Well. XD

I've been struggling with writer's block, the worst I've ever had it. This chapter was a struggle. It's short, but I think we can get the ball rolling again. Finally, right? XD

Thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter, as well as everyone who added this to their favorites/alert list. THANK YOU, so very much. :D Read on, for I've made you wait far too long for this.

Stress was attempting to force its way inside Naminé's head; to make her nervous, drive her crazy. She buffered each attempt as she searched her small bathroom for a fresh bar of soap. The grime and dirt coating her skin and hair was more than she could bear, and she needed a long, steamy shower more than anything.

Luckily, she at last unearthed a bar of what had been her favorite soap years ago, and started up the shower, feeling instant relief as she climbed in. The warm, fragrant fumes soothed her mind, and it easily wandered… and she was thinking of being a leader. An image of her giving orders, as she had been minutes ago, entered her mind, and she almost blushed with embarrassment. The old Naminé… the Earth Naminé… definitely would have. How had she changed so much since arriving in Hollow Bastion? She was never a leader on Earth—no, far from it. Then again, wasn't it her mousy, easily stepped on personality on Earth that had made her desperately wish to be more outspoken?

So, Earth had everything to do with it, she thought, elated at the fact that her skin was visibly white again. Earth has affected all of us. Riku wasn't nearly as heartless as he was before they left—he had admitted to Naminé's face that he loved Yuri. Sora was more focused than she had ever seen him, and Roxas was… well… completely different.

She smiled as she thought of him. He had been brave enough to tell her how he felt, and nothing had ever made her so happy. Dreamlike thoughts of being with Roxas after everything was over clouded her ordinarily completely rational mind, and she sincerely loved what she saw. The absence of background behind her inner images of herself and Roxas caught her attention, and she had a disturbing notion—where would they go when everything was finished? Would they remain in Hollow Bastion, or would they return to Earth, where they rightfully now belonged? Despite everything they had left behind on Earth, she almost shuddered at the thought of returning. Something about Hollow Bastion made her feel more at home there than she ever had on Earth.

Ignoring the thought, for now, was easier than it should have been. Frankly, she had more pressing matters to attend to. She climbed out of the shower, and wrapped herself in a white robe hanging from a hook on the back of the door. Finding clothes was getting harder and harder without using magic—nothing she had in her closet seemed practical for the project she had to attend to. They had, however, discovered the meaning of all the extremely light fabrics—they were noiseless, and made sneaking much easier. Nothing they had available to wear was something that would restrict movement, either, which was a definite advantage to donning the cotton clothes. She conjured up a pair of dark brown pants and a loose tan short-sleeved shirt. Being ambiguous was important, and blending in with villagers as much as possible was desirable. An Adherence member would likely know her face, but doing what they could was a necessary precaution.

In minutes, she had a bag packed, and, slinging it over her shoulder, performed a quick teleportation spell to get herself to the map archives in the library. She had a lot of work to do, and a very short amount of time in which to complete it.

"I can't believe she partnered me with you," Riku grumbled, looking uncharacteristically grim. "It's a complete…"

"Outrage?" Hana offered wryly. "Believe me, if you think you're the only unhappy one here, think again." She scowled for effect.

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. It was nice of Yuri to give you this bag full of stuff, though. You should probably go tell her thank you."

"Already have," she immediately replied. Raising an eyebrow, she asked, "You aren't suggesting I'm ungrateful, surely? Because it's not my fault if you're just exceptionally unobservant."

He glared harshly. "No, I'm not suggesting that," he answered snappishly. "And I'm not unobservant! You're just—"

"Play nice, kiddies," Sora suggested loudly, hiding his smirking mouth behind hand as he watched, entertained.

"Shut up, Sora," Riku rounded on him, clearly not amused.

"Seriously, Riku, it's not a big deal," Kairi piped up, camouflaging a giggle as a cough. "You guys will go out there and kick butt together, end of story."

