Merry Christmas everyone. Finally managed to update something on Christmas. I hope you enjoy this present too especially since it's only the second chapter I've posted for this story in thirteen months. Still feel really bad for that.

There was only so much differentiation and length I could put into this chapter, cause you know, its entire plot is pretty much, 'Oh hey where's Pinocchio, oh he's over there getting eaten by a Heartless.' so it's on the short side, Especially for a DBF chapter since they usually get around 8k min. But I hope it's okay.

Hope you have a great Christmas to anyone reading this on Christmas day.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom hearts, Square Enix does.

In the midst of troubles

Floating across the endless stretch of space, Sora, Crowtassha and Luke's journey remained uninterrupted by the appearance of world portals. The talk inside the cock pit was uttered in quiet tones. Sora's proficiency in sign language was getting much better, so it was no longer the core of his and Crowtassha conversations. Though along the long ride she had many chances to run through the signs he knew to check they were properly memorised. Yet apart from that, speak had wandered into trivial matters to which Luke didn't even bother to listen.

He sat by piloting the ship, tapping his fingers on the wheel to quell the boredom building within him. His gaze drifted across the great expanse beyond the glass. The shards of mythacite floating in space lit up the gloom like bright fireworks. He'd always found them mesmerising if he was being honest, beautiful even. But he never told anyone this. He didn't like telling other people his personal thoughts.

Briefly he looked back at Crowtassha and Sora where they sat. They were still talking about nonsense. So he closed his ears again and refocused his attention on the space beyond the window in front of him. It continued uninterrupted for a while longer before a speck on the horizon caught his attention.

It was small at first, but he quickly noticed an abnormality in its shape. He tried to figure out what it was as it came closer. With a measure of surprise it came to him that whatever it was it was moving. Up and down in a similar pattern. He scrutinised it some more. Ships didn't moving that way, at least not any he knew of, so what was it? Watching it a time more its shape became clear. He jumped.

The sound gained Crowtassha's attention from her seat behind him. She got up to check on him and to find out why he had spooked. Leaning against the dashboard, she questioned him, "What's up?"

Giving her a strange look he slowly raised his arm and pointed to the large incoming creature visible past the glass.

Crowtassha looked in the direction he had pointed in, adjusting her eyes until the creature appeared clear she jumped.

"It's a fricking Shark!" she screamed.

"What?" Sora spoke up incredulously, jumping up and approaching the front of the cockpit. He balked at the large form of the animal zoning in closer to their ship.

In response to the imminent danger Crowtassha all but teleported back to her chair and sat down. Not wanting to get smashed into the screen any more times than she had. Then she ordered, "Get us away from here now dear Luke!"

He nodded in agreement. The shark was now in close proximity to the vessel. It was the largest of its kind he'd ever set eyes on in his life. Its teeth were pointed and plentiful, perfectly ready to eat their ship in one bite. He turned rapidly to the right. This action knocked Sora off his feet, who had neglected to take the smart course and sit back down like Crowtassha had. He soon relocated back to the safety of his seat.

Unfortunately, avoidance tactics and all, the shark now had them in its sights. It floated closer until it was right on top on them. Luke tried as he could, but getting away from the monstrous beast was soon realised to be impossible. He flinched as the monster opened up its jaws to eat up his poor ship in one single bite.

…:…

From darkness, a scene faded into existence.

Waves crashed against the sand. The small island was quiet, locked in its own clam realm. Two young boys maybe about five or six occupied the space, engaged in their own conversation. Walking lazily, they started on one side of the island and worked their way inwards.

"You sure you did just hear it this time?" The taller one spoke.

"What difference does it make? There's a huge monster in there I tell you." His younger friend squealed in excitement.

Approaching a pond to which water streamed from overhead, the taller boy questioned, "Alright, suppose there really is a monster, think we can beat it by ourselves Sora?"

Sora stopped in front of a small cave hidden in the roots of a tree and smiled whilst turning to Riku, "No problem, let's do it."

The two boys peered into the cave entrance. Sora dropped his voice a pitch, "Listen there, can you hear it growling?"

"Shhh," Riku placed a finger to his lips to tell him to stop talking, "quiet, we gotta be careful."

They entered the cave, explored, and in the end found nothing. The cave was completely empty.

"See that, it was just the wind making that noise." Riku announced to Sora.

Sora pulled a disappointed face and complained, "Aww man, I wish it was a monster."

Riku's eyes continued to scan the cave. After a while something seemed to catch his interest, "Hold on," he said to Sora, "what's that over there?"

