Important Notes: Okay in this chapter I made it to where Lulu does not know of Tidus, Wakka, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine(?). I didn't know how to fit them in the story. Especially when Tidus and Wakka are kids from another world and the other three are little fairy things. They just don't fit lol.

Surprises, Both Big And Small

Re-cap

Riku hurriedly ate his lunch and then traveled to the port to get a ship to return to the base. An hour later, he was packed and standing in front of the gates. Riku took one last look at the base behind him 'See yaw later Gippal, Lulu. Sorry that I won't be able to say goodbye, but I have a lot of time to make up.' He began to walk away but stopped when he saw a figure in front of him.

" Trying to leave without saying goodbye?"

end

Riku frowned at the person in front of him. "How did you know I was leaving?"

"It was pretty easy to figure out Riku. When I couldn't find you at the festival, I knew you were headed back here to leave."

Riku frowned deepened "I see, but how were you able to catch up to me when in such a short amount of time?"

"Heh, give me some credit Riku! I'm not the leader of the Albed for no reason! All I had to do was "Borrow" an airship and I was able to easily arrive here in no time."

"Gippal, why do I get the feeling you did more than "borrow" an airship?" Gippal answered him with a shrugged and an innocent look on his face. "Never mind, I don't want to know what you really did." Riku shifted into a defensive stance. " So, did you come here to try and stop me from leaving?"

Gippal joking demeanor quickly changed to a more serious mood. "No, I haven't come to stop you Riku. I know that you were restless the past few day and have been wanting to leave for awhile now. Actually, I'm surprised you didn't try and leave this morning. You actually came to the festival."

"Hey, I keep my promises to my friends Gippal."

Gippal merely shrugged at Riku's accusation. "No, not really, but there was always a chance you would." Seeing Riku's rising anger, Gippal quickly continued " Anyways, the real reason I came here has nothing to do with stopping you. In fact, it is quite the opposite of that."

" …Then what are your really here for then Gippal?"

"I came here to tell you I'm coming with you Riku b-…." Gippal paused when he saw the look on Riku's face.

Shock coursed through Riku as his mind registered what Gippal just said. He struggled to speak and succeeded in mimicking a goldfish. Gippal laughed at Riku's and couldn't help throwing in a friendly insult. " I know your shocked Riku, but impersonating a goldfish is going a little far?" Riku finally snapped out of his daze and stepped towards Gippal with a panicked look. "Gippal, you can't come with me its to dangerous! You never even heard of the heartless till now, and after all this, you want to travel to different worlds fighting thousandths of them! There not the worst thing though. The darkness… that's what is the worst thing you could ever face. I should know since I-I… ." The words wouldn't leave his mouth and he could only grimace as they burned in his mind 'I am forever trapped in the darkness.'

Riku was interrupted from thoughts when Gippal placed a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down Riku let me finish." Riku looked up to see an unusual look of seriousness on Gippal's face. " It's true I came here with the intent to join you but I realized on the way here that I can't. It's true that I have never known about the heartless till now, and that I have never seen or been in the darkness before. If these were the only reasons, then I would have still gone with you. However, my responsibility that I have here is why I can't leave." A confused look appeared on Riku's face. "Responsibility?" Gippal serious expression never left as he nodded "We Albed have always been outcasts of society since we are more reliant on Machina. Believe it or not, a few years earlier Spira was mainly against using machina and a person could be punished if found with forbidden machina. Lets just say that eventually tension between us exploded and there was a battle between us. We Albed lost our home and were forced to scatter. We believed that there would never be peace between our people." Gippal serious expression was replaced with a bitter smile. "Ironically, the thing that brought our people together was a thousand year old monster named Sin. It caused so much death and destruction that it made us Albed with our machina and the Yevonites with their magic and Aeons unite. The battle that ensued was a bloody one that cost us many of our people. We were never great in size and the loses were incurred didn't help. After the battle was over and Sin was slain, we Albed were few in numbers and we could only hope the Yevonites would keep the alliance we had gained through blood."

Gippal expression changed from bitter to a look of someone remembering something dear to them. "It was thanks to Nooj and Baralai that we were able to keep the peace between us. They had gained fame and rose in rank during the battle with Sin and had fought with the Albed. With their help, I became the representative of the Albed and together we brought peace back to Spira. Its been three years since that time and as you can see we have come a long way. Still, I am the leader of the Albed and they rely on me to help guide them to the future. I can't leave now and abandon them. Just like you can't abandon you mission as a key wielder."

