(a/n see below)

"You what, Riku?" Saiyoku asked, tears pouring down her cheek; and she thought it odd. Why was she the one crying?

"Ah! No, don't… don't cry, Saiyoku," he wiped her tears away gently, "Don't. You don't have to cry, because I will cry for you. You won't be alone in this, I promise. Know why? Because…" He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers softly, "I love you. I'd do anything for you, you know that don't you?"

She was stunned, unable to move or respond. Did Riku seriously just… kiss her? Did she just hear every word he had said correctly? Did any of that actually happen? Riku's hands were still holding on tightly to hers; his face still just inches away—close enough for his breath to warm her skin; so it must have really happened…

"Saiyoku?" He asked, wondering whether or not he might've gone a little too far. Her lips grew into a faint smile as she reached up and kissed him back; but footsteps interrupted her. They broke away, and the faint sound of voices grew louder.

"Who's here?" Saiyoku asked Riku, but he was just as surprised, "I don't know… C'mon, we need to leave. We can't be caught now."

"And if it's Sora?"

"…I don't know what we'll do."

"Well then, let's get going," Saiyoku grabbed his hand and pulled him into a Dark Portal. He followed obediently as they walked through the passage and into another one: to the World that Never Was. They were on top of Memory's Skyscraper, and the castle was visible in the distance.

"Why are we here?"

"I didn't open the passage to this place."

"What do you mean you didn't open that portal! You just walked through an open portal!"

"Yeah, but I felt like it was okay… like it was pulling us in."

"You're insane," Riku shook his head while Saiyoku released his hand. Neither of them could really comprehend what had happened back there; but one thing was certain: Riku had kissed her, and Saiyoku had kissed him back.

There wasn't any sign of life, and Riku had made sure of that when he had scanned the shady buildings for any of the worlds' inhabitants. He turned back to suggest heading somewhere else since they had no reason for being there, but when he did Saiyoku's attention was focused on something else—enough to completely ignore him when he tried to talk to her.

He followed her gaze to the silver floating castle, but then to the source of the only light in the cold world—the giant heart-shaped moon above the Nobodies' hideout.

"Kingdom Hearts…" Saiyoku murmured, scaring Riku for a second. She continued to stare at it unblinkingly with eyes full of fear; then she suddenly gripped her head in pain and backed away from the edge.

"Saiyoku? What's wrong? What is it?" Riku asked, but she didn't answer and instead took a giant leap from the skyscraper onto a tall nearby building, "Saiyoku!" He jumped after her, but she continued hopping from one building to the next, headed for the castle. The buildings were coming to an end; so instead, she jumped down into the only road that lead to the castle with Riku on her trail.

Voices swarmed inside her head again, screaming for release.

"Let me out! Please!"

"Think of my children! Let me go home to them!"

"I don't want to be alone anymore!"

"Help me! Help me!"

"It's dark, I can't see! Help me!"

"Where am I? Please, someone help me! Anyone!"

Shut up! Leave me alone! She yelled inside her head, but they only grew louder. She began muttering their cries for mercy and help; she couldn't stop them.

The end of the road was nearing, but she stopped in time before she went over the cliff. Her companion finally caught up with her and grabbed her arm, spinning her around, "Saiyoku, what about Kingdom Hearts? Why are you so afraid of it?"

"Let me out. I don't want to be alone. Why can't anyone hear me? I-I can't find myself in this Darkness… where am I?" Her voice was fading in and out, like she was whispering her innermost thoughts. Eyes seeing things that Riku couldn't kept flashing back and forth like mad.

"Saiyoku! Snap out of it! What is this place doing to you?" He growled and his hands tightened on her shoulders until it became painful. She gasped, coming back due to the pressure on her arms.

"I-I feel like… I feel like it's suffocating me… pulling me in, just like the Dark Portal. I don't want to yet. I don't want to! Not yet, not now!" She said quietly, coming back to her senses.

"This place isn't somewhere you should be. C'mon, let's go back."

"No."

"What? Why not? You need to be somewhere else."

"There's someone else here."

"What!" Riku released her and looked around, expecting to see someone to fight; but Saiyoku corrected herself, "I meant in the castle. Oh, and the others have arrived. Finally…"

"Others? Wait, how do you know all this?"

"I don't know… I just do. Maybe… because I'm the living Kingdom Hearts and the other Kingdom Hearts is right up there. I think that whatever it sees I see. At least, right now."

"Who are the others?"

"Sora, Donald, Goofy, and the King."

"They're here? I must say… it's about time. How long did that moron think he needed to take?"

"Stop insulting Sora. C'mon, we need to find out whoever's in that castle."

"Alright..." Riku sighed, and they used their own shortcut method to infiltrate the castle as usual. Outside, a huge roar of thunder shook the building and lightning flashed.

"Great, a storm. Just what we need." Saiyoku muttered, leading Riku down a hallway that they had never been down before. She was completely unaware of her surroundings, not knowing exactly where it was she was going; she wasn't looking out for Organization members either.

"Why are we coming this way? Do you even know where you're going?" Riku asked from behind her. There was no answer from her; instead, she kept walking fervently toward wherever her instincts told her too. Though, due to this state of mind, she was still oblivious to Saïx walking down the hallway a little farther down; but Riku spotted him and managed to grab Saiyoku before she was walking side by side with the Nobody.

"What the heck are you doing!" Riku hissed in her ear.

"I was just following my instincts."

"Well your instincts lead to idiocy. You didn't even SEE him yet you were almost walking right next to him!" Riku watched carefully as the man walked into a smaller hallway just to the left.

