It was early in the morning as sora, ria and riku began loading up the gummi ship, preparing to travel the worlds once more.

Things had been pretty stressful for sora ever since he returned to the island. One of the first things was watching one of his friends dying and then being resurrected in a fit of dark rage, the other was the stern talk and grounding he received from his mother, who still didn't believe that he was on a quest to save the entire universe. He actually had to sneak out of his house just to be here.

"okay, ship is all packed and ready to go." riku said. "you coming sora?"

"yeah, just give me a second" sora said.

he looked out to the tropical village behind him, he didn't know how long he would be gone, or even if this place would still be here when he got back.

"sora? You okay?" ria said. Putting a supporting hand on his shoulder.

"yeah, i'll be fine-"

"sora!" shouted kairi, who was running frantically towards the gummi ship.

Sora had noticed that kairi's keyblade was somehow being carried on her back. Don't ask sora how, he didn't know.

"i wanna come with you guys" she said while trying to catch her breath, due to all the running.

Ria glanced at kairi. To tell the truth, she didn't want kairi to come. They all knew that she didn't even know how to fight, and when you're going on a quest to save the entire universe from a group of darkness using, black coated freaks. Fighting was kind of a requirement.

Never the less, sora allowed her to join the party.

Ria sighed as she dropped herself into one of the chairs in the cockpit. She wasn't angry at kairi, maybe a little annoyed though.

"you okay?" riku said, sitting next to her. He had been doing this for some time now. Ever since they found out they were siblings. He was always watching her, looking over her shoulder. You know the phrase, big brother is always watching you.

"yeah, im fine" she said to him. "you have any idea where we're going?"

"no clue" he said while standing up. "i guess we'll be going wherever we're needed"

The ship then began to take off. Ria stared out through the window of the cockpit, lost in thought.

She was still trying to ponder what xehanort was going to do with her. She knew he had embedded her heart with darkness for some reason, but she couldn't figure out exactly what reason that was. What was he planning to do with her darkness? and more importantly, was he going to use it to hurt others?

She soon lost her train of thought when she heard a large crash, followed by sirens going off. The gummi ship was also rattling and shaking like crazy.

"whats going on?" kairi asked in a distressed tone.

"we're being attacked!" sora shouted as he tried to keep the ship stable. Who would want to attack them?

"and here I thought this would be difficult" vanitas said as he busted through the cockpit's door.

"vanitas!" riku shouted as he, sora, ria and kairi drew their keyblades.

"so, this is the world famous gummi ship? A bunch of rejected building blocks?" vanitas laughed. Seven nobodies and ten heartless then appeared behind him.

"destroy them" vanitas commanded.

Sora and kairi went to go handle the heartless while riku and ria dealt with the nobodies.

Kairi was an absolute mess on the battle field. Every time she tried to attack, the heartless would block and counter it. She also kept changing combat stances, which only led her to be more vulnerable. If sora wasn't there to watch her back, she might have died.

Riku and ria were having very little trouble in disposing of their foes however. They often found ways of combining their dark energy in ways that had never been done before. One attack even confused their enemies into attacking each other. Once the nobodies were delt with, ria and riku proceeded to assist sora and kairi with the heartless.

The cockpit was soon free of attackers, leaving only vanitas left. He hung his head in shame.

"if you want something done right..." he said. "send out your own mooks!" he shouted as twenty mysterious creatures in many different shapes and sizes began pouring out of vanitas.

"unversed!" riku yelled as he remembered those creatures from Terra's memories.

The unversed began charging as sora and the others tried to defend against them.

No matter how many they killed, more always came. These creatures just wouldn't die!. Eventually those twenty unversed turned into thirty, which became over forty! And their numbers only grew the longer the battle went, sora and the others soon collapsed in exhaustion, one by one.

Vanitas stood over them, laughing with a sinister grin on his face. "this was just too easy" he said as he grabbed ria from the back of her shirt and pulled her unconscious body toward the cargo hold.

He conjured seven unversed to manually control the ship, directing it to approach the atmosphere of the nearest world.

Vanitas smiled in pride of his unversed. They weren't your average mindless spirits of darkness. No, the unversed were actually quite intelligent, almost to the point where they could speak, well they would if vanitas allowed it.

