A/N: I'll be chaing the POV's from time to time, so sorry for the confusion it may cause to some.

Chapter Six: It's a Start

R I K U

I sighed for a moment staring up at the unfamiliar ceiling before my eyes. I had not been able to rest for two weeks, we just got back from a place called Atlantica, or something like that, I can't really remember the name. It was pretty cool though. Donald used his magic to transform us into mere people. Sora had a dolphin fin on his mere-man tail, and Kairi had one that was almost a splitting image of that girl Ariel's.

Ariel, she's the daughter to King Trident, and she married someone from above the surface, I think his name was Eric. Anyway they have a kid now, she's a cute kid, I think she's two years old or something like that. The Heartless made their way to the 'surface dwellers' and at the bottom of the sea. It was hard learning how to swim with meremaid's tail. Mines ended up looking like a skinner version of an orca. I was able to take a picture of the sunset on where the humans of that world lived. Did I mention that Ariel's a human now? Yeah, it's pretty strange. Sora clued me in what happened with that world since I never set foot, or rather fin, in that place.

Donald had octopus legs and Goofy was a turtle, it was pretty funny. I probably got a big work from that world because fighting underwater was pretty rough for me, and for Kairi too. Sora showed us the rope's though, and Kairi's fighting skills are developing, slowly, but hey it's a pretty big improvement. The only time I saw her fight was in the World that Never Was.

I remember looking out of the gummi ship, the day we left Destiny Islands. Even when I close my eyes I see my home, and I see her too. I turned over in my bed, hearing the springs creak as I shifted my weight on the divan. This room, I call it the Blue Room, I think that's its name anyway, it has a blue sheeted bed with a coffee table in the middle of the room, with a black rug, and a desk up against one of the blue walls. We had to stop in a place called ' Traverse Town' because we ran out of supplies after our little adventure in that world. At least there was an outlet in my room, so I can charge the mp3 player and my phone, I'd rather use the outlet then have Donald use his Thunder spell to charge if back up.

There was a light knock on my door, and told whoever it was on the other side that they could come in. I turned my head slightly and looked at whoever it was that entered. It was none other than my best friend, Sora. He said 'hello' and waved at me slightly, and I waved back.

"Anything new today?" he asked referring to something, I just didn't know what that something was.

"Wha?" I asked, blinking for a moment.

"Did she send you anything?" he asked, his blue eyes holding some sadness in them.

"Not yet, it's going to take a while before it can reach her." I said speaking in a rather low tone.

"Oh…" he said obviously thinking of something else to say. "We're going to be leaving soon, I just came by to tell you that, so…"

"Got it…" I said watching Sora say his little goodbye and closed the door of the Blue Room. "I wonder where we're going…" I got up from the bed and stretched for a moment. I put on my black sneakers, and grabbed the black hooded shirt from the chair on the coffee table. When I slid my shirt on I heard a strange sound coming from in the room. I looked around, looking under the bed, under the pillow, I came up to the desk and noticed it was my cell phone.

I flipped it open and smiled as I knew who it was from. It was a feeling that came from the bottom of my heart, and I could feel my breathing stop for that small moment in time. I held it in as I opened the text message from her.

'Hey what's up, Riku? I loved the sunset picture from that place, it was so beautiful! I've been using that kit you bought me, I know, when you come back I'll show you all the cool stuff I've drawn, I'm sure you'll like it. I've been checking up on your mom, like you asked me too, I haven't forgotten my promise, and neither should you. P.S. I miss u.'

" Selma…" it warmed my heart knowing that she kept her promise. I unhooked the charger from the phone, and did the same thing to the little mp3 player. Funny, we almost forgot those boxes Sora had laying around by the pier, if we did I wouldn't have had anyway to communicate with her, or keep the mp3 player charged.

I sent her back a text message. From the date on it, it would take at five days for it to get there.

