Kingdom Hearts: The Trials of Light and Dark
A Light in the Rain production
Neki © Light of Heaven and Kitty Fetish
Reni Concept © Kitty Fetish
Reni © Black Rainy
Kingdom Hearts Characters and Concept © Square Enix and Disney
Final Fantasy Characters © Square Enix
All rights reserved.
Light: So. Like. I'm out of watermelon. And it sucks.
Rainy: Yeah. That does suck.
Light: --nods—
Rainy: Yup…
Light: I have croutons, so I'm okay. TO THE CHAPTER!
Rainy: --sighs—She still loves to yell.
Chapter 6
As Neki waded through the saliva of the colossal whale trying ever so desperately to get to Riku and the shore, she wondered what the heck he was even doing here. She took a deep breath, steeled her nerves, and dived under the "water," swimming with all her might to escape the muck. Finally reaching the shore, she found Riku staring at her with a disgusted expression on his face. She matched the look in intensity with a glare. It was all his fault after all. He should have just caught her.
"That's—" Riku started but was cut off by a fuming Neki.
"Screw this. I'm leaving to take a shower. No. I'm going to take a bath. A long, scalding hot bath," Shaking her hair free of some liquid, and happily getting it on Riku, she opened a portal and started to step in, "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone, 'kay honey?" Riku flushed at the pet name and instead of answering, made a shooing motion with his hands. She, again, started to leave, but stopped to say one last thing, "Next time. Catch me, or you're dead."
Riku grinned, "Yes ma'am."
Once her portal closed, he turned to the opening to the whale's stomach. He looked up at the ledge and nodded, then jumped up and landed softly on the edge. Taking a step forward for safety measures, he turned and waited for the object of his desire. The wooden-puppet, Pinocchio.
Of course, all perfect plans must have a flaw, and this plan's flaw just arrived via the whales mouth; a brightly colored gummy ship holding none other than Sora, Reni, and their strange animal friends, Donald and Goofy.
Backing up into the shadow from the opening he waited to see what would happen.
-----
"Sora…"
Sora turned to look at Reni, "Yes oh Whining One?" He jumped from one ledge to another as he awaited her answer. She jumped across as well and clung to his arm.
"I don't like this place."
He jumped again, and she followed. Leaning over the edge to get a better look at what Reni only figured to be the whale's spit, she scrunched up her face and stuck out her tongue.
Sora sighed and made a move to go behind her so he could get to the next platform, "Just be careful and you'll be fine!" But in doing so, he accidentally bumped into Reni, knocking her off balance just enough to get her to sway over the edge.
"Uhhh……Sora!" He turned back to her wavering dangerously over the edge, and he leapt forward just in time to grab onto Reni's hand, but just barely.
"I thought I told you to be careful!" Sora yelled down to her as she squirmed to get back onto the wooden pillar.
Reni huffed and glared up at him, "This is all YOUR fault!"
Sora glared back, "My fault?!" his hold on Reni's hand started to slip, and Sora decided that to get revenge on Reni for accusing him of making her fall, even though he did he would never admit that, he would let her fall into the disgusting so-called water, "I'm slipping!"
"HOLD ON TIGHTER!" Reni cried as her eye twitched.
Sora's eye twitched too, and he let out a strained grunt and cried, "CAN'T HOLD ON!" before dropping her to her gruesome death of whale's saliva.
And the last thing she saw before hitting the water was a laughing Sora and the ceiling.
She'd kill him.
-----
Now Riku had been watching this transaction between his friends, and was having a hard time controlling his fits of giggles—yes giggles—as he watched Reni resurface, sputtering whale spit and shouting indecencies at Sora who was already on his way to Geppetto's wrecked ship.
By the time Reni made her way to the ship, Geppetto was talking about how he had traveled all over looking for Pinocchio…who was no where to be found.
"Pinocchio? Pinocchio?!?" Geppetto cried to the open space but to no avail. Reni sat down on the hull of the ship and proceeded to wring her hair dry.
"He's probably further in. That opening over there," Reni said and brandished a hand over her shoulder, flinging spittle on Sora and Donald, "Try that. I'm going to stay here and dry off!"
