Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, blah, blah, blah. You've heard this crap before. I DO own this fic and Orin but that's it. If you'd like to use him in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 18

Sora and the gang now stood once more at the Dark Depths. They were expecting to once more summon Tinkerbell and use her to make them fly to the castle but it seemed that Maleficent done some major redecorating. The Castle no longer seemed to be rotting from the inside like an old log. Now it stood proudly, fully restored and made from what seemed to be some sort of black material, smoothly cut stone or some other hard material of the look of it. But the most noticeable adaptation that the old witch had added to the castle was the long stretch of the same dark stone forming a slanted walkway to the castle from the spot where Sephiroth once stood gazing out to the horizon.

"Maleficent's been busy." Riku said, making the others turn to see the stern look on his face. "I guess the bridge was meant as an invitation for us."

Sora knew why Riku would be so eager to fight the witch, she was the main reason for Riku having his body taken over by Xehanort's Heartless and tormented for a year within the body of that same Heartless. Even now that he was restored to his teenage form he still harbored a deep hatred for the Maleficent.

The group slowly and cautiously began their way down the bridge, keeping an eye open for any sudden movements. They wanted to be ready for anything. The bridge was rather basic in its design, very unlike something Maleficent would want. The 'floor' of the bridge was flat with what can only be faintly described as a cobblestone like design that stretched on to the main gate. There was no sign of railing in any form along the sides of the bridge, making the gang to walk along the middle of the bridge for safety even though there was plenty of room just in case they were attacked.

The gang received no attacks from the Heartless on their trek across the black bridge, only the stiff winds that tried to edge them towards the side of the railing. Thankfully after an unknown amount of time they reached the portcullis pf the castle. A large gate of jagged black steel shaped like the top row of teeth of some great beast.

"This is new." Sora said. The young Keyblader had never in the past had to open one of these before. Wisely he thought that Riku might now how and turned to his white haired friend. "Ever had to open one of these before?"

Riku shook his head but walked up the large 'teeth' and tried to lift it. Riku tried with all his might but could not even budge it. Riku finally turned around and leaned against the portcullis to rest in defeat. "No go. It's too heavy..."

Riku tried again once his strength returned with the aid of Sora but once more they were unable to budge the heavy iron gate, not even the combined might of all four of them could lift the gates.

"How... are we going to get in there... if we can't open the gates?" Yuffie asked in between breathes. Being a ninja she was tougher than the normal person like Kairi but she wasn't used to trying to lift five ton gates. This kinda thing isn't in a normal Kisaragi ninja's training regiment.

"Hey Sora, remember when you summoned that fairy to help us out the first time we came here?" Kairi asked, turning to the wielder of the Keyblade of Light.

Sora looked at Kairi with a tired yet inquisitive look. "Yeah, what about it Kairi?"

"Can you um, 'summon' anyone one that could open this for us?" Kairi asked, not knowing if she used the right word for what Sora had done to call Tinkerbell.

Sora tapped his chin as he thought for a few minutes. But before the Riku could make a suggestion about who to summon Sora gathered some magical force from the Keyblade and swung the Kingdom Key around. To the other's surprise Sora's weapon jumped from his hands and began to shoot off blasts of magical fire, followed by a large plume of blue smoke. From this smoke a large blue form appeared.

"WHHHHOOOOOAAAA momma!" A large blue genie inquired spastically with a wide grin on his face. "Sora! Nice to see ya old buddy old pal! How ya been, what's new?"

"Hi Genie." Sora said, smiling up at the large wish granting spirit. "I've been okay."

Genie wasted no time in grabbing Sora's hand and shaking it so hard the young man was lifted off his feet with each jerk up. Once Genie was tired of shaking Sora's hand he pulled the young man into a bone crushing hug and a savage pat on the back that left Sora disoriented enough to fall backwards onto his butt.

Genie may be a bit of a spaz but his cheer and good nature was highly infectious. Kairi and Yuffie were barely controlling their giggling fits from the sheer silliness of the spirit of the lamp. Even Riku cracked a smile at how rough the friendly genie got with his best friend.

"So why'd ya call me here Sora?" Genie asked looking around at his surroundings. "Whoa, whoever designed this places needs to get out of his cave more often. I mean this place could use a little color, a little flair and this place could be one rocking pad!"

"Calm down Genie, I just need you to lift this gate." Sora explained, getting up from the black stone floor of the bridge. "Someone inside needs our help, Maleficent's back and she's planning something big."

"That hag? Brrr..." Genie shuddered. "I wouldn't want to fight that witch, she knows waaaay to many dark secrets. She might even know how to stick me back in the lamp. But as for that gate..."

In his own style of magic and flair Genie zapped the gate with a blast from his index finger. In a puff of smoke the gates turned from heavy black steel to pink foam rubber. Afterwards Genie blew on his finger much in the style of a cocky gunslinger blowing on a smoking gun.

"Thanks Genie. We owe ya one." Sora said, turning to see the others were heading inside. "Sorry but I gotta get going. You coming?"

Genie grinned but rubbed the back of his head with one of his large blue hands. "You know I think I hear Al calling me. See ya later!"

With a burst of smoke the erratic spirit was gone. Sora guessed that he wasn't keen on fighting Maleficent must've really spooked him. Regardless of the genie's departure Sora turned and ran inside after his friends.

