Riku and Ria were sitting in the recreational area of the gummi ship, they were playing chess while sora was in the cockpit, inputting the coordinates for the next world that needed saving.

"checkmate" riku said, wining the game.

"rematch?" ria asked, riku then returned the white pieces he had taken from her and the two began the game again.

"so, that Xehanort guy, you said you know him?" riku asked as ria moved her pawn.

"its a long story" she said.

"i want to hear it" riku said, moving his bishop.

"i was a baby when it happened, he gave me my dark powers, and my guardian (who im guessing was his apprentice) took care of me until I was old enough to use my powers"

"how fast did you embrace the darkness?" riku asked.

"well, to be honest, I use it from time to time, but I don't think trowing black fireballs counts as embracing it." ria said.

"are you scared?" he asked as he took his attention away from the chess board and looked deep into ria's crimson red eyes. Remembering when he used to fear the darkness inside himself

"well... kinda." she replied. "you use darkness too, right?. Is it as bad as sora says it is?, Can this power really corrupt you?, turn you into a monster?"

"well… kinda" riku answered. "it all depends on how close you put yourself with it, if you embrace the darkness, you gain amazingly dangerous strength, but you risk the possibility of damaging your heart. It doesn't happen to all darkness users, but some people just can't handle all that power." he said as he took her knight.

"what if you try to push the darkness away?, seek redemption in the light."

"it doesn't really work that way… the light is like a spoiled princess, it looks sweet, welcoming, loving and caring on the outside, but on the inside, it can be as cruel and hateful as the darkness, and it's just as dangerous. And you can't really push darkness away, it will always come back, better and stronger."

"riku, how fast did you embrace the darkness?" ria asked.

"too fast" riku said. "the moment the heartless invaded our island, I felt the darkness enter my heart and like the fool I was, I embraced it without even knowing what it would do to me. At first, I felt amazing, like I was the most powerful person in the world."

"what happened?" ria asked, wanting to know.

"sora happened." riku said in a low voice. "i saw how the light welcomed him, I saw how quickly he replaced me and kairi, and that… damn keyblade of his" riku continued, he could feel the rage building slowly in his voice. "every time I see that stupid thing, I am reminded of the rage I felt when he defeated me long ago, I was always stronger and better at everything, but that... thing chose him, all because he believed in his heart more than his power, for those few seconds, he was stronger then me, the rage I felt was to great for me to handle. since then, all I wanted to do was make his life miserable. I wanted to humiliate him, make him see that I was and always would be the strongest. That was how I used to feel."

"why?" was all ria could say.

"because that's what the darkness does to you, it gets inside your head, finds out what drives you crazy, manipulates the way you think, the way you feel. It makes you do things you would never dream about doing, it changes you, permanently."

"what did you do that was so bad?" ria asked.

"i… I took kairi's heart." ria probably shouldn't have asked that question, riku now looked so depressed, like the most precious things in his world just got taken away from him.

"what's so important about kairi?" ria asked, she didn't like to admit it, but hearing that girl's name over and over was starting to annoy her.

"everything actually, she's a princess of heart, her heart is made of pure light, she's a pretty big deal" riku said.

Great. ria thought sarcastically. That's probably why sora likes her so much, she must live in some kind of castle, wears a tiara, has tons of guys begging to be with her, Gets whatever she wants, And she's probably drop dead gorgeous.

"can you tell me about her? Whenever sora talks about her he-"

"he goes on for hours about her hair?" riku asked. Ria nodded "yeah, he won't admit it, but he's a love struck fool"

"does she... feel the same way?" ria asked. Please say she hates his guts

"she has a thing for him, but she won't admit it" riku said.

"ohh...well I hope they work it out, eventually." ria was screaming a multitude of curses inside her head.

"to be honest. I don't think it will work out, she'll probably dump him once she finds someone better. You may not know this, but there are a lot of guys out there that are better then sora"

"and how would you know?" ria asked.

"because your playing a game of chess with one of those guys"

ria gave him a small giggle. "so, if kairi did dump sora, how do you think he'd handle it?"

"he'd be heart broken for a few days, probably depressed for awhile, then he'd get over it and move on" riku said.

"how could you be so sure of that?" ria asked.

