Riku's Story---Chapter 6: Strange Occurrences

A girl appeared in my head wearing all white. She was walking toward me.

"Riku?"

"Who- who are you?"

"Silly. You don't remember? Let me give you a hint," She reaches into a pocket in her pure white skirt with her white gloved hand and pulls something out, "Here." She says gently putting it into my hand and backs silently away.

I open my hand and stare in disbelief at a necklace. Not just any necklace though. The necklace I made for Silver.

"Silver?" I ask looking up.

"So you do remember me," she says smiling with her hands on her hips, "do you remember your promise?"

"Yes I do," I say handing back the necklace I had made when I was a small child.

"Then where are you? You're supposed to help me," she says looking at the ground, "I miss you," she adds sadly.

"I miss you too. But how can I help you if I am stuck on this island again? And even if I could get off this island how would I know where to look for you?"

Her smile turned to a frown again "I don't know Riku. Listen to your heart. What does it say?"

"I- I'm not sure. How can I tell?"

"You don't know? Maybe you aren't the same Riku I knew after all," she says sadly fading into the white background.

"Wait! Silver! Please don't leave me! Not again."

"Riku, I never left. You did. I was always in your heart."

"Riku. You need to wake up now," she says from what seems like a long way away.

"Wake up?"

"Riku? Wake up! Are you okay?" Sora asks.

"What? Yeah I'm fine…" I say sitting up, "What happened?"

"You just fell over. Like you passed out or something," says Kairi, "And you were mumbling something I couldn't understand."

"Yeah. We were getting really worried," adds Sora.

"Sorry, I don't know what happened. I had a strange dream though," I say standing up slowly, "and I saw Silver again. I really need to get off of this island."

"Hey! What if we go talk to the King? He might be able to help us!" exclaimed Kairi joyfully.

"Yeah!" said Sora.

"It's worth a try," I say.

Dawn's Story---Chapter 7: Departure

I sadly look around my room and notice Jomei standing in a corner with a duffel bag.

"Here," he says handing me the bag," fill this with clothes, pictures, anything you want to take with you."

I silently go from room to room collecting items worth taking who knows where with him. He was the only friendly face in my house now. I trusted him for some reason.

I didn't feel like changing my clothes. My costume was much warmer than a t-shirt anyway. I filled my bag with some extra changes of clothes, some drawings I had done, drawing supplies, a notebook that served as a makeshift journal, and my family picture. I return to my room to see Jomei looking out the window.

"Jomei? I'm ready. Where are we going?"

"Away from them," he says pointing out the window towards hundreds of the strange creatures called heartless. Some were like the ones that were in my room and some that were much bigger.

"Where are they coming from? What will happen to this town?"

"They come from the darkness in peoples hearts. They steal other people's hearts. As for this town, I don't know."

"My friends…"

"We can try to find them but don't get your hopes up. If we can't find them within a few minutes, we are leaving. Understand?"

"We have to find Cara. She's my best friend," I say hopefully.

"Let's go find her them. Hurry."

We run to the school dodging the packs of heartless. We arrive at the school to see the parking lot empting out quickly.

"Cara?" I yell, "Cara? Where are you?"

Cara runs out of the school looking for me.

"Cara! Over here!" I yell waving at her.

Just before she reaches Jomei and me a group of bigger heartless emerges out of nowhere and Cara yells in terror as one lunges for her. I take out the strange weapon and hit the enemies. I realize I might have to hit some more than once to defeat them. It takes two more swings to make them disappear.

Cara runs and hugs me, "Who's he?"

"What? He's Jomei! You introduced me to him!"

"I've never seen him before in my life. Maybe you're thinking about another friend," she says cheerfully.

"I don't think so, but if you say so," I say confused.

"Come on! Let's get out of here!"

I turn to Jomei and ask, "Where to now?"

"Follow me."

Cara and I nod. He leads us to a garage where a giant shuttle like vehicle was idling.

"Get in," he says.

"What is it?" asks Cara.

"It's called a Gummi Ship."

"Is it safe?" I ask.

"Safer than being here," he says pointing at the heartless slowly tracking us.

"Good point."

We get in the strange ship and Cara asks, "So, what were those things?"

Before I could answer Jomei said, "They're heartless. Creatures attracted to the darkness in peoples hearts. And there is darkness in every heart. Now hold on."

We lifted off the ground and soared off into space.

"Where are we going?" I asked looking back at the place I called home knowing I would never see it again.

"To a town called Twilight Town. It should still be safe."

