Well… I'm alive!

Sorry for the very long delay, I've had a very busy couple of months and honestly the story kinda slipped my mind… X'[

Hope you enjoy!

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22: Give a try

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I feel….like I'm barely even conscious…

Sora felt like he was dragging himself down the hall, which in his opinion, was never going to end. His little heartless friend was energetically (and pretty damn patiently too) guiding him down the hall. They hadn't heard nor seen anyone, human nor ghost, and Sora was thankful but it was a matter of time before they realized he was gone. And things would probably get worse from there on.

I hope everyone's okay…. Oh god.

Sora stopped when his foggy brain came to a realization.

They're in more danger than ever….because of….me

Once again, it was HIS fault all his friends were in danger. His entire fault. And here he was, safe and running away.

He felt completely and utterly horrible.

The heartless twitched its head in confusion, and hopped over to Sora.

'What's wrong?'

Sora blinked tears out of his eyes and looked around the hallway. No one except him and the….heartless. He looked down into the wide yellow orbs.

"Did you just talk?"

'friend be okay'

Sora blinked, it was like a distant voice in his head, but he was positive it was this heartless. He wiped his eyes, and bent down to look straight at the creature.

"You're not like the others are you?"

'No fight. Friendship'

Even though the heartless seemed to have a small vocabulary, sora understood him perfectly. The brunet smiled. At least he had one friend he hadn't let down yet.

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"okay….we're here."

Riku stopped infront of a door that looked no different than the past hundred.

Kairi glanced at him, "You sure?"

The ghost paused, and nodded slowly, "Im positive. I wouldn't forget this room."

Kairi nodded, sensing the immense discomfort from Riku. This room had to of held a lot of unpleasant memories.

"You remember the plan?"

Kairi, Roxas, and Axel nodded. It was a dysfunctional plan, but a brilliant one. They had one chance to do this, and to do it right.

Riku's expression stayed monotone, as he raised his tight fist towards the door. He closed his eyes and opened up his hand. The door slammed open.

Nothing. Everyone glanced inside the room, and no one, alive or dead was there.

What the hell?

Riku walked inside, the others keeping back, unsure. The ghost looked around everywhere. Cobwebs, dust, and dirt. And then, that disgusting bathtub.

He has to be here.

Riku grew more and more irritated, and the room, without him even noticing, started to shake. The others stepped back hesitantly, eyeing the ghost with fear in their eyes. Riku kept looking, jerking his head left and right, completely oblivious to his own inability to control his powers.

Kairi bit her lip, He might do something reckless.

She sighed and started to step forward and Roxas grabbed her shoulder, "Kai, don't."

She mouthed trust me, and his hand slid off her shoulder. The red head heaved a sigh and stepped into the room, nearly losing her balance this time because of the intensity of the shaking.

"Riku! Calm down! Don't do this to yourself!" She yelled out, stepping closer and closer to the rouge ghost. She shook off any fear she had and started yelling over the clamour.

"Riku, your plan can still work! But freaking out like this won't help! You need to be the hero and I know you can do it-" Still no impact, and kairi was gripping the edge of the countertop, only feet away from Riku, hopelessly trying to gain composure, "-We all do, and you know you believes in you the most?"

She almost thought Riku locked eyes with her for a second, "Sora. Sora believes in you and he needs you Riku. Sora needs YOU."

That was the trigger, the room stopped shaking, and Riku glanced at kairi, and then off to the side, ashamed, "I can't….believe I lost control like that. I'm no better than that monster-"

"Don't say that!" Kairi interrupted fiercly. "Don't you dare say that. You are so much more than him."

Riku let a smile slip and sighed, "You're…right," He looked around the room. "Well, he was definetly here, they all were, even namine."

Kairi perked up at her sisters name, and the others started to enter the room, "well," Kairi said. "I think we have some options here."

Riku nodded, "I have a feeling they're still preparing and they locked him somewhere….I can definetly sense that Xemnas and his accomplices aren't all together….which has to mean that their still searching for something…"

"Like us?" Kairi asked.

"But, weren't we just 'pawns'?" Roxas inquired. "I mean, they just wanted Sora….right?"

"Xemnas is and has always been hard to read," Riku explained, pacing (well floating) around the room. "He can sense that we're still here and moving, so has probably figured we want to fight. He might have sent his assassians to come take you guys too….or at least Roxas."

