She awoke face down on what felt like a beach. It was too dark to see, it must have been the middle of the night, but she could feel her hands laying comfortably on the sand, the waves gently crashing onto her lower body. She could taste the salt water on her tongue. After regaining consciousness, she began to violently cough out what little water remained in her lungs, the salt water also found its way into her eyes, making them sting and forcing her to squint. She got a little closer to the shore, the farther away from the water, the better.

The winds blew cold and her drenched body began to shiver.

"this is just great" ria thought. "I'm wet, cold, hungry, and I have no idea where I am".

She soon stumbled on what looked to be a recently extinguished bonfire, that meant there were people who lived here, but she wasn't sure they were friendly, now wasn't really time to think on that.

She put her hands in front of the wood and dark fire shot out of her hands, now she had a nice fire going. it was kinda weird, seeing as how the fire was a darkish blue, but at least it provided both light and heat.

"thank you, darkness" she said as she began warming herself up. She was completely drenched from head to toe, she began to remove and then ring out her clothes, then proceed to put them back on, they were still somewhat damp, but at least they weren't soaked anymore.

Now that her eyes had adjusted, she began to take in her surroundings.

It was still too dark to see, even with the light from the fire. But she knew that this must have been some sort of tropic isle, she could see coconut trees in the distance, and of course, she was defiantly on a beach that may have had recent visitors.

The wind blew harder and made ria shiver more, the cruel wind also snuffed out her fire.

Great, well there was no sense in making another one since the wood she was using had now been too burnt to feed any kind of fire.

When looking behind her, she could see what looked to be a massive tree fort and one of the trees seemed to hold a small bungalow, that might be a good place to rest until daybreak, then she would worry about finding her way back to sora and riku.

On the way up to the bungalow, she recalled what had happened in that last world she was visiting, there was some kind of vortex that had pulled her away, she tried to escape but it's hold was too strong. she hoped sora was alright.

Sora was defiantly not alright.

He had been pacing up and down the ship, mumbling to himself while riku just watched, sora didn't even seem to acknowledge his best friend's presence. He just kept pacing.

"sora? You okay, buddy?"

"huh!?, don't sneak up on me like that!" sora shouted at his friend. "i… im sorry, riku. Im just on edge."

"you're worried about ria?" riku asked.

"of course I am!, she could be anywhere!, she's probably wet, cold, hungry, and she probably has no idea where she is!"

"relax, man. We'll find her" riku said to try and encourage sora, it didn't really work. Riku was worried about her too, but it wasn't best to focus on that right now, he had to get sora to calm down. He had always seen sora as the happy-go-lucky guy, so to see him in such a state of distress was uncomforting.

"come on!, where's ria?" sora said, randomly typing away on the ships GPS. "stupid machine!" he then began mashing his fists on the keyboard in anger.

"easy, don't break it" riku said. "i understand you're upset but that doesn't mean you can take your anger out on the ship"

"your right..." sora said as he threw himself into the captains chair. "where do you think she might be?"

"hard to say, when our island got invaded, we got sucked into those vortexes. I wound up in hollow bastion" riku said.

"and I was in traverse town" sora said. "so, do we just randomly go from world to world? That will take us forever to find her."

"doesn't the ship have a DNA tracker?" riku asked.

"yeah, but I don't have any of ria's DNA, and even then, it still won't be able to pinpoint her exact location."

"well, we better start checking all these worlds, then" riku stated.

"every single one?" sora asked.

"lets try the closer ones, she couldn't have gotten that far"

"the nearest world will take… TWO FRICKEN DAYS!?" sora suddenly shouted. damn this slow moving hunk of junk!

Kairi had received a text message from selphie about some sort of dilemma that was happening on the island, kairi got on her small row boat and set out, ever since sora and riku left, kairi had been put in charge of the island, meaning she had to handle selphie, tidus and wakka at the same time since they were prone to arguments against each other.

She really didn't feel like going to the island anyway, it was too hot since it was the middle of summer, and she just wanted to sit in her room and read her books. But no, she has to play beach cop for two immature pre-teens, and… whatever the heck wakka was.

She finally arrived on the island and beached her row boat so it wouldn't be carried away by the waves.

She could hear the shouting of both tidus and selphie but oddly enough, they weren't yelling at each other, they seemed to be focusing their attention on the bungalow that was built in the large tree.

"get off our island!" tidus shouted to the bungalow.

"shut up!, you're gonna scare her!" selphie scolded him. "don't be afraid! We won't hurt you!" she yelled to the bungalow.

"whats going on, guys?"

