Riku trained a little bit with Aqua before she went to explore some more. It seemed more and more she only dropped by Traverse Town for Sora and Ven's sake. She wanted to see what changed and how the worlds were doing, but it was impossible to keep going when Sora and Ven so desperately needed her (even if Ven didn't want to admit it—Sora freely expressed how much he needed Aqua around, unafraid of his feelings).

Riku asked the Keyblade Master to give him some tips and pointers. He wanted to learn what she knew. He had picked up the Keyblade Glider bit rather quickly, which helped when it came to world travel—if he was on his own. Usually, he traveled with Goofy while Kairi went with Donald, so Gummy Ships were a necessity. She also taught him something he'd been trying for a while: teleportation. He tried to master it and only with Aqua's help was he able to finally understand how it worked.

He was also pleased to know it was something Sora was never able to do. With all his power, he couldn't teleport. It was almost laughable.

Ven would often sit and watch Aqua with Riku. Aqua offered to train them both, which Ven declined. Only when Aqua wasn't around did he confide in Riku why he was hesitant to train under a Master.

"I've had two Masters in the past," Ven explained, rubbing the back of his blonde head. "The first one ripped the darkness from my heart, fragmenting it beyond repair. And the second one tried to kill me to prevent me from making the χ-blade."

Understandably, he had an aversion to training under Keyblade Masters. They were supposed to be someone you could trust. Riku knew Aqua would never do anything to hurt Ven. They were friends, right? Riku could see she would put their friendship above her Mastership, and Aqua would never do anything to hurt him. After the experiences Ven had, something told Riku Ven would never return to training under a Master again.

Riku wondered how Ven found him approachable. He tried to make himself as distant from him and Sora as possible. They were too much alike. They were rays of sunshine that were way too bright for him. Yet, Ven was fine just walking up to him and starting a conversation, as if Riku's annoyance at his light went right over his head (it probably did). Yet, Riku found it hard to stay annoyed for long. Ven was interesting. He had his own stories that Riku could relate to. The fact that he defied authority like the silverette made him like him all the more. Both were willing to help, but neither were good at taking orders.

Riku found himself sharing more and more with Ven when they got the chance to talk. It wasn't much. Just some struggles with the Heartless Nobodies. The kind of stuff he'd share with Kairi or Donald—the ones that showed he had his moments of weakness. He hated letting people know he wasn't as strong as he'd like to be. He learned he could only share his true weakness with Goofy.

Goofy was easy to talk to. He was quiet and would listen and only gave his input when asked. He didn't judge as harshly as Kairi and Donald (Donald was the worst). When Riku found he was struggling with the darkness in his own heart, Goofy was there to help him through it. Riku's desperate ache for more power only fed the darkness within him. When he learned he could use it to his advantage, Kairi tried to squash it. When they stopped going on missions together, he found it easier to use it. Goofy was the only one that tried to keep him in check. He reminded him there was a balance and that he shouldn't rely too heavily on it, even with the strength it gave him. Goofy discouraged the use of darkness, but knew Riku wasn't one to listen. He was stubborn and if something worked to his advantage, he was going to do it.

Maybe that was part of the reason he couldn't handle Sora. He had so much strength and he only used his light. How did the light give him that much power? Riku wished he could tap into his own light like Sora could.

Riku and Goofy were close. Riku could tell Goofy everything and Goofy was surprisingly wise. Donald was always quick to dismiss him, if only because he was so… goofy. But he actually knew what he was talking about.

So, Riku took it to heart when Goofy suggested they brought Sora with them to Wonderland. He would have flat out refused had anyone else suggested it. He reasoned it would be good for Sora to learn about the Keyholes, since he hadn't had a chance with that yet. The Keyhole in this town had been holding up quite well and Goofy was sure the boy hadn't even seen one yet since his departure from the Realm of Darkness.

Riku was sure Goofy had other intentions besides "showing him the ropes." Goofy was a pacifist and wanted everyone to get along. Even though Riku was good with Sora now (thank God it was no longer weird awkward between them), he still didn't accept him as part of this team. He was an outcast, even more so than the Master that joined them and the Keyblade wielder that soon followed. He was a child raised in darkness. It made some of them wary, but others only saw the light in his heart.

Riku simply didn't know how he should act around him. They were born on the same island, inseparable until forced apart, and Riku obsessively searched for clues on how to find him for almost ten years. Maybe he had hoped he would find that lost child rather than this grown boy. Maybe he imagined he'd find him and rescue the boy himself and was slightly disappointed it didn't happen that way.