Gippal had a sad smile on his face. "So you see Riku, I originally came here to join you and help you with your mission. But now," Gippal held his hand in a fist "I came to say goodbye instead." Riku tried to hide the sadness he felt with a smirk and raised his fist and bumped against Gippal's. "Geez, Gippal, could you be any more depressing. Sure we are saying goodbye for now, but who knows, maybe one day I'll be able to visit this world again." Riku began to walk away and Gippal stood on the road and watched him go. " Besides Gippal, like you said, I have a responsibility to my friends and the world to." Riku kept walking toward his ship and never turned back to see his friend one last time. 'This is the path I have chosen to walk. I know what I must do as a Keyweilder and why it must be done. Still, every step I take only leads me closer to the heartless, to darkness, and to…' Riku didn't have to finish his thought as he felt dark being in his soul shift. "To me"

[Line Break]

A figure was sitting on a strange aircraft 'Why am I here?' The figure shook its head 'A better question is why am I still here?" The figure laughed "Guess I had nothing better to do but sit here and be lost in my memories. Everyone else is enjoying themselves at the festival or at home with their loved ones.'

"Hey whose up there!" The figure was surprised from its thoughts as it looked down to see Riku looking up at it. 'I guess Riku is leaving now' Noticing Riku's defensive stance, the figure quickly stood up to be seen easier. "Sorry Riku, I didn't mean to surprise you like this." Riku blinked in surprise when he saw who it was. "Lulu? What are you doing here." Lulu could only shrug as she didn't know the answer either. " I don't know. I came here to see the ship that everyone was talking about before I left, and I seemed to have lost track of time." At the mention of leaving, Riku noticed that Lulu had a bag laying beside her. "Leaving? Where are you going?" Lulu picked up her bag and began to climb down. "I'm leaving to go back home to Besaid. I don't originally live here. I volunteered to join the army when the Heartless appeared. Now that they are gone I am free to return to my home." 'Alone' Lulu shook her head to clear the thought and when she reached the ground she turned to Riku. "That's when I decided to see the ship everyone was gossiping about and I lost track of time. At that's where you found me later"

He felt a strange sense of disappointment when he found out she wasn't there to say goodbye. 'I know we have only known each other for a month, but I thought we were still close enough to be called friends.' He shook of the feeling and smiled at Lulu. "Well I'm glad I was able to see you so that I can say goodbye. I have already said goodbye to Gippal and who knows I may one day come back to visit. Anyways, I hope that you reach your home safely." Riku walked to the hatch and opened it. He looked over his shoulder one last time "see you later."

Lulu watched as he walked into his ship. She felt anxious all of a sudden and had a million thoughts running through her head. 'Why don't I want to leave?' A picture of a person with red hair, smile on his face, and his blue sword hanging at his side appeared in her mind. 'Chappu…. That's right, I have no one to go home to. Everyone I knew or loved is dead' She looked towards the ship. 'Maybe, just maybe he will let me.' Decision made, she opened the hatch and followed Riku into the ship.

[Line Break]

Riku fell into the pilot seat with a sigh 'Finally I'm done checking everything. Looks like it's time to continue on my journey. Wonder where I'm headed next.' Riku searched his bag and found the letter with the worlds listed on it. 'Lets see, I just completed my mission here on Spira. So the next world I am headed to is Devil's Bayou. Sounds nice.' Riku thought sarcastically. He began to punch in the coordinates but stopped when he thought he heard something. He waited but shrugged and began to continue his task until he heard it again. 'Is that knocking?' He walked towards the door of the cockpit to see if the sound was coming from there. He heard sound again and nodded. 'Yep, it was definitely knocking. Question is, what is this person doing on my ship?' He frowned and grabbed the doorknob and opened the door. Riku could only blink in a surprised stupor at the person standing before him.

Lulu barely stopped herself from laughing at Riku's face. He looked like he saw something he never seen before. "Are you going to let me in or stare at my face all day?" Riku, still dazed from her sudden appearance, hastily stumbled to the side to let her in. Lulu walked past Riku and threw her bag besides the copilot's seat and sat down. "So this is what the inside of your ship looks like. Smaller than I thought it would be." Riku's mind final began working again. "Lulu! What are you doing in here?" Lulu merely shrugged at him. "I don't know, just felt like coming along on your journey." Riku rubbed his head in frustration. "Not you to Lulu. First it was Gippal with his surprise visit and his little trick of getting me to believe he was going to join me. Now you sitting in my ship telling me your going to join me." Riku fell into his chair with a sigh. "Look Lulu, you can't come with me. I'm going to tell you the exact same thing I told Gippal. You don't know what the heartless are capable and how dangerous the darkness is."