He dropped ria's unconscious body as soon as they reached the cargo hold. He then pulled a lever on the wall which opened a large hatch behind the gummi ship, this was where cargo would be loaded and unloaded.

Ria soon regained consciousness, once she saw vanitas she redrew her keyblade and charged. Vanitas heard her footsteps and grabbed and lifted her by the neck, he then dangled her out the hatch. She yellped as soon as she looked down.

"aww, whats the matter? Afraid of heights?" vaitas said sarcastically as he dangled her over the edge. They were close enough to the world to allow gravity to take hold. Which would mean ria would plummet to her death.

"go to hell" she said with anger in her voice.

"that's a good idea" vanitas said. "I'LL MEET YOU THERE!" he shouted as he released her, causing gravity to send her falling.

Vanitas smiled as he heard her screaming as she fell, this was just a test however. She wasn't actually going to die. But the same couldn't be said about ria's little friends.

She was falling from what must have been a hundred feet. Her breathing was frantic and she could feel her heart racing. She held her hands in front of her in a desperate attempt to save herself, she tried to conjure a dark corridor.

"take me anywhere! Take me anywhere! TAKE ME ANYWHERE!" she shouted as the corridor opened and she fell right in it.

She landed hard on what felt like a stone pavement. The dark corridor must have done something to break her fall because she didn't really feel any pain and she was sure that no bones were broken. Once she stood up, she could see that the corridor had taken her back to radiant garden, she could tell by the gigantic castle that loomed over the whole town. From the looks of it, she must have been in the village district. Well, not that big of a deal. She'd just conjure another dark corridor and go assist sora.

"blasted heartless!" she heard an elderly man shout. Sora would have to wait, someone needs help!.

She followed the shout and found an old man that had a beard that went all the way down to his knees in length, he was also wearing a blue robe.

The heartless had him cornered as they swiped something out of his hands and ran.

"hey!" ria shouted, gaining the heartless' attention. They didn't seem very happy. "it's wrong to take things that aren't yours!" she said as she summoned her keyblade.

The heartless then began cornering her.

"you wanna fight? Okay, come get some!" she shouted as she began slashing and hacking any and all heartless who came in her way. Once the last one was destroyed, a small book was found laying on the pavement. That must have been what they were after. She went to pick it up. It was titled… Winnie the pooh and the adventures of the 100 acre wood.

"oh, thank you for the assistance, young madam" the old man said as he approached ria. "now, if you'll be so kind as to return my book"

"of course" ria said, returning the book to him.

He then escorted her into his house which had hundreds if not thousands of books scattered around his small home, they were literally all over the floor.

"umm, sir?" ria asked the old man.

"Merlin, my dear. Call me Merlin" he said.

"okay, Merlin. Whats so important about that book? Why do the heartless want it?" she asked.

"ahh, a fine question, my dear." he said. "this book is a very powerful artifact. The pages of this tome contain…" he got close and whispered "the true meaning of light"

"really?" she asked in a surprised tone.

"oh, yes. It has the ability to teach anybody the true meaning of the power we call light." he said in pride.

"even a darkness user?" she asked. Maybe this was her way to expel the darkness.

"hmm? Oh yes! I am fairly certain that it can even introduce light to someone who is deeply attuned to the foul powers of darkness. I suppose we should have maleficent read it one day" Merlin laughed.

"umm, merlin? Would it be okay if… I read the book?" she asked.

"well… I don't see what the harm is. Go ahead, have a gander" merlin said as he opened the book and held it in front of ria. It didn't really have any words though. It looked more like a map. But then, as ria looked closer into the pages, they began to shimmer until a bright flash of light blinded her vision.

When her vision returned, she found herself lying down on a bed of leaves in some kind of forest.

She sighed in disappointment. Book that teaches the true meaning of light, more like book that teaches you not to trust old wizards! She thought.

Well, getting out of here should be easy, all she has to do is open another dark corridor.

"take me to sora" she said as she held her hands out in front of her. It wasn't working.

"take me to sora!" she said in a louder and more annoyed tone. Nothing happened.

"okay… fire!" she said as she held her hand forward. Hoping to shoot a dark fireball to test if her powers were still working. Now she couldn't even do that.

