A Rose Smells Just as Sweet

The next morning, I opened my eyes to the dawn light that was streaming through the crack in the closed curtains. The light wasn't very bright, considering that the sun rise's in the east and the window is facing the west, but it was light enough to say that it was around seven something. I narrowed my eyes at the cracked curtain. The little shaft of light was right in my eyes. Literally. When I sleep, it has to be dark. Really dark. When the sun rise's in my room at home, I wake up right as the first light floods across my eyes. I never had to set an alarm clock because of this. I'm also a light sleeper, so any noise made within my hearing range wakes me up as well. Unless if I've taken some sleeping pills.

I guess it comes from being raised in a quiet neighborhood. The down fall of that, however, is that after these sleeping habits formed, we moved to a neighborhood where every siren and late night party keeps me up. Yeah, it sucked. But something was bothering me... why was I awake now? The light outside wasn't nearly bright enough to wake me up yet.

An audible thump sounded on the balcony outside our room. It made me jump. The sound of footsteps walking across the balcony had me pulling the blanket away from my face. Someone is on our balcony. From the volume of the thump, I would guess that they ether jumped down from the roof or from another balcony. Whichever it was, they hadn't moved on from ours. The dim slant of light flickered as whoever was out there passed by the window. Pushing myself up, I propped up my raised upper body on my elbow and glanced over to Kaity to see her still asleep in her bed. She hadn't woken up at the noise. I threw the sheets off of me and swung my legs to the ground to stand up. I didn't bother with putting on shoes.

Cautiously, I moved to the covered window to peek out on to the balcony. And - much to my surprise - there, on the balcony casually leaning on the railing looking over across the town, was Riku. I know he could feel my eyes on him, but all he did was pat at the railing next to him as a clear sign for me to come join him.

I groaned in relief as well as exasperation before heading into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. Morning breath is not pleasant in any way what-so-ever. I ran my fingers through my hair to straighten out some of the knots. I was still tired and now I'm exasperated at the fact that he woke me up so damn early. He better have a good reason or else I'm feeding him to the heartless.

I checked to be sure he was still out there - he was - before opening the door and shutting it behind me. He didn't look back at me.

"Alright," I huffed as I walked over to him. "What the hell are you doing on our balcony so damn early in the morning?" I stopped walking when I was at the rail he was leaning on.

"Good morning to you too." Riku acknowledged. I just stood there by his side, starring him down silently. I was still pretty wound up from yesterday's event's. Not a good thing on his part. Riku sighed heavily after a moment of my unspoken starring. Something was bugging him and he wanted to talk about it. Seeing that he's on my balcony and called me out her, I'm guessing he wants to tell me. Well, I'm here, so he better start talking.

"Last night, Kaity caught me out here... I don't know, moping is what she called it." He chuckled at the supposed memory before sliding his expressionless face back on. "She explained something's to me and cleared up a few misunderstandings I have had about you two."

Realization lightened my eyes for a moment. Kaity hadn't gone straight to bed last night. I had heard her go out onto the balcony, but I fell asleep before she came back in. Now I know why.

"She told you." I stated quietly.

"Yes." He replied even though it wasn't meant as a question. I turned my eyes away from him and to the horizon.

"So..."

"So," He said with a heavy sigh, "I think that I owe you an apology." He sighed turning to face me solemnly. I flickered my amused eyes to his.

"An apology?" I gasped fighting the smile that tried to creep across my lips. "From the great '-can-handle-everything-and-never-apologize-for-my-mistakes' Riku? I'm shocked!" I smiled.

His lips twitched up a bit. "Yes."

"Alright, for what?" I pressed. I was going to milk this out of him. It was too good.

God, I'm a horrible person.

"For being a selfish and paranoid jerk." He admitted. I gave him a small smile. "So, I'm sorry for judging you without good reason. The situation you and Kaity are in is something I've never heard of or had to deal with before. There is really no excuse for my actions. I knew better. I just get a little... over protective of my friends sometimes."

I grinned widely. Now here is the Riku that I know from the game. This Riku is much better than the silent, paranoid boy that we first met. "Apology accepted." I smiled happily. "I forgive you, Riku. I realize now that we should have told you from the beginning, but I just didn't think you were ready to listen and understand yet."

"Hmph." He turned back to the town.

I also turned my face into the lazy breeze. After sometime of just watching the sky lighten as the sun rose behind us, I yawned and stretched. Then I remembered what we were doing today. "When do we have to be at Merlin's house?" I mumbled tiredly.