On the far end of the cave, hidden in the shadows was a long wooden surface. Riku walked up to it and examined it. He knocked on it and looked at it up and down. He made a quizzical expression, "A window, or maybe a door. It won't open" he mused.

Finding the wooden surface void of answers he returned to Sora's side.

The younger boy grumbled "Geez, is that really all that's in here?"

"What do you expect, in a boring place like this?" Riku told him matter-of-factly.

The boys paused, Sora's expression downcast over the failure of their adventure, Riku's thoughtful.

Eventually he spoke up, "Hey Sora?"

"Hm.' the younger boy responded, lifting his head to look at Riku properly.

"When we're older, let's get off this island." He proposed excitedly, "We'll go on real, adventures, not this kid stuff."

"Sure," Sora agreed.

As he began to walk out of the cave with Riku beside him, Sora wondered, "but isn't there anything fun to do now?'

The scene began to fade, the last audible words "Hey you know the new girl at the mayor's house-" were evaporated with the memory.

…:…

Sora opened his eyes. That memory, that was from so long ago, he was probably only five. It'd been a day or so before he met Kairi, and a year until Riku stopped speaking and Kairi pulled away. Sora sat up and rubbed his eyes. Riku had gotten sick when he was seven, and after he recovered he didn't speak anymore. Sora didn't know why, even now. For Kairi pulling away, he could sort of reason with. Had she been entangled with this light and dark stuff even then, he couldn't blame her for not wanting to get the people near her involved. But for Riku, he couldn't even begin to make sense of his silence

Finishing rubbing his eyes, his vision cleared up and he realised where he was. He jumped with a start. He was in the belly of the shark. Beside him Crowtassha and Luke where in similar states of waking up. Luke was already aware of their strange surroundings. His face held an expression much like Sora's one of shock.

Crowtassha was a little slow on the uptake and took another couple seconds to rouse herself so that she saw the state of their surroundings with clear sight.

"What tha?!" She jumped. "Please don't tell me we're in its stomach." She whined.

Luke nodded rather matter-of-factly in response to her question.

Crowtassha squinted her eyes, and peered through the dim light at Luke "Luke in this light I can barely see you move."

Sora squinted as well, and looked around him, "Now that you mention it… it is really dark in here."

He could barely see two metres from him. The knowledge that they were in the sharks belly was more known from the feeling of it beneath them then from what they could see.

Luke too took to scanning what was visible. He reached into his pocket and grabbed a fire mythacite stone and lit a fire in his hand. The flame lit up the area for another two metres around, making for a visual of four metres across. Luke looked around some more, then seemed to click in to something. Quite suddenly he latched hold of Crowtassha. He signed to her hysterically, 'Where's the ship?'

"Ah," Crowtassha sounded looking from Luke to Sora taken completely surprised by his sudden outburst. She looked around to see if she could locate what Luke could not. Her eyes didn't set on to any ship or whatnot, but as she clenched her hand without thinking it closed on around something. She rose whatever it was to her face. It looked like the type of crystal a world gave her when it didn't agree with the ship. The sort of thing that would send to the dimensional pocket wherever the ship was being kept so they could leave. She was confused. She checked her surroundings.

"Hey, this was a shark right?" She clarified.

"Yeah." Sora told her, confusion tinted his voice at the seemingly out of place question.

She lifted up her hand for both boys to see. "Just asking, cause it gave me the sort of thing a world does when it doesn't like the ship. See." She gestured for them to look.

Sora and Luke both stared at the object in Crowtassha's hand curiously.

"Why do you think it did that?" Sora asked, obviously not having a clue about it himself. Luke looked just about the same amount of confused.

Crowtassha lifted the stone to her face again and got up, watching over the insides of the shark she proposed, "Perhaps this isn't really a shark, but a fragment of a world. It would explain how it could survive in space without the assistance of mythacite."

Sora followed Crowtassha's gaze, not really fully comprehended what she was saying. "Should we explore it then?" he asked.

"The insides of a shark?!" She questioned.

"Might as well." Sora shrugged.

Crowtassha turned to Luke, "What do you think?"

Luke met her gaze and got up slowly, 'I think it's a great idea.'

Crowtassha stared at him blankly. "Ok I know you're being an idiot." She shrugged, "But, we might as well."

"Let's go then." Sora piped up.