Roxas eyes widened a bit and his brows furrowed, "What?" He walked closer to Riku. "Why me?"

"Well Sora's considered the key because he is the keyblade master," Riku said. "But anyone who can wield a keyblade is considered powerful, and you contain the same type of power Sora has. But Xemnas could very well be after all of us, because with every human he kills, the more power he gains."

Roxas bit his lip, unsure what to say. Then Kairi cut in, "What about the promise that one ghost made to Sora…to not hurt us?"

Riku huffed, "Promises don't mean much in ghost world. Especially to Saix. Nothing really means much." Kairi looked down for a slight second in thought. "Well, back to the options?"

Riku nodded, "Alright, things didn't go as planned. I actually, now that I think about it, would be surprised if they did." He smirked wryly. "Ok so we can go find Sora. We can go find Namine. We can go find the missing others. Or we can go find Xemnas."

Silence, Riku continued. "My senses aren't working very well right now. But I can sense that Xemnas is near the front of the mansion, possibly with Namine. Other ghosts are scattered around, and if they took Sora somewhere they would be prisoning him because they would never do anything without Xemnas' presence…..and I just have a feeling that he isn't in pain."

A small wave of relief washed over them all, especially Leon, being the overprotective brother he was. " "I know you're the expert," the brunet said and Riku smirked. "But my priority is to find Sora, and if we have to split up for me to do it then fine."

Riku gave an amused smirk. He really admired Leon's determination and care towards Sora, and it made him wish he had an older brother back when he was alive.

"Actually, that's the best idea either way," Riku agreed. "We move away from Xemnas, get some ghosts out of the way, Save Sora, and actually have Sora when were against Xemnas…..hmmm Maybe you're the expert."

Leon smiled slightly, amused, "Is that sarcasm?"

"Noooooo."

"Better watch it, just because you're a ghost, doesn't mean I won't take drastic measures."

Riku's smile flickered. Even though it was almost evident the guy was joking. Okay, note to self: Never mess with Leon.

"Oh don't worry," Riku assured honestly. "I've known since the moment you stepped through the front door not to mess with you."

Leon smirked, happy with that answer, and Riku silently sighed with relief. It's always good to be on the older brothers good side when you're involved (is that what he and Sora were?) with his brother.

"Alright guys," He motioned them to follow him out the door. "We've got….a pretty long walk ahead of us."

Kairi held back a gulp, looking into the black abyss, and then back at the black abyss they game from. "And what was that oh so lovely walk that got us here considered?"

"Relatively short. Be ready."

"Great."

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"Hey Zexion?"

"hm?"

Demyx stretched his arms out, "Do you think the others are okay?"

Zexion was silent, and finally decided to say, "I hope so."

Demyx frowned, hoping for a more assertive, positive answer. "But what do you think?"

"What do YOU think?"

For an odd reason, the question caught Demyx off guard. No one ever really asked Demyx what he thought. He was Demyx Mizu, no one really considered him to have thoughts worth hearing.

Demyx tilted his head, "Your….asking me what I think?"

Zexion blinked, "Yeah…."

"You care about what I think?"

Zexion blinked again, "Why wouldn't I?"

"Well, I'm just me."

"And what relevance down this have to the question?"

Demyx sighed, "Zexy, you're so smart. Everyone knows it and people are intrigued by any word you say. People just want me to shut up. "

Zexion frowned. Demyx was honestly comparing himself to him? And practically idolizing the silver haired boy at that.

"Demyx, I'm quiet, and rarely say anything. That's who I am. Your fun loving and have a bit of a motor mouth….thats who you are-"

"Well that's not who I want to be!"

Zexion paused, it was incredibly strange, all the different emotions Demyx was showing, and how intensely they were changing. Happy Go Lucky Demyx wasn't supposed to be sad or angry or be wallowing in self hate. That wasn't Demyx at all.

Maybe Zexion didn't know the blond as well as he thought.

"Sorry, I shouldn't of snapped like that….I was just being stupid and ugh you don't want to hear this and-"

Suddenly, Zexion grabbed the flustered blond's hand, and their fingers entangled.

"Demyx."

"Uh yeah?"

"Shut up."

Demyx smiled wide, and of course didn't listen and continued into a elongated conversation on how hungry he was.

Zexion smiled slightly in relief.

That's the Demyx I know.

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"Hey Hayner, I've gotta ask you a question."