Sora chuckled to himself as he jumped off the ship onto the gummy feeling ground, "No matter how long I stay here, this is always going to be gross," he mumbled and made a face as he led the group over to the entrance.
Sure enough, Pinocchio was there, hugging a wall. Sora huffed, "Pinocchio! What're you doing? Come on, let's go back."
Goofy added, "You know, Geppetto's awfully worried about ya!"
"Stop fooling around! This is no time for games." Turning away, Sora heard a familiar voice make a snarky comment.
"But Sora, I thought you liked games." He gasped and twisted around to see Riku standing not but a few feet behind Pinocchio, "Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade."
"Riku! Wh-what're you doing here?" Sora asked ridiculously. Riku smirked.
"Playing with Pinocchio."
Sora rolled his eyes, "You know what I mean! What about Kairi? Have you found her?"
Riku's smirk grew wider, "Maybe. Catch us and I might tell you what I know."
"Oh come on!" a voice wailed miserably from behind the trio. Everyone turned to find Reni with her mouth a gap and her eye twitching, "You're joking right?"
Instead of answering, Riku grabbed Pinocchio's wrist and dragged him through the exit. Reni growled, giving chase, "Reni!" Sora shouted, following suit. Goofy and Donald gave each other a look, then followed in after.
-----
Neki sighed and brushed her now dry and squeaky clean hair, making sure all tangles were gone, "Much better." Now that she was clean and redressed, Neki decided to pay a visit to Kairi, then head back to Riku to do damage control.
Walking out of her room, Neki spotted Maleficent and the hooded Ansem talking amongst themselves. She ignored them and continued down the hallway until she reached the unused room that Maleficent kept Kairi's lifeless body in. She lay, still as ever and in the same spot nonetheless, on a rather small, plush bed, decorated in vivid reds and purples.
Perfect for the spunky red head Neki thought.
Sighing again, she made her way over to the arm chair and sat down, "Hey Beaver. Sorry I haven't been—" She choked back a sob when Kairi's face didn't scrunch up at the mention of her childish nickname. Taking a breath, she continued, "Sorry I haven't visited you until now. Lots have things have been going on. What with Riku and I on the side of evil. Sora, dear sweet little Sora, being my enemy and the Key Bearer. Reni and I fighting like cats and dogs." She took a calming breath, "It's all been so much."
However, Kairi said nothing.
Neki looked away from Kairi then, not being able to stand the silence any longer. Standing, she opened a portal to Monstro, and stepped in, leaving Kairi as silent as she was before. As if nothing had changed. Though, many had.
-----
"RIKU! What's the matter with you? What are you thinking?" Sora yelled at his friend, even though Riku stood only a few feet away. Riku blinked, then glared at the younger boy.
Crossing his arms he retorted, "I could ask you the same thing."
"What?"
"You're only interest has been to run around flashing off your little Keyblade while I've been slaving away trying to find Kairi!" His glare intensified as he spotted Reni come up from behind Sora, "Do you even care about her?"
Before Sora could start an all out war with the silver haired teen, Reni retorted saucily, "Last time I checked, caring about someone didn't mean you fought over minor details."
Riku's face turned bright red from rage, "WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW?!"
Reni just blinked and turned away, as if disgusted, "Obviously more than you."
Interrupting their little reminiscence was a cry from the other room, "Pinocchio!" The group of good guys cried, and started for the room. Riku surprisingly followed.
What they found was a huge parasite like monster of sorts, with none other than the young wooden puppet in its cage of a mouth.
"Ready to do this Sora?" Riku asked. Sora nodded and readied the Keyblade. Right before he attacked though, a dark portal opened up and a blonde haired, and rather confused, teen stepped out into the line of fire.
Blinking a few times, she looked around, then asked, "What did I miss?" She blinked again when an arrow came dangerously close to her temple. Turning to look at Reni, she cried out, "WHAT DID I DO?!?"
"Pinocchio is in danger because of you!" Reni screamed in anger and charged at the older girl. Neki, purely frightened of the raging younger girl, fled from the room, taking Reni with her.
Riku and Sora blinked, "Well that was unexpected." Riku shrugged and summoned his Dark Blade.
"With them, what is?"
Then the battle was on.
