Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Kingdom Hearts. It belongs fully to Square Enix and Disney; I am in no way liable for ownership. Those being said don't sue me, seriously…

"What is that?"

What was what? In attempt to figure out what Donald was talking about, I leaned a bit over Sora to look out of the window since he was driving and had a crystal clear view of it. To my surprise, the two animals let him drive and let me ride shotgun.

We were back in the infamous Gummi ship, on to rescue other worlds from impending doom. Genie had agreed to come with us so he was tucked safely onto… somewhere on Sora. I had missed the entire transformation scene when Donald asked me if I had any Hi-potions left. Donald, being the careful duck he was, always used all of his stock in battle even if it wasn't necessarily the most important time.

Something larger than the ship itself was floating off in the distance. It was a sort of gray color and appeared wet. What would be wet out in space? "Whoa, it's huge!" Sora commented, shifting me a big so he can sneak a glance at the object as well. "What do you think it is?"

Goofy shuddered as the object came flying towards us, "It's a giant whale!"

"It's Monstro!" Jiminy informed us. He poked out of Sora's pocket before waving a tiny little cricket hand at me. Moving back into my seat, I returned the kind gesture. What was a giant whale doing out here, anyways? "He's a whale of a whale, and vicious besides!"

"Whoa!" Donald panicked while it came even closer. "Sora, get us out of here!"

Sora tried to cut the engines back on but it was of no use, "Too late; he's going to swallow us!"

So, that's what he did. Monstro opened its giant jaws and swallowed the ship whole without the slightest problem…

"Sasuke!" Kairi called after me at the top of her lungs. She was probably exhausted from me dragging her around everywhere. Her short six year old legs pumped faster to keep up with my movements. My hand was wrapped around hers tightly often making our friendship bracelets rub against each other's in the most uncomfortable fashion. However, that didn't matter to me; what DID was where we were going. "C-can you stop running for a second? I'm t-tired!"

Running through sand was hard, yeah, I'll admit to that. To make matters worse, it was Destiny Islands' sand. It was known around here for being incredibly beautiful as well as tough to walk on. The sun beaming down on us from the bright blue summer sky wasn't helping anything either.

I smiled at her, clutching the wooden handle to my wooden sword tighter, "No, you can't stop running! We're not even there yet."

"Can you at least tell me where we're going?" She begged.

"It doesn't matter where we're going." I replied, holding onto her wrist tighter. "As long as we get there, right? It doesn't matter…"

She shrugged her shoulders before sighing in defeat, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

My head hurt… a lot…

I sat upright on the ground as my hand shot up to clutch onto my pounding head. The ground felt wet and mushy but I paid it no mind. To the left of me, Sora was just starting to stand on his feet, mumbling something about not knowing what happened. What did happen? In the corner of the slightly dark room, Donald was stomping his feet with his arms crossed over his feathery chest. Goofy turned to give us a concerned smile, walking over to me to help me up.

"Hey, guys. Are you okay?" He asked up, putting his arms out to steady me. It was as if this was my first time ever walking and the room was spinning. Whatever happened really did a number on us. I nodded to signalize to him that I could stand up alone and he hesitantly let me go.

"What were you guys doing?" Sora questioned. His voice was raspy from just waking up from our mini-comas. His sky blue eyes roamed the room for any sign of a way out. When he realized that there wasn't one, he let out a deep sigh. "Where are we, anyways? Whoa!"

The brunette teenager jumped back when a small gold and purple treasure chest was sent hurling at him. Where it came from, I did not know. Running my hand through my hair, I watched as Goofy scratched his head in confusion. "Uh, ya know, I think that big ol' whale Monstro just swallowed us." He elaborated. "And for today's weather: expect showers—" He groaned in pain when he got hit on his head by another treasure chest, "Heavy showers!"

Donald glanced up to the platform where the chests were seemingly flying out from. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he began angrily shouting, "Hey! Who's there?"

"It's me!"

Who was me? A boy with a wooden… everything peeked out from atop of one of the many wooden platforms that littered Monstro's mouth. Who was he? "Oh, it's just Pinocchio." Donald chuckled in understanding. That is, until he noticed the kid was inside of a giant whale. "Pinocchio?!"

"Pinocchio?" Jiminy repeated, jumping out of Sora's pocket. We watched as the wooden boy carried away something out of a larger chest without looking back. "Pinocch, where are you going? Pinocch! Come on, everybody! After him! Quick!"

