Disclaimer: Do I really need to say I don't own Kingdom Hearts? If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction

I titled my head, taking in the boy Sora called Riku. He had this... aura of arrogance and it threw my off, but I plastered a smile on my face for Sora's sake.

"Man, I've been looking everywhere for you!" Riku exclaimed, smirking at the brunet. Sora didn't seem to listen to him, and instead walked up. My eyebrow was raised at him, but I suddenly had to bite down on my tongue when Sora suddenly began to pull at Riku's hair and mouth.

"Hey, cut it out!"

Sora didn't seem to react at all to the boy's annoyance, because he smiled. "Riku! I can't believe it's you!"

"You don't seem to have changed," Riku sighed, brushing off the boy. "But I'm glad you're okay."

"Hey," Sora spoke up, his voice changing to have a certain uneasiness in it. "Where's Kairi?" he asked, his voice slightly cracking at the girl's name. I frowned, feeling bad for my friend.

"Kairi? Isn't she with you?" Riku asked, deflating.

"No..." Sora replied, looking down with a scowl.

Riku didn't say anything, but looked down too. Eventually, he looked up, clapping Sora on the shoulder. "Hey, I'm sure she made it out fine."

Sora sighed, shaking his head. "You're right..."

"But hey," Riku spoke, turning around. "We finally made it off the island. We're finally free." He had this... wistful tone and... I'm not sure how to explain it, but it made the hairs on the back of my neck crawl. I decided to be cautious around him.

Sora's Keyblade suddenly appeared in his hand, but Riku didn't hear it. Sora looked around before spotting a small shadow Heartless and chased after it.

"But like always, you can leave everything to me. I got it under-" Riku suddenly was caught off by the swishing sound of the Keyblade as it hit its enemy. The Heartless was quickly taken care of, and Sora grinned at his friend.

"Leave it to who now?" Sora joked, placing the Keyblade over his shoulder.

"Wha- Sora. What is-" Riku seemed lost for words as he stared at the Keyblade.

Sora smiled at him. "You're not the only one who can take care of everything! I've been looking for you and Kairi, with their help."

I plastered a smile, and gave a salute. "Hey there!" Donald and Goofy only nodded. I guess they didn't want too much attention on them or something.

Riku raised an eyebrow at us. "Who are they, exactly...?"

Donald coughed. "My name is-"

"We've been to so many different places, looking for you!" Sora interrupted Donald, knowing, and smirking about it. I quietly laughed to myself. He's so mean to Donald.

Riku smirked slightly, crossing his arms. "Who'd a thought it? You actually got up off your lazy but and did something."

I smirked, nudging Sora with my elbow. "What haven't you told us about, Sora?" I teased, laughing.

He scowled at me. "Shut up!"

"And Sora's the Keyblade wielder, ahuck!" Goofy exclaimed, cheery, placing his hands on the boy's shoulders, almost causing him to fall over.

Donald scoffed, crossing his wings. "Who would expect that?"

"Hey!' Sora cried, scowling at the duck. "I take offense to that!"

"Awe, it's okay, Sora," I laughed, placing a hand on his shoulder. He rolled his eyes, shrugging it off while smiling.

"Anyway," Sora spoke up, smiling at Riku. "We've got a really cool rocket!"

"Oh, really...?" Riku said, raising an eyebrow. For some reason, it made shivers go up my spine. I really didn't like that look...

"Yeah!" Sora replied, grinning. "Wait 'till you see it!"

"Wait!" Donald interrupted. "What do you mean?! He's not seeing anything!"

Sora's head snapped to Donald, irritated, figuring out what the implication meant. "Wha?! He's my friend, he has to come with us!" Sora complained, crossing his arms. I had to contain a giggle behind my hand. He was acting like a little kid!

"I don't care if he's your friend, he's not coming!" Donald repeated, tapping his flipper against the ground. "It's enough I have to deal with the ginger devil."

"Hey!"

"That's completely unfair!" Sora shouted. "This is exactly what caused Val to crash into Tarzan's world! You not allowing us to do something!"

"Sora!"

"Jeez, guys," Goofy spoke up. "It's kind of mean to pick on Valerie like that."

"Thank you!"

"... Even though it's pretty funny."

"... You guys are mean."

Sora shook his head. "You should allow us things, Donald. We'll only annoy you further," he argued, smirking.

Donald stayed quiet for a while, before he sighed. "Fine."

"Awesome!" Sora shouted, jumping on the spot. "Hey Riku, you hear-, hey, he's gone."

I turned around with him, and, indeed, the silvered haired teen was gone. "Huh," I spoke. "Wonder where he went."

"Oh well," Sora commented, placing his arms behind his head. "At least I know he's okay."

I smiled, nodding. "That's a good viewpoint." Sora seemed to not think anything of it, walking away with Donald and Goofy. I stayed, staring at the spot Riku used to be. I had suspicions. Why would he leave his best friend alone...?

"Hey, Val!" Sora shouted, grabbing my attention. "Get your head out of the clouds!"

"Or we'll leave you behind!" Donald added.

I smiled, shaking my head and running towards them. If Riku had his reasons, I wouldn't ask.

-line break-

"Of course they aren't there when we want to see them," I grumbled, closing the hotel door.

Sora shrugged, placing his hands behind his head, not putting any other input.

"A-huck, guess we'll just have to look around," Goofy said, ever being the optimist he was.

