartless to open its mouth again without cramping the already small space. But just when it seemed like she'll need her friends to get her out along with the puppet-child, a little thought formed within Luna's mind, and it quickly strung together into an unthinkable plan she never thought she'd do in her life…

"Pinocchio, I need you to hold on to me, okay?" she asked him.

Although he didn't know what she was doing, Pinocchio held onto her anyway for protection. As soon as she had the chance, she waved her hands with intent on conjuring her Hands to do their job.

From outside, everyone noticed that two giant Shadow Hands emerged and grabbed onto the tentacles tightly as though intent on detaining it without any further resistance. This made everyone wonder what she was doing inside the monster's mouth at this point… But then, when it was least expected, Luna unleashed the very thing she had crazily planned (though she knew that Medea might call her out for it later on).

"Thunder!"

All of a sudden, charges of electricity surged through the Shadow Hands and sent an electrical burst through the Parasite Cage, causing it to convulse in extreme pain.

Unfortunately, because of the substantial electrical affliction it was given, the Parasite Cage instinctively spat out the both of them into a hole that formed in the middle of the room as though neither of them tasted very good at all. The cries of both of them as they fell stirred panic with Sora and Medea.

"Pinocchio! Luna!" Sora cried out.

"Dammit, not again!" Medea cursed angrily.

But Riku jumped right into the hole, chasing after them without an explanation as to what he was doing, forcing the rest of them to follow.

As for Luna, she and Pinocchio landed on the ship Geppetto was on, but she got the worst of it when she crashed against the wood; the boy simply tumbled out of her hands a little ways. This not only caught the attention of the boy's father, but it also made the boy worried about her as she struggled to get up after the rough landing she suffered.

"Luna! Luna, are you okay?" Pinocchio asked in worry.

She shook her head in pain. "Not really…it hurts…"

"Oh, dear, this is very serious!" Geppetto said with concern as he started to come over to look.

But any chances to help her were interrupted when Riku landed on the boat and knocked Pinocchio unconscious. This shocked Luna when she saw this, but before she could question what Riku was doing, the pain through her body made her cringe and forced her remain still on the floor. Before she knew it, she felt herself being picked up and carefully slung over Riku's shoulder while he was carrying the boy in his other arm. By the time she registered that she was being carried off, she could hear Geppetto calling out in desperation for his son.

"Pinocchio! Pinocchio! Please! Give me back my son!" the poor father implored.

"Sorry, old man. I have some unfinished business with this puppet," Riku answered, not caring about the situation.

"He's no puppet! Pinocchio is my little boy!" Geppetto protested.

Luna could feel a slight shift, which made her guess his thoughts were on the boy. "He is unusual. Not many puppets have hearts. I'm not sure, but maybe he can help someone who's lost theirs."

That was when Luna heard footsteps coming from the ship. She was barely able to look over to see that Sora and Medea had arrived to find her being carried off with Pinocchio by Riku.

"Wait a minute. Are you talking about Kairi?" Sora wanted to know.

"What do you care about her or Luna?" Riku answered icily as he started moving again.

"Get back here and give Luna back!" Medea's angry voice was heard from afar.

But it was too late, as Luna felt herself being carried away elsewhere within Monstro's insides. It was rather puzzling to her as to how he was able to transport her and Pinocchio all the way through the throat into the whale's stomach, but then she figured that since he was stronger than Sora physically, it's only logical that he'd manage Luna's weight and most likely because of how light Pinocchio is in contrast.

The next thing she knew, she felt herself being set down just enough so that her back was against the wall and Riku was kneeling close to her. She could tell that he had noticed how much pain she was going through, and he wasn't too happy at her recklessness.

"Luna, why did you have to endanger yourself like this? I know you can't resist wanting to help people and protect them, but you shouldn't be so careless with yourself. I can't try and protect you if you keep jumping into danger head-on," Riku scolded her sternly, but then softened as he stroked her cheek tenderly. "But don't worry, Luna. Maybe Sora will come to see how you should be handled best, and then we can work together to save Kairi. We can have an adventure together, all of us, as you would want."

Luna hung her head sadly, about to cry. As much as she wanted to believe him, she didn't like where he was going with his ideas. It didn't help that the aura she kept detecting made her more and more frightened, making her fear being dragged into it; she couldn't understand why he wouldn't listen to her when she knew about the darkness better than he does. It made her wonder if Maleficent had something to do with the distorted thoughts Riku was having right now…

Riku noticed her tears, and wiped them away carefully. "Everything will be alright, Luna. You'll see. You'll understand that what I'm doing is the right thing."

