Riku slashed through another heartless. "Aladdin wasn't wrong about them," he said. "Heartless are pretty rampant…"

"Yeah…" said Mickey slowly. "Hey Riku?"

"Yeah?"

"Ever get the feeling we're walking into a trap?"

"A trap? No. A distraction? Maybe. What makes you say that?"

Mickey pointed. They were in the room where the keyhole once was, and right in front of where the keyhole would be was Genie, trapped in some sort of orb. Riku quickly ran over and released him with his keyblade. "OW! Wooh! Thanks kid!" said Genie, growing larger and stretching out. "It's been so long since I've been trapped in a tight squeeze like that! Although it was the Taj Mahal compared to the lamp."

"Genie, what are you doing here?" asked Riku. "Well, I came here looking for Al when this weird emo kid with grayish-hair covering his face came and trapped me. He mentioned something about Jasmine…" Mickey and Riku exchanged glances. "I'll stay here and look for Aladdin. You go back and protect Jasmine!"

Riku nodded. "Got it."

Riku groaned. Somehow, he had gotten lost trying to get out of the caves. Naturally, this would happen when he was trying to save Jasmine instead of kidnap her.

He was in a room that was full of mirrors—plain, flat mirrors that were all stuck into the ground. This room seemed to be the only one void of heartless. As Riku walked on past one of them, he stopped. Had he seen—

He looked into the mirror. A pair of yellow eyes stared back at him, along with a cruel smile.

"Ansem…no, Xehanort's heartless," said Riku, backing away. He half expected the mirror image to move along with him, but it didn't. Instead, the image continued to look on, mute and unmoving.

Riku frowned. What was it doing? He turned his head, and looked at another mirror—this time, it showed him from over a year ago, holding his soul-eater weapon. Must've been when he's joined Maleficent. He turned, and realized he was surrounded by different reflections everywhere. Another reflected the Riku replica; he wasn't sure how he knew it was his replica and not just him, but he just knew. One showed him in his organization coat and blindfold. Riku shook his head; he didn't need all of these reminders of the past. He began to walk on when he heard a soft voice say, "I thought you were going to save me."

He turned, but couldn't find the source of the voice. "When we first met, I thought that somehow, you'd have all the answers. You'd know how I could just become normal, like everyone else." He stopped. He recognized that voice. Xion.

He turned, and there she was, reflected in another mirror. But she wasn't mute like the other ones. She slowly stepped right out of that mirror and faced him. "But instead, you sent me to be slaughtered. Didn't even have the nerve to just do it yourself."

"X-Xion?" Was this real? Was this actually her? "Xion, look, nobody regrets what happened more than I did—

"That's a lie," said another voice coming forth. Roxas? This had to be an illusion. Roxas came forward, holding his two keyblades, Oathkeeper and Oblivion—Light and Dark, Kairi and Riku, Roxas' promise and his forgetting of Xion. A million meanings were put behind those two keyblades.

Riku began to back away. "Nobody regrets what happened like I do. All I wanted was to see Sora—to set things right. But no, you couldn't even give that to me." Riku turned around and dashed—he didn't need to listen to this.

"What a bunch of whiners." Riku turned. Riku replica was standing there, smiling at him. "I died too, and you don't see me complaining. They need to learn to deal."

"All they can do is think about themselves." Another Riku from the past, while he was with Maleficent. "Just like Sora. He doesn't really care about you either."

"Shut up!" said Riku, bearing his keyblade. He turned around and blocked an incoming strike from…himself, this time wearing an organization coat and a blindfold. He was grinding the Oblivion Keyblade against Riku's own Way to the Dawn. "Why would he care about you? The biggest Nobody of them all? The one who betrayed everyone and everything, the one who tried to kill him?"

Riku pushed him back, but didn't reply. It's all fake, it's all fake, he thought to himself, and maybe they were, but the guilt wasn't.

"And now, look at you: still using the darkness and entertaining ideas of protecting the light." Riku didn't need to turn to know it was Ansem. "Darkness does nothing but push back the light. In the end, your fate will be the same as before. You cannot protect the light, and you cannot save your friends. The darkness will only devour you and lead you back to me!"

Riku gripped his keyblade and turned. "SHUT UP!" he shouted, but all of the illusions were gone. He touched his forehead. Was he going crazy?