-----
Neki continued to scream in terror as she ran in circles, being chased by a growling Reni until neither of them knew who was chasing and who was running aside from the fact that only Neki was screaming. Both falling down onto the squishy floor out of sheer exhaustion, they decided a better option was to talk it out.
"Pinocchio could die because of you!" Reni said, fearful for the little wooden boy.
Neki raised her head enough to give Reni a confused look, "Who?"
"PINOCCHIO! How can you kidnap someone and not know who he is!" Reni looked over at Neki to see the girl still wore a confused expression, "Unless of course you didn't kidnap him."
Neki raised a brow, "Duh!"
Reni's brows knitted together in anger and sat up, "Oh! It was all Riku then!"
Neki, still confused as when she came, asked, "What's all Riku's fault, who could've died, and who the heck is Pinocchio???"
Reni took a deep breath, "Pinocchio is a wooden puppet who was given life by a really pretty blue fairy, and whenever he lies, his nose grows and his conscience is our journal keeper and a cricket named Jiminy. Riku kidnapped Pinocchio for tuna knows what reason and now he's stuck in that big giant parasite cage Heartless and Riku is being mean to Sora and I think Sora is about to find out that Riku is on the dark side instead of the light, and I have no idea how Sora will handle that."
Neki blinked rapidly, "You did the whole 'say a really long sentence in one breath' thing again, didn't you." Reni took a few more deep breaths and just nodded, "Right then."
Standing, the two hugged and linked arms, "Shall we find our way back dear Neki?"
"I think we shall." Pausing, Neki added, "And Riku is getting beaten to a bloody pulp when I find him…Yeah…" Neki opened up a dark portal and the two stepped.
-----
"Well none of this would've happened if you hadn't stolen him in the first place!"
"You make it sound like he's an item!"
"What does that have to do with anything?!"
"You're rude!"
"REAL MATURE RIKU!"
From that short conversation alone, the two girls decided that Sora and Riku were no longer allowed to fight verbally until their balls dropped.
Neki raised a brow in question at Reni, who shrugged and sat down onto the squishy floor, Neki following suit. Opening up a portal, Neki reached in and pulled out a bowl of popcorn, "Who's is that?" Reni asked.
Neki looked at the bowl, then replied, "That'd be Jafar's." Reni blinked.
"Who?"
"Another idiot male."
"I see."
"WELL YOU NEVER CARED ANYWAY!" Sora cried and jumped into the hole in the floor.
"WELL I STILL DON'T care… and …"
Neki shook her head and sighed, "It's over Riku. Give it up."
Reni was busy peering into the hole and munching on some of the embezzled popcorn, "I ain't followin' him down there…"
Neki rolled her eyes, "Oh yes we are!" Grabbing Reni and Riku by the wrist, she dragged the two over to said empty void and jumped in, the brother and sister protesting all the way.
-----
"Pinocchio!" Geppetto cried happily as he hugged his wooden son. Shortly after he was hugging air however, seeing as Riku and re-kidnapped the boy and jumped up onto the ledge, "Pinocchio! Pinocchio! Give me back my little boy!!" Geppetto cried mournfully.
Neki glared up at Riku as he answered, "Sorry old man. I have some unfinished business with this wooden puppet."
Geppetto let out yet another distressed cry, "He's no puppet! He's my son!!"
"He is unusual, I'll give him that," Riku glanced down at said knocked out boy, "I haven't met a puppet that had a heart. Maybe he could help someone who'd lost theirs."
"Wait a minute," Sora said bewildered, and looked at Neki, "Is he talking about Kairi?"
"Uhhh……"
"Neki you better—"
"What do you care about her!" Riku said, interrupting Sora's threat. With that he turned and walked away.
Before she could be further questioned, Neki grabbed Reni and double jumped up onto the ledge, then the two chased after Riku.
"He's going to find out eventually you know," Reni said to the saddened teen. Neki kept her eyes forward as she solemnly replied:
"I know."
-----
"HEY! Let Pinocchio go Riku," Sora called as he came running into the room. Riku turned around to face Sora and the animal people.
"Why are you fighting me! We can work together to help save Kairi! Let's join forces to save her," Riku started for Sora, his fist raised to show he was enthusiastic. Sora had other plans however, and drew his Keyblade, "What?! You'd rather fight me? Over a puppet with no heart?"