The three of them, under the careful guidance of the flame Luke held in his hand slowly made their way through the shark's stomach. When they were a fair way in they began hearing sounds of movement. It was very lively, and sounded like the purposely done moving of objects. So assumedly it was human. This curiosity made then go towards the source of the sound.

When they reached it they saw it was being made by someone up on a ledge. It surprised them to see that someone else was actually in here, but the want to know who it was outweighed the latter.

"Hey who's up there?" Sora called out.

There was sound of movement, then a small wooden puppet peered over the edge. It was dressed in shabby clothes of flowered paper and a bread hat. Across its shoulders it was lunging a piece of what appeared to be mythacite.

"Me." It said. The voice seemed to be that of a boy so that was what they guessed its gender to be.

The puppet moved off without a word and the left the three of them standing where they had seen him appear.

There was a moment's thoughtful pause.

"That was a…" Sora began.

"Puppet…" Crowtassha added.

"A moving talking puppet." Sora finished.

"Hmmm," Crowtassha nodded her head in appreciation of the what-the-hellness of the sight they just beheld. "Well I think this calls for further investigation." She began stiffly walking off following the little titbits of sounds made by the moving puppet leaving Sora and Luke behind as they recovered. Luke continued to stare up at the vacant ledge his head twisting to the side in sheer astonishment. The only thing that got him to move was Sora grabbing him by the arm when he realised Crowtassha had walked off and dragging him behind him.

When they reached where the puppet was going to they found him with another person. A human this time, an old man in fact.

The old man asked, "What have you got there Pinocchio?"

Beside him the puppet said, "With we can get out of here father."

"Oh really?" The old man exclaimed, admiring the block of silvery mythacite, "With this big block, you think so?

Taking this chance to jump in on the conversation, Sora approached them and said, "it's true.'

The three of them walked up close to the old man and the puppet, who was as the old man had called him Pinocchio. Trying to avoid looking at the oddity that Pinocchio was Sora decided to aim the topic of the conversation elsewhere.

"So, how'd you two end up here?"

"Oh," the old man noted upon seeing them, "This monstrous shark swallowed us, and I'm afraid to say you three as well. How unfortunate."

"I guess so." Sora concurred, still unsure what exactly this 'shark' was classified as. Going off Crowtassha's brief explanation it was a little confusing.

The old man nodded, holding out his hand he introduced himself, "I'm Geppetto, I'm Pinocchio's father."

"Sora." He greeted in return shaking his hand. Crowtassha gave Geppetto her name as well, and told him Luke's.

When Sora asked again how he ended up here the old man answered, "Oh well when Pinocchio ran off I went everywhere looking for him, and over the course of it I was swallowed by this shark, and in time Pinocchio was too. I can only hope he wasn't too mischievous in my absence." He paused and asked the puppet, "You weren't were you Pinocchio?"

Only during the talk, everyone had neglected to see Pinocchio get distracted and walk off. Geppetto had turned just at the right moment to see him swallowed up by the dark of the shark's stomach.

He sighed, "Even as I'm fretting about it you're being mischievous." He looked back at the three of them and asked kindly, "My body is old and sore, could you fetch him for me?"

"Sure." Sora replied, walking past Geppetto to the dark depths Pinocchio had trodden.

…:…

The three of them travelled further into the shark's stomach guided by the light of Luke's small flame. The puppet wasn't too hard to locate, only about ten metres in did they set eyes on him.

He was crouching by a pile of wooden rubble, almost as if he was hiding.

When they were close enough that they were sure Pinocchio could see them as well, Sora stepped forward and asked, "What are you doing here Pinocchio, let's go back."

"Geppetto's worried." Crowtassha added.

When Pinocchio still didn't budge Sora told him further, "Come Pinocchio stop fooling around, this is no time for games."

"But I thought you liked games." A voice cut through the darkness, "Or do you not care for them now after all that's happened." A figure formed from the shadows, the owner of the voice. His silver hair piercing past the dark backdrop.

Sora started in surprise. Beside him Crowtassha took a cautionary step backwards.

"Riku." Sora mouthed, when the shock over the boy's sudden appearance quelled and reality hit the words, "What are you doing here?" followed.

Riku gave a dark smile, "Playing a game." He answered vaguely.

"That's not what I meant!" Sora fired back, "I meant…" he paused, realising a flaw in his words, 'What had he meant?'

"If you're thinking of that red headed girl that Dark seeker took out, I'll make you a deal, catch us and I'll tell you about her." With those words Riku grabbed hold of Pinocchio's hand and ran further into the depths of the shark.

