Thanks to two of my most faithful reviewers, Crystal4458 and Eddie Camp for reviewing the last chapter. (: This one was actually one of my favorite chapters to write and I'm interested as to how you guys (all the readers) are gonna react. If you have a sec when you're done reading, please review. I know times are especially busy for everyone right now with school (I know from experience). But anywho, I still take the time to spit out chapters so you can take the time to spit out reviews. :P

With all that said, enjoy Chapter Seven!

Chapter Seven: Clues

I didn't sleep in the next day. Not only was I so restless during the night about my father that I couldn't sleep, but the gummi ship itself wasn't extremely comfortable. Besides, I knew how Riku was an early bird, so I couldn't sleep in and hinder him from what he was going to do today. He was going to take the ship and go to Cadia to tell my mom we were searching for answers to fix the curse that was on me. And then after that…He was going to Isabella. Alone.

He wasn't nervous about it, but I was. For once, I was glad I had something to distract myself with so I wouldn't fear for him. He would have a busy day, but so would I. I would search anywhere I could to try and find some sign that my dad was alive. I hoped today would go better than yesterday had, because after hours of searching, we hadn't found anything.

After saying farewell to Riku, I went to my old home by myself to look around. The living room was already searched through and so was Isabella's bedroom. After thinking about it last night, I was pretty sure there weren't any clues hidden in my bedroom. Soon after I found out my dad was gone, I came home from school and found my 'mother' searching through the room for something. Now I realized that she must have been looking to see if Terry left a note for me. It would make sense, since my dad would probably want me to know my identity. But he was a very smart man, so he wouldn't have left something for me where Isabella could find it.

"What do I do, Dad?" I murmured, walking through the hallway in the house. I needed help if I was going to find him. I knew him so well, didn't I? Didn't we have something special in common when I was growing up? Some place in the house we would spend time together and he could say something to me?

Suddenly, I froze, practically able to hear his voice in my head. He always told me one thing: "Whenever the future looks dim, look back to the past." That didn't make much sense since my past was so dark, but maybe he didn't mean it metaphorically. Maybe he meant it literally! "The photo albums!" I said in realization. Looking to the left, I saw the closet where the books were kept. "Perfect," I murmured, opening the door and seeing the books in there. There was probably something hidden in there. And Isabella probably didn't think to look there.

I pulled out the books and headed over to the couch in the living room, sitting down and opening the first book. And as soon as I opened it, I lost my breath. My dad's handwriting was there."Whenever the future looks dim, look back to the past." It was the same message I just thought of, but this proved that he meant for me to take things literally! I was meant to be looking through the book right now, wasn't I?

"W-wait a minute…" I said in confusion. I realized that I was talking to myself, but it didn't matter. The pictures on the first page were gone. Turning to the next page, I saw pictures that weren't in there when I was little. Every single picture that I could see there were rocks. Rocks! The family portraits and snapshots of my life were replaced by pictures of rocks.

Page after page after page there were only rocks. This had to mean something. I went back to the start and began to remove the pictures from their plastic sheets so I could look at the back of the photographs. Was there writing or something? At first, there were no notes written on the back of the pictures. But on the back of one random picture, there were two words: "Clue One". Clue one? This was connected to him vanishing! It had to be!

I kept the picture separate from the rest before I opened the next book. The family pictures were gone again. Instead, the album was full of pictures of sunsets. Sunsets? I took the pictures out one by one until I found the one that had writing on the back of it. "Clue two". What on earth does this mean?

Regardless of the questions, I went for the third and final photo album. But those pictures confused me as well. Shovels. Every single picture was a shovel. "Dad, what're you trying to say here…?" I murmured to myself. These three clues made absolutely no sense. But I still took out all the pictures of shovels and found the one that had "Clue Three" written on the back of it and put it with the other pictures. I didn't know if these specific ones held significance, but for now, I'd focus on the general.

I just found three clues in one sitting. And something told me that these clues should have been enough to lead me to the next step of finding my dad, but I was so confused about what these thinks could mean! When I thought rocks, I thought rocks in the ground. Was I supposed to dig something up somewhere with a shovel? Where we watched the sun set? But we didn't watch the sunset in one specific place!

What was I missing here? I needed time to think about it. Hopefully something would click if I was lucky.

*…*…*…*…*…*

Riku

Later that same day, Riku exited the portal the King created for him and entered the Realm Between. He spoke to Queen Andrea in Cadia and told her what Steph wanted him to say; he said that they couldn't break the curse just by seeing Isabella and that they were still looking for an antidote. He bought them a few days time at least. He just hoped that was enough time to make some progress, because he didn't like lying to the queen. It wasn't right, since she was Steph's mom. She was so concerned about her daughter's health…

And why wouldn't she be? Her daughter was taken away when she was just three or four years old. Steph just returned to Cadia a few months ago, and now she was already running off into a possibly dangerous situation. Andrea just didn't know how dangerous. But Riku did, which was why he was here to speak to somebody once again about the situation.