"Who?"

"SAÏX!" Riku moaned, "That's it, I'm not following you any more. You're just going to cause problems with you in this mental state."

"Mental state!" Saiyoku looked appalled, "I am NOT crazy."

"Well then, start acting sane. Like I said earlier, we need to leave before you really go and do something completely stupid." He grabbed her hand and dragged her back the way they had come, Saiyoku protesting the whole way.

"I'm not crazy! I know where I'm going! You're the one who's going the wrong way!" She pried at his fingers, but he refused to let go.

"I don't know what you are anymore! Sane or insane, I'm the one who's going to decide where to go from now on!"

"Like you hadn't already done that before…" she muttered, scowling; but the scowl faded immediately when another piece of knowledge formed in her head. She planted her feet firmly on the ground and refused to move, giving even Riku a hard time.

"C'mon, Saiyoku!"

"No."

"What do you not understand about what we just discussed?"

"Kairi."

"What?"

"She's the one who's in the castle. I just know it."

"Kairi's here! Where?"

"In the place I was leading you, stupid. That settles it. I'm following you this way now."

"But we have to go back."

"Are you going to fight me the whole way there? I'm NOT going to where she is."

"Not this again. Fine, you go that way and I'll go this way. Do whatever you want. We'll meet up at the Gray Room."

"Fine," Saiyoku said, and she huffed off in the opposite direction of him. He shouldn't tell me what to do… like heck I would go back to that room if SHE'S there. She continued to walk down the hall until she reached a dead end. Opening a Dark Portal, she stepped through into Ruin and Creation's Passage… once again ending upside down.

"Dang it! Not again!" She mentally hit herself and looked around. There was no main walkway—just some floating floor pieces here and there with green bars on certain ends. They looked sturdy enough, so she prepared herself to jump onto the nearest one. She held onto the portal, measured the distance, and launched herself to the platform.

"Whaagh!" She yelped. She had missed it nearly by an inch, and was falling to heck knows where, unable to grab hold of the side. She summoned her Keyblade instantly and swung up, latching the teeth onto the metal edge, just barely holding on.

There she was, hanging off the side of a platform… with a seemingly bottomless pit beneath her. Just. Perfect. "Agh! How did I MISS THAT!" She screamed, holding on tight to the hilt while swinging back and forth to try and create enough force to grab hold of the side… or just land on top of the platform. Eventually, she gained enough speed to fling herself up onto the side, hitting it with the bottom of her foot and boosting herself up. But her foot slipped, sending her backward just as she was about to grab a raised section of the platform.

She didn't fall though—a hand grabbed her wrist just in time, pulling her up onto the platform, "I knew it. It was a bad idea to let you go off on your own when you're not exactly fully sane at this point…"

Saiyoku looked up into Riku's ocean blue eyes and frowned, "I could've handled it."

"Sure. You nearly fell back into a pit after almost falling in there the first time and you say you can 'handle it'. What a load of—"

"—thank you." She interrupted him; she could feel her face grow red.

"What?"

"Thank you… you're right. I was going to fall again if you hadn't come along and grabbed my hand. Thanks," She said quietly, looking down at the floor. He raised an eyebrow and pulled off the glove on his right hand, lifting her face and feeling her forehead, "Are you really the same Saiyoku that I just had an argument with in the hallway?"

She smirked, pulling away his hand, "I'm fine. I'm just not at the top of my game today."

"You've had a lot pushed on you today. I'm surprised you're doing as well as you are."

"Well, ya know, gotta think positive."

"You're not Sora."

"Worth a shot," she shrugged, walking past him to the other end of the platform, "So, where's Kairi?"

"She's not there, but we should be able to find her in the direction of Naught's Approach, since that's over by the dungeon."

"Oh…" she muttered, but immediately brightening up, "By the way…"

"Yeah?"

"The fact that you knew where I was and managed to get here at the exact same that I needed help officially proves that you are a professional stalker," she smiled, pointing her finger at him.

"What! B-but, it was just because you left your portal open and—I'm not a stalker!"

"Fine. If you're not a stalker… then you're a professional creeper. End of subject. C'mon, let's head over to Naught's Approach. I'll have to face her eventually, so might as well get the torture over with. Let's go, creeper."

"Not this again!"

"Creeper."

"I'm not a creeper! Stop accusing me of that!"

Author's note:

At last! I'm sorry you guys! I know it's been like… five weeks(?) since I last updated, but I'm honest when I say that ever since I did, I have been slammed with homework. Heh, I kinda realized that my grades had dropped in several classes due to my constant updating on FanFiction, so in order to try and get those back up, I have been working on homework and studying hard instead of working on FanFiction. Although it's almost exam week and I really ought to study, I finally fit it in my schedule due to the annoyance of some of my readers at school (*cough cough* Mikomi!*cough*) and a few hate mail… jeez, at least I know you guys like it! Anyway, after exam week, which begins May 24th, and when summer vacation begins, I will finally be free to update as much as I want. So, in other words, be prepared for a lot of updates in a short time. But, this is also a warning that I will probably not have another chapter up until then since I will be slamming my face in my Latin book preparing for my probably-very-hard-Latin-exam-thanks-to-my-awesome-yet-insanely-obsessed-with-hard-tests-teacher. (I'm thinking about bribing him with Playmobiles—he adores them and has a collection at school 'cause he's a fellow nerd like me!—to make it easier… think it'll work?) Anyway, enough rambling from me! Thanks for your patience guys! See you in summer vacation! YEAH!

~SaiyokuRiku~