The Rain has Stopped

Hey! Hey! Heeeeeyyyy! I'm back! I'm finally back! Okay, I'm done now. I'm sorry for the wait. I'm gonna update like crazy now.

Riku, Kairi and Tine were looking out of Riku's bedroom window. It was pouring buckets of water. Tine was sitting on Riku's bed, reading a magazine. Kairi was tossing Welcoming Garden back and fourth. Riku was sorting through a large pile of books that lay on the floor.

"Doesn't get much worse than this, does it?" Kairi asked. She had been in a sour mood for the past two days since they had gotten back home. Her parents had not been thrilled when she told them of Sora and his problems with the newly arisen Organization XIII. They were even less thrilled when she had fully stepped out of the darkness of their porch and discovered that their daughter now had what her father Vincent referred to as the "Gunblade Master's Mark" on her face. He was a bit more laid back about the whole thing, although he had continually questioned if she had been having any nightmares about the whole thing. Her mother, Beatrix was furious however.

Flashback:

"We didn't take you away from Radiant Garden, erase your early memories with magic, and take you to a small world like this to have our daughter going around, adventuring with those boys, Riku and Sora!"

"Now, wait a minute" said Vincent. "You were quite the adventurer yourself back then. Knight of the Year for the Radiant Garden army if I recall." He gave a chuckle of his dark laughter.

Beatrix glared at her husband. "Yes, but in case you've forgotten, I lost an eye gaining that title. We moved Kai to the Islands to get away from all that, remember? It was your idea."

Vincent sighed and looked at the metal prosthetic hand that Kairi had always found so cool in her younger days. He sighed sadly. "So, you're marked from your travels this time, eh Kairi?" he said.

"I…I guess I am, Dad" she said and had gone to her room.

End Flashback

"I have to be back at 8:00, no excuses. I was hoping to go with you and Tine to the Play Island, but then this damn rain had to ruin it all. Now it's 7:38 and we'll never make it there and back befire " Kairi said. "They think you're going to drag me off or something." She rubbed her face. The scar had faded to a pale, ragged line. Actually, Riku thought, the scar made Kairi more beautiful, it added an experienced look to her previously fragile looking face. But he wouldn't even think that near her. So instead of that, he said something else.

"Kairi, rubbing your face won't make it go away. You've got to live with it as best you can."

"I feel bad about that" said Tine, putting down her magazine. "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been attacked by that Axel guy. He did it to hurt Sora, right?"

Kairi shook her head. "Half right. He did it to show Sora what he could have done to me." She pointed where the scar ended before it touched her forehead. "Any one of those times, he could have stabbed those blades into my brain…but he didn't. They wanted to convince Sora to give you to them. You should have seen what happened when he found out! He really lost it. I've…I've never seen Sora so mad before, not even the first time he fought Organization XIII."

Riku nodded. "Yeah, and he wasn't as forgiving as last time. Jeez, that punch hurt."

"Kairi sighed and got up. "Well, it was fun sitting here and talking to you guys, but I have to be getting home." She got up and began to walk out of the room. "See you tomorrow!" she called and was gone. They could hear her go down the stairs and open and close the door.

"Now we can go to the Play Island" said Riku.

"Riku! That's horrible!" said Tine. "You were waiting for her to leave so we could go alone?"

Riku shrugged. "What can I say?" he said. "I have to do something so we can go out on our first date."

Tine's face turned as red as her hair and she returned to reading her magazine. "Just shut up Riku" she said.

"Oh, come onnnnnn" he said, ruffling her hair. "I can show you the Secret Place that I told you about…"

Tine finally relented. "Alright, Rik" she said. "I mean…won't Kairi be pissed if she found out you just used the rain as an excuse?"

Riku shook his head. "Kai hates the rain…besides, I think she knew deep down what was really going on."

The rain had slowed down a little bit as they walked to the beach to get Riku's boat to take them to the Play Island. They rowed in silence. Riku was beginning to have second thoughts. The storm clouds on the horizon looked dark and occasionally, lightning flashed among them and he could hear thunder. The clouds made him think of that day two years ago when he had fallen into the darkness from which he still struggled to return. It was like being an alcoholic. Everyday the pull of the darkness was there, begging him to use its power. He did use its power…but very sparingly. Every time he did use darkness, he could sense the vast ocean of power that was waiting to be tapped. But to tap into that ocean was like drinking poison that's effect was worse than death. Tine's voice took him away from his thoughts about his heart.