Sora stood in the same spot unmoving. He realised something. There was a detail in Riku's last sentence that Sora couldn't figure out how he knew it. "How he'd know that Kairi had been taken out by a dark seeker?"

Crowtassha stared on with the same bizarre question riding on her lips, "How indeed." She mumbled, pulling a stronger expression, "Maybe it's worthwhile to play along with his game for a while."

Sora nodded. This was a question that worried him greatly, he had to figure it out. So deeper into the shark they walked in pursuit of Pinocchio and Riku.

…:…

They searched high and low for Pinocchio. In twisting patterns, under and over swallowed debris. The shark's size was colossal, making the search area ten times that of what you'd expect. Winning this little game of hide and seek proved to be much harder than previously anticipated.

What's more, an oddity presented itself in the appearance of Heartless within the shark. They should have only been attracted to worlds and their keyholes. Their existence here only strengthened Crowtassha's world fragment theory, but all the same it made whatever the Heartless were here for useless. This was no world, the way Pinocchio and Geppetto acted made that all too clear. To them they were simply trapped in the shark, it was not their world but a prison. The Heartless had come here searching for something that wasn't here. Their only use seemed to be to hinder them on their way. But they were destroyed each round they fought against the three of them, and never took attention away from their main quest within the shark. They continued their search.

…:…

Zoi suka leaned against a pile of debris behind Riku. Absent-mindedly cleaning out her nails she wondered out loud to the boy in front of her, "Why do you still bother that boy, I've already shown you that he cares more for those two and the Keyblade. So why do you continue?"

Riku flicked his eyes back to the elder women, "It's not that I care for him, it's more that he reacts amusingly when messed with."

"Is that so?" Zoi suka inquired, pushing herself off the pile, "Such cruelty I would watch. Darkness like that is ample food for Heartless." As she let a portal of darkness take her away last words escaped Riku's mouth.

"Keep your thoughts to yourself witch."

…:…

Sora and the others had caught sight of Pinocchio. They chased after him but the tricky little puppet was stubborn in avoiding capture. He led them further into the shark than they had dared venture before.

On the edge of a darkness yet unseen in the beast the figure of Riku formed. Pinocchio ran past him but he didn't budge from his spot. Sora halted.

Riku stared at him emotionlessly. His stare baited Sora into speaking.

"Riku, why are you doing this? What's the point?"

"Does there have to be one? It's fun to mess with you. If we're going to question things, why don't you ask yourself why you're helping people from worlds you don't know, when you could be helping your friends from your own who are indisposed. Like that girl for example."

"Ah." Sora tried to create an answer to that but one didn't come. The words bit deep. Of course he wanted to save Kairi, but how could he if he didn't know how? He looked back up to meet Riku's eyes. His earlier comment made it seem like he knew something. If there was any lead he could find which might lead him to Kairi, chances were Riku was it.

Pinocchio's scream cut through those thoughts and threw any further talking down the drain. All of those present jumped and turned to look in the direction the sound came from. Though of course through the darkness nothing was visible.

Reacting before thinking Sora jumped head first into the darkness with Crowtassha and Luke following. Luke brightened his flame to fight against the increased darkness and they made their way to the source of the sound.

Within they found a horrible sight of Pinocchio trapped with the cage of a Heartless. The monster was sickly green and grew multiple tentacles from its body. Sora and the two beside him readied for the fight to save Pinocchio. It was only to soft steps from the side of him that made Sora pause before beginning the fight.

Riku drew even with him, watching the twitching Heartless monster. He drew a wing shaped blade.

"Shall we?" He said.

Realising it was his intention to help them Sora nodded his head enthusiastically, "Yeah."

Ducking out of the way of the swinging tentacles, Sora and the others all began hammering away at the Heartless. Reacting to the blows they were dealing its stomach the monster whammed them with its arms. They packed quite the punch and knocked them out of attack range, successfully blocking them from attacking the Heatless until they managed to get back on their feet and to its stomach once more.

They continued to fight on like this. Luke kept up on the healing, but didn't completely pull out from the fight like the previous world. Sora even helped on occasion.

Once the monster had had enough of this treatment it spit Pinocchio out and the puppet went flying to someplace behind them. Riku swiftly drew away and ran after the sailing puppet. Sora, Crowtassha and Luke stayed only long enough to the see big Heartless race off in a random direction through the shark's stomach. When it had disappeared they too began to retrace their steps to the area where Pinocchio had been thrown.

