I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

"Maleficent, it's been a week—where is she? She's always come back after only a few days." Demanded Sai. The room was pitch black except for a few candles. Maleficent sighed and turned around to face the person who had broken the silence.

"I don't know where she is.", she said, slightly frustrated. "If you're so impatient then go out and look for her. But you know she won't be happy to see you."

"That's why I thought I'd send the heartless to find her. With your permission, of course." He added.

"Go ahead." She said, with a wave of her hand. "Just don't cause too much trouble. I don't want to have to relocate." She said, turning her back to him and walking further into the dark room.

Sai's mood brightened immediately. "Thank you." He said, satisfied.

………………………………

"So where are you from?"

"I already told you—I'm not sure. It doesn't matter. Just tell me more about Destiny Islands."

Riku sighed. "I already told you all about them." He said, leaning back in his chair. "How about with Maleficent? With that council of villains she has. There's gotta be something interesting with all of them around."

"You already know how they are—I wasn't allowed to talk to them, so all I did was watch." Said Keiya. "You're the one who had to work with them. That must've been fun." She said sarcastically.

"I got the feeling that they hated me." He said, laughing. Despite the misery he always felt when he thought of his time with Maleficent, he found out it was easy to laugh about. Especially with someone who has been through the same things. He and Keiya had become pretty close these past few days—they could relate easily about Maleficent and the darkness, and, somehow, find a way to laugh at some of it.

"It's your ego. They probably hated your ego." She said matter-of-factly.

Before Riku could make a smart comment, Aerith came in bearing food and water.

"What have you two been talking about?" She asked, seeing the light-heartedness of the situation. She put Riku's food on the table next to him, and Keiya's on the nightstand. "I expect you to eat today" She warned her.

Since she had arrived, Keiya hadn't eaten or drank anything. She always refused food and water, but didn't look any different than when she had arrived. Her face wasn't any paler, and she wasn't any weaker. The only time she looked sick was at night when she had nightmares. So far, every night that dark aura that surrounded her the first day would come back, and for a few minutes, she would pale and shiver. She always slept through it.

"Keiya… are you sure you're okay?" Asked Riku, watching her set aside the plate Aerith had given her. "Why don't you need to eat?"

"Promise not to make a big deal out of it?" She said, after some hesitation.

"Of course."

"Well, that's exactly it. I… I don't need to." She said, taking in Riku's blank stare. "This darkness… it's taken control of me, body and soul. It's replaced normal human functions, like eating. Usually, I don't need to sleep either. I guess being tired is a good sign…" She said, more to herself.

"Wait—the darkness? That's why you don't eat?"

"I don't need to." She repeated.

"But won't that just make it stronger? Giving into it like that?"

"It doesn't matter. I don't know how to get rid of it. This is how Maleficent is able to keep her hold I me, I guess." She lifted her arm to show him her wrist. "This mark shows how much power it still has over me. It's still very dark—I've been hoping it would go away for so long…" She trailed off. When she saw Riku's concerned and confused look, she changed the subject with a wave of her hand. "Anyway, weren't you going to tell me about that group of criminals?"

"Keiya… if you tell Leon, I'm sure he can help…"

"It's fine, Riku. Just forget about it." She said firmly.

………………………

Screams erupted and glass windows shattered as Sai's army of heartless swept across the town. People began to lock their doors and shut their lights as if it made a difference, and the town's strongest men bravely stood outside their homes to protect their families. No matter what precautions they took, though, the heartless broke in through thin air and ransacked the houses, leaving the families huddled together on the floor watching their houses being torn apart.

Sai scoffed at the bravery of the townspeople who thought they could stop his heartless. "Just quit it", he said to a woman who was hitting a shadow with her broomstick, "They're not after any of you."

When the whole neighborhood was in pieces and they still hadn't found Keiya, Sai summoned the heartless to the next area on his map—the Restoration Committee headquarters and the shops surrounding it. This'll be our last stop for the day, he thought. Just before he was about to charge in, two of Maleficent's wyvern messenger heartless came up behind him, bearing a note saying to fall back immediately—that Keiya's scent had been detected elsewhere. Sai sent the messengers back and faced his own army of about one hundred shadows—all under his control. He decided to go see Maleficent about her note, but not before sending his troops to go in alone and do a quick search. After all, it'd be terrible to leave out this last part of town. With a snap of his fingers, the heartless crept slowly towards the great house, and Sai opened a portal back to his own headquarters, leaving the heartless to ransack without him.

……………………………

"Alright… alright… we'll get right on it."

Cid hung up the phone and marked another neighborhood on the big map of Radiant Garden with his pen. "Leon! That's the forth call tonight! These damned heartless're poppin' up everywhere…" He muttered. Leon and Aerith came stumbling in and looked at Cid's map. "I've received three calls in my office as well" Said Aerith, marking off three more locations.

"Where're the kids?" Asked Cid.

"They're still sleeping. I didn't want to wake them up yet…" She said, picking up the phone as it started to ring.

"What're we gonna do, Leon? They're coming, destroying houses, then leaving."

"Have there been any reports of attack? Any injuries or casualties?" Asked Leon, his arms folded across his chest.

"No… actually, no. Nothing caused by the heartless directly."

"They're looking for something. They have to be. Nothing would explain the quick ransack of houses and then sudden departure."

"But what could they be looking for?" Said Aerith as she marked off another location and hung up the phone.