Lulu frowned at Riku with a dangerous look in her eye. " I don't know how dangerous the heartless can be you say. You seem to forgot who jumped into the mass of heartless with you or who fought beside you against that creature in the water. As I recall, it was my magic that made it possible to defeat it and I even had to save your ass at the end." Riku hastily raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Calm down Lulu, that's not what I meant. I know that I owe you one for saving my life and that you're a good fighter. However, the heartless are not the same on every world and the darkness which they come from is much worse than anything you have seen yet." Lulu settle down a little at Riku's acknowledgement of her skill but still had a stubborn look. " So your saying that I can't go because I have no experience in dealing with this darkness." Riku nodded at Lulu with a relieved expression. 'Finally she understands what I mean.'

"I understand your concern Riku. However, I think to say no to me solely on that reason isn't good enough."

"What not?"

"Did you know everything about the heartless and darkness when you began to travel across the worlds?"

"…No, but that's different!"

"How so? What is the difference between you and me Riku?"

"I was chosen by the keyblade to fight against the darkness. I had a weapon that could protect me better from the heartless then other would have."

"So your saying just because I wasn't chosen, I can't go? Only people with Keyblades are worthy of fighting?"

Riku stood up with and waved his hands in frustration. "That's not what I meant! It just means I was better prepared then you and people without key blades can fight to."

Lulu looked up at Riku with a smirk that told Riku she knew that she was winning this argument. "Then why can't I fight? You saw how strong I am. I am a trained soldier and we have already proven that we can work together. So what reason, besides only having litle experience in fighting the heartless, can I not go?"

Riku wracked his brains with any possible excuse he could come up with. "Wait! You are a soldier. You have a responsibility to protect those people in Luca."

Lulu couldn't stop herself from laughing. "Riku did you forget that I told you I resigned from my position just a few minutes ago."

Riku almost slapped himself in the face for forgetting that fact. He shook off his momentary period of stupidity and tried one last desperate plea. "What about your friends and family at your home. Won't they be worried about you if you disappear without them knowing what happened to you." Riku noticed how Lulu suddenly went quite at the mention of her family and friends. 'Did it work?' He thought with hope. When Lulu looked up at Riku, he felt a chill go down his spine. 'What's with that look?'

Lulu's eyes were longer angry but cold and empty. "No, there is no one that would miss me anymore."

[Line Break]

Riku tiredly leaned against the wheel of the ship. His thoughts were scrambled over what happened at the end of his conversation with Lulu. After he had asked the question about her family and friends, she had acted strangely. The image of her eyes flashed in his mind and he couldn't stop himself from shuddering. Then she simply stood up and headed out the door with her bag and said she was going to bed. Riku found he couldn't speak and had let her go. Now here he was in space with a major headache and an self imposed partner. He sighed as he looked at the screen to see when they would arrive at their destination. 'Six more hours till we arrive at the new world.' He leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed. 'Guess I can catch a quick nap to try and recover from all that has happened today.'

BEEP … BEEP ... BEEP … BEEP … BEEP … BEEP … BEEEEP

Riku jerked awake to hear the alarm going crazy. His mind was disoriented as he fumbled around to see what was wrong.

"What the fuck is that noise!" Riku jerked around to see a fuming Lulu standing in the doorway.

He turned back around when he felt the ship shudder. "Lulu get buckled in now!"

"Why what's going on?

"Were going in for a crash landing!"

"What!" Lulu looked up to see the surface of a swampy greenish land coming full speed at them. She half ran, half staggered to her seat and quickly strapped herself in. "What the hell were you doing?"

Riku felt a twitch coming on. "I was sleeping!"

Lulu couldn't stop herself, she whacked Riku in the head. "Your were sleeping when you were supposed to be flying!"

Riku rubbed his head with one hand and with the other tried to stabilize the ship as much as possible. "Don't hit me! I'm trying to stabilize the ship!"

"It's not my fault you fell asleep at the wheel. I thought you had more sense than that."

"I don't need to hear that from someone who just invited themselves onto this ship and caused all this to happen!"