Visibly annoyed, he shortly retorted, "Fine. Whatever."

"Riku!" Yuri, lying on the bed, called his name. Her voice had lost the weakness caused by the wound, and she seemed more alert than she had since it happened.

He didn't even reply—he was at her side before she had the chance to beckon him over to her. "Do you need something?" he asked gently. "Are you—"

"I'm fine, Riku," she cut him off. "I just wanted to talk to you for a minute before you guys have to leave…"

He couldn't resist smiling a little. "Don't worry about us, please. We'll be perfectly fine."

She hesitated. "I'll worry anyway… I just want you guys to be safe. And I'd really like it if you tried a little harder to be nicer to Hana. She saved my life, Riku."

His shoulders sagged in defeat, and he didn't bother to argue. "I'll try," he promised her, brushing a lock of hair from her face affectionately. "And I won't die. I can promise you that one for certain."

She smiled a little. "I'd love it if you didn't before I get a chance to come and protect you."

"You, protect me?" he chuckled. "Think what you want."

"I'm always right," she teased, sticking her tongue out at him.

He looked up at the ceiling, fighting a smile, but again declined to argue.

"Just don't die, okay, Riku?" she smirked, the gesture softly pronounced in her cheeks, but in her eyes, Riku could see the true meaning of her words. She was more serious than he would probably ever understand. "Treat Hana well, she deserves it."

"Fine, fine," he relented with a resigned sigh. "I'll do what I can."

She gave him a stern glance.

He grinned sheepishly. "What?"

She giggled. "Get over there with Hana, Riku. Don't forget, I'll know if you're misbehaving. I can hear the messages you're sending to others, and Kairi will be watching you…"

He rolled his eyes as they glinted mockingly. "Take care of yourself, Yuri. Remember, I can hear your messages, too."

The look she gave him as he turned away made him simultaneously want to laugh and broke his heart. Leaving her was hard, but not leaving her would be much, much harder… for everyone. It was right that Kairi stay—her power was almost exactly specific to the task. Everyone needed him—and, sadly, Hana as well—to help destroy the spheres and set everything right again.

As Roxas re-packed his bag, his mind was wandering amongst the clouds. Thoughts of the lives he had taken and would continue to take couldn't touch him, and the only face he saw was Naminé's. Had he been a fool for telling her what he honestly felt? Maybe… but her response was something that caught him completely and utterly off guard. The thought that she could feel the same way… it had never crossed his mind before…

A vivid, precise picture of her expression just before he had told her still remained cemented in his mind. On Earth, Naminé often looked vulnerable and upset like that, but since arriving in Hollow Bastion, Roxas had not seen her toughened exterior so damaged. She had perfectly stepped into the role of the leader, and the change he had seen in her was so great, she seemed like a different girl… and yet, the affection he held for her had not changed at all. Something about Naminé was simply… magical.

It was easy for him to quickly become immersed in his thoughts. As he absently threw random clothing into his bag, despite the fact that he doubted he'd have time to change without the use of magic, the color of her eyes came to mind, and he was completely distracted by the simple thought of it.

I wonder what she'll do when we're alone, Roxas pondered, amused by images conjured up by his imagination. Naminé acting embarrassed was one of the most hilarious things he had ever seen. One thing was for sure—he finally understood how Riku felt when Yuri was in danger. If Korin came anywhere near Naminé again… there would be hell to pay. Roxas' "helper-power", as Naminé liked to call them, hadn't returned yet, but he was certain that in a situation like that, whatever it was would reappear.

At last, Sora had dug up what he had been searching for. It had taken twenty minutes in a dusty, disgusting storage room filled with old gadgets and things that were hardly used for him to find the case filled with brand new wireless walkie-talkies. He fervently prayed that Kairi was packing his things like he asked… he was lucky to have found these at all. When they had discovered their magical connection years ago, they had ditched these in favor of something a little bit less faulty, but these had never been used. Hopefully, they'd get the job done, and even if they didn't work, the warriors could still communicate.