"kairi!, about time you got here" tidus said "there's a tourist on our island!"

"a tourist?" kairi asked. It was true destiny islands was a tourist trap, but the island that kairi was on now was not even known to the tourists, since the island was on the west side of the main land and all the tourists mainly spent all their time on the east side, where all the shops and hotels were.

"kairi!, tell tidus to stop being such a bully to the new girl!" selphie shouted.

"buzz off, for all we know, this outsider could be dangerous, she might go invite her tourist friends and ruin our island, so you just sit back and let the big strong men handle it, selphie."

"oh, come on tidus, how much damage could one girl do?" selphie asked.

"can someone fill me in here?" kairi asked, becoming confused by their arguing.

"wakka was the first to see the outsider, tell her wakka." tidus said.

"ya, well I was going to go in to the bungalow to catch some z's, when all of a sudden, I find the girl sleeping in the beanbag chair I stashed up there." wakka informed.

"have you guys tried to talk to her?" kairi asked.

"well, yeah but she won't come down, I think she's shy." selphie said.

"Well, let me handle this then" kairi said, approaching the bungalow.

Ria wasn't scared of them, but they did seem to be hostile, well the short blond kid was. His words were actually kind of hurtful, ria originally thought they were a tribe or something, but she soon dismissed that when she saw their clothing, way to modern to be tribals. maybe they were just mean. She thought about going down there but soon turned that thought away, if they were this hostile already, then by the time she got down there they would probably go into a rage and attack her, she could take them of course, but they looked to be just kids, ria wasn't going to go beat up little kids.

her attention soon came to a teenage girl with short cherry red hair who was wearing a two piece pink bikini. made sense, it was a beach after all. she thought.

The red-head soon began climbing up, ria hoped she was friendly… when ria saw her face, she instantly glared. It was… her. She quickly hid her mean glare, ria knew better, don't judge people until you have actually met them, she shouldn't have let her feelings change her judgment of others.

"hi there, im kairi, whats your name?" she asked as she stepped in.

"im ria, nice to meet you, kairi."

"ria, thats a pretty name." she complemented.

"thanks, your name's nice too" ria said in meek tone, that was her insecure shy voice.

"why are you up here?" kairi asked.

"i was going to come down and leave, once everyone stopped caring." ria said.

"well, don't worry, we mean no harm"

"kairi!, did you tell that tourist to get lost yet?" tidus shouted.

Ria gave a small chuckle to that. "yeah, you guys really mean no harm. When you have guests, you really know how to make them feel welcome"

"don't mind tidus, he's just a brat." kairi said. "come on down and hang out, you seem nice." she said.

Why not? Ria thought, she and kairi then began to climb down to the beach together.

"hi new girl!, my name's selphie and its a pleasure to meet you" a little girl in a bright yellow sundress said as she hugged ria, she liked this one.

"that's tidus" kairi pointed out.

"yeah, whatever. Just stay outta my way, outsider" he scoffed.

"tidus, stop being such a jerk!" selphie yelled. And then turned her attention back to ria. "you're hair is so cool! Did you dye it?, can you do the same to mine!?."

"umm no, I was born with silver hair." ria said.

"hey, new girl. You play blitzball, ya?" wakka asked.

Ria looked at him, confusion obvious on her face. "what's a blitzball?"

"guys, leave her alone" kairi said.

Kairi studied the features of ria for awhile, most of her body was being covered by her black turtleneck and leggings. Her face however, was very visible. Ria must have been very pale, her face was as white as snow, which allowed her crimson red eyes to be a more apparent feature. this girl was interesting, and kairi liked it when interesting people came into her life, she hoped her and ria would become good friends.

Sora was frantically searching his room, throwing items and clothing from his drawers, checking under his bed. Riku had no idea what sora was looking for, or why it mattered so much that sora needed this item right now.

"come on, where is it?" he asked himself while checking every inch of his room.

"what are you looking for?" riku asked.

"my mirror" he responded.

"whats so special about a mirror?"

"just shut up and help me find it!" sora said.

"is it like a little silver hand mirror?" riku asked.

"yeah, why?"

"i saw ria take a mirror in her room" riku said, he would have said something sooner if he actually cared, after all, it was just a hand mirror, what was so special about that?.

Sora immediately dashed for ria's room, and found the mirror on her bed, along with that book about the darkness. He took the mirror and gazed into it.

"show me ria" he said firmly. The mirror glowed green and there he saw her, she was leaning against a bent palm tree with some other girl on what looked to be a beach, upon closer inspection, sora could identify the other girl as kairi, ria was on destiny island!. Sora then ran to the GPS and set the new travel destination to the islands… home.