"Soon," He sighed, leaning back to stretch his arms out before him. I mentally laughed at the sight. He looked kind of like a cat when he did that. He let out a breath and stood straight. "I have to go get the lazy bums out of their beds." He stated while turning to leave for Sora and Roxas' balcony.

"Yeah," I agreed. "I have to go get my own lazy bum out of her bed." I went up to the door, grabbed the handle and enter the room.

Closing the door with a soft click, I looked at the lump in the bed closest to the door. Sighing, I flipped on the overhead light and grabbed the blanket covering her, yanking it off. "Get up!" I shouted. "Or I'll tickle you!"

Kaity just covered her head with the pillow and grumbled illegibly. Huffing, I kneeled on the bed and started to tickle her feet. She kicked blindly at me as I laughed. Seeing that she still wasn't getting up, I put my hands against her back and pushed her over the edge of the bed. She yelped and groaned as her face hit the floor.

Chuckling, I looked down over the edge at her. "Oh good, you're up." I got off the bed to stand over her. "Now hurry and get ready to go or Riku's going to have your tail."

Kaity stood up glaring at me before stiffly shuffling to the bathroom with a "I'm going to kill you" thrown at me over her shoulder.

I turned to slip on my boots. "Empty threats bring no regrets!" I sang after her. The bathroom door slammed shut. Bending over, I pulled one boot on after I had both socks on. I gasped as a sudden shock went through my fingers. "Ow..." I mumbled. Stupid static shock. I went to grab my other boot and yanked back my hand with a yelp. "Ow! Damnit!" Why am I shocking myself so much? Cautiously, I reached for my boot, but it didn't happen again. How weird.

I stood and slung m bow across my chest when the bathroom door opened and Kaity walked out completely ready to go. At the same moment, a resonating knock sounded on the door. Kaity veered to the left to answer it. Standing outside was Sora, Riku, and Roxas. Riku opened his mouth to say something, but Kaity cut him off. "Yes, yes, we're ready." She mumbled waving it off. "Come on, Sam!"

"Coming." I said while maneuvering around the beds. I met the gang in the hall and locked the door behind myself. As I went to check to see if it was secure, my breath seized and I pulled my arm back with another yelp. I got shocked again! But this time, I was just a few inches from the knob and a line of blue electricity flashed from my fingers to the knob. I tried to touch the knob again, but the same thing happened.

I took a step back and examined my fingers. "What the hell?"

Roxas looked back and saw me looking funny at fingers. "What's wrong?"

"I can't touch the frickin' door knob without shocking my hand off!" I snapped while trying to touch the knob again. Once again, a line of electricity shot from my fingers to the knob. "Ow!"

Sora came up and touched the knob without having any trouble. "Well, it's not the door." No, really? I had kind of figured that out on my own. But thanks anyways.

I felt a hand press against my shoulder. Static stung the surface of my skin and I ducked away from the hand. "Ah! That hurt!" I whined rubbing my shoulder. Roxas was rubbing is hand. Riku walked up beside him.

"Maybe you've developed a ability for thunder? Like magic?" Roxas suggested.

"Yeah, except when you guys use it, it only comes to you when you call it." I retorted. "I didn't call it." I mumbled looking at my fingers again. "Didn't know I could..."

"Sam," Riku said, "How do you activate your bow into its other form?"

I fixed Riku with a look before realization donned on me. "With Electricity... I touch it and a warmth of electric sparks come out of my hands and through the bow." I gasped. "Do you think that's why this is happening? Somehow, I can use the electricity freely know or something?"

He nodded. "You just don't know how to reign it in yet, so everything that touches you gets a jolt of electric energy through it... learning to control that would be a good thing." No kidding, I thought. "But we need to go. Cid's going to be mad if we're late." With that, he turned and headed down the hall, to the stairway. Roxas and Kaity trotted after him. Kaity threw a glance back at me. How the hell does he expect me to learn how to control this? Sighing, I warily folded my hands under my arms and followed with Sora next to me.

"Hey, Sam." Sora said from next to me. " I can help you learn how to not shock everything that touches you."

I turned to look at him as we headed out into the early morning air. "You can?"

He gave me a cheesy grin. "Yup. It's really easy."

"Well, tell me." I said anxiously.