After he retreated back into Sora's pocket, we climbed onto one of the platforms so that we could chase after him without touching the water that covered the ground which I'm assuming was nothing but Monstro's spit. They were a bit spaced out so we had to jump but it was nothing we couldn't handle. A wooden boat came into view in the distance after hopping through four platforms. Why would a boat be in here? These are not the type of questions I thought I'd be asking myself in this kind of situation.

"What have you got there, Pinocch?" An older voice came from the boat. That one certainly didn't belong to that little wooden child.

But, the next one to speak did belong to the boy, "With this, we can get out of here, Father."

We jumped to the next platform that would bring us to the boat. Personal items such as toys, clothes, and whatnot were in there meaning the two had been living here. An old human man with hair whiter than snow stood next to Pinocchio, the two of them gazing down at a green block that sat between the two. It was a gummi piece from the looks of it. Though our presence on the ship went unnoticed by the two, we surely could hear everything that they were saying.

"Really? With this big block? You think so?" The old man questioned the boy with an interested look on his face.

"It's true." Sora was the first one to speak up, walking a bit closer to the two. The three of us followed after him, not finding any reason to remain in the shadows since they now knew we were here. The old man and Pinocchio stared at us with confused expressions. Were they wondering how we got here? "So, how did you end up here, Pinocchio?"

The man gasped as he walked closer to us. He poked my dimples and pinched on my cheeks, stretching them out to double check if I was real or not, "Oh, my. So the whale swallowed all of you, too? My goodness…"

"Yeah, looks like it." I responded even though I couldn't talk properly due to him still having a hold on my cheeks.

Sending me an apologetic look, he let them go faster than I could register what happened, "My name is Geppetto; I'm Pinocchio's father. When we got separated, I traveled all over, looking for him. Thank goodness we're together again." It seems the man failed to notice Pinocchio wandering off behind him. We were inside of a whale, the kid won't go too far. Geppetto picked up the block, carrying it elsewhere onto the ship, "So, you seem to know Pinocchio quite well. I hope he was a good boy in my absence. Well, we've all had quite a journey. Right, Pinocchio? Pinocchio?"

So, now he realizes he's gone?

"We should go after him," I whispered to Sora, Donald, and Goofy. They glanced down at me, except for Donald who glanced up at me, with agreeing expressions. "Come on, he couldn't have gotten too far."

Geppetto smiled, "Thank you so much, he does that a lot."

"No problem!" Donald smirked.

We jumped off of the ship and started for the two holes that Pinocchio had departed into. One must have lead to the stomach while another lead to somewhere else. Goofy mentioned him seeing the boy walk into the second hole, thankfully. Stomach acid did not seem the least bit appealing right now. With that said, we walked through the second hole, not knowing where the hell we would end up.

A room that held so many gross and squishy things that I couldn't even describe was the first thing we encountered. Pinocchio was staring at us behind one of the holes that lead to another part of the same room. "What are you doing? Come on, let's go back." I tried with the kid. Pinocchio just blinked at us.

Goofy nodded his head, "You know, Geppetto's awfully worried about you."

"Pinocchio, stop fooling around! This is no time for games!" Sora huffed. If the kid wasn't going to come, we were going to leave him here. We turned around to begin making our way out of the room but we were stopped by an all too familiar voice.

"But, Sora, I thought you liked games." Our head snapped around to see Riku smirking at us as cockily as ever. His toned arms were crossed over his chest as he stared at us with those turquoise eyes, a silver eyebrow raised mockingly. He was standing next to Pinocchio, the kid hiding behind his leg slightly. What was he doing here? How did he know Pinocchio? "Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade?"

God, this guy was everywhere…

Sora was at a lost for words, "Riku! Wh-what are you doing here?"

"Just playing with Pinocchio."

"You know what I mean! What about Kairi? Did you find her?" Sora pried, his brown brows furrowed in frustration.

"Maybe. Catch us and maybe I'll tell you two what I know." He snickered, grabbing onto Pinocchio's hand and disappearing into the hole that led deeper into the room. I groaned as they left, "Come on, Riku!"

But, he was far too gone for him to here me shouting after him. Sora took off sprinting through the hole to which we followed. It led to an even larger gross chamber with multiple holes to go through. How were we supposed to know which one they went through? "What now?" I asked the three boys, blinking at the two different holes that lead out of this chamber.

"Split up," Sora suggested. "Goofy and I will go through this one and you two go through that one."

"The two of us together? Did you really think that through?" Donald deadpanned.

"The two of US together? Did YOU really think that through?" Sora challenged.

"Your right, let's go, Sasuke." Donald quickly said, grabbing onto my wrist before dragging me through the second hole.

