Chapter 104: Heart vs Logic

"GET BACK HERE!"

Donald and Sebastian watched with wide eyes as they watched a teenage boy with short red spiky hair and a grey shark fin flee with into the lobby with a red shell turtle behind him, looking around with panicked eyes. Donald's shocked expression so turned into the angry one as he swam over to the two. "I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TWO NOT TO GET IN ANY TROUBLE!" He yelled at them, making the two jumped with surprise from the sudden voice.

"It's not our fault!" Brian tried to explain, "We were just chilling with these mermaids, playing my guitar when the King came out of nowhere saying they were his daughters or something."

"What?" Donald gasped in disbelief.

"You were with the King's daughters?" Sebastian gasped with the same disbelief.

"It's doesn't matter what Brian got us into." Max said.

"What I got us—you were in on it too." Brian pointed out.

"I didn't pretend to be Sora to get their attention!" Max argued with the red haired mage, making Donald glare at Brian even more. Max turned away from Brian and looked at Donald, "Did you get the item?"

Donald shook his head at this. "No. The King wouldn't-" The duck-squid paused as he took sight Brian's covered up claw, gasping at a sudden thought as he pulled out an glass container. "Brian! Take this."

"Okay." Brian looked at him strangely as he took the glass container in hand. "What exactly am I supposed to do with this?"

Donald ignored the question as he looked over to Max. "C'mere." He told, watching the turtle swim cautiously over to his father's friend and the small crap, soon falling into quite whispers. The duck chuckled evilly as he told them his plan, leaving the poor Devon boy beyond confused. The three broke apart. "You got it?" He asked the two.

"Yeah man!" Sebastian nodded.

"This is gonna be awesome!" Max grinned.

Brian raised an eyebrow at this. "Mind feeling me in?"

"Sure." Max swam towards him. "Hope you can catch thunder." He quickly said as he swam over to Brian and pulled off his scaly gloves, revealing his red shadowed claw, before quickly hiding away.

As if planned, King Triton appeared in the lobby, an angry expression plastered on his face as he searched for the merboy that had snuck into his daughter's room. With his trident in hand, his raging eyes caught sight of the boy, only to notice the shadow like claw that he now processed.

"Wak! Get out of here you Endless scum!" Donald randomly shouted in the presents of the king as he pointed his staff at Brian. "Blizzardaga!"

Brian quickly dived out of the way of the spell, not noticing the King of the Seas presents, as he glared at the feathered friend with anger. "What the hell?" He glared at him before looking around Max only to find King Triton aiming his Trident. "God damn it!"

"GET OUT OF MY OCEAN!" Triton yelled as he fired his trident at him.

Brian's reflexes managed to allow him to catch one of the thunder strikes in the glass container but didn't have time to be pleased of gaining the item as King Triton summoned his guards. "Annnndddd I'm out of here." He announced as he bolted out of the lobby room, swimming as fast as he can to get rid of King Triton and his guards, who were hunting him down like a catfish.

As soon as Triton had raged after Brian with his dozen of guards, Max remerged from his hiding spot laughing as hard as he could with Donald while Sebastian swam of the lobby room to swim to his designated position to help Brian get rid of the King and the guards so Brian could flee back to the gummi ship, as part of the plan. "Like I said, THAT WAS AWESOME!" Max laughed strongly along with Donald. "The others missed out."

What they didn't know was Brian's early departure of the world might have saved someone's life.

BOWBOWBOW

Since Riku got sick and tired of Peter Pan pushing him off the cliff, he had used his earth ability to create a pathway towards the ship while giving out the signal to the others so that the three could cross safety. As soon as they reached the pirate's ship, Peter flew around the other side of the ship in search of TinkerBell while Riku and Goofy searched for the treasure and dealt with any pirates left on the ship, leading to a sarcastic comment from Riku saying Peter was so kind to leave them the possible hard work, having a feeling that not all of the pirates might not have left the ship.

Naturally, he was right about this sort of thing.

As soon as Peter had left their side, Riku and Goofy hopped over into the boat only to find ALL of the pirates and Heartless on the ship, including Captain Hook, as the Lost Boys were all tied against the main mast while Hikari was held down at sword point on her knees, tied up, by a number of Pirate Heartless, being questioned by Hook, demanding to know where Peter Pan was since she was with the Lost Boys. Some of Pirates Heartless turned their attention away from guarding the Lost Boys and at Hikari when they noticed the sudden thud from Riku and Goofy made from hoping on the boat, making the two summon their weapons, slashing at the Heartless with warning. "Let her go, Hook!" Riku demanded.