"Hey Riku! Keep rowing, I can't do it on my own." They were a few feet from the Play Island.

"Oh, screw it" said Riku as they pulled up to the dock. He jumped over the side, knee deep in the water. "I'll race you!"

Tine looked nervously at the water and then jumped in as well after taking off her shoes and socks. She gasped as her jeans were soaked by it. "It's cold!" she said.

"Of course it is" said Riku, smiling. The rain had become a little heavier and by the time they climbed up the dock to the beach, they were both soaking wet. Riku looked at the spot far away where he always used to sit on that fallen palm tree and occasionally fight with Sora. In the year they had been back, he had never been to that point. It was also where he had attempted to try and drag Sora into the darkness with him. It was where the beginning of his heart's destruction had begun. There was a brief flash of lightning and the dark island was illuminated. There was an echoing crash of thunder.

Tine put her hands over her head. She had been tank educated about thunderstorms, but she had never been in a real one before. It was loud and it scared her slightly. However, she didn't want to appear to be a coward in front of Riku. It was kind of stupid, she thought. She had seen and done things that were much more frightening than a thunderstorm and yet this made her tremble.

"Are you alright?" Riku asked, seeing her shaking. He smacked his forehead with his hands, seeing her clothes soaked by water and rain. "Arrrgh! I'm such an idiot! You were sick just a few days ago, and I'm telling you to go in the water?" he shook his head. "I'm sorry Tine."

Tine shook her head that she was fine. "Let's just get under some shelter from this rain" she said. She squeezed water out of her red hair. "I'm freezing in this, though. So let's go before I do get sick again." Another apocalyptic crash of thunder slammed through the air and they both headed for the Great Tree House that was on the top of the hill. It was a perfect place, built for things like this.

"Here" said Riku, as he helped Tine up the ladder. They both sat in the Tree House, huddled together for warmth.

"Ouch!" Tine said, suddenly, putting her thumb in her mouth.

"What is it?" Riku asked.

"I think I have a splinter from this floor" she said. She pressed her thumb to get the annoying piece of wood out. "Shit" she muttered and sighed. "I guess I'm going to have to let it sit there, huh?"

"Here" Riku said. "Give me your thumb and I'll get it out. It's going to hurt, so get ready. My dad taught me how to do this." He searched around until he found a small needle that they used to mend sails for their rafts. Summoning a small blue flame from the darkness, he sterilized it. "Okay, here we go" he said, and stuck the needle into Tine's thumb. She tensed and then relaxed as the needle pried out the splinter.

"Is that it?" she asked. "Wow, I was expecting so much worse. I guess because I've been through so much more pain than that, it seems like nothing."

"It doesn't look like nothing" said Riku. "Your thumb's a bloody mess. Here, I'll get band aids." He reached out and got some band aids, and began to place them over Tine's thumb. It was leaking blood from underneath the nail where he had reached with the needle. Riku was going to finish---when he felt his own blood turn to ice in his veins.

Blood.

There shouldn't be any blood. Tine always bled dark particles when she was injured. He had seen that in Twilight Town. "T-Tine" he said. "You…you have…blood…"

"What about it?" Tine asked. "Oh! Yeah, that. I meant to tell you that started happening to me the night I got here; I've actually bled when I've gotten cut." She looked at his pallid face in the dark "Are you…upset? I'm sorry, I hid it from you, I didn't want you to say---" Tine's head suddenly snapped up.

"Tine?" Riku asked. "What's wrong? Are you alright?"

Tine said nothing, but her green eyes seemed to glow in the dark. "Yes Strife" she said. "I will give it to you." She was silent for a minute…and then another….and then another. Then Tine continued. "I was afraid you'd say that you didn't believe me, and---"

"Forget about the blood! What the hell was that?"

"What was what?" Tine asked, confused. "What did I do?"

"N-nothing" Riku said. "It's just…you…you passed out for a few minutes or something."