"Alright, as you should know, everyone gets eighty percent of their energy from breathing in oxygen." He began. "The average person usually only use's ten percent of that energy. We probably use about forty percent of that since we're always fighting the heartless. Seeing that you specialize in electricity - which is mostly energy in the air from the clashing of atoms and stuff - you take the energy you don't use and convert it into some form similar to lightning and static. Since it has no immediate output, the more air you breath the more energy builds up inside you until it's released. I'm guessing it's over flowed now and is just going into whatever you touch. Are your boots rubber soled?"

"Yes, of course." Where did this kid learn all of this?

"Perfect." He smiled. "When you walk, try focusing the energy down through your body and into the ground. Like a lightning strike. Except the rubber in the sole of your boot will absorb the shock instead of everything you touch. The energy won't build up like it has and after some practice, you could probably eventually measure how much you want flowing through you."

I stared wide eyed at him. Completely amazed at his little science lecture. I guess it's worth a shot...

Concentrating, I gripped the strange tingling sensation buzzing over my skin and imagined it flowing through my sense's naturally and down to the sole of my feet and into the rubber of my soles. I worked on it until it started to feel like a unconscious habit, like breathing. I unfolded my arms when the tingling sensation stopped completely. Sora laid a hand on me and smiled. "See, it worked."

"Yeah, it did. Thanks." I smiled back. "How did you know all of that?"

"No problem. Merlin taught it to me." He replied. "A few years ago. I needed to know what to do when I summoned magic and suddenly didn't need to use it. I didn't know if it would help you or not, but it was worth a shot. And it worked." I laughed and the two of us followed the other three in silence. It was chilly and I was thankful for the sweater I was wearing. The downside was that my knees were cold. I wonder what season it is here. Are there even seasons in these worlds? You know, I should just have a notebook with me so that I can just write down all my questions. That way I can actually remember to ask them.

Gazing up at the sky, I decide I liked Radiant Garden in the early morning. It's not light enough yet for people to be up, so it's fairly quiet. Maybe I'll come out in the morning one day and just enjoy the silence. Merlin's house loomed up in front of us. Light was peeking just underneath the door and beneath the shuttered window. Not bothering to knock, Riku opened the door and stepped into the warm house. I was last to step into the one room building. The smoky smell and haze was gone, thank goodness. I shut the door behind me, blocking out the cold. Kaity sat down on the bed yawning. Glancing at the guys talking to Cloud and Leon, I joined her.

She peered at my warily. "You're not going to shock me are you?"

"No." I huffed. She sighed and fell back onto the comfort of the bed, closing her eyes while the guys talked.

"Alright, down to business." Leon said after a few minutes. "You all have the day shift. We'll have the night. Since there are still so few of you, you each will have your own area to govern. Sora," He said looking to him. "You will have the Marketplace and Borough. Riku, you have the heartless Manufactory. That's a job all on its own." He fixed his eyes on me. "Sam, you will have the Corridors of the Castle, the Postern and the Restoration site. Roxas, you'll have the Restoration site with Sam, the Bailey and the Castle Gate. Kaity, you will have the Ravine trail through to the Dark Depths." His eyes raked over us once he was done assigning us our areas. "Everyone got that?" A varied course of affirmatives answered. "Alright, now that that's settled, Cid?" We all focused our attention on the old smoker.

Cid spun around in his chair to face us. In his hands were five black microphone headsets. He held them out to us. "These will be your provided communication between each other. If you run into some heartless that's too much for you to handle, you can radio in someone for help." As he explained, each of us took a headset and put it on.

"There are eleven different frequencies for you to tap into, but you only need to know five. If you need to talk to a specific person, tune their number in. It's only a two way. If you need to conference, go to eleven. That frequency can tune in all the headsets." Cid picked up one from the front of the computer and put it on his own head. "You can change the frequencies by pressing this small button on the ear piece." He pressed it as a demonstration. "Mine is number one. So if ya'll need me to communicate sumthin' to one of the kids here, call me in. Sora, your two. Riku, three. Roxas, four. Sam, five. Kaity, six. That's all I got to say." He turned back to the computer screen.

"Okay," Leon leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. "Break for lunch at noon, destroy the heartless, don't die and come back at dusk. If anything strange happens, report in with Cid. Think you guys can do that?" Nods from everyone. "Good. Go to your posts." After that last word, he departed through the door of the house.

Kaity and I shared a tired look. Why, Sora? Why did you have to volunteer us for this?