The sun was setting and kairi and ria were leaning against a bent tree with star shaped fruit hanging from it, the two were just exchanging pleasantries, telling each other about their lives (although, ria left out parts about sora and the keyblade).

"so, how did you get on this island?" kairi asked.

"to be honest, I don't know, I just woke up on the beach in the middle of the night."

"do you live anywhere near here?, are you vacationing on the main land?" she asked.

Ria just shook her head.

"so, where do you live?" kairi asked.

"well, compared to your home, its like a different world"

kairi looked at ria, trying to comprehend that somewhat cryptic sentence.

The sun was almost down, night was about to fall.

"well, I guess I have to call it a day" kairi said, standing up from the tree they were leaning against.

"where are you going to be sleeping?" she asked.

"i… don't know" ria said. She could camp out in that bungalow again, if nobody would yell death threats at her.

"there's a hotel on the mainland." kairi said.

"i don't have any munny"

kairi felt bad for her, ria probably had so much on her mind right now, kairi knew the way ria felt, randomly waking up in some odd place, surrounded by strangers, having no idea how to find her way home.

"maybe, you could bunk with me?" kairi suggested.

Ria looked up at kairi, surprised that she would suggest something like that, they only met each other five hours ago.

"are you sure?, i'd hate to be a burden" ria said.

"it's no trouble, come on" kairi said pulling ria towards the row boat.

They soon reached the mainland by the time the moon had risen. Ria could understand why kairi and the others were so protective of their island. The beach on the mainland was disgustingly littered with trash.

"why is this beach so dirty?" ria asked.

"oh, that's because of the tourists, destiny island is a popular attraction, so a lot of people come here for vacation and since their so busy partying and having a good time they don't clean up after themselves."

"that's horrible"

"don't worry about it, it'll all be cleaned up tomorrow." kairi said. She then began to lead ria to her home.

They arrived at her house and kairi had pulled out her house key and unlocked the door, then the two stepped into the house.

ria liked kairi's place, it looked rather modern and nice, the walls were clean, the furniture was new, it was a dramatic difference when compared to ria's standards. It was funny, if kairi was some kind of princess then where's the castle?

"kairi?, is that you?" a man called out from the kitchen. Who soon came to the living room.

He was rather tall and a little chubby, he was wearing a nice black suit and around him was a sash that said "mayor" in bold letters. Judging by his appearance, it was likely that this was the mayor of destiny island.

"who's this, kairi?" he asked.

"this is ria, she's a friend from school, her parents are on a business trip and she needs a place to stay for the night until her brother can come pick her up" kairi introduced, it was an obvious lie but what was kairi supposed to say? "this is some random homeless stranger who I just met and the only reason im bringing her home is because I feel bad of her" he seemed to believe kairi's little lie.

they soon went to kairi's actual room after a few moments.

Kairi's room was all pink, pink walls, pink ceiling. It wasn't a preferred color for ria but it was still nice. She had a nice queen sized bed, large flat screen tv, a huge wardrobe with a full body mirror. Now ria was really starting to believe the whole princess thing.

"whoa, your dad is loaded" she said as she fell into kairi's double bed, the sheets were incredibly comfortable. Ria even felt a quiet yawn escape her.

"he's not really my dad" kairi said.

"excuse me?" ria said in a tired voice.

"he adopted me when I first came to this island."

"well, whats wrong with being adopted?" ria asked.

"nothing, it's just… I miss my real parents"

"yeah, I know how you feel, i've never even seen my parents" ria said.

"what do you mean?" kairi asked.

"my mother… isn't here anymore and i've never known my father."

"well your obviously too well dressed to be living on the streets, who took care of you?"

"my guardian..." ria said with distaste in her voice. "she… she was never cruel but she wasn't kind either, she just ignored me more and more as I got older."

"that's terrible" kairi said. "where is this woman?"

"i don't know, and I don't care" ria said.

"maybe we should change the subject" kairi said.

"okay… so how long have you been a keyblade wielder?" ria asked suddenly, how was she supposed to know that!?.

"i… I don't know what your talking about" kairi said.

"then why is there a keyblade leaning against your wall?" ria asked casually as she layed down on kairi's bed.

Kairi looked behind her and gasped. She forgot to hide that thing back in her closet.

"it's okay kairi, I've got one too" ria said, summoning her keyblade to her hand.

Kairi was amazed at the sight of ria's keyblade, it was beautiful, don't get kairi wrong, her keyblade was pretty too, but it looked like a child's toy sometimes. Kairi went to go pick up her keyblade since she didn't know how to summon it, sora was going to teach her but then he had to go off and leave kairi all alone.

