A/N: Friendship is obviously golden. xD A good friend will follow you wherever you go, but a best friend will save you from falling off a cliff and then help you fight two of the scariest Organization XIII members. x3 Now, here's Nalani for the disclaimer that I have been forgetting:

Nalani: Lolli doesn't own the Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy members. She owns the OCs (including awesome me) and the plot (which needs some work ;D)

Lolli: Gee, thanks Nalani. You know, you can't have been modeled after my best friend.

Seldomknown: Sure, she could have been. :D

Larxene: Can you idiots get on with the story?

Zexion and Lexaeus: Now that we've faded into darkness (again) what do we do?

Marluxia: Shut up. :3

Seldomknown: OhmaiGoofy, Marluxia! -Glomps-

Larxene: -Growls- Mine.

Moving on, before they all kill each other...

"Can I take the pretty one?" Nalani asked as she and Stefa stood side to side, staring at Marluxia and Larxene. Stefa looked sideways at her.

"Which one do you consider pretty?" She asked, fighting back a laugh.

"The pink-haired one, of course." Nalani replied as if it were obvious. Larxene let out a snarl and ran at Nalani. Stefa met her halfway and knocked her back with Shadow Heart.

"I guess it's about time for a rematch." Larxene's eyes narrowed as she threw her kunai at Stefa.

"It's your funeral." said the Nymph. With her cat-like speed, she skillfully punched Stefa several times, and then kicked her to the side.

Marluxia impatiently swung his scythe at Nalani, but, like a monkey, she continued to jump over it. "You aren't playing jump-rope." He growled, summoning vines from the ground to seize her.

"Silly Flowerchild." Nalani said in a sweet voice as she held up the staff of EaKaze. "Firaga." The fire began to turn the vines to ashes, but a wave of water washed it away before anymore were destroyed. Sure enough, there was Demyx leaning against his sitar with a smile that showed his teeth. "Ooh, Guitar Hero!"

Demyx held up his sitar and strummed a chord, "Dance, water, dance!" Instantly, about fifty water clones strode toward Nalani and Stefa, while Marluxia and Larxene backed off.

"Water clones? The hell?" Stefa asked no one in particular as she slashed at one, and got soaked in water when she had defeated it. Nalani, angry that her thunder spells seemed to keep missing, got back to back with Stefa, and began to beat the clones with her staff. Like Stefa, Nalani got soaked after defeating one.

"That's annoying." She said, destroying another one with her staff.

"This is amusing, water conducts electricity." Larxene muttered, her sadistic smile returning to her. She thrust her hand into the air, lightning bolts shooting out and striking Nalani, Stefa, and the water clones. Stefa and Nalani fell, slightly paralyzed, while all of the rest of the water clones were defeated.

"My clones." Demyx pouted in Larxene's direction. She waved him off.

"Now we have them right where we want them." She explained, striding forward with some more kunai. A Keyblade was thrown at her, knocking her backward and forming a cut on her left arm. "Huh?" Way to the Dawn stabbed into the ground, and instantly reappeared in its master's hand. Riku was smirking.

"Learn to fight fair."

"We don't fight fair." Marluxia stated, sending about twenty vines at the former denizen of darkness. The vines were wiped out by a bath of fire from EaKaze.

"I learned that much in Castle Oblivion." Riku growled as Nalani blew at the top of her staff.

"Water beats fire," Demyx said in a fairly childish way.

"Lightning beats water." Nalani smirked, baffling the blond sitar player. He rubbed his head, trying to come up with a comeback, and failing miserably.

"Phail." Stefa said, skillfully running forward to take on Demyx; She liked Demyx, he wasn't as scary as the other two.

"Guess I'll take on Marluxia." Riku decided, running forward and defending himself with Way to the Dawn as Marluxia slammed his scythe downward. Nalani rolled her eyes and groaned.

"So I have to take on bug woman?" She sighed. "This will be a challenge, but nothing I can't handle."

Demyx lifted up his sitar to block Stefa's relentless strikes. "No fair." Demyx whined. He jumped backward and strummed another string; Large bubbles began to fall from the sky. Stefa wasn't sure how badly they would hurt, but if he could use them, they were probably bad. She held up Shadow Heart and practically hid underneath is as she tried to block all of the large bubbles.

Marluxia disappeared in a flash of rose petals and reappeared behind Riku, where he struck at him with the scythe. Riku, caught surprisingly off guard, didn't know what had hit him until he felt the strike and burning pain that came with it. He tried to wave off the pain, but only managed to hold back from screaming in agony and instead shouted. Nalani and Stefa turned to see what had happened, and both winced at the pain the silver-haired boy must have felt. Stefa turned away from Demyx and headed straight for Marluxia, holding Shadow Heart high.