"I had this…weird vision" she said. "You know the guy in black with the covered arm? The one at Radiant Garden? Well, he was fighting one of the Organization members. He was really loosing badly. But he wanted me to give him help. So I did" she finished simply.

Riku was disturbed by this. First Tine had developed the ability to shed actual blood, and now she claimed she had given Cloud Strife power to overcome an Organization XIII operative. The Romantic Mood of the situation had been ruined and replaced with suspicion and slight fear. Tine was Kingdom Hearts, Riku was again reminded. He was cuddling up next to the freaking Heart of All Worlds! That wasn't exactly something that makes one feel particularly romantic. Listening to her breath in and out, he again wondered just how many hearts were inside her. Suddenly, she got up and Riku heard her bare feet walk across the wooden floor.

"The rain stopped" she said. "I think it's---" a loud crash of purple lightning crashed down and hit the beach. The responding thunder shook the Tree House. "Whoa, this is weird" Tine said. "Do you guys get funny whether on the Islands a lot?"

"No, why?" Riku asked. He was afraid that he knew what she was talking about though.

"Because it's lighting and thundering like crazy, even more than before, but there's no rain falling at all. Even the clouds are passing." Sure enough, patches of starry night sky could bee seen. Another slash of purple lightning slammed into the dock, utterly blowing it to bits.

"The boats!" Riku yelled. "They're going to be---" suddenly, Tine pointed. As Riku looked, he saw two figures standing on what used to be called "Riku's Island. The place where he always hung out. The place he was afraid to go. Somehow, he wasn't surprised that they had come from there. He could see from here that the two were wearing Organization robes. One of them was tall and thin, female looking, while the other was tall, and powerfully built.

The rain had stopped, but the storm was still on.

Xigbar walked down the hallway to the Superior's office. His shoulders were slumped and he was dreading going into that place. He had bad news to deliver…and Superior Xemnas did not like bad news. As he opened the large doors, he found the Superior looking at a large black book. It was the weirdest book the Freeshooter had ever seen. It was large and had a gold binding on the spine. A raised silver symbol of an eye was emblazoned on the cover. Sensing Xigbar's presence, Xemnas looked up. By the look in his red and gold eyes, he was not pleased that he had been interrupted.

"What is it?" he snapped in anger. "If it is about the sleeping spell that Morgan put on you, I can't do a thing about it now."

Xigbar shook his head. "No, it's just…well….Marluxia…Axel…Zexion….Saix…they all kind of bit the big one, if you know what I mean."

At first Xemnas didn't seem to understand what the Freeshooter was talking about. Then, it hit him. He jumped up from his desk, sending papers to the floor. "Not all four of them?!" he said in horror and anger.

Xigbar nodded. "All four. Marluxia and Axel got taken down by the Keyblade brat and his cronies in Agrabah. Saix and Zexy…I think they got wasted by the Guild Leaders from Radiant. By the way, that's another thing. Nexumair said they escaped from their prison. They killed Saix and Zexion, and only lost one of their people. They escaped on board some Gummi ship. Doesn't that suck?"

Xemnas was steaming with almost rage. He gritted his teeth and sighed through them. "Yes, it does suck. I can't believe it! Four members have been killed---two by ordinary people! Counting that idiot Demyx, this makes five all together!"

"What do you want us to do about it?" he asked.

Xemnas put a gloved hand over his face. "What else? Continue searching for Kingdom Hearts. Zexion's last notes say that he managed to track Tine to the Destiny Islands. I have Larxene and Lexaeus already planted there, waiting to strike. I've given them the order."

Xigbar nodded. "Should I go tell Vexen to get his fancy machine all fired up?"

"Not yet. I don't want any hopes getting up. Tine has proved more annoying than I thought. This…isn't helping things. Now go, I want to return to my reading." Xigbar teleported away and Xemnas returned to his book. Synthesis Vol. 666 it was called. "Yes, Morgan" Xemnas said. "I will need much magical help on this one. He laughed to himself. Soon…very soon now he was going to become what he had always wanted, always strove to be, both as Xeonhort, Ansem, and Xemnas. An omnipotent god.