"Whatever," he said to himself, and proceeded to go through the mirror maze once more. He was going to make it. He wouldn't let himself be held down, not now. This time, the mirrors only reflected himself back. He gave a sigh of relief…a little too soon. One of the mirrors he passed didn't show another version of himself, but rather, Pinocchio. He stared at him sadly. Riku started remembering kidnapping him, and started to back away. Another mirror held Wendy in it, then Jasmine, then Tidus, Wakka and Selphie, then a heartless Kairi lying down with her eyes staring out vacantly…

"It's all your fault," the voices said in unison. Riku slackened for a moment, then gripped his keyblade with a new resolve. "I've already dealt with this. I'll make amends for what I've done. But I don't have time for stupid illusions!"

That's when he heard a huge growl from behind him. "Where's Belle!"

Riku turned a little too slowly, and the giant Beast pounced on top of him. His eyes were a venomous yellow. "Where is she! I'm not going anywhere without her!" Riku struggled against him, then everything started to get dark…

A puff of blue smoke came by and the beast disappeared. Riku got up and was surrounded by blank mirrors. Zexion stood there, glaring angrily at Mickey and Genie. Mickey ran forward. "Don't worry Riku! I've got this guy! You too, Genie!" Mickey turned to him. "You keep looking for Aladdin." He turned back to Zexion. Zexion's glare turned into a smile. "Well, what do you know? Once again, Riku doesn't know how to handle his own heart, and the king has to step in and save him."

"Shut up!" said Riku, getting up.

"Don't get angry at me—you're the one who did those things."

"I…I'm going to make up for that!"

"You'll make amends, huh? A few good deeds, and all you've done will be erased? The heartless you helped spread, the worlds you lead to ruin including your own, your two friends you've hurt?"

"I—"

"Kairi lost her heart because of you. Sora was thrust from his home, constantly chasing after you even as you rejected and tried to kill him. And thanks to you accepting Ansem into your heart, just so you could get rid of Sora, well…lots of things might have been different."

"Don't listen to him, Riku!" said Mickey. "You don't have to explain yourself to a bully like him! Jasmine needs your help!"

Riku turned to go. "Fine. Go on. Say what you want, but you can't lie to yourself. We both know what's in your heart."

Riku tried to say something—to reply—but he couldn't. The worlds had been destroyed, he had learned to control his darkness, he had helped Sora and company from the shadows, and both of his friends had more than forgiven him. So why couldn't he forgive himself? He pushed back his various emotions and ran onward.

Zexion turned towards the king. "So, you're going to be my opponent now?" Mickey glared at him. "Hm, I wonder what secrets you're sitting on…"

Mickey ran towards him and raised his keyblade, but he just went right through Zexion. Zexion then turned and changed his form to a familiar blue-haired keyblade master…

"You left me there," said Aqua, bearing Eraqus' keyblade. "You left me behind to rot in the realm of darkness!"

Riku ran on, the sand crunching beneath his feet. If he didn't hurry…

"AH!"

Riku came to a halt. A blonde-haired girl in a…bikini top and extremely short shorts…lay there in the sand, surrounded by shadow heartless. How many interruptions was he going to run into? Riku quickly ran by and slashed through them all. "Are you all right…miss?"

The girl slowly got up and smiled brightly at him. "Miss? Oh, I'm only like a year older than you! Miss is far too formal!" She suddenly got really close to him—uncomfortably close. "Thank you for saving me…I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come along…"

"Um…yeah," said Riku backing away. "I really need to get going…"

"Oooh! Look at these biceps!" she said suddenly, grabbing his arms. She placed a hand on his chest. "You know, there really must be some way I can repay you…"

"Seriously, I'm fine," said Riku, trying his best to make his disinterest obvious. He began walking away, and she stood there stuttering at him. "B-b-b-but wait a minute!" but Riku kept walking. She crossed her arms. "How can anyone resist the charms of the goddess of love and beauty?" she whined loudly. Riku turned to her, and saw her as she escaped into a corridor of darkness. She suddenly panicked as she saw him see her getting away and ran through. Riku shook his head. If those were their new enemies, they didn't have much to worry about. They were insane.

Riku perked up as he got an idea. Of course! He probably wouldn't be able to make it in time because of this little detour, but…he was already opening his heart to the darkness, wasn't he? If he could just make a corridor of darkness, he'd be able to get there faster…

Xire was wrestling with Jasmine. "Come…on…now! Just be a good girl…and…get into the portal!" They were standing just outside the palace door. Jasmine had only been able to blend with the people for a little while before Xire began threatening to burn everyone if she didn't come forward. The area was now deserted, and Xire was trying to wrestle Jasmine into a corridor of darkness, which was proving difficult when she wasn't allowed to harm her.