The Assassin hastily pulled his scythe out of Riku's back, but even that didn't stop Stefa from slamming her Keyblade hard against his body. Marluxia was knocked backward, and almost fell off of the cliff. Almost. He disappeared in a flurry of rose petals once again. Stefa knelt down behind Riku and pointed her Keyblade at his wound. "Curaga." She murmured. She watched with relief as the wound began to close.

Stefa sighed with relief, but her relief was short lived. A portal appeared behind her, a hand grabbed her, and then there was darkness.

Riku turned around abruptly when Stefa's presence had faded. There was no one there. "Stefa...?" Nalani raised her staff, a dark light fell over her body as her staff changed color. Part of the ground rose before Larxene, Marluxia, and Demyx; All three of them were standing in a line. It formed a wall of rock that separated them from Riku and Nalani. The mage then turned to find Riku staring dumbly into the distance.

"Riku? Where's Stefa?" She asked. Riku slowly turned to face her, and something inside of her dropped. "Is she okay?" He didn't answer or do anything, so Nalani angrily turned back to face the wall. She swiped her staff to the side so that the wall broke apart and large rocks dropped on the three Organization members. Then, she swiped it again and the wall behind the organization members also broke. "If they all survive that..."

It was oddly white where she was. White went on for miles, and years; This was not a room, or a place, it was nothing. Nothingness. "I'll make things very easy for you." A deep voice spoke in her ear. "Give me a heart, and I will call off the attack in the Radiant Garden. If you don't, I will have your friends all tortured before you, and then I shall kill you." Stefa didn't like this voice. She tried to move away, but a death grip was on her neck, causing her head to arch backward out of reaction.

Her eyes met amber ones burning with ambition and thirst. "Do we have a deal, Princess?" A voice was yelling inside of her, telling her no, but she didn't care. Stefa swallowed hard and nodded, unable to speak because her words were lost. His hand slowly released her neck, and she turned to face Xemnas. Stefa put two hands to his chest, closed her eyes, and concentrated.

'You moron.' A very familiar voice spoke in her head. 'Your chivalry is wasted.'

'Well, you always talked about what a waste I was.' Stefa thought right back, tears burning her closed eyes as she felt a strange power well up inside of her.

Stefa awoke, gasping, in the dark depths on the cliff where Sephiroth had killed Aerith just two years prior. She looked around, wondering if it had been a dream, but she somehow knew it had been real. If it had been a dream, she still would have been with Riku and Nalani... Had she really given in? Yes. Disappointment welled inside of her as she stood up and exited the area.

The Great Maw was rather... empty. No more armies of heartless and nobodies. There was a group of people standing in the middle of it, though. "Hi!" Stefa called out without really realizing what she was doing. They turned and looked at her with an expectant expression. "What's wrong?" She asked as she closed in on them, but then, something strange happened. A person passed through her, a certain brown-haired someone carrying a staff.

"Nothing." Nalani told them, shaking her head.

"Damn it, where could she be?" Axel asked, looking around hopefully like Stefa would jump out and say that she had been pulled a joke on them, but even she couldn't use a portal.

"Who? Guys? What's wrong?" Stefa asked urgently, waving her hand in front of Nalani's face. "Nalani? Hello? Best friend? Hi!" But Nalani made no indication that she noticed the hand waving in front of her.

"You look like a retard down there." A voice called from the cliffside. Stefa followed it with her eyes and saw an amused Quince smirking down at her. He mimicked her in a squeaky voice. Quince jumped down, a fifty foot jump, and landed before Stefa without a problem.

"What did you do?" She demanded. Stefa remembered only too well that Quince was a time-stopper like Naminé, only this time, it seemed she was in a totally different dimension looking in through the looking-glass.

"Nothing. Geez, Stef, I'd figure you'd trust me by now. Haven't I redeemed myself yet?" He asked, frowning. She stared at him, obviously not believing a word he was saying. "I save you from death, and this is how I'm repaid?"

"You're not even real." Stefa accused, slapping his arm. Instead of her arm going straight through him, it hit his skin. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes opened widely.

"It seems you've been sent here, too." Quince muttered face although his amused expression returned at the look on Stefa's face.

"W-where's here?" She stuttered.

"It's another realm, I guess. Kind of. A torturous place, really. You can look at your love ones and hear them, but they can't see you. It's kind of like being a ghost." Quince told her.

"All of this because I gave Xemnas a freaking heart? I gave Roxas and Naminé hearts and I was fine!" Stefa exploded with rage. Quince nodded.

"I remember that. Naminé saved you from a terrible fate." He practically muttered the last part under his breath. "You've never given anyone a heart of almost complete darkness, though." Stefa blinked.

"Is Xemnas really that evil?"

"Not necessarily," Quince replied. "The definition of evil depends on the person using it. Xemnas wanted a heart, and now he wants power." He paused. "Anyway, I can tell you right now that the reason why you're here is because you're supposed to use your 'powers' for good."