At that moment, her friends had arrived at the scene with Jiminy riding along with them, forcing Riku to shift his attention away from her and face the party. This allowed her to look toward Pinocchio, who was barely conscious while nestled not far from her, and then back to where her guardian and her friends are.

"Hey, let Pinocchio go, Riku," Sora demanded, having had enough of the games.

Riku looked toward Pinocchio. "A puppet that's lost its heart to the Heartless…Maybe, with Luna's guidance, it holds the key to helping Kairi. How about it, Sora?" He extended his hand out as though wanting Sora to come to him. "Let's join forces to save her. Luna won't come along unless you're with her. We can do it together."

But Sora, having developed more awareness that something's wrong about this, readied his keyblade to attack. Riku noticed this as he pulled his hand back.

"What? You'd rather fight me? Over a puppet that has no heart?" he asked, perplexed at the resistance.

"Heart or no heart, at least he still has a conscience," Sora said boldly.

"Conscience?"

"You might not hear it, but right now it's loud and clear," Sora continued, "And it's telling me you're on the wrong side! I'm not holding Luna back, and I am not needlessly dragging her around against her will. What if something else is hindering her and you don't know about it? Has that ever crossed your mind?"

"Then why is she with you in the first place? Luna doesn't need you, Sora," Riku insisted.

"No…I didn't say that…" Luna protested weakly, trying to move.

Sora noticed this, and immediately took action. "Luna…! Cure!"

Thanks to that small healing spell, Luna was able to regain just enough mobility to summon a Shadow Hand and carry herself back to her friends.

"Thank you…It hurt quite a lot," Luna thanked Sora, but then to Riku. "Please, listen to me, Riku. You're making a terrible mistake, one after another. If you keep wronging innocent people and endangering them, you'll only cause harm to them as well as yourself. If you don't stop this, there's no knowing how harsh the consequences will be!"

It was easily noticeable that Riku had a hard look on his face, knowing that no one is willing to go with him. "Then you leave me no choice…"

But before a confrontation could occur, a rumble was heard and – to the surprise of the party – the annoying monster that they ran into before had made reappearance, and it was obviously up for round two after that humiliating shock it got.

At the same time, Pinocchio could be seen running towards them; it helped Luna feel relieved that the boy was alright, but things were going to get dangerous now. Jiminy was not too far behind and hurried to a safe distance from the fight.

"Well, at least Pinocchio's okay," Goofy said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, but we've got other problems! That thing's ready for more!" Sora agreed, but felt that they should focus on the monster.

But Luna wasn't exactly in top shape due to the stinging pain sticking around. "I think I hit the boards harder than I thought…I don't think I can concentrate like this."

"Ya want me to take over for ya?" Medea asked, her face indicating she had a plan.

"How?" she asked out of curiosity.

"Since you're not fit to fight yourself, I'll pick up your slack," Medea replied.

That was when a startling thing happened that not even Sora was prepared for: Medea's physical form completely blackened, like the coloration of a shadow, and – with a swiftness that was almost hard to detect – she surrounded herself around Luna and merged with her like a ghost taking possession of a living host. Then, it was noticed that Luna seemed to be hovering slightly off the floor, and her eyes became the same violet colors as Medea's rather than Luna's green.

"Now, then, where did we leave off?" the possessed Luna said as she conjured the Shadow Hands around her.

The rematch with the Parasite Cage was pretty much similar to the previous confrontation, but this time the challenge was attacking it without landing into the stomach acid lurking around the area; not to mention, the fiend would throw in some annoying poison attacks to try and trip them up whenever it had the chance.

However, with the combined efforts of Sora's keyblade against the Heartless's body and the possessed Luna's Shadow Hands keeping the tentacles at bay so that their compatriots can keep the fight from getting out of hand, they were able to take down the monster.

As soon as it was over, the entire inside of Monstro began to shake with extreme irritation, which warned everyone that now was their chance to get out of there now. But before leaving, Sora tried to look for Riku, who had apparently disappeared during the scuffle with the Heartless.

"Riku! Riku, where are you?" he called out desperately.

"C'mon, we gotta get outta here!" Donald yelled while running for the exit.

"Monstro doesn't seem to be feeling good right now," Goofy noted, rather stating the obvious.