Hook turned away from Hikari as he turned towards Maleficent's old tool with sudden shock. "Riku? I didn't really think you would return to Neverland after reuniting with the enemy." He said to him, unnoticed by Riku how Hook seemed to be covered with darkness.

Riku smirked wittedly at Hook as he said, "I see your greed has finally caught up with you." He said.

Hook huffed at the boy, "It's because of this power that I was able to repair my beloved Jolly Roger after some Heartless flew into it." Hook told him with a smirk. "I don't understand why you would give up using some power."

"Well, I decided that I actually wanted my heart, unlike the rest of you." Riku growled. "And I rather follow my own path instead of dealing with Maleficent's services."

Hook laughed at this, "I have to you boy that I don't work for Maleficent anymore." He told the keyblader. "Seeing as she has fallen to the Order."

"The Order?" Goofy gasped slightly. "Why would they get rid of Maleficent?" he asked.

"Like I would answer your useless questions." Hook commented before looking at some of his Heartless as a dark aura covered him. "Heartless! Get rid of the annoying brat and the king's lackey. Men! Search for that scurvy brat that is Peter Pan, he can't be too far." He commanded, making the Heartless and Pirates spring into action.

Riku didn't waste time into slashing through the Heartless as if they were thin air, while Goofy covered him from some Heartless, hearing the Lost Boys cheer with excitement as they watched the two dealt with the Heartless. With everything that has happened to them so far, from fighting a number of different Unbirths and Order Members, fighting simple Pirate Heartless wasn't too hard to deal with, seeing at their reflexes isn't as fast as an Unbirth or a Nobody or that ability to trick the fighter wasn't too hard to notice. After everything that they have been through, the Heartless was nothing to them, especially Riku, knowing the strengths and Weaknesses of the Heartless he once controlled.

It didn't take long for the two to deal with the Heartless as Riku looked over to Goofy. "Free the Lost Boys! I deal with-" He looked over to Hook only to gasped in fear as he shouted, "Stop!"

While Riku and Goofy was dealing with the Heartless, Hook and some Heartless by his side had strapped a ship anchor to Hikari and placed her on the plank with Hook pointing his rapier at the girl. Since her brother's weapon had been taken off of her when being captured, they weren't anything she could have done against the number of pirates she had to deal with. She may be tough but not enough to deal with twenty so Pirates, some that were Heartless, without her weapon. Hook chuckled slightly as he saw the slight fear in Riku's eyes. "What's this? I didn't think that you care about anyone other than your Kairi friend." Hook laughed slightly, remembering Riku's determination about finding Kairi's heart even after saying that it was just as lost as his left hand.

"She doesn't have anything to do with this!" Riku proclaimed, earning a curiosity and confused look from Hikari.

Hook laughed at this. "She was with those little brats. She works for Pan!" He said as he pointed his rapier at the girl once more, forcing the girl to step back slightly, her feet at the end of the plank.

"Don't!" Riku gasped again, his heart taking control of his actions, something he was unfamiliar with as he had always done the logical thing and followed what he thought. "Take me instead." He offered, seeing Hikari gasping 'what' silently as he looked at her.

"And why would you want you give yourself up for this lass?" Hook question, never seeing this side of Riku before.

"Because I-" Riku quickly halted himself from saying his heart's content, his logical kicking again. "She has something to fight for." He quickly replaced, feeling Hikari's glance at him with slight shock and something else that he couldn't catch.

"And you don't?" Hook questioned.

"I deserve the punishment from siding with you and Maleficent." He simply said, still feeling the regret of what he had nearly done to his best friend out of mistrust and jealousy, as well as feeling Goofy's glace of sympathy on him.

Hook smirked evilly as he spoke, "Alas, as good as that offer sounds, I'll rather send you both of the plank! Starting with this one!" Hook sharply turned back to Hikari and pointed his rapier at her sharping, making the girl lost balance from attempting to dodge the attack and fall off the plank.

"HIKARI!" Without even thinking, Riku dropped Way of Dawn as he quickly pushed past Hook as he drove off the ship after her, ignoring the sudden call of fear and surprise from Goofy.