"Twilight Town. That sounds romantic," commented Cara staring at Jomei.

"When will we get there?" I ask ignoring my friend.

"It's a while away."

I nod and lean against my chair and close my eyes.

Riku's Story---Chapter 8: The Secret Place

I told Sora and Kairi to go talk to the King without me.  I told them I wanted to be alone and think. They just nodded and headed off to see the King. I made my way to all Silvers favorite places starting with the tree house. After that I went to the zip line tower. Then I made my way to the Secret Place.

The walls of the Secret Place are covered in etched drawings and designs. I sit where Silver always sat. I traced the designs and doodles she had drawn. Then I saw a sad scene of Silver and me on the night the heartless came. It was of me holding my hand out to her and her reaching out. She never reached out though. Did she feel regret that she refused to come with me? Or did she think she could have saved me? When did she draw this?

I heard someone behind me.

"Riku?"

I turn around recognizing the familiar voice, "Silver?"

No one was there.

"Hello?" I ask, a little spooked.

"Riku? Where are you? Come back to me. Please," the voice cried out from somewhere behind me.

I turned around, searching for the source of the voice.

I call out again and listen closely. No answer.

I reluctantly walk out of the cave and go back to the little island. I stand where I was standing the day I let the darkness in and searched my memory of that day. It started out normal enough. Sora and I were competing for the girl's attention. I won again as usual.

The only thing that made it any different was that it was the day Silver, Kairi, Sora, and I were going to leave the island on the raft we had made. We had just finished everything and were waiting for nightfall to leave.

That's when everything changed. Everything changed and none of it was for the better.

This is also where I made the necklace for Silver when I was younger. She was sick on a day that we had planned to have a little spar. She was a lot tougher than Kairi and Selphie. She made a great opponent even as a little kid. I felt bad for her so I decided to make something for her. For the longest time I couldn't decide what to make. I looked all around for ideas. Then I saw the paopo tree. It inspired me to make a paopo fruit necklace. The fruit was a little yellow star with two green leaves. For the leaves I used green ribbons. That was the string. I found an almost star shaped stone on the beach and drilled a hole in it. Then I started chipping a little off to make it look more like a star. It was sloppy but you could tell what it was. Then I painted it yellow.

The next day she felt good enough to come out but not good enough to spar so that was the day I gave it to her. She blushed and rocked back and forth. I asked why her face was so red and she told me the story of the paopo fruit. The legend was that if two people shared one they would be a part of each other's life forever.

It looks like she might have right. Even though she was gone I still thought about her. I thought about her everyday. I wonder if her nobody remembers me. If she thinks about me all the time too. Does she still have the necklace?

Dawn's Story---Chapter 9: Welcome to Twilight Town

I have the dream again, except the picture seems more vivid. He seems to want to talk to me. He points to the necklace I have had for as long as I can remember and he smiles.

"Are you Riku?" I ask.

He nods and wades out into the clear blue water. The water matches his eyes.

"How do I know you?"

He puts his finger to his lips to quiet me. He gestures me to come out into the water with him. He extends his arm to me and I slowly begin to wade in. Just before I could reach him a familiar voice wakes me up.

"We're here! Come see! It's beautiful!" says Cara dragging me out of my seat and out the door of the ship.

A large sign that says "Welcome to Twilight Town" hangs on a giant arch.

"More refugees?" asks a blonde boy wearing a vest and camouflage pants.

"I guess but why are they dressed so funny?" asks a girl in khaki Capri pant and an orange tank top.

"Uh, it's Hallow-" I started and Jomei kicked me to stop me.

"Hey, uh, Dawn, I need to talk to you," he said pulling me to the side, "We'll be just a minute," he said to the others.

Once we were out of earshot he said, "We can't tell them anything about where we came from."

"Why not?"

"Well there's this thing called the 'world order' that needs to be upheld. That means keeping things about your world to yourself. The worlds are different. They're on different schedules. They're days are different than ours. They're ways and customs differ slightly. I really shouldn't be telling you this. I only am because you were about to spill everything."

"Oh. Sorry," I said rubbing my neck.

"It's okay. You didn't know," he said calmly.

"Okay. So what do I tell them?"

Jomei scratches his arm, thinking, and says, "Tell them we just came from a costume party. Technically that's true so you won't be lying if that bothers you."

We rejoin Cara and the two other kids.

"Sorry about that," I begin, "We were at a costume party…"

"When the heartless attacked? I'm Olette by the way," says the girl, "and this is Hayner."