Jasmine kicked Xire in the shin, knocking her down. "I'm not going anywhere with you!"

"Venus Love-Me Chain!"

The chain of nobody symbols shot out and tied Jasmine up. "Ah, that's more like it…Minako-chan, what the hell are you wearing!"

"You told be to distract him because you sensed he beat Zexion's trap, and this is the only way I know how! And you know very well that it's Mixanko (Mi-ZAN-ko) now!"

"Let me go!" cried Jasmine. Mixanko snapped her fingers and the chain extended to cover her mouth as well. Xire shook her head. "It was a reflex," she said, staring blankly for a moment then shaking her head. "Something like that isn't going to distract Riku!" she said, motioning up and down at Mixanko's overly exposed body. "Why not? Boys his age are supposed to be drooling over girls like me…" "Haven't you noticed how perfect his hair is?" Xire whispered into her ear.

"Yeah…" she replied, drooling. "Well, who else has perfect hair like that?"

"Oh wait…are you trying to say he's like Marluxia?"

"Yes. I mean, come on, all the girls love him and he's never had a girlfriend…"

"So…you mean he's obsessive and power crazy?"

Xire sweatdropped. "Sure, Mixa, whatever."

"Hm. Well, that explains why he was able to resist my charms," she said shrugging. Xire reeled at her. "You mean you didn't stop him!"

In answer, a small beam of light shot out, destroying the chains around Jasmine. She quickly broke from Xire's grip and started running.

"Hm. Yeah, you probably should have put her in the corridor and commented on my outfit later…"

"SHUT UP YOU MORON!" Xire turned to face Riku, who for some reason was tired and panting. "Oh, someone used a corridor of darkness, didn't they?" said Mixa. "I wondered how you got here so quickly…you have to be careful when you have a heart these days. The darkness can really get to someone—even you."

Riku got up and got ready to fight. "Whatever. I still have no trouble taking you out!"

Xire stepped forward. "Good idea. I've been needing to take out my frustrations on something. You try to find Jasmine," she said motioning to Mixanko. She frowned and walked on. Rei took a fighting stance. "Fire Soul!"

A stream of fire shot out from her fingertips. Riku quickly dodged it and ran towards her. She didn't summon a weapon, but flames began surrounding her hands. Riku quickly realized this was going to be difficult—she was good at hand to hand combat, and followed up nearly every punch with a blast of fire from her hands. He was spending all of his energy just avoiding her attacks. He jumped back away from her, and a flaming bow and arrow appeared in her hands.

"Flame Sniper!"

"Dark Firaga!"

The flaming arrow cut right through Riku's spell. Riku cursed as he dodged the arrow, then began scaling the wall as she kept shooting them off. A trail of fire lay behind him as he reached the top, then kicked off as hard as he could. He then turned to the ground and, surrounding himself in darkness, dove right at Xire. Unprepared, she took the full brunt of the hit and fell over, but quickly recovered. "Fire Heel Drop!"

She hooked her leg, covered in flames, right up to his head, knocking him down. Riku surrounded himself with darkness again, and dove at Xire. After landing a few hits, she took out one of her talismans. "Akyuro Taisan!" She pressed it to his forehead, and he suddenly felt himself weakening.

"Like that? It only works on dark spirits, like you," she spat out. "Mars Snake Fire!"

A stream of fire shot out of her hands, and it twisted itself into the form of a large snake. The snake hissed at Riku, and dove right through him just as he raised his keyblade to defend himself. He was thrown against the palace door as the stream of fire continued to come at him. Xire looked down at her hands, not realizing she even had this power. The flames died down, and Riku slipped down a bit. She started to go over towards him when he croaked out, "Damn you."

She tensed, and Riku disappeared. She sensed the blow coming before she even had time to react; Riku appeared behind her and lased out with his keyblade right through her. Xire fell to her knees as Riku smiled smugly in front of her. "I underestimated you. I thought the Organization would be easy to take out. You guys are stronger than I expected. But…" he turned back to her. "You're still a bunch of losers."

Xire said nothing, but continued to hold herself. She could feel herself slipping away…was she fading?

"Well, Xire. It's odd to see you like this." She felt a hand touch her shoulder, and instantly felt revived. She stood up and saw the hooded figure beside her. Although her face was mostly hidden, she could see a smug smirk. "I just finished up with Kairi, and something told be to stop by here again. Riku should have been easy to take down after what we just put him through. You shame the Organization."

"I…I was just…well, why don't you try…!"

"Thanks, but I'm really a healer, not a fighter."