"If you would just accept someone's help once in awhile instead of trying to do everything yourself, then maybe you wouldn't be so tired!"

"What did you say?"

The two had completely forgotten about the current issue at hand and were arguing back and forth over whose fault it was. In the background, the alarm was going off, red lights were flashing, the ground was glowing larger on the screen, and if you looked closely, the screen looked like it had a sweat drop on the side of its screen as its pilots were arguing.

CRASH! BANG! KRRRRRRRRR!

The ship skidded to a stop as it collided into a fallen tree. The lights flickered and slowly faded away to nothing. Silence spread throughout the forest as the ship settle into the swampy land. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes into hours as the ship laid silent with no movement or sound coming from the inside.

As the sky began to darken, a lone figure appeared from behind a patch of trees. The figure walked towards the crash sight as a bird seemed to hover over it. The person stopped in front of the hatch and knocked. When no answer came, the person struggle with the door until it partly opened but got stuck on the log it was leaing against. The person slipped inside and the bird seemed to follow the person. The door slowly closed and silence was apparent once again throughout the swamp.

[Line Break]

'aww, why does my head hurt?' Lulu tried to sit up but quickly laid back when she felt queasy. 'ug, what happened?' she looked around as best as she could and noticed she was lying on the floor of the cockpit with a blanket over her. She then noticed that a person was beside her. She turned her head to see the back of Riku's head. 'Riku?' As the memories slowly started coming back, Lulu face slowly got angrier and angrier. Riku slept soundly unaware about the horrible fate he would experience. Before Lulu could gather enough strength to fry his ass with magic, she heard a bump and some shuffling from outside the door to the cockpit. She warily turned to the door and prepared herself for an attack. The door burst open and a bird flew in the room and landed on a chair. 'A bird?' thought Lulu with surprise. Then her attention was drawn back to the door as a figure stumbled through the door as it struggled to carrier a bowl full of water in its hands. Lulu eyes widened in surprise when the person turned out to be a little girl. The girl carefully walked the rest of the way and set the bowl down with a satisfied smile on her face. "Finally, your awake lady! I was getting worried when I couldn't wake you." Lulu tried to speak but all that come was strangled sound. She coughed and cleared her throat and tried again. Her voice came out weak and dry sounding. "Who are you?" The girl smiled brightly at Lulu and pointed at herself "I'm Penny and I'm the one who helped take care of you." Lulu smiled at the happy child. " I'm Lulu and that's Riku" she said as she pointed at Riku. "So you have been taking us the entire time. Thank you." Penny blushed and looked down with her foot going in small circles on the floor. "Your welcome."

Suddenly, a squeaky voice from the doorway was yelling at Penny. "Penny have they woken up yet?" Penny turned around and shouted "Yes they have Miss Bianca!" Lulu tried to look around Penny to see who was speaking but couldn't see anyone. "How are you poor dear. You took quiet a hit to your head." Lulu could hear the voice getting closer but couldn't she anyone around. "Down here dear." Lulu looked down to she a mouse with a purple hat and coat with white fuzz on top of it. Beside her was another mouse with red hat and coat. Lulu could only stare at the mouse. "Oh my Bernard, it looks like she isn't feeling well." The mouse with the red hat looked up at Lulu. "You okay miss. You do look a little pale all of a sudden." Before she could respond, she heard a squawky voice behind her. "Maybe she got a little woozy from sitting up to fast." Lulu turned to see that it was the bird talking. Lulu eyes widened even more and she turned a few shade paler. "Orville, don't scare the poor dear like that. Look at her, she is even paler now then she was before." Orville somehow looked embarrassed "Sorry about that Bianca." Lulu felt a light touch on her hand and looked down to see Bianca patting it with in a comforting manner. "It's alright dear, no one here is going to hurt you." Lulu smiled weakly at her. "If you don't mind, I would like to get some more rest." The little mouse smiled her " Of course dear, you should get all the rest you need to recover." Then the mouse turned away and walked out the door with Bernard right behind her and Orville flying over them. Penny was the last to leave. "Goodnight Lulu." Lulu weakly smiled back "Good night Penny" Lulu laid down and pulled the covers over her head. 'What have I gotten myself into?'

Author's notes: I know Lulu is ooc but I made it to where she wasn't as mature as she was in the game since she is younger. Plus I hope you guys like the world I chose for their next adventure. The world is from The Rescuers cartoon.

Also I'm looking for a different name for this story. Any suggestion would be helpful.