Chapter 9

I woke up with a terrible headache. I groaned and sat up. I looked around trying to remember what had happened. I was in a long hallway in front of a door. On the walls were portraits. 'Right…Maleficent' I thought. I noticed that the door was the same door that had lead to Maleficent's room. Sora and the others probably dragged me out after he knocked me out. He knocked me out! I felt my anger rising as I walked over to the door. I tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. 'Probably locked it, too' I couldn't believe they actually knocked me out. Even though they'll probably say it's 'for my own good', I just…wanted to kill her so bad for taking Riku. I listened at the door. I could hear them fighting. I heard weapons clashing and a loud roar. Wait, a roar? I started pounding on the door.

"Open up!" I yelled. Strangely it opened after a while. Sora stood there with a cheesy grin on his face. He only had some minor injuries, like burns.

"YOU!" I started. "You knocked me out!" Then I noticed something behind him.

"W-what's that?" I asked semi-scared. Sora turned around and looked, then turned back to me.

"That's Maleficent" He said. I shook my head.

"No. That's a friggin' dragon, that's what it is! What happened?" I asked forgetting for a second that this was the guy that knocked me out.

"Maleficent turned into a dragon after we knocked you out, like last time I fought her, and then we beat her." He answered. Then Leon and Cloud appeared. They didn't seem to have any scratches at all.

"Hey guys" I said.

"Hey. Are you alright?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah. Except for the fact that you guys knocked me out before I could brutally murder that-…"

"We had to" Sora interrupted. "We didn't want you to die before you got the chance to see Riku."

"Oh so after I see Riku, you don't care if I die, is that what you're saying?"

"No no, of course not. I just mean that…" Luckily for Sora dragon-Maleficent turned back into normal-Maleficent then. We quickly walked up to her.

"What did you do to Riku?" I demanded. She grinned evilly.

"I didn't…do…anything"

"Yeah you did! You're controlling him aren't you? Well when you're dead that'll be over and we'll get him back." I said.

"Killing…me isn't…going to make…Riku…come back. I…only…unlocked…the darkness…that was already inside…him"

"But that would've made him able to make his own decisions and he wasn't. So tell me: If you're not controlling him, then who is?" She laughed again and coughed up some blood.

"You'll probably…never…know" Sora roughly put his foot against her throat.

"TELL US!" He yelled.

"Al…right alright…it's…it's Axel." She laughed one last time and let out her last breath. Her body started glowing a strange red glow and dissolved.

"Axel? But he told me he didn't do anything to him." I said.

"Guys like that aren't exactly known for telling the truth." Sora said.

"Yeah I know. But he said he'd take us to him so we could see for ourselves…Why would he say that if it weren't true? Why go trough all the trouble of getting us here and even letting us kill Maleficent, 'cause he knew we'd be able to do that, why go trough all of that if he didn't have anything to show us?"

"Maybe Axel knew something Maleficent didn't." Cloud said.

"Could be…"

"Err…guys?" Sora said. He was standing at the door. Maleficent's husband came back and he had this strange look on his face.

"Y-you killed her?" he said.

"Err…Yeah…sorry, mate. Couldn't exactly let her kill us" He didn't seem to hear me.

"Does that mean I'm…free?" He started…smiling. I blinked in surprise.

"Err…free?" Then all of a sudden he started jumping and dancing through the room yelling 'I'm free! I'm free!'

"Hey. Hey! HEY!" I yelled. He stopped and looked at me. "Could you tell us where Riku is?"

"Of course, Milady. That's the least I can do for you." He said and bowed. He walked out the room and we followed him. We went back the way we came. While walking I asked the others

"What if we can't get Riku back to normal? What if he'll always be evil? What if…I can't tell him how I feel?" Sora laughed.

"We'll get him back to normal. You guys belong together. You're like…meant to be!" He said.

"Maybe…"

The rest of the way back was silent. I thought about what Sora had said and started convincing myself that Riku'd be normal again. Suddenly we were back at the main hall. In our rush I never noticed how many doors there were the first time we were there.

"Here you are" The man said.

"Right…so…err which door do we take?" I asked. The man gave me a surprised look.

"Ask the keyblade" he said like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"The Keyblade? Okay…Sora?" Sora conjured his keyblade and just looked at it.

"Now what?" he asked.

"Nonono, not that one. Yours!" The man said pointing at me.

"This one?" I asked and conjured my newfound blade. The man took a couple steps back.

"That's it. The Royal Keyblade…"

"Royal? I'm not Royal, I think"

"I'm not mistaken, Milady. Milady Maleficent showed me the Royal Keyblade one time and I am sure that this is the one. Just trust your instincts Milady"

I took a close look at the Keyblade once more. It was black with a silver crown at the end.

"Trust my instincts, huh?" I said.

"Yes. Or just follow the noise." Just then a big crash sounded from one of the doors. I snickered. Sora looked at me strange.

"What? It was funny!" I said. "It came from this one." I continued pointing at the leftmost door.

"Are you sure?" Sora asked while I walked up to it.

"We're about to find out." I turned around and bowed to the old man. "Thanks for helping us." I turned back to the door and put my hand on the doorknob. "Ready?" I asked the others, though I didn't wait for the answer and just opened the door. The first thing I noticed was that there were glass cages, empty luckily, on either side of the room.

"That's where Maleficent kept the Princesses." Sora said noticing my look. Just then we heard another crash.

"At least we know we're in the right room" I said. Then I ran forward up the stairs. That's when I saw him. Riku was facing a big hole in the wall.

"Riku!" I started running up to him, but stopped when I heard a voice.

"Jen! Stay away from him! He's dangerous!" someone yelled from inside the hole. I looked up at it and suddenly I heard a voice.

'you obtained the power to heal. Full-Cure.'

I ignored it and saw a girl limp out of the hole. Suddenly a green glow surrounded her and disappeared again. She stood up straight and jumped out of the hole in front of me. She had short black hair and brown eyes. Her jeans and brown t-shirt were half torn. Then Riku faced us.

"Hello Jen. I've been expecting you." He said. He still looked like the same Riku, except for one thing. His eyes…they were cold. I used to love his eyes, but now they were scaring me. I ignored the girl completely and walked up to Riku. I stopped right in front of him.

"What has he done to you? You have to snap out of it! You have to come back!" Riku laughed evilly. He put his hand against my stomach.

"Nobody tells me what to do" His hand started glowing and I got knocked away. Riku disappeared into a black portal as I landed in front of Sora's feet. He helped me up.

"Are you okay?" He asked me.

"Physically: Yes, Emotionally: Not really." I answered. The girl ran up to us.

"See? I told you to stay away from him." She said. I looked at her.

"Who the hell are you?" She looked shocked.

"Who am I? I know we haven't seen each other since like forever, but that's not a reason to forget your best friend!"

"My what?"

Chapter 9 finished! Only one more chapter and an epilogue. I'm still not sure about the sequel, but you'll know soon enough.
For now: Review!

SilverHearts