When Riku woke up the next morning, Sora was gone. He lay stretched out in the corner of the cave farthest from the light, and as his lids slid open he gave a gasp of pain before shutting them tightly once more. He couldn't feel anyone beside him, and his heart gave a painful twinge. The two had stayed together last night, simply holding each other and not speaking a word. Riku knew he'd sent so many questions running through the brunette's mind. He'd just caused his friend more trouble, like usual. Riku felt around the cave floor, trying to find the blindfold that he wore during the day.

"Looking for something?"

Riku froze. He remembered that voice. It was terribly familiar, dripping with sarcasm and evil. But was it just his imagination, or was she here? Riku felt something falling into his hand, and he clasped his fingers over the soft fabric of the blindfold.

"Even now you still wreak with darkness, Riku," Maleficent cooed, one of her long green finger's stroking the back of his head.

"Get away from me," Riku snarled, hitting her hand back. "Why aren't you dead? Sora killed you, twice. Not to mention I stuck a sword through you!"

"The heartless rejuvenate those who are truly evil," Maleficent replied, smirking as she watched the boy blindfold himself. "Otherwise, you wouldn't be here, Riku."

"Get out of here, now," Riku hissed.

"You think I am just a figment of your imagination, don't you?"

"What else could you be?"

"Alive."

Riku threw off the blindfold and stared into the sunlit cave, but he was alone.

"WHERE WERE YOU?!"

"Kairi! I—"

"I was worried sick! You were gone all day, and you didn't come home!" Kairi snapped at the flabbergasted brunette in the doorway to their island home. "While you've been off pretending you're twelve years old again, guess who decided to pay a visit?"

Sora peaked around Kairi and saw Donald, his arms crossed and his webbed foot tapping. "DONALD!" he roared, pushing past Kairi and hugging the duck as tightly as possible. The little mage gave a strangled quack of protest as he was finally set back down. Sora's eyes strayed towards the couch, where Goofy was stretched out, his mouth wide open as he snored. He looked back to Donald, a grin across his face, but it faded by the duck's expression.

"Sora, we need to talk," Donald stated. Kairi stood beside him, both of them wearing similar expressions. Sora felt his stomach do a flip of fear. They couldn't know, could they?

"Hey, Sora's back," came Goofy's distinguished voice with a little chuckle. He sat up and stretched before standing up as well.

Donald chose to ignore Goofy. "The heartless are back."

"What?"

"We don't know how, but they've gotten out of Kingdom Hearts. The worlds are all connected by the darkness again, that's how me and Goofy got here."

"We used the ol' Gummi ship, hyuck!" Goofy interjected in a voice far too pleasant for the circumstance.

"Sora, why didn't you tell me the Door had been spotted around Traverse Town?" Kairi said, making Sora turn his attention away from his old friends.

"It didn't seem like a big issue," Sora replied with a shrug. "I didn't realize that it meant that it could be opened again…" But it was me, he thought bitterly. I was the one who opened it and let the heartless out. They were inside Riku….

"Well, someone opened it," Donald said, cutting the conversation back over to him. "And now the worlds are being threatened again… only this time, we don't have King Mickey to help us. We've got to make sure each world's keyholes are locked, and figure out if there's any other villains getting power by the darkness."

"But, what if the Door is closed again?" Sora asked slowly. "I mean, that means there can't be many heartless, right?"

"Maybe," Donald replied slowly, eyeing the boy closely. "Unless it doesn't have anything to do with the door at all. Heartless may have found a way out through something else…"

The room fell silent for a moment, before Kairi whispered, "Does this mean… that Sora's going to have to go with you two?"

Sora could hear the pain in her voice. They'd hardly been in contact with each other for at least a month. He knew she was trying. He knew that it was all his fault that this was a hard time for them. He was the reason for her unhappiness.

"Yes," the duck quacked quietly, taking Kairi's hand and giving it a soft pat. "Sora's duty as the Keyblade Master is to fight off this darkness and to protect the keyholes."

"I understand," Kairi mumbled, turning away. Sora reached out and touched her shoulder. She flinched away, and before any of them could stop her, she was running up the stairs, tears making her face glisten in the early morning sun.

Sora let his arm fall back to his side slowly, his eyes falling down to the wooden floor. How could he have ever thought of leaving her? Now that he had to, it was ripping at his heart. Another thing that was hurting him didn't involve the girl at all, but instead the boy in the cave who was probably waking up right now wondering why he was alone. They'd fallen asleep next to each other after a couple more passionate kisses. What would Riku think when he told him he had to go?

He had to tell Goofy and Donald the truth. Riku could help them, after all. Sora remembered the new weapon his friend had been wielding when he saved him from Kingdom Hearts. It was a keyblade, a very different one than Sora had ever seen. Riku would be willing to fight off the darkness. He'd be willing to come with them.