"because he's got you now" riku said, moving his king closer to ria's side of the board.

"what do you mean by that?" ria asked.

"he'll cry over kairi, but you (being the good person you are) would support and help him, give him a pat on the back, tell him everything is alright. Then the fool will open his eyes, and his heart will be yours for the taking." he said.

"what will be hers for the taking?" sora asked, soon entering the room. Judging by his question, he probably had no idea what they were talking about.

"checkmate again" riku said, beating ria again.

A few hours had passed and ria soon went to her quarters in the gummi ship, she was amazed at how big this thing really was. The gummi ship had a full kitchen, six bedrooms with queen sized mattress', and much more, it was rather hard to navigate, due to the large size.

She soon found her quarters and proceeded to get comfortable.

Sora and riku were sitting in the room ria had just exited.

"so, did you see that guy?" sora asked.

"which one? The old man or the guy in the bodysuit?" riku asked as he began packing up the chess board.

"the guy in the bodysuit" sora said.

"I've seen him before" riku stated.

"you have?" sora asked "he said he knew about you"

"I've never actually met him. Sometimes when I go to sleep, I have these visions, its like watching someones memories, in one of these memories, I see the masked man… Vanitas, that's his name"

"Vanitas. what do you know about him?" sora asked.

"nothing, all I know is that he's dangerous. wherever he goes, darkness follows."

"he said something about ria, he said that the darkness will swallow her heart, and she'll become his slave. You don't think that's possible, do you?"

"maybe. the darkness swallowed my heart and I had someone posses me, if the darkness can do that, then what vanitas says might be true" riku said.

"i won't let that happen!" sora said. Riku could only shake his head. Sora was so blind towards his new found feelings for this girl, he probably didn't know what he was saying.

"so what? Do you have a crush on her or something?" riku asked.

"what?!, no. I like kairi, remember?" sora said.

"all you ever do is talk about kairi, but ever since I saw you with ria, I haven't heard you talk about kairi once. Face it man, your heart beats for someone else now, someone better. You're just in denial." riku said as he walked towards his room.

"you're wrong!, nobody is better than kairi, nobody!" sora said in a loud tone.

"sure, keep telling yourself that. Oh and here, this is yours" riku said as he threw kairi's lucky charm at him, sora caught it and a flash of nostalgia hit him as he looked at it.

"take this, it's my lucky charm. Be sure to bring it back to me."

"don't worry, I will"

"don't forget, wherever you go, I'll always be with you"

Nobody was better than kairi... right?.

Ria had been staring at it for a good ten minutes. the book Xehanort had given her was just laying there at the end of her bed. This whole time she was contemplating whether she should read it or not, she even thought against touching it. If the darkness really was what riku had described, then there was a fifty-fifty chance that her heart would be tainted by it, but it was also the only power she had that she could use at this very moment, the darkness was what gave her the energy she had and it would be a lie if she said that she didn't enjoy using such power. You know what, maybe now wasn't the best time to be thinking about the darkness, maybe she should just push the book off to the side and just relax, wait a while, give herself a few minutes to calm down. Yeah that's what she needed.

She had began to think about the words she had shared with riku, she liked him, he seemed a little intimidating at first, but once you got to know him, he wasn't so bad.

It was odd but ria could swear she had seen his face before, she couldn't quite place it, but she somehow knew that he is (and probably always was) an important part of her life.

Her thought was interrupted by a knock on the metallic door of her room.

She stood up from her bed and went to answer. After pressing a small button on the control panel next to the door, the door slid into the wall, now that it was open, she saw riku standing in her doorway.

"hey, whats up?" ria asked.

"grab that book and follow me" he said pointing towards the book that Xehanort had given her.

She was hesitant but with riku at her side, her worries didn't seem as prominent as they originally were.

She took the large tome in her hands and began to follow riku towards a part of the gummi ship that she had never been to before.

Sora had been sitting in the captain's chair in the cockpit of the gummi ship. He wasn't flying it, that was the auto-pilots job, he was just sitting there, looking down on the lucky charm that had been crafted long ago by kairi, it was just sitting there in his hands, occasionally he'd brush one of the seashells with his finger, feeling the nice little ridges and bumps, the smooth textures. more memories of her and the island were becoming more prominent as he held the tiny charm made of seashells. The islands… Kairi… sora wondered, did she ever find that old rock drawing of their faces?, did she see what he had done to it?, did she even understand what it meant? Theses were very important questions that needed answers immediately, but it was impossible for sora to receive those answers right now.