Stefa rolled her eyes at the cliché. "I'm not a super hero, Quince." Pushing her too long bangs out of her face, distantly wondering when she'd had her last haircut, she mumbled, "I don't like any of this, fix it."

Quince laughed, a beautiful sound to her ears. "I'd tell you it was a dream, but then I would be lying." He said sympathetically. "But, I can tell you this, not all hope is lost." Stefa blinked and looked up at the noticeably taller boy.

"Really?" She asked, perking up immediately. Quince laughed once more and nodded.

"You'll be surprised to know this, but ever world has its light, darkness, and nothingness. We're in the Radiant Garden, technically, but we're in the nothingness part of it." He explained. "It's confusing, I know, but try to stay with me. If we can find the tiny thread in this world where nothingness links to the light, we can probably get out of here."

"Wow, look at that." Stefa murmured, a smirk appearing on her face, "Pessimistic Quince turns to Optimistic Quince at the drop of a hat. Are you sure you're not bipolar." He responded by ruffling her hair, fondly and roughly.

"It's weird how everything disappeared without a trace." Kairi commented. Everyone was still in the Great Maw, due to the fact that Nalani, Cloud, Riku, Naminé, and Roxas continuously insisted they stayed.

"We can't stop looking here... Something tells me that we're so close..." Nalani had said, and with the back up of four other people, everyone had been forced to agree.

"Yeah," Sora answered Kairi's comment with a nod. "They just disappeared in the blink of an eye for no apparent reason."

"Why do you think the five of them keep insisting we stay here?" Leon asked of Yuffie. She smiled as she grasped his hand.

"Squall, the light is never too far away. Riku is Stefa's light, but at the same time, the five of them are also her light and she is theirs. Maybe she's somehow here but not? It's hard to explain." The great ninja admitted sheepishly. She had never tried to make logic out of much of anything before.

Nalani was now desperately searching one of the cliff sides, lifting up unliftable rocks with her magic, and checking even the smallest cracks. "Stefa! Stefa, if you don't come back, I will eat you." (A/N: Inside joke. xD) "Stefa! Come on!"

"Wow. They really must miss you." Quince stated as they walked toward the Dark Depths, Nalani's pleads beginning to soften. "Why?" He added, smirking, as he looked down at the Princess. She grinned and elbowed him in the stomach.

"This place is nice. No heartless or anything."

"But plenty of Nobodies." He told her. "This is the realm of Nothingness after all." The Princess seemed surprised at this.

"And the others can't see them?"

"Nope."

"That sucks." Stefa complained. Quince chuckled. He had forgotten how much he enjoyed her company, especially after being separated for so long. But she was with Riku now; Hell, she had been with Riku when he had kissed her. Now he kind of wondered if Stefa had ever mentioned. Oh. Wait. When would she have mentioned it? That is, of course, if she remembered. It was so hard not falling in love with her, but Quince fought against it.

"Why were we called back so quickly?" Marluxia asked the Superior from his seat in the meeting room. He flexed his right wrist and winced. He, Larxene, and Demyx had received quite a bit of damage from the rock fall, and Reixka hadn't been able to really help all that much. Xemnas smiled; It was chilling like his old one, but now it seemed real.

"It's time to set the second part of our plan into motion." He announced. "The two-sided Princess has been thrown into nothingness, and she cannot stop us now."

'She could never have stopped us in the first place.' Larxene thought to herself, not daring to say anything aloud. "So soon?" She heard herself ask. Xemnas surveyed her with an amused expression. "Sorry." Larxene murmured acidly and quietly.

"So what are we looking for?" Stefa asked, annoyed, sometime later when her and Quince were standing before the 'heartless castle'. "A rip in midair with light?"

"Very funny. Don't question my intelligence." He replied, smirking, and gently pushed her aside. Stefa grinned and jumped on his back.

"I'm tired, carry me." Quince laughed.

"Consider yourself lucky that there's not any water nearby."

"I am a lucky bitch. Happy?" She asked as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Very." He answered as he grabbed her legs and held them. "And, as for your question, I have no idea what we're looking for, but I think we'll know what it is when we see it."

"Will we now? What a relief. In that case, I think you're going the wrong way because I don't see anything."

"Stefa, don't make me throw you into the ocean; I will, you know." Quince stated as he turned around and headed back for the Great Maw. "Or, better yet, I'll make you carry me." Stefa shuddered at the idea.

"That would break my neck for sure."

Behind them, the heartless symbol glittered with a white light.

A/N: This is short. xDD I know. And surprising, right? A lot of the chapter will have Quince and Stefa in it, sooo you'll have to bear with me because I don't want anyone else to leave the Radiant Garden. x3 See you next chapter.