"that's it, hold in your breath while you aim, exhale when you release" riku said.
Ria followed his instructions and exhaled while releasing the dark fireball that she was aiming, the fireball his its target.
Riku was impressed at how fast ria was learning, it had took him days to discover and memorize the techniques that he used, but ria seemed to pickup on them immediately, that's probably because she's learning from the best.
"all right, ria. The easy moves stop here." riku said. "now its time to see how well you learn a completely new attack"
"bring it on" ria said. She was amazed at how much she had improved thanks to riku's teachings. She was a good enough fighter on her own, but now she felt like she could take on anything.
"try learning this spell" riku said, pointing to a page in the book that Xehanort had given her. The page seemed to contain the means to summon ice, the ability to freeze your target solid.
"okay, picture in your mind, the frozen tundra, the icy winds, feel this energy coursing through your mind. Channel that energy into your darkness and expel it from your body" riku said, reading straight from out of the book.
Ria did as told and as she pulled her hand back, she could feel the cold coming from her palm, she released this energy and it was sent to her target, which was a palm tree. The icy blast hit the tree and froze it solid.
"good work" riku said. "you actually did it"
"thanks, riku" ria said, that move might have taken a bit out of her.
"hey, why don't we take a break, we'll be landing soon and you'll need your strength." riku said as the tropical isle now turned back into the large metallic room.
Riku and ria then left the training room.
On the way back to her room she seemed to have found what must have been sora's room. Looking through the half open door, she could see him, sleeping like an exhausted child.
She decided to get a little peak at him, it only seemed fair, she knew he watched her while she slept.
she welcomed herself into the room and got comfortable.
"what are you doing?, have you really resorted to this?, watching people sleep." her mind scolded her.
She knew this was somewhat wrong, it was kind of like an invasion of privacy. But the again, what was the harm?, so you just watch somebody stay lifelessly still for a few minutes, there was nothing wrong with that… right?.
Her gaze had then darted to some kind of shiny object under sora. Curiosity soon got the better of ria and she tried to pull the shining object slowly out from under sora.
She succeeded and the object was now in her hands, a small mirror.
She really didn't see why sora would need to own such a small (and rather feminine) mirror. Maybe he was just one of those people that liked looking at himself, or maybe it was a gift from someone, or perhaps he just liked mirrors. But then why would he sleep with one?.
Not wanting to think about it, she just sat down on a chair that was next to his desk, which had a small journal on it, ria looked at the small book, and thought about reading it but she soon threw that thought out of her head, a journal was like the boy version of a diary, and a diary was a sanctuary for a person's private thoughts and feelings. Ria used to keep a diary… until mona read it aloud to everyone at her school, sure it was embarrassing but… at least people noticed her after that.
Her attention soon turned to what looked to be a tiny collection of seashells, curiosity getting the better of her again, she picked up one, only to discover that these seashells were all stitched together, in the shape of a star. The stitching seemed to be rather strong, ria held it high in the air but they didn't move away from each other.
"what a cute little trinket" ria said, adoring the tiny little charm. When she took a closer look she could see that one of the shells had a drawing of sora's face, she giggled at this. She flipped the charm over to its back and on one of the bottom shells, she could see the name of the creator, it was carved into the back of this charm.
that name only caused ria to glare… kairi.
Ria's glare of anger soon turned into a look of sadness. She turned her head to sora, who was still sleeping.
"i guess the knight in shining armor always has to go to the princess..." ria said in a whispered voice as she put the charm back in its place "i understand… you've known her longer, maybe there's no place like that for me in your heart."
she soon left the room and walked at a brisk pace back to her room.
Returning to her quarters, she sat down, cross legged, on her bed and held her head up with her hands.
It was probably wrong for ria to ba acting this way, and to be so filled with anger at the hearing of kairi's name. Kairi was probably a sweet girl. Ria shouldn't judge people she has never met.
She didn't realize that she was still holding sora's mirror. She held it up to her face to look at her reflection, and gave a gasp of surprise when she saw her own face. Her eye color had changed from it's crimson red to a bright gold, and the veins of her pale face had turned black. She was shocked by this. This had never happened before.
After looking at these new (and somewhat disturbing features) she began to calm down a little, as she gave out a sigh, her eyes returned to there normal crimson color and her black veins had vanished, her face was back to normal.
That was odd, when was she able to do that? Did it have something to do with the darkness? Was it also changing her appearance? Were these black veins and golden eyes a sigh? A warning?
She tried not to think about it, and returned to her original subject… kairi.
"i wish I could see what she looks like" she said to her reflection. Just then the mirror began to glow green and ria's reflection was replaced with the sight of a redheaded girl sleeping on a bed, this must be kairi, the description that sora had given seemed to match. There was no doubt in ria's mind, this was kairi. Ria didn't see what the big deal about her was, she didn't look so special, she looked like an average and rather ordinary seventeen year old, sure she was pretty but not drop dead gorgeous, why would sora be so interested in… her.
Not wanting to think about this anymore, she put the magic mirror on her bedside table, once her fingertips removed themselves from it's hilt, the green glow from the mirror had stopped.
Trying to pass the time, ria took out the book that Xehanort had given her, and began to read a little.
Vexen was in his lab in the castle that never was. He was working hard on his new and definitely improved experiment which was floating in its chamber, soon it would be ready, it would succeed where his first attempt failed, it would be successful, It had to be.
Zexion soon entered the lab and cast his eyes on vexen's creation.
"impressive, isn't she?" vexen said.
"does it work?" zexion said.
"not yet, but soon, ohh so very soon."
"how can you be so sure this one will actually work? Your last experiment almost killed me" zexion said.
"that was a beta, but this, this is an improvement. Removal of the concept of free will ensures that it will always obey, no matter what the demand is. And unlike the first one, this will never be able to betray us." vexen said.
"i don't know, these things still creep me out" zexion added.
"who cares what you think, your sense of morality blinds you from the true art that I am creating."
"sure..." zexion said. "on a lighter note. I've been having these flashbacks… of us before..."
"before our hearts were taken" vexen finished. "yes, i've been getting them too and their distracting me from my work".
"how much do you remember, vexen?"
"more than I would like too, that chapter of my life is behind me, trapped in the past, where it should stay."
"like what?" zexion asked.
"my past failures, being scolded by my superiors, and having my talents wasted on mundane tasks, kind of like what I am now, I guess somethings never change."
"have you remembered anything else?"
"my name" vexen stated.
"your name?" Zexion questioned.
"who I was before this all happened, its all come back to me, I remember your name too."
"then keep it to yourself, I do not wish to hear it" zexion said as he began walking out of vexen's laboratory.
"very well… Ienzo" Vexen said.
replica stabilization is 72% complete. the computer said.
"soon you shall be ready, my beautiful creation… soon"
AU: I want to thank Mikayla and Riku forever, for being the first person to give a review to my story, your awesome!.