Riku growled and dove at her. She quickly dodged, and Xire blasted him down with fire. "It doesn't matter," continued the girl as if she hadn't been interrupted. "Mixanko already has Jasmine, so the missions a success. And for you," she said, turning to Riku, "that would be a big missions failed, wouldn't it? You weren't really cut out for this hero thing were you?"

Riku bared his teeth and ran towards them. They both jumped out of the way again. "Ooh, sloppy. Check that anger why don't you?"

Just then, Mickey came running with Genie at his side, who has holding an unconscious Aladdin.

"Just in time to see us go," said Xire, and they both disappeared into a corridor of darkness. Riku stood there, feeling like an idiot…and a failure.

"Gosh, are you all right?" said Mickey coming to him. Riku shook his head. "I couldn't—I didn't—they got her. Jasmine. I wasn't strong enough…"

"Don't worry, Riku, we'll find a way to get her back."

"Oh boy…Al's not gonna be to happy when he wakes up…" said Genie softly. They both looked towards Aladdin and saw that his eyes were slightly open. They were staring out vacantly, the pupils dilated so far they seemed nonexistent. "Mickey, it almost looks like…"

"His hearts been taken," agreed Mickey sadly. "We found him like that after I beat Zexion—he was sitting there in the middle of the cave. It seems weird though; if his heart was taken by the heartless, his body shouldn't be here."

"But…how else could his heart have been stolen?"

"I don't know. This and kidnapping Jasmine…it doesn't look good. But I think we've done all that we could for now. We should head out and go to the next world. Will you be okay looking after Aladdin?"

"Count on me!" said Genie beaming. Riku and Mickey nodded and prepared to go.

"It wasn't your fault, Riku," said Mickey. "The Organization seems to be making good use of its increased numbers." Riku nodded. "I know." But even as he said the words, he didn't believe them.

His first attempt at being a hero, and he had failed.

Ugh. This was one of those chapters where I hate my writing. I hate the way it turned out—I think I got some good general ideas out there, but my dialogue and description of events really just sucks. Good thing I don't do this professionally. And I think I might just stop with trying to do battle scenes—I should suddenly acquire drawing skills and somehow sketch them out, but…the chances of that are slim to none.

SPOLIER ALERT

I know that this may fly in the face of what happens in Dream Drop Distance (Riku becomes a hero while Sora fails the Mark of Master exam), but…I feel like Riku's whole conversion to the good side was a little rushed and had little transition. One minute Riku was reveling in the darkness and power, and then as soon as he's possessed by Ansem and let go he feels guilty about it. Although in my opinion, even in Chain of Memories still had a badass attitude and didn't really feel overly guilty about what he did. The real guilt seemed to hit home a little later, somewhere between the Days and KH2 era. It just…seemed kind of weird that he made such a big switch is all. I guess the light of Kingdom Hearts showed him the way.

But it's not going to go down that easily. I revived the entire Organization, made them all evil and working together (which there will be an explanation for…), and added 7 extra members. Normally one-man missions are now apparently going in 3's. While one organization wouldn't really be much of a problem for Sora, Donald, and Goofy, and even less of a problem for Riku and the keyblade master King Mickey, a few at a time with some well placed plans puts a little more difficulty in it. Anyway, my point (I sure know how to dance around a point…) is that the battle field is more than a little uneven, and so there may be a few more victories for Organization XIII coming about…

But don't worry; Sora's obviously falling too (we'll get back to him in a bit).

And a little info on the fighting style of the Senshi: I've already decided more or less how they're going to fight; it's pretty obvious that the organization has been training them. Translated into the Kingdom Hearts/ Final Fantasy universe, Sailor Senshi are predominately magic users, which, when it comes to taking out multiple enemies, magic is might in any game. Single enemies, attacks are more useful. Obviously, the Senshi have received some training from the organization members. Basically, they've unlocked further applications of powers they technically already have—I decided that since they had their powers before they were nobodies, I wouldn't give them weapons, 'cause it's just not the Senshi style (Usagi wielding a keyblade and fighting always seems weird to me; Senshi are not really hardcore fighters like the keyblade team is^^ but I'm trying to change that.) And you like how I snuck in Rei's new attack that was just introduced? This means, of course, I'll need to work on Sailor Hearts big time before I unveil too many more…Feedback would be much appreciated, although I'm not sure how many people actually read this drivel. It gets better, I promise! And little things that seem like a canonical impossibility or just improbability…there's probably a reason behind it, I promise! The answers a little underwhelming, but there are reasons!

Wow this was a long afterward.