She didn't actually pick it up, she held her hand out to it, hoping she could actually summon it this time.

"keyblade, I… command you to come to me!" she shouted at the weapon, nothing happened.

Ria just watched her.

"summon keyblade!" she said, still not working.

"i don't think it works like that" ria said.

"well you can do it, how do you do it?" kairi asked.

"i… don't know, I just hold out my hand and it comes to me." ria said.

She then demonstrated. Her hand began to glow and instead of lost memory coming to her kairi's keyblade appeared in ria's hand instead, lost memory was leaning against kairi's bed.

"hey, how did you do that?" kairi asked.

"like I said, I don't know. Maybe it's all in the wrist?." ria said. "well what I do know or actually… what i've read is that keyblades don't really come when you want them, they come when you need them. Maybe your keyblade doesn't think you need it right now." she said, observing kairi's weapon.

The Keyblade was round and curvaceous to the point of appearing harmless. One side of the hilt was formed in the shape of a breaking ocean wave, while the other was formed into a beige vine of sand that wrapped around the shaft, which was colored to resemble a sunset. The vine connects to a bouquet of colorful flowers, which form the teeth of the Keyblade and entwined to outline a heart. A red silken keychain connected the hilt to some odd star shaped fruit charm, similar to what she saw on that tree back on the island. (Ria doesn't know what the paopu fruit are yet) this weapon did look rather girly and harmless, not really something ria would use. But the odd thing was, if this was kairi's keyblade then why did it come to ria?, she had her own which was probably a lot better then kairi's.

ria returned it back to kairi and took her keyblade back into her hands, she liked lost memory a lot more anyway and it wouldn't be nice to take it from kairi

"what I fail to understand is how come your keyblade came to you when you obviously didn't need it?" kairi asked.

"well, I've got a lot of dangerous little black things that want to take my heart, I'm being stalked by a cult of black coated freaks, I grew up in a broken home, people made fun of me just because I'm an albino, I got separated from my friends and to top it all off, I'm a ticking time bomb of darkness, so there are plenty of reasons for me to need my keyblade!" ria said. Kairi was looking at her with a somewhat saddened expression, it was then ria realized that she just shouted all of that right in kairi's face. "sorry, it was wrong for me to snap at you like that" she quickly apologized.

"don't be, its my fault, I didn't know you were dealing with so much" kairi said "you got separated?"

"yeah, me, sora and riku"

"you know sora!?" kairi asked in a loud tone.

"yeah, I knew you too, he talks about you a lot, every conversation somehow seems to be all about you and I can see why, I mean look at you, your pretty, friendly and you have amazing hair and… and then there's me… what was I even thinking? What kind of guy would want some loser like me when he's got someone like you, your… perfect, and im not, you have him wrapped around your finger, he's dedicated to you." ria trailed off.

"what do you mean?" kairi asked.

"he goes off searching all those worlds, fighting the heartless, sacrificing himself just for you, to keep you safe… that's something most girls dream of, but you, your living that dream, your a princess of heart, a soul filled with pure light, I'm just some albino girl with abandonment issues, you have someone who really cares about you, and I have… nobody" ria sighed.

Kairi gazed at ria for what seemed like hours, contemplating the words that ria had said to her. It was odd, kairi didn't really know if it was right to feel bad for ria.

"again, im sorry for saying all this, I just really needed to vent all that out, i've been holding all of my feelings in for so long, it feels good to just let them all out, if I hurt you in any way, I'm sorry."

"maybe we should just get ready for bed" kairi suggested.

Vanitas walked into the castle that never was, with a smile of pride on his face, he had returned from his mission and now he was going to his master's quarters to receive the praise and respect he finally deserved. He approached the large white door that led to his master's quarters and entered, he didn't need to waste his time knocking, master xehanort was expecting him.

There he saw his master, sitting on a large white chair, staring into the fireplace that was holding a blue flame.

"master xehanort, i've returned." he said proudly.

"so you have, we have much to discuss…" he said, standing up from his chair and turning to face vanitas.

"what's their to discuss? I've done as you asked" vanitas said said.

He soon felt the cold leather of his master's white glove as it came into rapid contact with his face, the force from xehanort's blow was so strong that vanitas tumbled to the floor, he was about to get up until his master's boot slammed onto the side of his face and held him down.

"you failed me, I give you a simple task to keep you busy, and you fail me. I told you to watch and protect the girl without being seen, yet you decide to take the two of the strongest members of the organization and enter yourselves in some barbaric gladiator game AGAINST THE VERY PERSON I TOLD YOU TO PROTECT!, not only that, but you destroyed the entire world WHILE THE GIRL WAS STILL ON IT!, you have ruined my entire plan."