What was going on? Her powers had just stopped for some reason. Oh no! What if the book just gets rid of darkness?! Great, now she's powerless! How is she going to save the worlds now?

Her worried thoughts were gone when she heard gentle humming in a direction to the north. Maybe someone could at least tell her where she was.

As she followed the gentle humming, she soon came across a small house that looked to be build into a tree.

"aww, what a cute little bear" she said as she saw a small, yellow bear wearing a red shirt. He was siting on a log that was sitting outside the house, which must have been his. He must be friendly, nothing that adorable could ever be dangerous.

"excuse me, do you know where I am?" she said as she approached the small bear.

"oh hello there, somebody I don't know" he greeted. Even his voice was adorable. "you're in the hundred acre wood" he said.

Hundred acre wood? That was the book's title. Ooh, she must be inside the book!.

"i'm Winnie the pooh by the way, but my friends just call me pooh" he said.

"i'm ria. Nice to meet you, pooh" she said. "what are you doing out here?" she asked.

"well, miss Ria, I was just thinking about how i'm supposed to get more honey. I've ran out" he said as he pointed to the many honey pots that all piled up against his front door.

"you must really like honey" she said.

"well, bears love honey, and I'm a pooh bear, so it's kind of my job to love honey" he said. "ohh! I've got an idea!" he then moved the honey pots out of his way so that he could enter his house.

He soon returned outside with a balloon in hand, he must have been incredibly light, because the balloon was carrying him off the ground.

"how are you going to get honey with that?" ria asked.

"you'll see, now if you'll be so kind as to take me to a very muddy place, of which I know of?" he said.

And so ria took pooh to the very muddy place. After arriving, pooh proceeded to roll around in the mud until all of his fur was black.

"what are you supposed to be?" ria asked while giggling.

"I'm a little black rain cloud" he said. "and I shall use this disguise to fly up to the honey tree, see?" he then began walking to the tree with his balloon in hand, ria followed him.

Once they got there, ria seemed rather concerned. The tree was buzzing with the sound of bees. What if the poor little bear gets hurt.

"would you please help some more. I need a boost" he said.

"okay… one"

"yes"

"two"

"yes"

"three!" Ria shouted as she sent the balloon and pooh into the air. He then began to sing a little song.

"oh im just a little black rain cloud, hovering under the honey tree, on im just a little black rain cloud, pay no attention to me"

ria sang along while sitting against a rock with her legs crossed, maybe the bees would believe it.

"everyone knows that a rain cloud never eats honey, no not a nip"

"I'm just floating around, over the ground. Wondering where I will drip"

a bee soon began flying around him.

"miss ria, I believe the bees are growing rather curious" he said.

"perhaps they think your after they're honey?"

"i suppose so, you never can tell with bees"pooh said as he dipped his hand into the tree, pulling out a small handful of honey.

"oh I'm just a little black rain cloud, hovering under the honey tree" the bees soon began growing suspicious of his bright colored blue balloon which one of then then stung, causing it to pop and and sending pooh falling.

"i'll catch you pooh!" she shouted as he fell into her arms.

"why, thank you miss ria" he said as she gently put him down

"it looks like your plan didn't work. What are you going to do now?" she asked.

"maybe I'll see if my good friend rabbit has a small helping of honey for me, goodbye" he said, walking away.

"bears love honey and I'm a pooh bear" he sang.

Ria smiled as she watched the small stuffed bear walk away. She now understood. This bear just had his plan blow up in his face, but he wasn't sad or angry, he was just… happy. He was also just as sweet and innocent as when she first saw him. That was it, that must have been the meaning of light… innocence.

A small tear fell down ria's face as she contemplated this. It wasn't a tear of sadness, it was a small tear of happiness.

A portal of light soon opened behind her, that must have been that way out. She took one last look at the hundred acre wood before leaving. Maybe she'll return someday.

The portal had sent her back into merlin's home.

"ahh, you are back" the old wizard said. "and how was your experience?"

"thank you" was all she said as she walked through a corridor of darkness, off to search for her friends.

A/N: OH YEAH! She who is one with the darkness is back! And it's only going to get better from here! thanks for reading!