"At least this time we won't have to worry about a possessed friend chasing after us," Donald interrupted Sora's mounting excitement. It deflated with the expression on the duck's face. He was looking livid at the mere thought of Riku.

Looks like that plan was shot.

Kairi wiped her eyes for the umpteenth time. She'd run off to the Paopu Island and was now sitting on the familiar tree. Had Sora known that the door had opened? Kairi was convinced that he had. "He didn't want me concerned," Kairi spat bitterly at the ground. She wanted King Mickey and Riku safe too. She wanted to help him protect the worlds.

The girl pulled her legs to her chest and cried into her knees.

"Oh, don't cry little child," came a voice so familiar that Kairi was startled. She couldn't remember whom it was as with that sickly sweet touch to her voice. Slowly she raised her eyes to see a woman standing before her, crowned with devil horns and held herself with prestige. Her rigid green jaw line shifted as she gave a smile that took up her whole narrow face. "It's not your fault that that boy is abusing and forgetting you."

Kairi trembled with silent tears as the flow quickened at the dark fairy's words. She felt somewhere deep down that this was not the person to trust at this time, though she'd never seen her before. Or… had she? It felt like just a dream, but had she seen this green witch?

"Sora's… just got a lot of things on his mind," Kairi said in defense, but her own voice didn't convince even herself. The woman touched Kairi's shoulder, and a shiver went down her back. She looked up at the towering woman's face. Kairi hadn't noticed the clouds that had moved in, and were now as thick as night over the sun.

The green fairy gave her a sympathetic smile.

"I believe it's fair you know the truth, darling," she sighed, blinking innocently. "Come. Let me show you what has happened to the brave Master of Blades."

Kairi allowed her to lead her off the mini-island and back towards the waterfall on the main island. This creature that'd come to her in her time of need fascinated the red haired girl. She was so graceful, she seemed to glide rather than walk. She held a staff in one hand, a swirling orb mounted at the top that seemed to spin with images so fast, it made her sick to look at for long.

Kairi hadn't even noticed that she'd been lead to the entrance of the secret place. "Observe," came the chilling voice from the towering woman. Kairi blinked at her for a moment before hesitantly proceeding forward through the brush that was now blocking the entrance to the small cave. She smiled, remembering all the drawings. Her smile faltered as she heard Sora's voice.

"…I don't know what to do. I know it's my fault the heartless came out. I didn't close the door in time."

"This isn't your fault, Sora."

Kairi froze.

She knew that voice.

"Of course it is. I should have closed the door quicker! I was worried about Mickey! If I'd just listen to him like—"

Kairi had edged closer, too fascinated and surprised to worry about being seen. But it seemed that the two boys were too wrapped up in their conversation to see her. Or perhaps the witch standing at the mouth of the cave had something to do with it.

She stopped suddenly as Sora stopped speaking. Riku had crossed the cave and grabbed the brunette's arms firmly, in a gesture that wasn't exactly something you'd expect from a friend.

"If you keep beating yourself up over this, than you're going to get no where," Riku cut him off in a voice filled with love. Kairi's heart began to race. Sora was crying by now, and Riku leaned forward… and the two's lips touched briefly.

Kairi couldn't take anymore.

She ran from the cave, tripped and pretty much fell onto the dark fairy's feet. She was crying even harder now, her body shaking with anger. She'd guessed that Sora had been trying to open the Door. But… how could he?

"Hush, little child," the green woman cooed and pulled Kairi to her feet, allowing the girl to lean against her. "It is hard to accept, but he never loved you. You were just a liability."

Kairi cried even harder at this. She didn't doubt this woman's words for an instant. It all seemed to make sense. The anger over took her. It almost hurt it was so much.

"But don't worry," the fairy continued, "I can help you."

Kairi took a careful step back, straightening herself up so she could look at this woman's face. She looked so out of place on the island, but in her blind anger, her words rang like bells.

"I can make you powerful, I can help you find someone so much better than that boy, and I can make sure you'll make him regret treating you so poorly."

Kairi's mouth twitched into a smile that did not suit her sweet, round face. "What must I do?"

"Follow me," Maleficent replied, holding out her long green hand for the girl to follow her into the swirling darkness.

This puts such more meaning to the title, doesn't it? Hehehe. -is evil-
I bet some of you thought this was just going to be fluffin' yaoi? Haha, mistaken. I have this HUGE plot idea. As you can see, I'm happy about this. Oh, and I'm aware my playlist doesn't make sense anymore. I'm gonna sort of kill it, sorry. It just doesn't make sense. So, thank you all for the lovely reviews! I got a TON last chapter. Also, thank you to everyone whose been adding me to the alerts and favs. I really do feel great when I read about so many people liking my stories! Well, that's all for now!

Jacqueline Out.