All sorts of new questions now bombarded his mind, only they weren't about kairi, instead they were about another young lady that sora had been growing more and more close to every day.

Was riku right?, had sora developed feelings for her?, was he in denial of these new feelings?. Not he or anybody could answer these questions. He liked ria a lot, he really did. Everything about her was perfect, she was friendly (like kairi) she had the most beautiful smile (like kairi) and sora didn't want to admit it, but he could go on for hours about how amazing her silver hair was (like kairi, minus the silver part). Maybe sora had developed feeling for ria. Maybe riku was right, riku was always right.

Part of sora wanted to believe riku's word, another part rejected those words entirely. The worst thing about this, sora couldn't decide which part of him made more sense.

Ria was now leaded into what looked like some kind of virtual reality room.

Riku was messing with a control panel and in a few seconds the room had changed from an ordinary, empty space to a tropical beach scene.

"this is what our island looks like" riku said.

Ria looked around and already began to notice the many details of this simulation.

She could smell the sea-air, she could hear the waves gently crashing onto the sands, the sky was clear, the sun was beaming heat. She knew this was just a simulation but it still felt like the real thing.

"why are we here?" ria asked.

"im going to train you" riku said.

Ria smileed in joy, finally someone who could properly teach her how to use her power, instead of her just figuring it out for herself.

"first, get into your fighting stance" riku said.

Ria drew her keyblade and got into the familiar stance that she always took.

She stood in her stance as riku walked around her slowly, observing her form. She soon felt his hands on her waist, and they began to move forcing her to change position.

"stop slouching, stand up straight, improve your posture" he said as his hands guided her to the correct form. She never noticed she was slouching.

"when you slouch, you're taking the weight of your upper body and moving it forward, if I were to strike you from behind, you would fall right on your face. Your spine would also begin to ache and you'd waste most of your energy. Posture is everything when using this stance, a straight back will allow more fluid movement, faster dodges, higher jumps." he said. "now, attack me while keeping your posture."

"are you sure?" ria asked, she didn't want to hurt him.

"relax, im not delicate. I can handle a few hits" he said, ria then began her attack, riku had summoned his keyblade, and mainly focused on blocking ria's attacks, she was quite good for someone who never really had any training before, she strikes with such strength that no girl ria's age was capable of having, it was then riku knew, the darkness inside ria had been giving her strenght. Ria had been noticing the 9improvments already, it defiantly felt much more easier to dodge and jump thanks to riku's improvements.

He had blocked most of her attacks and finally noticed something that would get her killed if it wasn't corrected. His leg came into contact with hers and she fell backwards onto the sand, which was actually a cold metal floor.

"this is fighting, not ballet dancing. Your legs are too close to each other, keep them separate."

she followed his instructions and began her attack again.

Sora was in his room on the gummi ship, this place had felt like home for him ever since he first entered the gummi ship. The room was metallic (like the rest of the ship) but it had been a somewhat successful recreation of his room back in destiny island, everything somewhat looked the same. Expect all metallic instead of wood.

He tried to put his head down, get some rest before arriving at the new world they were traveling to. However, he found it impossible to even close his eyes, his mind was buzzing with confusing questions that he didn't have the answers for, and now that he had kairi's lucky charm in his hands, all he wanted to do now was see kairi, he wanted to go back to destiny island… home.

Sora knew that wasn't a good idea, but he really did want to see kairi again.

Sora stood up from his bed and opened a drawer on the nightstand next to it. Inside the nightstand was a hand mirror. The frame that held the glass was made of silver and had engravings of long rose patterns.

The hand mirror was a gift from one of his friends, beast. The mirror had the ability to show the user anything they wanted. People, places, you name it, the mirror will show it.

"show me kairi" he asked to the mirror. It began to glow a green light and sora's reflection was replaced with the sight of kairi, sleeping in her bed.

As sora looked at her, he could already feel his burdened mind begin to ease. Now he thought he could sleep.

AN: So sorry about the delay on this one.