The five of us headed out to our stations. Sora bid farewell before he ran off to his post in the Marketplace. We made our way through the Borough and left Roxas at the gate entrance to the Bailey. Riku had already hurried on down the Restoration site without a word of farewell. That left Kaity and I standing at the division out of the Bailey. Nervous anticipation made us hesitate. I turned to her. "How about we stay tuned into one another. That way we won't be completely alone." I suggested.

"Sounds good to me."

Both of us tuned in our frequencies to the others. Without another word, we gave each other a quick hug and went our separate ways.

I wasn't even ten feet into the Restoration site before five neo-heartless rose out of the ground. I jumped at their sudden appearance and gathered a quick look at them. Dang, they were ugly. I mean, I didn't think they'd be running for Miss America, but dang, they are ugly! In reality, they were a lot freakier. The heartless looked nothing like how they were pictured in the game.

Darkness rippled continuously over their bodies as they shifted forward towards me. Their bright yellow eyes locked on me and cloudy black drops of darkness fell from their claws and antennas. It was a scary site. I took a deep breath and pulled my bow from around my chest. Concentrating on the tingling sensation rippling though me, I channeled it into the old wood to transform it into its other form. Aiming at the ant-like creatures, I imagined hitting them all. All five of them. Straight in the heart that wasn't there. Without another thought, I let go of the string and a half second later all the heartless were pinned to the ground with a crystal arrow through each of their chests.

I let out the breath I hadn't known I was holding. "Okay," I sighed. "Five down, a gazillion more to go." Facing the path before me, I ran down the cobblestone, firmly grasping my bow. This just might be easier than I thought.

"Ah!" I screamed as my foot sank into the ground once again. The shadow heartless swum away across the ground. I pulled back the string on my bow and fired an arrow where it formed. "Stupid heartless."

"Yeah, these things are really gross." Kaity's voice said through the earpiece on the headset.

"Have you seen the Nobodies yet?" I asked as I shot an air heartless that looked like a pirate. "They're not gross, just extremely creepy." I shivered at the memory of them slinking around me. Not something I enjoyed.

"I had a few Dusks over here, but that's it." She replied. I heard her grunt and punch something on the other end. It sounded like a wall. "Ow! You stupid shadows!" I chuckled as I strolled through the corridors of the castle.

"The figure skating nobodies keep showing up over here." I told her. "They're gone, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are dents in the walls." My body was still aching from them throwing me into them. My ribs were really going to hurt tomorrow. "Where are you now?"

"The Great Maw. On my way to the Dark Depths." She replied statically. "How 'bout you?"

"I'm making my last round in the corridors." I replied back. "Then I was going to just head back. It will be dusk in about an hour anyways."

"Same here." Static crackled through the connection as she took down another heartless.

We both took down several heartless before Kaity spoke again. "Hey, do you know if any flowers grow out here?"

Well, that was random. "Not that I know of." I said thoughtfully. Flowers? "It's too barren out there for life. Why? Did you find some?"

"No...I didn't find any."

"Then why do you ask?"

"I smell them. It smells like orchids... tulips... freesia, and..."

I turned around a corner waiting patiently for her to continue, but it was just too long of a pause. I couldn't hear anything but her breathing heavily into the microphone. She wasn't fighting any heartless. Actually, I couldn't hear her moving at all. There would be more static from the wind. "'And'? 'And' what, Kai?" The silence stretched on as I exited the corridors onto the Postern, into the setting sun. "Kai?"

A loud gasp and a scream sounded from the other end.

"Holy flippin' crap!" Kaity screamed into my ear. "Oh my God! Oh my God! Sam! HELP!" Static almost drowned out her screams from the sudden rush of air hitting the microphone.

"Kaity?" I yelled. "Kaity! What's wrong? What's' happening?" I started running out of the area and to the Restoration site.

I heard her scream again. "Sam! It's not really them!" She screamed again. "No! Let me go!" A low chuckle sounded in my ear.

"Kaity! It's not really who?" The sinking rays of the sun blinded me as I started running into them. "Tell me what's going on!"

"Let me go! No! Sam, it's-" Then only static filled my ear.

"Kaity? Kaity!" I yelled into my microphone. "Damnit!" I had just entered the Restoration site. I wasn't going to get there fast enough. I pressed the tuning button until I landed on number four. "Roxas! Get to the Dark Depths! Hurry! Something's happened to Kaity!"