"I think—"

"LEON!!!" Cried a voice from outside, followed by a shatter of glass. Yuffie appeared in the doorway with Tifa, both wearing their pajamas. "T-there's heartless! In our bedrooms!"

"Ours too!" Called Sora from around the corner. He was wielding his keyblade with Kairi standing close behind him. "Cloud went outside to see how many more there are!"

The heartless moved quickly, coming down the hallway in groups of three or four. Sora slashed at them relentlessly while Aerith took Kairi into the windowless office and closed the door behind them.

"Where are—" Started Leon.

"Riku and Keiya!"

………………………

Riku sat on his bed thinking and looking out the window. He left it opened, inviting the cool breeze in. What he didn't invite in, though, was a group of five or six shadows suddenly bursting into his bedroom. Without a moments hesitation, he jumped up and grabbed his keyblade, the Way to Dawn, and exterminated the heartless. Moving quickly, he shut his window and closed the curtains, then ran over to the infirmary where Keiya was.

When he got there, she was leaning backwards against a wall and holding onto a nightstand for support. Surrounding her were eight heartless, all of them moving towards her. She looked up when Riku opened the door, her eyes pleading for help. Riku ran forward and slashed through all the shadows in three quick strokes. Just when he turned to face Keiya, however, ten more came in through the open window, then ten more after that, and encircled them both. Riku was panting heavily and prepared for another quick fight when suddenly, they all started falling back, sinking into the ground.

"Don't let them—!"

"I know." He said calmly.

Riku threw his blade at the line of heartless, hitting all of them before they could disappear completely. It came back to him like a boomerang after clearing out the room. Keiya sighed in relief and shifted so that she was resting in a corner rather than the flat wall. Her ankle was still fractured, so she couldn't stand on her own. She had to literally throw herself to the wall to get out of bed when she saw the heartless come in. Her hands were flat against the wall on either side of her, holding her up.

Riku dismissed his blade and pulled Keiya by the hand out of the corner. She cringed when her foot made contact with the floor, so Riku picked her up bridal style and began carrying her over to the bed.

"H-hey, put me do—" She began to protest.

"You can't walk, remember?" He said, taking pride in her discomfort. "Y'know, this is the second time I've saved you from the heartless…"

"Yeah, so?" She replied hesitantly.

"So you still owe me from last time."

"I'll pay you back when my ankle heals. I can fight too, you know." She said defensively as he put her down gently on the bed.

Just then, the rest of the gang burst into the room, asking if everyone was alright, what had happened, and why they just suddenly disappeared. Keiya drifted off into her own thoughts as Riku told them the story.

That was so close. If those heartless had gotten back to Maleficent, she'd know that I'm here…

………………………………

"I got your note. I was almost done searching Radient Garden—couldn't this wait until later?" Asked Sai. Maleficent had summoned him to her private study, so it was surprisingly lit with candles. Not by much, though.

"There was no need to keep you there. My own army found her scent in Traverse Town. We will begin searching there immediately." She said, sifting through papers at a great carved wooden desk.

"Traverse Town?"

"Yes. It seems the scent is about a week old, but she can't have gotten too far. Each time she runs away, I make sure to give her that much less control over the darkness. She wouldn't have been able to travel between worlds as freely as normal. We will search Traverse Town first, and then any surrounding worlds."

"Yes, Maleficent." He said, turning to leave.

"And Sai?" She called. "The next time I allow you to conduct a search, I would like you to be more discrete. Flaunting yourself in the middle of the street in the midst of your pathetic little group of heartless you call an 'army' won't make you any stronger. If anything, it makes you appear weaker." She said in a reprimanding tone.

Sai "I just thought I should be there looking for—"

"I'm sure Keiya would never have diminished herself so low as to talk to the common people and walk with the heartless from neighborhood to neighborhood like a parade…" She said, turning back to her work.

Sai bit back his tongue and walked away briskly, trying not to let Maleficent's harsh words of comparison get to him.

……………………………

"So what now, Leon?" Asked Tifa. The 'kids' were all in bed, and that included Yuffie, so it was time for the 'adults' to talk things over.

"The heartless were after Keiya. They singled her out, according to Riku's account."

"So what does that mean? Does Maleficent know she's here?"

"It means that She was telling the truth—she's not working with Maleficent. Unless they really thought this plan out and are using this to gain our trust…"

"Leon!" exclaimed Aerith.

"But, it's more likely that she's telling the truth."

"Of course! I can't believe you still don't trust them after all this time!"
"I have every right not to trust someone whose been working with the witch responsible for this town's destruction. I trust Riku's word over hers, but not by much."

Aerith sighed, still frustrated at her teammates lack of trust for their friends.

"Anyway, it's doubtful that Maleficent knows of her whereabouts. Riku and Keiya thought of that, and got rid of the heartless before they could report back to her. For now, we'll help the townspeople clean up. Maybe we can learn something while we're at it."

………………

AN: Sorry this took so long— I had writer's block for a while. This chapter is shorter than I originally intended, but I promise they'll get longer eventually. Also, if anyone's interested, I have a poll on my profile. (Actually it's been up for a while now and I keep forgetting to mention it here) Please review and keep reading!

By the way, thanks to Dawns Eternal Twilight and Ultima Phoenix—I probably would have put off updating this a while longer if you guys hadn't reviewed.