His heart was pumping with fear and adrenaline as he jumped off the ship, he has exactly no idea why he jumped off the ship after the girl with no idea how to save her, his heart just decided to push his logical mind out of the driver seat and drive him off the ship after her. As he fell down with the girl a few metres below her, memories of the times that they hanged out and talked to each other during this journey flashed through his mind, making him feel like he was flying towards her rather than falling after her. Wait! Riku's logical mind quickly kicked back in as he looked down at himself, to see that golden like sparkles were beginning to come off of him. He was actually flying instead of falling, his happy thought was the times he spelt with Hikari, which made him laugh to himself slightly before he speeded his way towards Hikari as she was close to the water.

Hikari screamed in surprise from falling off the plank, after hearing Riku's call of distress as she fell as she expected to hit the water where she would be awaiting for her watery grave, being tied up and everything. But when she stopped falling, she didn't feel the cold liquid touch her skin and she could still breathe, her panicky mind coming to the conclusion that she has magically gain the ability to become numb against water and was able to breathe underwater as if it was air. She opened her eyes with confusion, not realising that she had closed her eyes, to look up to see that she was being lifted. To be more specific, she was being lifted by Riku, moving one of his arms so he could create two huge splashes in the water, making her smile at his fast thinking.

He quickly flew her close to the side of the ship, summoning his free arm to summon Way to Dawn as he held the anchor with his other hand. "When I cut the rope, grab on to me." He told her, trying to avoid eye contract as he looked at his weapon.

Hikari scoffed like this, "Like I feel like falling into the sea." She said with sarcasm, just about seeing the Wielder of Dawn roll his eyes at the comment.

Riku quickly sliced at the ropes that were keeping Hikari bay, releasing her from the anchor. Hikari quickly wrapped her arms around Riku's neck to prevent her from falling again as Riku dropped the anchor and rope into the ocean while wrapping his other arm around her lower back to prevent her falling, bringing her close to him. Due to the amount of strength that Hikari was placing on his neck, Riku was forced to look at the girl, who was mere inches from his face as he placed his other arm around her.

"Now! Who's next to walk to plank?" Hook's voice echoed from atop the deck, hearing the Lost Boys calling Hook a codfish and Hook's rage as a response.

Riku pulled away from the girl, looking up before back at her. "Let's go get your brother's sword back." He said, slightly disappointed that he had to pull away from their moment but they needed to help Goofy and the others. Besides, if he was going to make a move, he wouldn't do it while they are trying to save the worlds; it's not a good idea to gain a weakness.

"Yeah." Hikari at this as she looked up, "I'll teach that guy for taking that sword from me!" She said determinedly as Riku began to fly up, quickly placing Hikari in the bride position so he could see where he was flying.

As they flew onto the deck again, the Lost Boys cheered as their return while Goofy, who was dealing with the remaining Heartless and pirates that had returned from their failed search for Peter Pan, looked at them as he smiled happily. "You guys made it." He grinned.

Hook, who was trying to decide which Lost Boy to send off the plank to bring Peter Pan out, turned around only to gasp in shock as Riku and Hikari jumped on the deck. "Swoggle me eyes?" Hook said in disbelief. "But I thought—those splashes—"

"Awww is the codfish speechless?"

Hook looked up, only to see the boy who never grew up dash towards him suddenly, making Hook back up on his own plank before reaching the end of it. As he waved his arms to try and gain balance, a golden light appeared from behind Peter Pan and flew in front of Hook, jiggling as the little pixie swung her arm around and punched Hook's noes, making the Captain fall into the ocean. It didn't take long for Hook to resurface from the watery as he looked up at the kids and teens on his ship, soon watching the rest of his human crew get thrown off the ship. "You won't get away with this, Peter Pan!" Hook proclaimed.

The freed Lost Boys laughed at this while Peter lay casually in the air. "Say Codfish! I heard that crocodiles like your kind, especially hands." He laughed.

Tick! Tock! Tick! Tock!

Hook gasped in fear as he saw a familiar crocodile ticking towards his directing, making him jump out of the water in fear and began to run on the water comically as the crocodile followed him. The group laughed, Lost Boys chanting 'Hook is a Codfish' as they watched him flee, all expect Riku, having his eyes set on his female comrade next to him.