Sora glared, "Heart or no heart, at least he has a conscience."
Riku stopped, "Conscience?" Where had he heard that before.
"Save your breath Sora," a familiar voice said from behind them. Sora turned to find it was Neki, "Riku doesn't know the meaning of that word."
Reni stepped up next to Neki, "Whether you can hear it or not isn't the issue. It's loud and clear to us."
Sora turned back to Riku, finishing the thought, "And mine is saying you're on the wrong side!"
Riku glared at the people opposing him, "Then you leave me no choice."
Jiminy, who had crossed over to Pinocchio, cried out his name, "Jiminy?" Pinocchio mumbled and lifted his head a little, "I'm not gunna make it…" A bright light flashed and dimmed, showing that Pinocchio's nose had grown, "Oh! I guess I'm okay!"
A moment of peace passed through the large, yet dingy room. Riku looked up in surprise and stepped out of the way right before he was smashed by the Parasite Cage, who was coming back for round two. Deciding to stick around and see if the twerp could handle the Heartless without him, he leapt up onto one of the higher ledges, safe and out of the way, but had a good view.
"AH!" Sora cried and jumped back a few feet. Readying their weapons, the group, Neki and Reni included, charged at the Parasite Cage, hacking and slashing and firing and spelling and healing until Neki tumbled over into a pool of yellow steaming liquid, burning her shoulder. Yelping in pain, the group lost focus as Sora ran over to rescue his sister from the fluid.
Pulling her from the substance, she winced and gripped right under the burn. Reni ran over and gave them cover, "It's at least a second degree…" Reni yelled over the sound of Goofy's shield clashing with the spikes on the Heartless' tentacles. Neki rolled her eyes in anger and yelled back that frankly she didn't care what degree it was as long as it went away, "Okay! Okay!" Reni grumbled and pulled a potion out of her pouch, pouring it onto the burn.
Neki hissed from the sting, but was relieved once she saw that the burn was indeed gone, but not without a trace, "Stay out of the acid!!" Neki shouted to Goofy and Donald, who nodded and continued to bash away at the Parasite Cage's health.
Reni shot a few arrows, and healed Sora, while Neki pulled apart her staff and was doing double time on two of the tentacles. It was half way dead, it being the Heartless, when the two girls heard laughing coming from above.
"You two fight like chickens without heads!" Riku ribbed at the two angry faces below him. Neki's face flushed in anger and she leapt up onto the ledge, quickly followed by an ever redder Reni, "GAH!" Opening a portal quickly, the three ran straight into it, leaving Sora, Donald, and Goofy to fed for themselves.
-----
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Neki shouted as she tackled Riku to the ground, preparing to smash his face in.
"WAIT!" Reni cried and grabbed a hold of Neki's arm, holding her back. Neki turned and looked furiously at Reni, "We have better ways of torture." However appealing that should have sounded to Neki was lost on her, for she turned back to Riku and punched him square in the nose. The sound of bone breaking filled the dark portal void they were in.
Reni gaped openly at what she had just seen. Neki had never never NEVER ever hurt Riku on purpose, "Neki, what—"
"You've gone too far Riku!" Neki shouted at him, her face scrunched up and nearly unrecognizable from the anger she was feeling, "That poor boy could've been KILLED! All because you thought it might help! WHAT IF HE HAD DIED? What then?! You never think any of these things through!" Riku opened his mouth to speak but was cut off, "NEVER! You didn't think about the consequences when you joined the darkness. You never thought that Sora and Reni and I might be dying inside from all the pain this nightmare has caused us! You. Never. THOUGHT!"
Reni stood speechless as Neki continued to rant, tears spilling down the older girl's cheeks by now, "You have a brain for a reason, Riku! So get it together, turn it on and actually use it for a change! I'd rather be basically dead with Selphie, Wakka, Tidus, Momma, Papa, and everyone else if this was how you were going to go about saving them! RECKLESS! THOUGHTLESS! IRRESPONISBLE!"
Taking in a shaky breath, Neki made her closure, "If you ever do something like this again," she pointed from her chest to his, "you can just forget about us, because I'll have nothing to do with you." Standing up off his waist where she had been situated, she opened a portal to their room, "Consider yourself banned from the room until further notice."