The inside was very familiar to everyone, in fact it was a darkened reminder of the first time they had come to this castle in their first adventure. Where they stood now was in the center of a large round room with two flights of stairs leading up to a higher balcony that circled the room. Two doors sat next to each of these stairways and one larger one stood straight ahead of the entrance way. If memory served them right that door lead to the library. The only thing missing was the large chandelier that used to hang overhead.

"I wonder where Orin is in here?" Kairi said absently, speaking what was on her mind.

Yuffie looked down at the dark stone floor. What was this all about? What was she going to say to Orin when this was all over? With a strained breath she pushed these thoughts out of the way. She'd cross that bridge when she and the others had beaten Maleficent.

"Welcome fools." A cool and confidant voice suddenly said from somewhere above them. The all four of the youths looked around until Yuffie pointed out that above them on the balcony overseeing this large round entranceway was Maleficent standing with a smug look of superiority on her sickly green face. Behind her always was Pete, looking just as fat as ever.

"What are you up to?" Riku asked harshly, pointing his Way to the Dawn at Maleficent. "Tell me or I'm coming up there!"

Maleficent chuckled, seemingly amused by Riku's threat. "My dear Pete, it seems like these urchins want to fight."

Pete laughed, his large belly shaking as he did. "Well, that's not nice. Maybe we should teach these kids some manners. Maybe a spankin's in order."

"Or perhaps they need to be sent to their rooms without supper." Maleficent chuckled slightly as she put her own spin on her underling's remark. She had something better in mind...

Before anyone below could react Maleficent tapped her staff on the hard floor. The group looked around expecting to see a horde of Heartless ready to attack, but nothing did.

"Okay lady what was that al abou-WOAH!" Yuffie's outburst was stopped short by her foot being stuck to the floor. The others found themselves in much the same way.

The floor around them became fluid, each of them sinking waist deep into the floor. At first it was hard to walk through like being waist deep in water. But quickly it seemed to thicken Becoming sticky like tar and almost impossible to move in.

"We'll be seeing you... If you make it out of this one." Pete taunted as he crossed his arms and laughed.

The four teens suddenly felt that the floor was now starting to suck them downwards. Each of them began to cry out for the others as they slipped beneath the dark folds of the floor. The next thing they felt was the sensation of falling down a lightless corridor. How long they fell none of them knew, but one by one they each blacked out as they continued to fall deeper and deeper.

---

When the teens awoke they found themselves in a area completely different than Radiant Garden. The sky was black as midnight with only the faint glow of stars to light their way. From the looming shadows in the distance they could guess they were between two large mountain ranges. Beneath their feet was a thick layer of dark green grass that must have never seen a gardener's blade. Although there was grass there were no signs anywhere of any other type of vegetation like trees or flowers. Besides the rolling grass and the faint, almost still wind they could see little less. That was until Riku spotted something not far from where they stood.

Riku put a hand to forehead and squinted as he tried to make out what it was. It stood about six feet tall and seemed to be in the shape of a scrawny crooked cross. It wasn't long before the others saw it and cautiously began to advance on it. Each of them had no idea where this was and wanted to keep an eye out so to avoid being waylaid any sort of enemy. As they approached they could see that it was just a crudely made sign of no threat to them at all. The sign itself seemed to be have something roughly carved into it, so badly was the grammar they could barely even read it.

"What's that sign say Yuffie?" Sora asked, unable to read the sign.

Yuffie squinted her eyes, barely making out the words. "It says 'Valley of Shadows.'"

"'Valley of Shadows?'" Kairi repeated, confused at the sound of the name. "What does that mean?"

Riku hung his head, finally getting why it was so dark here. "I think we're in the Realm of Darkness. Riku and I have been here before, right after the defeat of Xemnas."

"Yeah. It's not like that beach we landed in after the final fight but it defiantly has a lot in common with it." Riku said solemnly, he actually had existed in this world for a time before he was discovered by Diz, who was actually the real Ansem the entire time. Riku's memory of his time here in this realm was fuzzy he was mostly preoccupied with fighting off the Heartless within and without. Regardless he wished he could be more helpful to his friends at the present time.

"This place must be bigger than I thought." Sora mentioned as he looked around. "When we were here all I saw was that the beach, I never imagined the Realm of Darkness would be as big as a world. I just kinda imagined it would be a swirling mass of empty night."

Sora bent over and picked a blade of the dark green grass. It seemed to be just like any other grass he had ever seen in his life. It felt them same as the grass on Destiny islands and it looked like it when he would camp out with his friends not far from town in the woods. All in all it was odd that anything in this world would be just like it's counterpart from home. Sora had honestly thought it would be dangerous or something.

Kairi looked around, this place just looked to her like some grassy valley close to the midnight hour. Not really as scary as she thought it would be, was the only difference between the Realms of Darkness and Light was the sun? Are there people here on this side or are the Heartless the only creatures that exist here? If they did Kairi hoped they were friendly.

Riku walked behind the sign, hoping to find some indication of where to go from where he stood. Only then did he make out the weak outline of a badly neglected dirt road that lead off into the distance in both directions.

"Hey guys, I found a path!" Riku called out to the others. "I don't know where it leads but we sure aren't going to find our way back home here."

The gang wordlessly complied as they headed towards the road and to points unknown under a clear dark sky.

To be continued...