The chamber this one led to was double that in size. All of these holes was peaking my irritation. Chamber after chamber, the only thing that we stumbled upon were a few treasure chests here and there. After nearly an hour of wandering aimlessly throughout these rooms, I collapsed onto the floor. Donald was glaring at me but I didn't care.

"G-give me a break, I'm tired." I sighed. He grumbled in defeat before sitting down beside me, crossing his arms over his chest. "Sorry, Donald, it'll just take a second."

He shook his head, "It's fine; I was getting tired, too."

I stood up, helping up Donald, before stretching my arms over my head. If we were either going to find Riku or find Sora and Goofy, we were going to have to start walking again.

3rd Person P.O.V.

"Why do you still care about those two children?" Riku stopped walking to turn and face the woman who was asking such questions. Maleficent, he should have already known. She walked closer to the silver haired teen, her staff in hand as usual. He narrowed his eyes at her, already having enough with her presence. "They have all but deserted you for the Keyblade and their new companions, after all.

"I don't care about them. I was just messing with them a little." Riku replied, though it seemed like he was trying to convince himself of that as well.

"Oh, really? Of course you were." Maleficent chuckled in disbelief, raising an onyx eyebrow. Riku simply rolled his eyes at her. "Beware the darkness in your heart. The Heartless prey upon it."

"Mind your own business!" Riku shouted while she stepped into her portal of darkness. All that he could do was glare at her retreating figure.

"Sora!" I yelled after the brunette.

We had just stepped into the same chamber to see him taking off running after Pinocchio. Donald, Goofy, and I ran after him so triple our chances of catching the little wooden boy. However, Pinocchio ran through another hole before we even got close enough. Bending over to put my hands on my knees, I took heavy breaths to regain the oxygen in my lungs. At least, until I seen my older friend…

"Riku!" I called out. He turned around to look down at me with unreadable eyes. What was his problem all of the sudden? "What's the matter with you? What are you thinking? Don't you realize what you're doing?"

He chuckled, "I was about to ask you two the same thing, Sasuke. Sora only seems interested in running around and showing off that Keyblade these days. Do you even want to save Kairi?"

Save? What's wrong with her?

"I do…" Sora bowed his head in shame as if everything he was doing was entirely wrong in every way. "I—"

He was cut short by Pinocchio screaming in another chamber. We all looked at the hole the kid had disappeared into with every sense of urgency. Was he okay in there? Riku was the first to take off running in that direction, me running right behind him with the other three following along. We were standing in the back of the whale's throat by the looks of it. To my horror, Pinocchio was trapped inside a cage-looking pink and blue Heartless. He gave us a pleading expression, begging us to get him out of there.

Riku glanced over at Sora, "You up for this?"

Sora, being the heroic person he was, called upon his Kingdom Key before getting into a fighting position. "No problem, let's do it! Sasuke, you and Donald attack from behind." He instructed. Nodding my head in understanding, I summoned my Keyblade, running to the other side of the Heartless with Donald at my side, his staff in hand.

"Really, you have one, too?!" I heard Riku call after me. Oh, yeah, I forgot he didn't know that.

I swung my Keyblade that spine of the monster only for it to bounce back without causing any damage. At this point, I wasn't helping with anything. The Heartless' back was guarded with some type of armor that wouldn't let me hit it. So, I aimed at the head and shot fire at it with Donald. Riku, Sora, and Goofy were striking at the thing with full force from the front. At that moment, I wondered what it would be like to be as strong as them.

With a powerful blow, Riku knocked the monster out making it bend over to regain consciousness. Sora took this time to lock his hands together, creating a stepping stool for me. Oh, he was such a genius! The head was the most fragile part of the Heartless but none of us could reach it due to it being so high up. I placed my white sneaker covered foot onto his hands prior to him shooting me up. Gravity would only keep me up here for a matter of seconds, so I hit it as many times as I could. After about six hits, I was sent tumbling back onto my feet, dodging the attacks the Heartless was aiming to kill us with.

However, everything seemed to go in slow motion as Riku ran up the Heartless' stomach as if it was a wall. When he was high enough, he kicked the monster in the head, doing a backflip midair before landing on the ground again. "Hacks!" I suddenly cried. When and where the hell did he learn how to do that? The Heartless stumbled a bit. Sending its long arms to the roof of Monstro's throat, it hoisted itself up, opening its cage to drop Pinocchio down a bottomless pit.

No words were exchanged as I dove in head-first after Riku who had jumped first. They kid didn't deserve whatever that pit led to.