"what do you mean?" he said from under his master's boot.

"i have waited fifteen years for that girl's darkness to grow into the appropriate age, FIFTEEN YEARS I HAVE WAITED FOR MY SECOND CHANCE TO FORGE THE X-BLADE, AND YOU SENT ONE OF THE KEY COMPONENTS INTO A DARK VORTEX, YOU'VE KILLED ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS OF MY PLAN!"

"she's must be still alive, her darkness would have protected her..."

"her darkness is still infantile, even if she survived, she is probably far from our reach." xehanort said.

"can't you just go fill some other person's heart with pure darkness instead?"

"oh of course, let me just abduct some little child away from their family and implant pure darkness inside their heart, then i'll just have to wait FOR FIFTEEN MORE YEARS UNTIL THEIR DARKNESS MATURES INTO SOMETHING THAT CAN BE CONTROLLED!, OH DON'T WORRY VANITAS, YOU DON'T NEED TO HELP, JUST SIT THERE AND BE THE USELESS PATHETIC WEAKLING YOU'VE ALWAYS BEEN!" xehanort shouted. He then sighed, began to rub his temples and tried to regain his composure. "even if I find another pure darkness, I will still have to find a pure light to counteract that darkness. two opponents who must be evenly matched in every aspect, it is almost impossible to find two who are so different yet so similar"

"give me a chance to redeem myself then, if she is alive then i'll find her, I won't fail this time." vanitas said.

"stop flapping your tongue before I cut it out, boy. You are an abomination beyond hope of salvation. what stops me from putting an end to you right now, vanitas?. Are you smart enough to know the only reason why you are still breathing?" he said, summoning his dark keyblade.

"you need me" vanitas said "you've always needed me"

"correct" xehanort said, dispelling his keyblade and removing his boot from vanitas' head. "i'm giving you one last chance to redeem yourself, send the unversed into all the worlds you can, find the girl, or her corpse." xehanort then returned to his chair and returned his gaze onto the fireplace.

Vanitas said nothing as he walked out of his master's quarters.

Xehanort sighed as he watched the blue flames feed off of the wood in the fireplace. He could not believe vanitas' rash and foolish decisions, he should have expected it though, vanitas was always unpredictable, but that was to be expected from a being who is pure darkness, as darkness in its very nature is masterless and free, it can be manipulated but never truly controlled.

"lord Xehanort, may I steal a moment of your time?" said vexen, randomly interrupting his thoughts.

"make it brief, I am in no mood for lengthy conversation." he said.

"it is no conversation, my lord. It is a demonstration." vexen said as xehanort removed himself from his chair.

"you have my attention" he said.

"come inside, my daughter" vexen said to a small figure hiding in the doorway.

In walked the project that vexen had been working on so diligently, an exact replica of ria. Xehanort was impressed, it looked just like the girl, it was even wearing her clothes.

"i am replica number 45, model R.I.A., my purpose is to serve the organization in any way possible, I was created for this very reason and I will die for this very reason." the replica said.

"impressive. you've exceeded my expectations, vexen" xehanort said.

"of course I have, this is what happens when I am given a task that fits my talents" he stated. "this particular model is a vast improvement when compared to my other experiments, she is blindly obedient to our cause and has no desire to replace the original ria, she knows her purpose, don't you my dear." he said as he stroked the replica's hair. Xehanort found vexen's attachment with the replica to be rather disturbing.

"you seem rather attached" xehanort stated.

"of course, she is one of my finest creations, I see her less as my experiment and more as my actual daughter."

"very well, good work vexen, I shall notify you when it is time to utilize its-"

"her" vexen corrected.

"her… abilities" with that the replica and vexen exited the room, leaving xehanort alone once more.

Vexen walked into his lab with anger in his footsteps.

"that fool of a man, who is he to judge me? So what if I have developed a connection with my creation? Doing otherwise is like a father who takes joy in watching his children cry, If he was able to do what I am able to do, he'd feel the exact same way!"

"have I failed you, father?" she asked. Vexen soon turned his head to his creation.

"no of course not, my dear" he said as he took the replica into his arms. "he just doesn't understand yet, but we will make him understand, once you destroy your original, then he will see you for what you truly are, he may even fear you."

"then I will find my original, I will crush her, I will make her beg for the mercy of death, and then I will be seen as the superior" the replica stated.

"of course you will. but for now, let us work on giving you a proper means of achieving that goal."