Riku wasn't sure what he was expecting if he ever reunited with the boy, but this was not it.

So when he told Sora he was coming with himself and Goofy to Wonderland, the look of shock that crossed both his and Kairi's faces was beyond hilarious. He forced a straight face as he stood up, ordering Sora to get ready. They were leaving soon and if he needed to sleep, he could sleep on the Gummy Ship. He headed back to their base, Sora and Kairi on his heels.

"Wait, really, Riku?" Sora asked, excitement in his voice.

"This is a terrible joke, Riku." Kairi insisted. "This is why you're not allowed to make them."

This part was true. Whenever he'd try to make jokes, they'd always come out wrong and would force an awkward silence upon everyone that heard them. It was more embarrassing than funny, so he and Kairi agreed his jokes should be kept to himself. His sense of humor was dry and usually went over heads.

"I'm not joking," Riku shrugged. "The sooner he gets out there on his own, the better, right?"

"You'll be nice, right, Riku?" Kairi asked as if Sora wasn't there.

"Like I've been mean lately?" Riku asked. He thought he was being his usual self, albeit with an overbearing amount of stress that Kairi seemed to lack. He had taken it upon himself to bear the weight of it all. Maybe because with the appearance of Sora, she'd seemed to relax. Like the outside worlds had little consequence to her anymore. Yes, she kept up with her duties, but the times she was here and he'd seen her, it was like the worlds weren't ending to her.

Someone had to worry about it, right?

"You've been uptight. Maybe we should take you to back to the Coliseum, hm? You can relieve some of that stress in the games." Kairi suggested. God, he was tempted. When they started world hopping, he became so stressed; the day they landed on the Olympus Coliseum was a godsend. It became his favorite stress relief. He hadn't had any time to go there save for cleaning up Heartless and putting Hades back in his place when he stirred trouble.

"No time," he grunted regretfully.

He didn't have to look at her face to see the worry frown pouting her lips. She should put that worry elsewhere. The darkness was pulling in more worlds and she was concerned about him? She had kinship with the other Princesses of Heart whose worlds were vanishing out from under them and she was focused here and now? She really needed to get her priorities straight.

Maybe she would when she heard about what Aqua found.

At the base, she handed Cid a thumb drive, explaining how it was a program he could use to spy on other worlds. It would save them time and effort and people. Cid was rightly suspicious about where it came from, yet plugged it into the computer to download it. He trusted Kairi. If she trusted some guy out for revenge, then it must be of some good.

Aqua sat at the table, her fingers tangled in her long hair as she poured over new reports. She seemed older, the gravity of their loss hitting her as hard as it hit Riku. Sora pulled up a seat next to her to tell her proudly of his first mission and how he met the man that they traveled with for so long. She smiled, but it couldn't quite reach her eyes. Riku knew she was happy for him. But what she knew made it hard to be happy about much.

"So, how'd your mission go?" Sora asked.

She frowned, looking away from him. Kairi was watching Cid as he explored the new program. Riku elbowed her to get her attention, nodding to Aqua. She needed to know what the woman knew.

"It went… well, I wasn't caught." She told him, clearly unable to articulate just how terrible the information she extracted was. She went to see The World That Never Was for herself. She wanted to avoid the Nobodies, and she did quite well with that. But the conversation she overheard had important information that made their jobs almost null.

"You sound like it didn't go well." Sora frowned.

"Our Keyblades… they're helping the Organization." She grit her teeth, her fists clenching. "With each Heartless destroyed, the closer they get to creating Kingdom Hearts. That's why they were content with just letting Riku and Kairi do what they did. That's why there's a constant influx of Heartless on worlds they knew. They spread them to give Riku and Kairi more enemies to fight. More hearts to release. More hearts to join Kingdom Hearts."

Riku folded his arms. Sora looked between Riku, Kairi, and Aqua, clearly not processing this information. Kairi's jaw tensed. Riku could see how hard this was hitting her. Like a truck that came out of nowhere. Much like it hit him.

"Does that mean we can't use our Keyblades?" Kairi asked.

"We don't have a choice," Aqua replied.

"But… there's more Keyblade wielders now." Sora spit out.

"They know." Aqua said. "That's why they haven't made an attempt to approach us. They want us to keep doing what we're doing. We need to start acting, fast." She stood up. "We need to start taking them out."

"They're too strong," Kairi protested. "We've tried and barely made it back alive."

"That's why I'll be training you and Riku. You two are strong and have such potential. It'll be a crash course and I hope you'll be ready for it."