The blond looked over to his friend, "Yeah?"

Pence glanced at the other blond, a little bit ahead of him, and lowered his voice, "Why were you and Seifer, um, so close to eachother earlier…?"

Hayners face turned bright red, and exclaimed rather loudly, "What the hell kind of question is that?"

Pence shrugged and Seifer rolled his eyes, "Can you be any freaking louder?"

"Shut up! I'm not talking to you!"

"Hey NO ONE tells Seifer Almasy to shut up!"

"Well I just did!"

Suddenly the two blonds were walking side by side, bickering as always, and Pence followed a good distance behind, with a smirk.

"Well there's my answer."

"Shut the hell up Pence!"

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Sora had been following the heartless around for what seemed like over an hour, when the little guy stopped and turned towards a wall with a portrait of a rather elegant woman upon it.

"Uh this is a wall." He stated tiredly

He couldn't sworn those yellow eyes narrowed at him, and the heartless scurried up the wall and prodded at the painting.

"Please don't tell me this is some lame secret entrance where the painting creates a secret entrance," Sora scoffed. "Original."

Those yellow eyes narrowed more and the heartless jumped to the ground as Sora approached the painting. He looked around, and tried to pull it and felt around for some button or trigger. No such luck.

He held his arms out and shrugged, "Well?" He asked the heartless.

The creature rapidly shook its head in annoyance, and started jumping up and down and Sora heard its little voice say, 'Key.'

Key. The Keyblade, right? Well, of course what else? Sora shook his head realizing how much he must be suffering exhaustion.

He summoned it, which was like an instinct now, and looked at the painting. He blinked hard and squinted, now noticing a miniscule key hole at the end of the woman's neck. He looked at the key to the keyhole, dumbfounded.

"This is NOT going to fit."

Then he swore the heartless rolled its eyes at him, the cheeky little monster, and held his little arms out in front of it, motioning him to do the same. Hesitantly, Sora lifting the key blade, with both hands, and pointed it towards the painting, focusing on the keyhole. The tip of the keyblade began to glow, and it shot a narrow beam of light into the keyhole. There was a click and the keyhole glowed a ghostly white, while the portrait shook and started to slide to the side, revealing a passage way. Sora grinned.

"So epic."

The keyblade disappeared and the heartless pounced through the passage way, eagerly. Sora followed, and stepped through, noticing a dim golden light emitting from around a corner. He hesitantly turned the corner and was shocked to find a girl - a ghost - sitting at a wooden table, writing. She was so intently focused on her work, that she didn't notice Sora. Awkwardly the brunet coughed and the girl's head shot up, and shocked blue eyes met his own.

Why….. did she look so familiar?

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"So Riku, tell me your secret."

Riku, amused, looked over towards the tall red head, who suddenly wasn't glued to Roxas and was walking beside him.

"Secret?"

"How did you get Leon to like you?"

Riku raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

Axel sighed, "I know it's only been around an hour, and maybe I've been a bit cocky but Cloud hates me for like no reason, "The ghost snorted. "And Leon like completely accepts you! How do you do it man?"

Riku rolled his eyes, "Well I'd start by not molesting Roxas every moment you can get. I'm surprised that's not what you're doing as of this moment."

Axel scowled, "Excuse me but it's not molestation if it's wanted."

"If the older brother hates you, holding hands is considered a sexual crime," Riku retorted. "I dated enough girls when I lived to know that."

"Woah, so wait," A sly grin slid onto Axel's face. "Enough girls? Riku, were you, dare I say, a player?"

Riku rolled his eyes, "I was popular, but not like I was happy with it. When your popular, its hard to find people that actually care."

"Yeah…" Axel frowned for a second, lost in thought. He shook his head, changing the subject, "Anyway, please, dude, some tips on dealing with the big bro?"

Riku, caught off guard with all the slang, blinked and said, "Um, no perverted comments, or sarcastic ones and keep the touching of Roxas to a minimum."

Axel groaned, "This officially sucks."

Riku laughed, "Sorry, but your full filling career of being a pervert is going to have to go on hold."

"I am not a pervert!"

"I would beg to differ," Kairi intervened, a smug smile on her face. She appeared on the other side of Riku. "So whatcha' guys been talking about?"

"We-"

Axel interrupted, "We were just talking about manly man things that little girls, particularly red heads, would never understand, now move along."