Then she spit on him.
Reni blinked.
Yes, she had seen that right.
Neki, sweet hyperactive lovable Neki, had just spit, yes SPIT, on Riku, the supposed love of her life.
After Neki's portal closed, Reni blinked again, still unable to believe it.
Riku stood silently, and opened his own portal, leaving without even a glance in Reni's direction. As she headed back the way they had come, she murmured a single sentence, so low, not even Jiminy would have heard, "Darkness, what have you done with my Neki?"
-----
"Riku? RENI? NEKI?!" Sora cried as acid bubbled from the walls and the floor.
"What, was that Heartless an antacid, and now that it's dead the whale has indigestion?" Reni asked as she plastered her most believable smile on her face. Sora ran forward and grabbed her wrist, dragging her protectively away from the puff of acidic smoke that would have burned her head clean off.
"Yeah, something like that, LET'S GO!" Sora shouted and continued to pull her throughout the maze of the whale's innards. Reni blinked and the thought, and ran faster until she was the one dragging Sora, "Reni? What's wrong??"
"WE'RE INSIDE OF A WHALE!!!" She cried and raced faster. Before any of them knew it, Reni had successfully lead them back to Geppetto's ship. The group did a simultaneous blink, but then rushed on board just as Monstro sneezed them out. Reni shuddered again, and gave Sora a deadly look.
Sora glared back, "How could you not have know we were in a whale this whole time?" Reni stuck her tongue out.
"Shut up strawberry-butt!"
Sora blinked, "What?!?"
"We are NEVER coming back here."
-----
Riku entered the castle via Kairi's room, only to find it empty, "What?" The hooded figure Riku had known to be Ansem appeared from the darkness, "Where is Kairi?" Ansem chuckled and stepped forward next to Riku.
"She is important to you, yes?"
Riku knitted his brows, "Of course she's important. She's a good friend of mine."
"You'd do anything for her…?"
Riku scrutinized Ansem, wary of his hidden intent, "Yes. Why do you ask?"
Ansem chortled to himself, "No reason. She can be found on Hook's boat." With that he was gone.
Riku shook the feeling that something bad would happen from his gut and opened a portal to Hook's boat. Sure enough, there was Kairi, still as ever. He walked over to her side and stared at her pale face, her small frame, her even smaller breaths. He sighed and took a step back, "So close…"
"Yet another failure on your own?" a chilling voice said from behind him. Riku didn't even have to turn around to know that it was Maleficent with her despicable grin as she looked down at him, "Maybe you should enlist my help. That's what I'm here for after all…" Riku turned and glared.
"I don't need your help."
The woman raised a brow delicately as she was known to do when something amused her, "The girl certainly begs to differ," she murmured and stepped past Riku to Kairi, "She's still asleep, even after all your hard work and failed attempts." Riku's lip curled into a growl as he shoved Maleficent away from her.
"What do you want?"
"There are seven Princesses of Heart," she gladly told him, eager to have him finally on her side, "All you have to do is bring them all here. They have immeasurable power, and will be able to bring back your friend's heart." He gave her a skeptical look.
"Was the Alice girl one of them?" He asked. She nodded, and turned to leave, "What if I fail?" Mocking her, was he?
She turned to face him, that wicked grin plastered to her face again, "Then I'll give you another gift." Riku never liked her idea gifts, but this one he supposed was necessary. As he glowed the same green as last time, his vision became fuzzy causing him to strain his mind to stay awake while trying to fight off the oncoming headache he was feeling. Towards the end, he gasped from a sharp pain in his heart and stared frightened at Maleficent.
"The power to control the Heartless."
Black was all he saw.
-----
Neki couldn't sleep.
-fin-
Light: Truthfully, I feel I could have done better.
Rainy: ARE YOU KIDDING?!? You had Neki act like a raging bull, but it really worked!
Light: --shrug—
Rainy: And the end! Oh. My. Tuna. You just left me dangling off a cliff.
Light: --shrug—
Rainy: I should at least maim you though.
Light: Really? Why?
Rainy: How am I supposed to top that?
Light: Oops?
Next time: RAINY TO THE RESCUE!
Review please!