'Hey Selma, I miss u 2… I'd love to see the drawings you've made so far, hey send me one on your phone. We've been missing you a lot over here, I feel bad for Kairi she's the only girl in the group. I'm glad you liked the sunset, I'm going to be leaving soon, so I have to go, ttyl.' I pressed the send button on the menu from the cell phone's screen and sighed.

"She sent you something, did she?" Kairi's voice was heard from my room. I turned around and saw her leaning against the doorframe with a little grin on her face. "I saw the look in your eyes when you sent it. It's kind of cute," she said laughing for a while. "Sora told me to tell you that we're leaving so…"

"Yeah I hear you…" I told her grabbing the items on the desk and tucking some two items in the pockets of my black jeans. "Do you know where we're going?"

"I have no clue…" she said as the two of us walked down the hallway of the hotel.

It was like this the last we boarded the gummi ship. Donald and Sora were arguing about who got to pilot the gummi ship. It as a good thing that I have her mp3 player, and I stuck the little ear pieces into my ear and heard the music it had to offer. The title, it read as followed 'The Lost Horizon' from the play list titled OCRemix. It was very, how could I put this, strange. It stirred feelings in my heart thought I wouldn't feel again.

Kairi was fast asleep, so I didn't feel bad that Sora and Donald were still arguing even as we traveled through space on the red colored ship.

I looked out of one of the windows, watching the stars in their natural environment. They looked beautiful there, I couldn't help but take a picture of it. I grabbed my camera phone and clicked the flash button. It captured the image of the stars as we were traveling through space. I placed my hands on my chest and I sighed for a moment. 'I wish you could see what my hearts sees…' I prayed a little, silently in my head. 'I hope this thought can reach your heart,' I felt a sly smile creep up on me and I shook my head placing the camera phone back into my pocket.

"Destination, Radiant Garden. Arrival time 3 hours…" the intercom was fully automated, and it pierced through the sound of the music I was listening too.

A M A T E R A S U

"Welcome back, Amaterasu." A cheerful looking ninja greeted me.

I blinked for a moment, still not use to my real name yet. I grinned sheepishly at her. She was wearing a black outfit, it reminded me of the one she wore when she was a kid. Mind you I'm older than I look, but that's my little secret. I looked back at the others who came with me. I really shouldn't call them others, they are in fact my family, well the only family I have let that is.

"It's nice to see you too, Great Ninja Yuffie!" I said giving her a big smile.

Yuffie Kisaragi blushed, I don't know if it was because of how I said it, or rather that I was embarrassing her. I knew she was still the same Yuffie, no matter how great of a ninja she became. She still got motion sickness I know that much of her is still true, I won't forget that.

"It's nice seeing you too, Yomigami, Tachigami, Gekigami, Moegami, and you too Kazegami!" she said cheerfully as we all smiled at her pleasantly. "I'd like to welcome you all back home, to Radiant Garden."

"They sent you of all people to be our receiver…" Gekigami said trying hard not to laugh. "Excuse me, excuse me…" he said bowing slightly. "It's just that you… flying this little hovercraft…" he pointed to the cargo like craft ship. "Don't you still get motion sickness?"

"No!" she said shaking her head, hopefully she knew that my brother was just joking around, or least thought that he was. "Listen, just let me do my job you guys, besides this wasn't the kind of reunion I thought we'd be having."

"True, true…" I told her smiling softly. "I didn't think the darkness would swallow Destiny Islands again, I guess I thought wrong…" I sighed heavily.

"That's where…!" I noticed the look of worry in Yuffie's eyes.

"Don't worry; they left long before that happened." I calmed her down.

Yuffie started to talk about what happened while we were gone for who knows how long. It had been so long since we were home, I mean finally home, back where this all started, at least that's what I can remember at least. All of us started to go to the little cargo ship.

" Selma…" I heard Yuffie call out my preferred name. "How have you been most of all?"

"Just peachy!" I said smiling a bit. "Why do you ask, Yuffie?"

"No reason…" she said shaking her head for a moment. "Ready to see the others?"

"Hey, do we get cake after this?" I asked her trying to lighten up the mood.