Their feet took them back to where they had met Geppetto. The old man seemed distraught, and it only took a couple seconds to figure out why. A few metres away stood Riku, holding the limp form of Pinocchio in one arm.

Geppetto stood there begging him, "Please give me back my son."

But the boy didn't blink twice at his panicked face, "Sorry old man, but I have some business with this puppet."

"But that puppet's my son." The man argued back.

Riku's eyes drifted momentarily to the puppet he held, "I'll admit he's unusual, being a puppet yet still having a heart," His eyes raised back to Geppetto and Sora, "he might be able to help someone who's lost there's."

Something clicked in Sora head when he heard that. He looked to Riku, "You don't mean Kairi do you?"

"What does it matter?" Riku replied before slipping into the darkness.

Quick to follow him, Sora and the others trudged deep into stomach of shark in pursuit. When they got to an area that look to be filled with vats of stomach acid they found the two.

Riku stood looking stoically over the still form on the puppet on the ground.

Sora charged forward. "Let Pinocchio go Riku!'

The boy turned to look at him, he replied, "A puppet that has lost its heart to the Heartless, maybe it holds the key to helping Kairi." He gave more of his focus to Sora, "You wish to help her too don't you, why don't you join me to do so?" He took a step forwards.

Sora bared the Keyblade on Riku's advance. The boy soon halted, "So you'd rather fight me to save a puppet, interesting." The smile he pulled on the last word was ominous.

Sora pulled a hurt expression. It was painful to threaten Riku, after all the years they'd been friends, and after all the years he wished he could still call him so. Closing his eyes against the pain he eventually answered, "At least he still has a conscience."

Riku looked utterly unimpressed by the term, "What use is a conscience?" He sneered.

That hurt Sora further. He gripped the Keyblade tighter, "Because it tell us what's right and wrong. Just like how mine is telling me you're the wrong one here!"

The ominous smile that had been playing on Riku's lips dropped, "Then you narrow down my choice."

He was probably going to draw a weapon but the convoluted snarl of the Heartless from before halted all of them in all actions.

It reappeared in the space between Sora and Riku, raring for a fight. A chance Riku took to slip through a dark portal and away to some other place.

Failing around its tentacles the Heartless began to fight. It had come back more vicious than before and all but threw itself at its opponents, using its tentacles as an axis to throw its body forward as a weapon. Dodging to the side of this attack put Sora and the other two in danger of falling into the pits of acid. So that choice was either done sparingly or not at all, instead a block was favoured. The monster reprised its attack of smashing them with its tentacles, through a stronger version. At times it even began to sink its tentacles into the pools of acid and spray the liquid back at them. Dodging under the monsters arms was enough to avoid this attack, but it was rarely done on time, causing Luke's healing workload to go up. He drew slightly back from the battle to favour this as the fight went on. The Heartless grew aggravated and fought harder and harder the more damage it was dealt. It seemed that it wanted to destroy those who had injured it before, but as it could fight back no longer and a final blow was struck, that determination became its own undoing.

The Heartless evaporated into nothing.

Afterwards, Pinocchio woke up, supposedly fine after his ordeal. He was reunited with the very glad Geppetto, and after some aggravation they got the shark to spit them out. Sora, Crowtassha and Luke used the shard given to them when the shark first swallowed them to get themselves out. Wherever Riku had disappeared to, no one knew.

…:…

Far from giant sharks and monstrous Heartless, waves crashed against a ship as it rocked back and forth across the water.

The limp body of Kairi lay upon a red lounge. Her black painted lips unmoving, her eyes sealed tight. Riku stood watching her whist leaning against a wooden support. Zoi suka sat far from them on a seat by a table on the other side of the room.

"So she's a lifeless puppet with a stolen heart now, is that all?" Riku inquired.

"That's all." Zoi suka echoed. Watching the boy more closely she tapped her finger against the table. "If you help me gather the Princesses of heart like we discussed, and open the door to all worlds, then maybe we can find that girl's heart. Though I have no idea why you wish to do so." She got up with a stretch, and began walking towards the younger boy, "but as you are now you're as useless to me as that girl beside you. If you wish to help I'll have to grant you a little gift."

She drew even with the boy and grinned. She snapped her fingers.

"The power to control Heartless."

DBF Riku scares the living crap out of me. Seriously, and he's my own creation. This is why I can't wait to get up to writing KH ll when he no longer scares me.

The chapter got a little rushed in parts, I remember being very irritated while writing some parts, but I hope the quality isn't awful.

Please review, I'll positively love you for it.

~C.L.K