BOWBOWBOW

The group headed back to Peter Pan's hideout, with Tinkerbell safe and Hook's treasure in hand. Seeing as it was nightfall and Peter allowed the three to stay at the hideout for the night before they head out to the gummi in the morning. As promised, Peter handed over a full pouch of pixie dust for each of them, more than enough for the item as well as a childish apology to Riku about not trusting him, Riku shrugged it away thought, Peter was just a kid and that will properly never change. During the night Riku fully explained what was happening on their journey, from Sora getting infected from the Order to the mysteries of three key bearers ten years ago, bringing exciting yells remembering how Terra did this and Ventus did that and how Aqua was like that from the Lost Boys.

Peter explained to them that they had appeared in Neverland in different times, saying that Terra was tricked by Hook, thinking that he was guarding light in Hook's treasure chest instead of actually gold, Ventus was searching of a fallen star and Aqua was helping them in their treasure hunting game, as well as mentioning that Tinker bell saw Ventus in a black coat around a year ago. Riku chuckled at this, concluding in his mind that Roxas must have come to Neverland to collect hearts for the Organization, ending up beating a Heartless that destroyed Hook's ship like Captain Hook had mentioned.

As stories of adventures from both groups ruled the night, Riku slowly drifted his over to the tomboy next to him. Since that incident on the Jolly Roger, the Wielder of Dawn couldn't get her out of his head, her light blue hair, her clean emerald green eyes, her laugh, her smile, her everything. He still had no idea what he was going to randomly say back on the ship if it was going to save her life, if it came from his heart then it had to be important, as he was so used to hiding his emotions away from his enemies, he needed to while hiding in the dark. He knew the Order were different though, members like Link and Abroc could see his regrets, his fears and they talk as if they know something about him that he doesn't, what are they hiding?

From the sudden thought of the Order, Lizza's question echoes in his head. "Where is your heart leading you now?"

To Hikari. Riku quickly shook his head at the sudden thought. No! I can't fall. I can't fall. There's too much as risk. He knew this was his logic speaking to him now but his heart kept repeating the same thing over and over again with every beat that his heart made. Hikari! Hikari! Hikari!

The Wielder of Dawn snapped out of his internal arguments with his head and heart as he watched Hikari stand up, saying that she's going to get some air before looking at him and heading out of the base. While the other boys just shrugged Hikari's departure away, heading back into their talks about stories and talking about what they might do tomorrow, the seventeen year old had a feeling that she wanted to talk to him from the way she had looked at him before leaving. Deciding that he wanted to stretch his legs anyway, he got up and walked over to Goofy, who looked up at him with curiosity. Riku quickly pulled out the communicator, "I'm gonna stretch my legs. Can you check on the others?" he asked as he handed over the communicator.

"Sure thing, Riku." Goofy nodded friendly to him, "Don't' stay out too long."

"Sure." Riku smiled warmly before climbing through the tunnel to reach the outside world, seeing the worlds show themselves within the night sky. He pulled himself out the tunnel, getting his feet to the solid ground as he looked up at the night sky; there were not many stars out tonight.

"It's a shame really." A familiar voice spoke from his side; he turned to see Hikari, leaning against the thick tree as she looked up in the sky. "It's like the Heartless Ordeal all over again, only difference is that the Heartless only placed worlds into darkness while the Order is changing the colour of the sky itself." She said sadly.

Riku turned his vision away from her and up at the sky, seeing that it looked like the night sky was a mixture of dark blue and purple rather than being just dark blue or black. He took note of this, knowing that they need to defeat the Order before permanent damage is done to the natural balance of the worlds. He chuckled slightly though as he looked back at Hikari, "Surely your hint for me to come out wasn't just to see the everlasting sky." He smiled at her, even in the dark; he could see her smile to the comment.

In response to his comment, Hikari pushed herself off the tree as she began to walk away from the base and the teen. She halted as she looked back at him, "Let's walk." She simply said before she continued on her way, soon hearing footsteps following her.

The two remained silent as they walked, each enjoying the peace and quiet after sending most of the night with the noisy yet curious and funny Lost Boys telling stories and listening to their adventures. The peaceful quiet soon got boring for the keybearer as the two reached the edge of Neverland, a beach with clean blue ocean with the moon reflexing in the water. This strongly reminded him of when he and Sora was struck in the realm of darkness after defeating Xemnas but it also reminded him at home. He started to wonder though, after all of this over, will he go back to Destiny Islands, he know he would go slightly mad without the friend by his side, he remembered her mentioning that she wanted to travel the worlds without the worries of saving them but he wondered what she would once she's finished travelling the worlds, knowing that she will need to take a break from world travelling by going to her home. But what would be her home at that current time? Little Devon? Radiant Garden? Maybe there was a possibility that she would make Destiny Island her home. Riku smiled at the thought as he sat down near the sea, listening the waves the splashed across the smooth sand, he smiled at the sounds around him, they were similar but different to the sounds that he would hear at Destiny Islands, it was nice, it wasn't the same but it wasn't different either.