Kairi gave him a 'you've got to be kidding me look', as did Riku.

She pursued her lips and smirked, "Nah, besides I want to talk to Riku," She said. "About you know, grownup things that little boys, particularly red heads would never understand."

"Oh Kairi, I know I'm good with words, but your gonna have to get a little creative cause that's plagiarizing and you could get arrested."

"Oh I wouldn't get arrested for plagiarizing you."

Axel raised an eyebrow, amused by their conversation, "Really now?"

"I'd get arrested because one day you'll disappear."

"And?"

"And I'll turn myself in just so I have the satisfaction of knowing I was responsible!"

She grinned, and Axel laughed.

"You're sadistic."

"And you're perverted!"

Axel grinned and looked towards Riku, "Ever meet a family as crazy as the Kasai's in the 1900's?"

"Can't say I can recall….you guys are very uncanny."

"Alright! Kai, were canny!"

He motioned a high five towards the red head and she merely rolled her eyes.

"oooooo rejection," Yuffie mocked from behind him and Axel scowled.

"Oh Yuffie, you talked," Leon commented and Yuffie's eyes went wide and she covered her mouth.

"Too late! No birthday present for you."

The ninja impersonator looked like she was going to whine, but instead she crossed her arms in a huff.

"Whatever, you probably were just going to get me an eraser for the lovely pencil that BROKE."

"You… are probably right about that."

"Squall! I've been quiet for a billion hours and all for a different for equally crappy birthday present? What the hell kind of friend are you? I mean seriously…."

She broke into a rant, and everyone groaned since the peace was broken. Riku, though, held back a laugh and smiled. When he had lived, He'd never known anyone like the Kasai's or Strifes, like Leon or Yuffie, or like Sora.

Definetly no one like Sora.

He was a ghost, and traditionally, he wasn't suppose to have emotion but being with all these people, he felt really happy. Really, honestly, completely happy.

It was funny, how though he wasn't suppose to feel emotions, as a ghost, he had felt way more in this one week than he had through 16 years of living.

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"What is this?"

Xemnas snatched the paper right as she was drawing it, examining it.

"Well it was a perfectly good picture," Namine stated, eyes narrowing slightly "Until you destroyed it."

She was eyeing the ugly black streak across it, and sighed. She pulled out a new piece of paper, began to redraw.

"Namine, why did you draw this?"

"I don't know," She answered bitterly. "Felt like it."

"Namine! stop this nonsense right now."

"and you stop destroying my drawings, but oh, look what you just did."

Xemnas fumed, and Namine hid a smirk. He couldn't control her and he wouldn't destroy her. It was a lose lose for him either way, and even though it was incredibly annoying being harassed by the Ghost man, she took advantage of the situation for some good sarcasm.

"Namine, did someone open one of the keyholes?"

"I don't know, did someone?" She asked airly.

Xemnas scowled. No matter how much he yelled, threatened, or even coerced, the ghost refused to say anything useful. All she did was draw. It was the only thing that was uncontrollable for her, and potentially could aid Xemnas, except he could never make out the pictures, since she purposely made them all blurry.

"Fine. You can be as unhelpful as you please, I can accomplish all of my goals without you."

The arrogance that was in his voice made Namine roll her eyes, honestly, it was really disgusting how full of himself someone could be. Someone as vile as Xemnas, especially.

"Good for you," The blonde remarked. Xemnas narrowed his eyes, and opened his mouth slightly but closed it and swiftly turned around.

"I'm not going to waste my time on you," He said, at the door. "I have more… important matters to adhere too."

Namine almost snorted.

With those 'pleasant' words, the ghost disappeared and Namine finished her picture. She gently tore it from her notebook, and walked over to the wall with all the most recent pictures. She pressed it against the wall and it stuck with no problem. She stepped back.

She honestly wasn't sure who the girl with the bright blue eyes and jet black hair was, or why she was associated with opening a keyhole. She wasn't completely lying to Xemnas either, she wasn't really sure what had happened, but she did know one thing.

Sora was free, and was on the move.

She smiled, and decided to go on a little journey of her own.

Things are crazy, unpredictable, and completely indescribable, but definitely not hopeless. Not at all.

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Well, there it is lol.

This story is moving pretty darn slow, I'll admit, but I probably need to map out events instead of going all freestyle like I did on this chapter XD.

Hope everyones having a good 2012!

Before-I-Fall~