"You've come alone?"

Riku's icy eyes landed on the person who spoke to him, seeing her stoic expression. He was here to see Sorceress Isabella and get some kind of information. He was hoping for something that would get Steph to stop this wild goose chase of hers, but if he couldn't get that, he wanted information to help her find her father. "Steph doesn't need to be here to see what I'm going to do."

"You admire her innocence that much, huh?" Isabella said as a cold smile started spreading on her dark expression. "I'm shocked she has any left. She's been released to the real world now and all the darkness that's out there. Soon, she'll find that following the Light isn't so easy."

Stop talking about her like that, Riku thought bitterly. He realized he made a mistake bringing her up. He'd change that right now. "Is Queen Andrea's husband really alive?"

"You mean Stephanie's father," she corrected. "There's no need to try to disconnect yourself from the situation, Keyblade wielder. This is more personal than what you're making it out to be."

"Is he alive?" Riku asked again without humoring her. He gazed at her with hard eyes, hating that smile on her lips. She looked like evil incarnate to him, and he knew something about evil. How could nobody have realized who she was before? How couldn't he have sensed something off about how Steph talked about her 'mother'?

"Unfortunately."

Riku blinked. He was really alive? Isabella admitted it that easily? "He is alive?" he said dumbly, unsure of how else to respond.

"Need I repeat myself ten times?" the witch responded coolly. "And here I heard you were the brighter of the two Keybladers."

Riku growled at the shot taken at both him and his best friend, but he was smart enough not to take the bait. He was here for one purpose: to help Steph. "Where is he, then?" Isabella remained silent at that comment, so Riku moved one step closer to her. He had an intimidating glare that most people knew not to challenge, but the sorceress only laughed at him.

"Oh please. Is that really supposed to frighten me? I'm not scared of you, boy."

"You should be," he said lowly. He flexed his hand and nearly summoned his Keyblade to him, but he restrained himself. If he lost his temper, Mickey would pull him out of this Realm. His emotions had to be in check or else this place would mess with his mind.

"I believe that you're the one who's afraid," Isabella said with an icy smile. "You're afraid for Stephanie. How romantic."

"You shut up!" he spat.

"So I've hit a nerve…Good. Despite your calm exterior, you're pretty easy to get to. But you already know that, don't you?"

Riku didn't humor her by speaking. But she did humor herself and just kept prattling on.

"But of course, there are people out there who know how to rub you the right way. You were such a good slave to the Darkness…"

He froze. "How do you know about that?"

"I know everything, boy." When Riku released a stunned grunt, she only laughed. "If you thought Maleficent was bad, think again. I'm in a league above that fairy."

I don't believe you, Riku instantly thought, glaring at her in silence. He knew Maleficent better than anybody else, and he knew how terrible she was. Cold, heartless, manipulative, selfish, dark…And her powers were extraordinary. There was no way there could be a sorceress greater than her. If Isabella was that great, she wouldn't have been captured.

"I'll leave you to your thoughts, I suppose," Isabella said, turning away from Riku and gazing at the nothingness of the Realm Between.

The young man shut his eyes, fighting the urge to give into his emotions. He was in control here, not Isabella. That was why he couldn't do anything extreme and lose that control. So far, there was no progress being made here. He knew now that Terry was alive, but Steph already figured that out. Now he just had to figure out how. And why. And where.

"Where is Terry?" he asked in an icy tone.

"I don't know. But soon, Stephanie will. She's a smart girl; she'll figure it out soon enough. I raised my daughter to be-"

Isabella didn't get to finish her sentence. In a movement so quick that he was almost a blur, Riku appeared right in front of Isabella. He grabbed her throat and lifted her half a foot off the ground with one arm. "She's not your daughter!" he boomed, screaming in her face. How dare she refer to Steph as her daughter? The witch was her captor, not her mother.

The witch, however, was also pure evil. She cackled a laugh despite Riku's hold on her. The hold tightened because of that laughter. "Go ahead and kill me," she dared him. "This won't end with me."

Riku was about to question her when he heard a voice from nowhere call out to him. "Riku! That's enough!" It was King Mickey calling to him, since the mouse king was observing this from his Realm. He knew trouble when he saw it. Riku would kill Isabella if he had the chance, but he couldn't be allowed to do it. They needed Isabella alive. He dropped her from his hold and watched her fall to the ground, where she couldn't help but cough and sputter to catch her breath.