During their escape, though, Medea reemerged from Luna's body and reformed her physical form while Luna herself almost felt like she was going to collapse since she was still in pain.

"Sora…I can't move any further…" she pleaded weakly.

Quickly, Sora turned back and picked up Luna without any trouble, and then everyone high-tailed it out of there and bailed into the gummi ship as soon as possible. Before they knew it, Monstro had spat them and the ship out with a huge burst of a sneeze, sending them careening a few miles away; but thankfully, Donald was able to get control back to the ship before it could violently hurtle anywhere else.

This allowed the entire party to get a very nice reprieve after the hellish experience within the body of a giant whale of all things, and try to sort things out between one another.

"I sure hope Pinocchio and Geppetto landed somewhere safe," Goofy said.

"Yeah, hopefully they landed somewhere safe," Donald agreed.

Sora, on the other hand, had other thoughts bothering him. "Riku…"

"What I don't understand is what the hell his problem is. Seriously, he's been dragging Luna around with him and acting like his own buddy doesn't give a damn about her!" Medea wanted to know foremost, "Plus, what the hell was he thinking, getting in the way of the lives of innocents and causing problems?! Hasn't Luna been through enough crap as it is?"

"Speaking of 'understanding', what did you do with Luna?" Donald questioned, directing his suspicious glare at Medea.

The Shadow Guardian rolled her eyes, and answered, "It's simple: I merely temporarily provided physical capability with Luna since she was in too much pain to do things herself. It's not like I was trying to overthrow her free will or anything, I was just lending a hand to her."

"Did I make you worry throughout our troubles in Monstro?" Luna asked her guardian, changing the topic.

Medea turned to her and answered, "Damn straight you did. What the hell was Riku trying to do to you?"

"Yeah, what was Riku trying to do with you?" Sora agreed, wanting to know what he missed before.

Luna shook her head sadly. "I wish I had all the answers, but…it's just so confusing. The way Riku was talking to me…It was almost as though he wanted me to leave you guys and come with him. He seemed rather upset that I wanted to stay with you, Sora. I think…I think he believes that I'd be more willing to him with Kairi than you would. Maybe that's why he tried to appeal to me, since Kairi and I pretty much looked at each other as sisters of sorts."

That certainly bothered the rest of the group, knowing that something was up but don't have any clear understanding as to what is driving Riku down a wrong path. But Luna could tell that Sora did not like the fact that his own friend since childhood was acting against them. What they couldn't understand too well was what he was hiding regarding Kairi; Luna had a vague idea, but she wanted to see Kairi's state personally if she were to confirm what he said was true.

"Well, after all the crap we went through inside that giant ass whale's insides," Medea broke the silence. "I think we're due to have a wash-up and get the filthy smells off us."

"Sounds good to me," Sora agreed, brightening up a little.

"But Luna gets first dibs since she got the worst of it," Medea added with a devious smirk.

That didn't sit well with the boy and the duck. "HEY!"

Later on, after everyone has finally settled down, they started to keep going on their way to the next world while keeping themselves occupied.

For Luna, it was quite refreshing to be able to cleanse herself of the odors she had received from inside Monstro, and now that they were searching for another world to explore, she couldn't help wondering what new place they'll find. She hoped that the next one would have someone who could help them find what they're looking for and, perhaps, deal with any potential threats that could endanger the lives of the residents.

"I wonder when we'll run into Riku next…It scares me how much he's changing," Luna admitted to herself.

"Who knows? Personally, I don't wanna see him harassing you again."

Luna turned to see Medea waiting near her cabin room door, leaning against the wall while tapping her fingers in contemplation.

"Medea, did Riku bother you in any way?" Luna asked, "Why do you say he's harassing me?"

"That's the thing, girl. You said yourself that he sounded like he wanted to come with you and help him with something," Medea answered as she made eye contact. "But if you ask my opinion, I'd say that he's become a danger to you since he had to be doing the naughty things he did under the influence of someone."

That reminded Luna of something she witnessed when she was alone with Riku. "Medea…I had a run-in with the witch. I met Maleficent again. I might be stretching it, but I think she has something to do with Riku's change in his thoughts…"

She could see her guardian tense at the name, knowing what this was supposed to indicate: there may be the possibility that they'll both be seeing the witch directly sometimes soon.

"If that's the case, we'd better be more careful from here on in," Medea said darkly.

Luna nodded in agreement. "You're probably right…"