In fact, even with the walkies, all of them would leave their minds on the magic frequency, mainly for Yuri and Kairi's benefit, but also to ensure that if anybody was hurt, they would know immediately, and response would be swift. The last thing they needed was another casualty.

Everyone had their things together and reassembled in the main hall of the castle within the time allotted by Naminé. Nervous anticipation in the air was tangible as Leon made sure Aerith's bag was fastened correctly, Sora quickly demonstrated how the walkie talkies were operated, and Naminé quickly instructed which zone of Hollow Bastion each team should be covering. Sora, Yuffie, and Kairi, when she joined them, would be covering the Northern region, where villages were furthest apart and would take the longest to reach. Both Yuffie and Kairi relied heavily on strategy, and Naminé had easily resolved that they would be the best team to take on the area where the villages were best protected, as well.

Cloud and Tifa were designated to the Eastern zone, simply because the villages would be much easier to penetrate physically. Yuffie had passed a lot of information on to Naminé from her undercover work, and one fact she had picked up was that for some reason, higher concentrations of magical fighters could be found in the central and southern zones—closest to the castle, of course. It was a no-brainer to assign Akiko and Axel the central and southern zones.

Leon and Aerith made the perfect team to pick up the West—more citizens lived in that zone than in any other, and many of them would need the medical treatment that Aerith could provide. If she was swamped, Naminé or even Akiko could easily swing through and assist her.

Which left the teams of Riku and Hana, and Roxas and Naminé. Both would start in the center of the land, and then divide it into two halves—North and South. Since Yuri would be joining Riku and Hana, they were given the more spacious North, while Roxas and Naminé would cover the South.

Each group was handed a map, instructed very strictly to avoid teleporting at all costs, and, once all walkies had been tested, the teams ran out the castle gates one by one, hoping to reach their region as stealthily as possible.

"I hate this," Yuffie mumbled. "Hate! You hear me?"

She and Sora were belly-down in the waist-high grasses, crawling slowly, dragging themselves along to avoid being spotted. Yuffie is complaining already, Sora whined into the magic network. It's literally been four hours and she's whining.

Riku's scowl came back almost audibly. Yeah, well, trust me, Hana's no walk in the park, either.

Quit complaining, Naminé's voice warned. Just concentrate on our job, here. Get your butts moving, our world is in danger. And, quit misusing our interlinking magic.

Sora was tempted by a bitter "or you'll what", but restrained himself. He knew what Naminé was capable of, and, though he was more than confident that she wouldn't ever seriously injure him… he didn't want to risk it. "Sorry," he murmured in reply to Yuffie. "I didn't think this plain was that huge."

"It sucks," she replied flatly. "How many more hours till we're at the first village Naminé marked on the map?"

Sora mentally redrew it, and recalled, "Should actually only be about another forty minutes of this. It's right on the other side."

"Phew, thank god!" she sighed with relief, wiping sweat from her forehead with her arm. "I can't take much more."

Roxas and Naminé were the last to leave. Hana had given them specific instructions about hunting spheres, but Naminé still felt inexplicably uneasy. The daunting task of locating something she had never seen, heard of, or felt the magical presence of before was sincerely getting to her, and Roxas noticed easily.

"Relax," he suggested as they waited for the go-ahead from Kairi, who was watching Riku and Hana run and determining if their distance was far enough that it was okay for them to leave. His hand found Naminé's, and she found immense comfort in the small gesture. "Everything will be okay," he assured her with a half-smile.

Kairi nodded her head, and, still hand in hand, Roxas and Naminé dashed out the open gate together.

For some reason, the scene between Riku and Yuri is particularly sweet to me. XD

Anyways. NEXT CHAPTER, which will be posted very soon, we have fights, sphere hunting, and the emergence of Korin and Ran's plan. What are those ladies up to? You'll have to read chapter 23 to find out. :D

Thanks for reading, please review!

Lulala