"But what about the other worlds?" Kairi asked.

"Go to the ones that desperately need it. If they show signs of falling soon, go. We need to stop barely hanging on and we need to start fighting." Aqua shook her head. "Just keeping the darkness at bay isn't going to help anyone. The worlds will return once the darkness is defeated. You cannot let fear hold you back."

Kairi was not happy about this information. She still took it better than Riku. At least she didn't break anything (he was sure Sora should be wearing shoes right now—that lamp he knocked over still had shards scattered across the room). Riku was ready to fight. He was ready to win. He knew he was strong enough now. He knew more than he did last time he faced an Organization member (Xaldin in Port Royal). He would win this time. He was confident.

Sora looked up at Riku. "And we're still going to Wonderland?"

"They're falling." He told him. "While we're gone, Aqua's going to have some one-on-one time with Kairi."

"What about you?"

Riku snorted. "What do you think we've been doing while you two were messing around?"

Sora turned to Aqua. "And Ven?"

"Ven will be right there with us," Aqua assured him. "He's strong enough to hold his own now. He knows what's happening and has been more than eager to help since day one."

"And… me?"

Aqua ruffled his hair, a playful smile crossing her lips. "Sora, you've trained your whole life for this. You're more than ready." He was relieved to hear that from her. His usual bright smile lit up the room once more. How could such an easy smile put everyone at ease? It was something about him that made everyone relax.

There was more discussion, but Riku heard it all before. He went to find Goofy to let him know they were ready to leave. It was already getting late and they might not make it in time. They needed to leave now. When he found him, he was with Donald and Ven in the second district, sparring in the open area. Ven had gotten much better than Riku would have expected in such a short amount of time. It must have been all those cure spells he'd been subjected to.

Ven was also kind of an amazing fighter. He spent of lot of time off his feet, especially when his commands took effect. He was spry and quick and scrappy, fighting backhanded with his left. It was fun to watch, but he knew time was short. He called for Goofy who took one look and knew they had to go. He left, waving to Ven and Donald as he joined Riku.

"Sora's back?" Riku nodded. They went back to the base where Cid, Kairi, and Aqua were already laughing and smiling, a stark constrast to the mood Aqua had set for them. Sora was telling them something about Twilight Town. Riku almost felt bad having to pull him away from them. He knew once this ray of light was gone, the mood would darken once more. It seemed wherever Sora was, smiles followed.

This was something this team desperately needed.

"Sora, time to go."

"Right!" Sora turned, saying his goodbyes to Aqua and Kairi before following Riku and Goofy to the ship. He asked questions about the Gummy ship, having never actually ridden in one. He was curious and excited and Riku had to remind him that he was going to find out on his own so he should stop asking questions.

Boarding the ship that sat just outside of the gates to Traverse Town, Riku turned to Sora as he sat in the pilot's seat. "Don't. Touch. Anything."

Sora plopped into his seat, putting his hands on the arm rests obediently. "Yessir!" he agreed. Riku started the ignition, shooting off into the stars. The ride was much faster now that Cid had installed the new thrusters. He was proud of the gummy blocks he'd found. They cut travel time in half which made for a smoother ride to Wonderland with Sora babbling.

Okay, he wasn't really babbling. The boy was just marveled by everything. Riku almost wished he could see the world from his perspective. When Goofy asked what Traverse Town was like, Sora burst with excitement, glad to tell of his experiences. His favorite part was seeing the sun for the first time. He was thrilled by the competition that was happening when they arrived. He expressed his wish to move their operation there, but knew it wasn't a good idea since there weren't any monsters of darkness and they would bring them with all the Keyblades they had.

"This world is all topsy-turvy." Goofy warned Sora. "You best stick close, ahyuck."

"Oh? How so?" Riku could see Sora at the edge of his seat. Man, he wished he could feel that much excitement. It was contangeous. Riku caught himself listening to Goofy, as if he'd never been to the world before.

Goofy told him of their first time visiting the world. Their freefall down a rabbit hole, the furniture that fell with them, a shrinking hallway and a tiny door. Cake and a drink that shrank them and made them grow. Areas that brought them to the same room, but on the wall or ceiling, like gravity worked differently. A disappearing cat, a suit of cards that served the Queen of Hearts. Singing flowers and a mad tea party thrown by an even madder Hatter.

Sora hung on to every word. He couldn't wait to get there. Soon enough, they landed in the rabbit hole. Sora bounced off the walls—literally—to push himself to the ground floor. Riku and Goofy shrugged, following his lead. They made it to the bottom, Sora already wandering the hall. He hadn't gone far, but his curiosity was insatiable.