"Hey," says Hayner without much interest.

"Nice to meet you," I say.

Well, we'll see you around then?" asks Olette.

Jomei and I nod and they run off, Olette waving.

"So now what?" asked Cara.

Just as she finished a white creature appeared followed by several more.

"Jomei? More heartless?" I ask.

"No. Something just as bad though. Kill it!" he says pulling out a purple and blue shield with a silver crown emblem on it out of his backpack and handing it to Cara.

"What about you?" I ask dodging blows as best I can.

He pulls out a weapon I knew I had never seen before, but the strange thing was I knew what it was. A Keyblade.

"I'm good," he answers swinging at the enemies.

"Cara. Swing your shield!" I yell.

She swings the shield and hits several enemies. She smiles and says, "This could be fun."

I swing at the enemies in front of me only to be knocked flat on my back by a rebounding creature.

Riku's Story---Chapter 10: Selflessness

 "Riku?" Sora was yelling my name happily. The King must have had good news.

"I'm over here," I say walking into view, "What's going on?"

Kairi runs up to me beaming and says, "The King has an extra Gummi Ship! He said all we have to do is find it and it's ours!"

"We don't have time for this! Did you tell him it was important?" I said kicking the sand beneath me.

"Yes, Riku, I told him. At least we know it's here somewhere."

Sora runs up to us and says, "Maybe you could talk to him. You do know him the best. Aside from Donald and Goofy. After all you were with him when we closed the door."

I looked away, saddened by the memory. I was in the darkness for so long only to be shut in with it. Forced to fight it every second of every day. Fighting in darkness without it on your side can be almost impossible.

I looked back up and flashed a cheesy grin at the two worried faces staring up at me.

"Yeah maybe. I'll try to talk to him."

Sora gave me a thumbs up and I took off for the Kings cabin.

When I arrived Donald and Goofy were standing outside weapons ready.

"Hey, guys," I said cautiously, "I just need to talk to the King."

"The king told us not to let anyone else in," said Goofy, "He says you know what to do. He says you'd be wasting time talking to him."

I sighed and kicked the grass and said, "Well, just tell him I came to talk to him about Silver. Please?"

They pitifully exchanged glances. They obviously remembered her too.

"We still can't let you in. King's orders. Sorry about this Riku. I know how much she meant to you," Donald added.

I walked to the beach with my head down. But before I got there I smacked into something that made me bounce off of it and land on my back. Sora saw me fall and came running to help me up. I thanked him briefly and walked over to where I ran into the invisible object with my hands straight in front of me. I felt a gummy type of material.

"Sora! It's the Gummi Ship!" I exclaimed joyfully "It has some kind of cloaking device though."

"Cool! That could come in handy. I'll get Kairi!" He said running clumsily over the sand.

I could barely suppress the urge to just hop in and fly away. I waited as patiently as a little boy on Christmas Eve.

After what seemed like hours we were all in the ship. Sora was at the controls and Kairi already looked a little airsick.

"I checked with Donald and Goofy and they said this was our mission. They're not coming but they wish us the best of luck," said Sora almost to himself.

I tried hard not to scream at the top of my lungs in joy. Goofy and Donald weren't the easiest to get along with. Donald has a horrible temper and you can hardly understand a single word he says. Goofy is, well, goofy. He is to laid back for my tastes and he's not the brightest bulb in the box. Instead I tried to sound sorry when I said, "Oh."

Sora lifted the plane easily into the air and Kairi almost fainted with airsickness. I inched away from her so she wouldn't get sick on me and told her to lie down.

I looked out the window and saw we were already in space. An alarm went off and autopilot engaged.

"Sora?" I asked, "Where are we going?"

"I think Yuffie is summoning us. We're headed for Hallow Bastion. I mean Radiant Garden. I forgot they renamed it."

Kairi sat up and rubbed her head and said, "Radiant Garden sounds so much more inviting."

"Why do you think they're summoning us?" I asked.

"Well it's probably one of three things. One, they're under attack, Two, they finished rebuilding. Or three, Silver's nobody is there."

"Do you really think she could be there?" I ask getting fairly excited but not showing it.

"Maybe, but don't get your hopes up," he said sensing my excitement and turning around to look at me, "She might not be there you know."

I looked down and nodded, " Yeah, I know."

"We'll find her," said Kairi putting her hand on my shoulder, "Sora found me like he promised. With a little help from you. So we'll help you, okay?"

"Thanks guys," I said calmly closing my eyes and slipping into a deep slumber again.

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