"Still the same old hungry girl…" the ninja said laughing. We all ended up hearing some unearthly barking sounds from the black painted gummi ship my big brother had piloted. "What's that?" Yuffie asked stopping all of us in our tracks.

"A Shadow Hound…" Yomigami said pushing back his hair a bit. "We picked Chico up a while back…"

R I K U

"Riku…" my eyes weren't opening. "Riku, hey come on wake up…" someone was trying to get me to wake up. I couldn't hear the roaring engine of the gummi ship.

"Are we here?" I asked whoever it was that trying to wake me up.

I walked outside of the ship, rubbing my eyes. I was surprised that I didn't stumble forward or anything, because I was pretty tired, a three hour nap. Everything was different in Hollow Bastion, well now it's called Radiant Garden. Hollow either might mean empty or depressed, and 'bastion' meant fortress or citadel. The name probably came from the fact that the castle looked depressed, hence the title, Hollow Bastion. Anyway with that aside the place had a lot of green things, and by that I mean bushes, trees, it was looking more like a place from those Old English towns you see in fairy tales.

Donald and Goofy were showing us the way to the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, or what I like to call HBRC, a better way to remember it.

Sora was excited about coming back, because of the friends he had made while he was there. All of us were walking through the area, when something, like a needle, was slowly working its way into my heart, a little jab here and there. I winced slightly looking at my chest for a moment, there was nothing there.

As the group walked…

Riku sighed for a moment and that it was nothing more than just heartburn, or something like that. He continued to follow the others down the area, sometimes though he would look over his shoulder, thinking that he was being watched sometimes.

"I wonder what's up with everyone…" Sora said looking back at Kairi and Riku. The others just shrugged they didn't know. It took a while for everyone to finally make it to the headquarters of the HBRC.

Sora noticed that a couple of people had gone inside, and for a moment he could've sworn he saw Yuffie in that bunch. He shook his head and made a mad dash to the front, he couldn't wait to see everyone again.

Within the building…

"They're in a meeting?" Sora asked looking at what the wooden door inside the building had. "But…" he thought about it some more and sighed.

The younger male Keyblade wielder just sighed and sat down on one of the wooden chairs. He was looking forward to seeing them again, but he had to wait now. Donald and Goofy looked around the place, calling out some of the people's names from the HBRC.

Upstairs…

"As I live and breathe," a man with brown hair and matching facial hair cried out happily. He wore a blue suit that was rather strange, but that's how he carried himself. "If it isn't the Hikari family." The members smiled slightly, and corrected him on their last name.

"Diaz, Hikari's our code name remember?" the youngest one corrected him quite casually. "It's nice to see you too, Reeve Tuesti."

Reeve was head of Radiant Garden's Urban Development Department and was a primary architect for the construction of the capital called Midgar. He was a very serious, middle-aged man, and with that came into possession of a strong sense of responsibility. It had been a long time since the Diaz family had seen him, he's now the head founder of the HBRC.

"Did you really have to put that little sign on the door though?" Yomigami said hearing voices coming from downstairs. "Whoever came in sounded like they really wanted to talk to the others."

Selma hunched over slightly in her chair feeling a little jabbing pain in her heart. She exhaled sharply and muttered something under her breath.

"That sounded an awful lot like Sora…" they all heard Yuffie speak out.

"Sora?" Amaterasu called out looking up at the others, she breathed in a bit, feeling her heart mentally twist in pain. She noticed that Reeve leaned forward in his leather chair, placing his elbows on the wooden desk, he had his hands closed together.

"It's better for now, that you all keep under a low profile. It's not all that safe for you guys to be sticking your heads out from hiding." The others nodded understanding everything that was at stake.