Riku led them down a door, glad Goofy was there to keep Sora in check. He didn't like the idea of babysitting, and that was most certainly what the two of them were doing. They entered the Bizarre Room, Riku no longer needing the map they drew oh so long ago. This world, like many others, seemed to have no more secrets to him. No new areas to explore.

"Our objective is thin out the Heartless and reinforce the Keyhole." Riku reiterated with Sora. "Try and get the Purebloods. They don't have hearts to release." Nothing. Sora had no idea what he was talking about. Oooooooh goodness. "Emblems? No? Were you not paying attention when we went over this?"

"Er," Sora grinned sheepishly, crossing his hands behind his head. "Sort of. I didn't get it."

"I'll show you when we see them." Riku sighed in defeat as he lifted the drink to his lips. As he felt himself shrinking, he quickly set the bottle back on the table as to not spill it. Goofy and Sora were right behind him, Sora watching as his surrounding grew. Almost as soon as they were small, the Heartless were upon them. It seemed the higher level Heartless had found their way here. Of course there were spellcasters and Darkballs, but Riku was a little perturbed to find Defenders in place of the Large Bodies as well as Armored Knights in place of Soldiers.

"So, Purebloods are the Heartless that don't have the Heartless emblem on them." Riku explained as Way to Dawn found itself in his hand. "And the rest are… Emblems."

Sora summoned his Keyblade. "I don't see any Purebloods, Riku."

"Yeah… yeah, it seems that way, doesn't it?" Why did Purebloods have to be weak or bosses? It wasn't even fair. They were forced to play into the Organizations hands. Well, he shrugged. Life wasn't fair. Fighting monsters wasn't any different.

They cleared out the room, the job becoming much easier with a far more skilled swordsman by his side. Sora was effecent, though sloppy. He had been training under Aqua for years, yet fought like a self-taught wielder. He supposed it was his style. Not many people could be graceful like Master Aqua.

Riku approached the Doorknob who slept soundly. His snores filled up the now quiet room. Riku knocked on the plate.

"Hey. Wake up." He ordered.

The Doorknob opened an eye before forcing it shut. "I'm sleeping here. Come back in an hour."

Sora grinned. Of course he'd never seen a talking object before. His sparkling eyes watched with wonder as he held back a million questions for the thing. Riku warned him before they landed not to talk to anybody unless Riku or Goofy said it was okay. The people in this world were strange and sometimes hostile.

"Sure, okay." Riku agreed, leaning his hip into his fist. "If you want your world to be swimming in darkness, that's cool. We'll come back in an hour. Maybe. We might have jumped ship by then."

The Doorknob grumbled before opening his mouth wide. It was always like this with him. He was never cooperative and he was always sleeping. It kind of annoyed him to no end. One of the reasons he hated coming here. Riku looked to Sora and motioned for him to take the lead. Sora grinned, peering into the mouth to see the Keyhole before he took a step back, flipping his Keyblade with a flourish and pointing to the Keyhole. A beam shot from his blade to the hole and a locking sound echoed throughout the room.

"Good. Now, let's go clean up a bit before heading back."

"Cool!"

"Should we split up?" Riku suggested, looking to Goofy. "We could work faster this way. You could take him to the forest, I'll get the rest of the room."

"Are you sure?" Goofy asked.

"I don't see why not." Riku shrugged. It was only Heartless and Sora was more than capable of dealing with them. Goofy was a better guide than Riku and Riku was more than happy to pass off babysitting to Goofy, who suggested they brought the kid in the first place.

Riku had no idea what a terrible idea that was.

If you guys haven't listened to the Kingdom Hearts χ Dearly Beloved, you all should get on that because it's super sweet and fun. I've also been replaying the games in chronological order for the past week or so so I know if I'm playing some of the characters right. I forgot what a jerk Ven is to Aqua. Terra is, too, but he's also being manipulated like crazy. Imagine a story where the boys actually did as Aqua said and Vanitas decided to use her instead of Ven. That would make such an interesting story. IF EVERYONE LISTENED TO AQUA, NOBODY WOULD BE IN THIS POSITION RIGHT NOW. GOD.

Also, I don't know if you guys can tell, but I have a lot of fun writing for Riku. He's kind of an insecure dickwad in the first game, but since Sora wasn't around to feed those insecurities, Kairi was super quick to squash them.

I KNOW MY STORY HAS SOME HOLES. THEY'LL BE FILLED I PROMISE.