"I'm on my way!" He replied as static crackled in the earpiece as he picked up speed. "I'm at the Castle Gate."

Roxas would get there first. He would get there faster. I ran through the Restoration site in despair. I won't be able to get to her fast enough to be able to help her. Nor will Roxas. The Dark Depths is on the other side of Radiant Garden. Even if Roxas was at the Castle Gate, it would still take him forever to get there. Damn it all! Why can't I move faster? Wait a second...

"A skateboard!" I gasped as I spotted the object up ahead. I veered to it and jumped on. I screamed as I wobbled and almost fell off, but once I was going, my speed picked up immensely. "Alright!"

I rode straight through the Bailey and the Castle Gate with ease. Heartless popped up along the way, but I ignored them. Someone would get them later. The Ravine Trail was mostly up hill and took more of a effort to get through. I cut through the Crystal Fissure into the great maw. A white figure was running in front of me up ahead.

Roxas.

He disappeared from site a minute later.

"I'm almost there." Roxas said through the head set. "I tried calling her in, but all I got was static."

"Yeah, I saw you up ahead. I'm still crossing the Great Maw. Just hurry!" I replied. The anxiety was killing me. I reached the end of the Great Maw and cut around the corner to see Roxas enter the Dark Depths.

"Holy crap..."

"What?" I snapped. "What is it?" But he didn't reply.

I sped through the path and jumped off the board when I reached entrance. I ran in only to stop abruptly next to Roxas. My eyes widened and I could have sworn my heart stopped. I stumbled forward, looking up at the shower of red petals. "Oh my God..."

And Rose's.

Orchids... tulips... freesia... and rose's.

I looked down and spotted something black lying among some fallen petals. Walking over to it, I picked up Kaity's abandoned headset. The wind blowing into the little concave lifted the petals up into the air, only to let them fall again onto the stone. Roxas walked up beside me, staring wide eyed at the petals and headset.

"They took her." I declared softly. "They took Kaity."

"What?" I yelled, outraged. I jumped up from my seat. "No! We have to go after her now!"

After Roxas and I found the petals and headset, we called everyone in to meet at Merlin's house early. When everyone was there, Roxas and I told them what had happened. Then we went over some possible suspects. Someone who would have wanted to kidnap Kaity. Or where they could have taken her to. But I already knew all of the answers.

It was Marluxia. I don't know how he came back after Sora destroyed him, but it had to be him. Who else could make rose petals appear out of thin air? I don't know why they would want to take her. It doesn't make sense. Maybe they're just trying to set a trap for Sora again? I think they took her to Castle Oblivion, but I'm not sure about that. Maleficent seized their castle in The World That Never Was. But Castle Oblivion had been Marluxia's domain and if it's a trap for Sora, they wouldn't want to confuse him by going to a different location.

I knew all of this and I was so ready to go charging in to save Kaity's butt and kick some others. But then Riku said-

"No. We need to properly assess this and prepare for it. It would only cause more trouble if we go charging in unprepared." He said while moving to block me from running out the door.

"Why?" I snarled.

"If Marluxia is the one who took her, that could mean that any of the other Organization members could be back." He stated. "If one has come back, who knows how many more might be at Castle Oblivion. Besides that, Castle Oblivion is simply dangerous. If that's where they've taken her." He lowered his voice. "You should know that."

"But she's in trouble and she's my best friend!"

"That's another thing," Roxas spoke up from behind me. I turned to face him. He stared straight back into my fierce glare. "For whatever reason they took Kaity, they might want you as well. We don't know very much about you both, but you come from the same world."

I felt a hand lay gently on my shoulder. I turned my head to the side to see Sora's serious expression. "Be rational, Sam. Wait until we're ready to go and we're prepared to rescue her. They wanted her for a reason. They'll keep her alive."

"But for how long?" I hissed under my breath. I jerked my shoulder away from Sora's hand. My head hurt, my eyes hurt, and my heart hurt. The angry tears finally had it and began to slide down my cheeks. I turned and ducked around Riku to the door.

"We're leaving in the morning. But Roxas is right," I paused in front of the door. "For whatever reason they wanted her, they might want you too. For your safety, you're not coming with us."

The tears fell and the anger finally exploded. I screamed and punch the nearest bookcase with all of my strength. It fell over with a crash as I stormed out the door and into the rain that had started a few moments ago.

"Fine." I hissed into the night rain. I trudged down the street to the hotel. "If they won't go after her, then I will."