I'll be back for you later, Riku thought as he glared at her. He turned around and saw that Mickey opened a portal for him, as he suspected. Mickey wisely didn't trust him with Isabella right now when he was angry. He turned around and walked through the portal. Upon reaching the other side and seeing King Mickey's expression, he knew that he was in for a lecture. He sighed and glanced behind him to see the portal disappear, trapping him in Disney Castle with a stern friend of his.

This wasn't going to be fun.

*…*…*…*…*…*

Steph

I finished up digging the top of Sunset Hill, having found an old shovel in our basement that I could use. It was tricky business getting there…sort of. It was a school day still, so not too many people were around to question what I was doing with a shovel. It helped I came through the tunnels system too; I couldn't risk people stopping me. If they did…I didn't know what I'd do.

But I dug a hole right in the middle of the area and there was nothing. Nothing at all. Thinking about it now, I didn't believe that I had the right place. The first clue was the rocks, and the soil here wasn't rocky at all. It had sunsets and the shovel obviously could be applied anywhere, but still…Sunsets and Sunset Hill seemed to make sense to me, even if me and my dad didn't come here often when I was growing up.

Sighing, I filled the hole back up with dirt. I had no clue where else to look. Rocks and sunsets and shovels…A graveyard? Ew no! I immediately thought, shaking my head to myself. You couldn't see the sunset from the graveyard anyway. And no way was I going to go around digging in a place that was so associated with death. No way.

I patted the dirt on the hole to smooth it out before I turned around to head home. I needed a quiet place to think. But that was when I realized something.

I wasn't alone.

"S-Steph?"

John, I thought in awe, seeing one of my old best friends. He had grown up more in the past few months I wasn't here; his blond hair was more shaggy than before and he had a small patch of hair right beneath his lips. He looked….incredible. He was cute before, but now he was handsome. "H-hi," I stuttered.

"What're you doing here? And with the…" John motioned to the item in my hands.

I glanced down at the shovel, my eyes widening. I nearly threw it to the side so that I didn't have it in my hands, but what good would that do? Clearly I was guilty of something if I had a shovel in my hands. "…It's a long story," I responded quietly, glancing back up at him.

John's brown eyes hardened. "A long story? Like the story where you didn't ditch us?"

Immediately, I remembered back to the day I saw him last. It was the day Isabella cast a spell on me and made me lose my voice. But it was also the day that Riku took me away from this world. I hadn't returned since. That was besides the point though. My friends confronted me after I lost my voice and accused me of ditching them for Riku. They said I wasn't their friend anymore because they didn't know the truth. That killed me inside, to know that my friends weren't as loyal as I expected them to be. They threw me out like I was nothing.

"It is a long story…similar to that," I said quietly. The shovel was related to finding my dad, which was related to Cadia which was related to me leaving Twilight Town so suddenly. Could I tell him? I knew Riku said that other people couldn't know about multiple worlds existing, but this was John. He was one of my best friends and he was deeply in love with me (according to my former friends). I could trust him, couldn't I?

"I don't know what happened to you, Steph," John said quietly as the bitterness in his eyes remained. His voice was more sad than anything else, though. Even if he was eighteen now, an adult, he had the innocence of a child. Similar to me. "You used to be so loyal to us, but you started keeping secrets from us ever since Riku came around. You traded us for him."

"I didn't mean to," I said weakly. "I didn't have a choice, John…"

"You always have a choice."

"No…no you don't," I whispered, shifting my gaze to the ground. "I used to believe that too. That I was in control of my fate. But everything started spiraling out of control soon after I met him, and I just…I didn't have a choice but to go with him."

"Why didn't you have a choice?" John asked.

In awe, I looked up at him. "You'll…you'll hear me out?" Last time, he was a part of the group who walked away from me without giving me much chance to explain myself. Not that I could anyway because I didn't have my voice, but—

"I have to know the truth," he said softly as he interrupted my thoughts. "I know you…Or I thought I did. I think I still do. You're a pretty easy person to read, and seeing you now…As cheesy as it sounds, it seems like there's more to this than I can see."

A small, somewhat sad smile appeared on my lips. "You've changed since I left," I stated softly. He was wiser and finally spoke his mind, though he was still pretty soft spoken. I wished I could have seen him change into this nice young man. I wished…I could have stayed here and had a normal life. Possibly with him next to me.

"And so did you," he said quietly. My smile remained as I nodded faintly in agreement. For a few moments, we just studied each other. He changed for the better and I hoped that I had done the same. I hoped that I was a better person than when I left. Braver, wiser, stronger…Those were the things I strived for. I wanted to be brave enough to have the courage face the uncertain future, wise enough to know how to face it, and stronger so that I could actually do it.

"…Can you tell me what happened?" John asked after a minute.

