RIKU

She jumped out of her seat; her eyes flew open.

"What? What is it?"

her hands went up to the silver crown on her head.

"Melody… what's going on? Talk to me…."

She took it off her head and then looked inside of it. Her eyes closed and she collapsed to the floor, dropping the crown on the floor.

"Melody!" I cried.

I shook Donald awake.

"What? What is it?" He squawked.

"Just drive!" I ordered.

I kneeled down and took Mel by the shoulders.

"Come on, talk! You're starting to freak me out!"

"Diz…. Diz… Ansem…" She whispered unconsciously.

"Yes… Diz…. Ansem… same person. Died a few years ago. His Kingdom Hearts Encoder malfunctioned and blew up. You should know this…"

Her eyes were glazed over. She had been knocked unconscious by shock.

"What's wrong?!" Axel said coming out of nowhere.

"Bwahah-ah-hah-hah!" Donald cried.

He had jumped about three feet out of his seat. I was freaking out. I didn't understand.

MEL

My head was twisting and spinning. I couldn't tell what was up or down. I didn't even know where I was.

"Ansem? That's a funny name, Mama."

"I know, Honey. He also went by Diz, as well. Even though he had funny names, everyone still loved him. Human hearts fascinated him. He believed that some day… someone was going to have the possibility of having a pure heart."

"Do you believe it, Mama?"

"No, Sweetie, I don't. But that doesn't mean it's not true. Just because you don't believe it doesn't mean it's not possible. Uncle Ansem always said that anything is possible."

My vision slowly returned and Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku, and Axel were all hovering over me. Riku and Axel helped sit me up. I glanced at the tiara the sat a foot away. I was about to reach for it when Sora grabbed it and handed it to me quickly.

"Are you alright?" Donald asked.

"Don you need anything?" Sora piped in.

"Mel…. What happened?" Riku asked softly.

I smiled strangely. I felt like my life was a huge mystery. I felt like I didn't know myself anymore.

And Minnie knew? Does that mean King Mickey knew? Of course he did. That's why he kept referring to Ansem and told me that there were many mysteries to be solved.

I looked up at everyone, my eyes darting from person to person.

"Ansem the Wise…. W-was my great uncle…." I said slowly.

"What? Everyone asked.

"Diz? Ansem? He was my uncle. I remember now…. Uncle Ansem."

"No way! Ansem…. The real one… Ansem the Wise was your uncle??" Sora exclaimed.

"He was my great uncle. But look. The tiara that Queen Minnie gave me…. It's exactly the same one that Uncle Ansem sent to me as a little girl. Strange…. In the game, I always thought that name sounded familiar…. But I could never figure out why…."

I handed it to Riku. He looked over it then found the engraved writing on the inside.

"An adventure that shouldn't be, will come to the one with the purest of hearts, Melody…..Uncle Ansem."

Riku's eyes darted up to me.

"Whoa…" He whispered as he passed it to Sora. "To think that I had met two of your family members…. Without knowing it."

SORA

I thought that was a bit conspicuous. What are the chances of Riku running into two family members of Mel? I'd say that that was a sign, but I kept my mouth shut. I looked at Donald and Goofy as they were giving strange glances to each other.

"So… what do you two know about this?" I asked.

Melody looked up at Donald and Goofy, as did we all.

"The King told us that you were related to a dear friend of his and told us to treat you as royalty because…. Really… you are…." Donald explained.

"I almost said something before…. But Donald stopped me…" Goofy said lowering his head.

I stood up and crossed my arms. I looked at Donald and Goofy.

"We're sorry Mel…" Goofy said.

"Yeah…. We didn't mean to keep the truth from you, but King Mickey said it would be best if your remembered yourself."

"That's alright, guys. I understand." Melody said kindly.

"You're not mad?" Donald said in surprise.

"No, of course not. I can't stay mad at a friend and there is no reason for me to be mad at you anyway. King Mickey was right, it's better that I remembered myself."

All this was surprising to me, but now I can see the similarity. They both have the will to find what they wished for. They are both adventurous and even though Ansem had turned dark he still had the will to turn his back on the darkness. He had a strong heart. Ansem the Wise, Melody Purest of Hearts. It seems that this is somewhat of small universe, but at the same time, it's huge. Mel pulled her legs into her chest and hugged her knees. Something was troubling her.

"What's the matter?" Riku and I asked.

She looked at both of us and gave us a small exhausted smile.

"I….. just feel like I don't know myself anymore. I mean…. I didn't have myself totally figured out ten minutes ago….but I knew enough. But now my life just seemed to be blown way out of proportion."

The crown was finally passed back to her, but I gently took it from her hands.

"I've tried to figure myself out. I've tried to figure out my heart, but It's practically impossible. There are so many things to understand. There is only one thing that I know could never ever change, no matter how many different paths, twists and bumps my life takes. I will always belong to Kairi. My heart will always be with her. I can't change that, not that I want to, but my heart won't allow it. Kairi makes who I am and as long as I have her in my heart and she has me in hers…. I know all I need. I may never understand my purpose in life, but I know my heart's light. That light is mostly Kairi, but the rest belongs to my friends." I said.

Melody gave me a thoughtful look.

"I guess the light in my heart is my friends, but I feel like there is a huge part of my heart still missing. My heart calls out for something and I think that's why all my life I've wanted to explore worlds. Somehow, I knew as a little girl, that what my heart needed was else where. I feel like I'm so close to finding the piece of my heart…. But I feel like the piece hasn't revealed it's own light. As if…. It needs to find itself before my heart can have it. I don't know. It's all so hard to understand. But…. Because you are all my friends…. I want you to know that because of the pieces you each play in my heart, I will do anything for you. I want to keep all the pieces to my heart safe, that means I have to protect you just as much as you will do for me." She said with a smile.

I smiled back and I put the tiara gently on her head.

"So…. Melody Nicole Hart, Purest of Hearts. Let's continue this journey and help find what's missing in your heart…."

"Okay!" She said cheerfully.

"G-hyuck! I think we made it!" Goody said as he stood up.

Riku helped Mel stand up as I looked. The world was too familiar.

"Wow…. We came all this way and not one Heartless ship." I said surprised. "Well, let's go drop by and see how things are. It's been quite a while."

"Are we going to land?" Mel asked.

"No… sometimes we have to warp ourselves to a world." Donald explained.

"But…. I don't know how to do that yet….." Mel said looking at me.

"I'll warp with you…" Riku said.

Riku seemed to be drawn to Melody now. Maybe it was because he wants to make sure she is really okay?

No…. it's much more than that. He is falling for her….

I knew the truth now. My heart was yelling it at me. The missing piece that she felt was close…. It's Riku. He smiled down at her as she nodded slowly.

"Okay….. remember, in this world you turn into animals. You may feel a bit dizzy once you land." I said.

Mel's grin spread wider. She was excited to meet Simba.

"Alright…. Let's go."

"Hold on…" She said suddenly as she took off her tiara. "I don't want anything to happen to it." She explained as she set in carefully on her pillow in the chair.