Downstairs…

Sora was pacing back and forth a bit, looking at the wooden door with the note on it. He did kill some time as he had gone to pay his visit to Winnie the Pooh in the book. He had taken Riku and Kairi along for the ride, both of them seemed to have liked the peaceful setting there. It made the others feel better too, they didn't really like waiting that much. The spiky haired Keyblade wielder sighed and suddenly his curiosity couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed hold of the brass doorknob and the others watched his every move. Sora's blue eyes scanned the area upstairs and noticed a white light coming forth from the cracks in the door, the air was a bit frosty, which meant that someone had the air conditioning on. He stopped himself from going any further and closed the door letting his conscious get the better of him.

Sora sighed a bit and went to go sit on a wooden chair, he titled the chair back and forth hopefully passing the time as he did that.

Upstairs…

"I suppose that's all I have to say for this meeting…" Reeve said as he adjusted his blue suit.

"Hey… How's Cait Sith?" Moegami asked.

"If I remember correctly…" Reeve was going to say something but Yuffie interrupted him.

"He's on a mission, I think…" the ninja said laughing sheepishly noticing she had cut Reeve off. It was a miracle that the little robotic cat had kept quiet during his little mission.

"You know, I know I really shouldn't be asking this but," Amaterasu asked the question her siblings had wanted to ask earlier. She still felt the stinging sensation in her heart but ignored it as she spoke. "Did you ever find Vincent Valentine?"

As she said this a pang of hurt rose to the 'Great Ninja Yuffie's' face. The question was directed to anyone who could anser with a simple 'yes' or 'no'. The silence Amaterasu… Selma in this case, she took the silence for a bit fat 'no'. Selma shook her head and apologized seeing as how the whole group turned melancholy as she mentioned that person's name.

"But I know we'll find him," it surprised everyone in that room that Leon, the young man with a scar across his face, was the one to speak out in that optimistic tone of voice. In his opinion he just didn't want to see Yuffie look so hurt by that. Aerith Gainsborough would most likely have been the one to say something like but currently she wasn't here at the moment.

With Aerith…

Aerith Gainsborough rushed inside the building, panting a moment as she caught her breath. She attracted a lot of attention to herself seeing as how she stormed into the building, her and her little pink outfit. The maiden was glad to see Sora, Donald, and Goofy once more thanking them for their journey and how it had brought some peace to the worlds once more.

She greeted Sora and the others with her trademark smile and voice. Sora and the others greeted Aerith in their own way and the brown haired maiden opened her mouth to speak as introductions were said and done.

"Do any of you know if they're still holding the meeting upstairs?" she asked looking at everyone in the room. Her greens eyes tried to scan the other's eyes to get an answer. They all nodded.

"It's still going on…" Riku said looking at Aerith for a moment.

"I'm late…" she said smiling slightly as she started to open the door that led upstairs.

"What exactly is the meeting about?" Kairi asked since no one else would ask the question.

"That… I don't know," Aerith place a slender finger on her chin as she thought about it for a little while. "They just told me to be here by 1. I ended up oversleeping, you know how that can be." She rubbed her eyes slightly, her green eyes seemed watery as she tried to fight off a yawn.

Upstairs…

Selma sighed and ended up spinning around in her chair. There were wheels attached to the bottom of it. The other members of her family just looked at her a bit confused by her actions, she smiled brightly at them, and it was a sign that indicated something was on her mind. Tachigami noticed a small necklace around her younger sibling's neck.

"What's that?" she asked taking some interest in her younger sister's personal gift.

"A gift…" she felt a gentle tone of voice creep up on her when she explained the little pendant. As Selma's fingers touched the little pendant she felt that pain come back into her heart. 'Why won't it go away?' she thought back to something Riku had told her. 'No matter the distance I'll always be with you…' she shook her head for a moment and just let out a heavy sigh. 'It's a start, anway…And if Sora's here that must mean he's here too!' her heart was pounding with excitement. 'But I can't…'

Downstairs Riku felt his heart beating a little faster whenever he'd look at the door that separated the meeting. He couldn't explain what it was his heart was trying to tell him, but he knew that he couldn't just barge in there and disrupt the meeting.

Anyway I want at least 1 review it's not that hard, but oh well. I won't mind I'll keep writing even without it.