I hesitated, but then nodded. "It's a long story, so…" I motioned for him to follow me over to the bench. Thankfully as I walked over, I heard his footsteps right behind me. He was really giving me a chance. I couldn't have been more thankful. And in a way, I was glad that he was the only person here to listen to me. My other friends—or ex friends—were great, but they weren't the best listeners.

The two of us sat down on the bench together and I started to explain. I started from the very beginning. I was actually born in a world named Cadia to the king and queen. A few years into my life, there was a coup where my mother and father were both overthrown by a sorceress who was angry that I would take the thrown instead of her when my parents were aged. And while my parents could do nothing to stop the coup, my dad at least fooled Isabella into thinking he was on her side. Together, they kidnapped me and brought me to this world, where I would grow up blissfully unaware of my royal heritage. At least, they planned for me to be ignorant until I was eighteen years old and received the powers passed onto royalty of Cadia.

But things didn't go according to plan. Sora and Riku, two Keyblade wielders, started hunting minions of Isabella. They sensed her Darkness here but couldn't track her down, so they kept coming back. When Isabella realized this, she tried to trap them in this world by covering it in Darkness. While she succeeded in the latter, she failed to trap them here. And they escaped this world with one other person: me.

Without going into full detail, I spoke of how I was kidnapped and taken back to Tebros, which was really Cadia under the rule of three dark men. They intended to kill me so that there would be nobody to threaten their rule, but Sora and Riku showed up and saved the day. After Cadia was restored to its former glory, I had the chance to speak to Queen Andrea, who revealed my past to me and that I was a princess.

However, I didn't believe her. Or maybe I did and I was too scared to admit it. I ran back to Twilight Town to see Isabella for myself. But it was a nearly fatal mistake. As soon as Isabella realized that her most powerful minions in Cadia were defeated and I knew my identity, she tried to kill me. She only succeeded in casting a spell to take away my voice, though. Hence why I couldn't explain to my friends what happened to me.

Then Riku, Sora and I spent days searching for an antidote. We eventually found it, and that was when I returned to Cadia as their princess. Normal life in Twilight Town wasn't an option, not after all that happened. And not after I figured out who I was and what my destiny was. I was to rule Cadia, whether I wanted to or not.

After a few months of training, my eighteenth birthday came around and I didn't receive my powers. Riku (who lived in Cadia with me as the head of my security) and I set out together to find the cure, but we found something else instead: we found out that my father was alive. And so I searched my old home for clues. The three clues—Rocks, sunsets, and shovels, led me to digging up the top of this hill with a shovel so that I could find another lead as to his whereabouts.

And that was my story right up until John caught me here digging up the earth.

John was pretty much silent throughout the whole telling of the story. The only time he spoke was to ask a question or get clarification. Now that it was done, I didn't look over at him. Did he believe my insane story? It was a little too insane for anybody to make up, even me, since I had a vivid imagination.

"First of all, I believe you," John said quietly after a minute.

"…You do?" I couldn't help but whisper. I looked over at him, my soft blue eyes landing on him as he stared out ahead of him. When his head turned and his brown eyes landed on me, I nearly felt my heart melt.

"I do," he responded softly. "You were always too good for Twilight Town, Steph. I've always believed that." Awestruck by his kind words, I didn't know how to react to his next action. He lifted one of his hands as he turned towards me more, his soft fingers trailing across my cheek as he tucked back some of my brunette hair. "And I always knew you were too good for me, too."

"That's not true," I whispered. "You're…I mean, you…You're incredible. You've always been such a good friend to me, and you trusted me when you had no reason to. You just listened to my crazy story, and…"

As I spoke, there was something else happening. My cheeks started burning bright red and so did John's as we both leaned closer to each other. His hand lingered on my cheek even after my hair was out of my face. His thumb briefly ran over my skin and then it happened: His lips connected with mine in a gentle kiss.

And I kissed him back. I closed my eyes and felt moisture growing behind them. This was the type of man I always pictured myself with. Sweet and sincere. Not tough and sarcastic like Riku was sometimes. All my former companions said John loved me, but I never realized before how much I liked him. But now I did.

After a few moments, the kiss ended with his withdrawal. His brown eyes opened and landed on my teary blue ones as his thumb again ran over my skin. "I've always loved you," he whispered. "But now it's time I let you go."

But…I don't want you to, I thought as I watched him rise from the spot next to me. John offered me a chance to live a more normal life, away from sorceresses and bodyguards. Simple happiness and innocence was what he offered me. "Thank you for telling me," John said quietly as I couldn't find my voice. "And good luck finding your dad, Steph. I know that you can do it."

Standing there and seeing me with teary eyes must have compelled his next action. He took a small step closer to me and bent down, giving me a small kiss on the top of my smooth brown hair before he turned around and left Sunset Hill, leaving me all by myself and taking my hope of ever being in a normal relationship with him.