Hikari sat beside him, straightening her legs out as she yawned slightly, watching the waves move back and forward before finally speaking the reason why she asked him to come out. "What were you going to say back at the ship?" She asked him.

Riku opened his eyes and looked back at the girl, smiling slightly. "What do you think I was going to say?"

Hikari groaned at this, sensing that he was going to be difficult. "I think your heart got control for that slight second; I thought for that second that you were going to be crazy enough to say the forbidden word." She told him.

Riku chuckled at this, guessing she didn't want to say the word in case the conversation changes course. "Forbidden you say, that explains why Sora and Kairi haven't said anything yet." He joked.

Hikari giggled slightly at this before looking at him seriously, "Riku…don't avoid the question." He told him.

He looked away from her, looking deeply at the ocean. "What do you want me to say Hikari? Even if I decided to tell you 'the forbidden word', we would be stuck in the same situation as Sora and Kairi, hiding what we really want just so the enemy doesn't get any ideas of using us a bait to get the other one." He frowned.

"If there was no threat, would you?" She quickly asked him, grabbing his attention. "Would you say it if there was no threat?" She asked him.

Riku looked at her as he sighed, "I don't know." He said sadly. "I know that I don't want to lose you as a friend or as whatever you'll end up being in the future."

"I like the fact that you're actually considering that there might be a chance for us after this is all over." Hikari smile softy at him.

"There could be." Riku said to her, grabbing her attention. "If you came back to Destiny Islands with us, we could be."

Hikari's eyes widened slightly at this as she got up from the sand. "Gee Riku, not even a fancy dinner and you're already asking me to move to your world." She joked slightly, trying to clear her head of the sudden thoughts being placed in her mind.

Riku stood up as he stepped towards Hikari. "I mean it, Kari." He said, calling her by her brother's nickname, making the girl smile sadly at the mention of the nickname. "When we save your brother, the two of you could come to Destiny Islands. Start brand new." He offered to her. "That is if that's what you want."

Hikari looked down at the sand as she thought about the offer. "I don't know, Riku. Something like this- I would have to think about. We can't just move to a different world suddenly, it only worked for us before because of the Heartess." Hikari looked back up at him, her thoughts making her realise something with everything that Riku has been saying, the actions that has come between them from the very beginning. She took a breath as she risked it as she asked breathlessly, "Riku, do you—are you in love with me?"

"Hey fellas!"

"And now I know how Sora and Kairi feel!" Hikari muttered herself as she turned to see Goofy approach them. "What is it, Goofy?" She tried to asked kindly but the humanoid dog had interrupted them just she had just dropped a huge risky question that could very so destroy their friendship and cause turmoil throughout the entire-

"I called Donald and he said that Brian had returned to the gummi early." Goofy informed them.

"And Sora and Kairi are on the ship." Riku added quietly, his mind somewhere else, grabbing a stick that had washed up on shore.

"Meaning that Sora and Brian are bound to fight." She groaned at this. This one time when she wants to be with a guy for some private time and Brian decides to go back to the gummi early for reasons unknown and will properly do something stupid, thinking it's the right thing to do and so on and so on until they go back and break up whatever fight he had got in with Sora. The two may be on friendly terms but they still get in pointless arguments. "I guess we'll head back now before any trouble is caused." She sighed sadly, she wanted to say bye to the Lost Boys, even though it was their fault that they got captured in the first place.

"Right. Let's move." Riku dropped the stick he was holding as he walked past Hikari, smiling softy at her before walking with Goofy back to where they had placed they agreed to get warped up.

Hikari watched as the two began to walk away before looking to see what Riku at dropped, only to find a message in the sand written by the silver haired boy. She read the words engraved in the sand, making her smile lovingly as a tear of joy escaped her. "Silver...How you amaze me." She smiled.

'You're my light.' Was written in the sandy surface.

A/N: I can be nice to Riku….when I'm mean to Brian. Hehehe. As you can see, that ends the double worlds. Now time to go back to the gummi ship and sail to another world….Or…..do I have a trick up my sleeve. Guess we just have to see.

Kingdommad