Donald was grumbling, though. "We have to be fast, so if we don't find them in the next- Ah!" Donald squawked in fear, Cid splitting a gut on the other side of the window he had knocked his fist against.

"Guess we found them," I said, laughing with the mechanic. He gestured to the door near us, and we walked in, Donald stomping.

"Hey there, munchkins," Cid said, greetings us. We all scowled, excluding Goofy. "Delivered that book for me?" We nodded. "Thanks,"

"Hey there!" a cheery voice greeted us. Yuffie, Leon and Areith walked towards us.

"Hey!" Sora replied, all of us waving at them.

"Anything new?" Yuffie asked curiously. We shrugged.

"Other than complete and utter exhaustion from fighting Heartless, not much," I answered, laughing. This caused her to laugh with me.

We made a bit of small chat, not really delving into anything deep. They laughed when we told them some funny things about our journey, like when I was chased by Cerberus. Now that I look back on it, it was pretty funny.

"Oh yeah!" Cid exclaimed, pounding one fist in his other hand. "You runts 'erd of Maleficent?" I raised an eyebrow at him. Like the evil fairy thingy in Sleeping Beauty?

"Maleficent? Who's that?" Donald squawked in irritation.

"She's a nasty witch," Yuffie answered, scowling. Ah, so she was a witch, not a fairy.

"She's been appearing lately," Leon spoke up from his spot, leaning against the blue wall with a pensive expression. "She's the reason we had to leave our world. She took it over with the Heartless. Don't take her lightly."

We gasped in horror. "That's terrible!"

"Maleficent's been controlling the Heartless for years," Aerith told us, her expression distant and sad. "That's why there's so many Heartless everywhere."

I scowled, crossing my arms. "So she's the reason my version of reality is getting warped." This caused them to laugh and chuckle, and I smiled. Good. That was my plan.

"That was nine years ago," Yuffie said sadly.

"I took a gummi ship and took all the people I could. So many people were taken by Heartless," Cid said, shaking his head with a scowl. I frowned, my heart clenching.

"Our leader," Leon spoke, closing his eyes. "His name was Ansem."

I smiled softly. "He sounded like a great man," I said, earning sad looks from them, each of them nodding.

"He studied Heartless," Leon said, his voice forlorn. Our heads snapped towards him, I was pretty sure we should've gotten whiplash. The corners of his mouth sneaked upward when he noticed out reactions.

Cid's reaction was snorting at our surprize. "Anyway," he spoke, making our attention focus on him. "Ansem had made this report. It could, in the words of Leon, 'Potentially destroy 'em for good."

We all stopped, staring at him. I blinked, and then rubbed my ears. "Pardon my stupidity," I said. "But did you say it could tell us how to destroy them?!"

Everyone laughed at me, and I puffed out my cheeks in annoyance. "That's what I said," Cid huffed.

"Well, where is it?!" Doanld squawked.

Leon sighed. "It's scattered between worlds."

We stopped, again.

"Maleficent most likely has most of the pages," Cid explained, flicking away the toothpick in his hand. It almost got in the trashcan, but fell to the floor. Aerith's mouth set in a thin, disapproving line.

"Of course she does," I muttered. "Because the universe just has to hate on the good guys..." Sora sighed next to me.

"On any case, watch your backs," Leon told us seriously. "Knowing your pension for getting in trouble, you'll probably need it."

"Hey!"

-line Break-

I yawned, raising my arms above my head in a stretch. "You guys ready to go find Cid?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

"I believe so," Donald replied, stuffing a piece of paper back in his pocket that was our shopping list. While waiting for Cid to finish installing the gummi to the ship, we went around shopping a bit more. I got some more clothes, (God forbid I stayed in my dirty clothes any more than I have to), more food, a whole lot of potions and other essentials.

"Good," Sora commented, also yawning. "I'm tired."

"You two always are," Goofy joked, laughing merrily.

I grinned. "What can I say? Life is- what's that shiny thing?"

The guys turned in the direction I was facing, which was a fountain in the Second District. Like my short attention span had noticed, the fountain was indeed shining a bright... purple colour, and as our luck would have it, a keyhole appeared before our eyes.

"Well, duty calls," Sora laughed, jumping down a series of stairs towards the well, two at a time. I grinned at his enthusiasm, and ran down after the boy, the two anthropomorphic animals following after me.

"Oi!" I yelled, frowning when Sora suddenly stopped, making me almost run into him. "Why the sudden stop?"

"Um... That," he said shakily, pointing in front of him. I frowned, raising an eyebrow. I rolled my eyes when he didn't move, stepping from behind hi- oh...

I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat, now understanding why Sora was shaking beside me. The giant Heartless we had fought, (Sora and Donald, actually) when we had first arrived in Traverse Town lay standing before us, and I could swear it was glaring. You know, I'm pretty sure no matter how much I fight these, they will forever scare me.

The Heartless roared, taking me from my thoughts. I immediately un-sheathed my sword, taking a defensive stance. I took a deep breath, before running, calling behind me, "Let's destroy the limbs!"

I earned a collective call from each of them, further encouraging me. I could do this, I could do this.

BAM!

A screamed erupted from my throat as I turned to look behind me. I hadn't been paying attention, and the Heartless had almost stomped me from existence. I let out a shaky, terrified breath, and bolted away as fast as I could.

When I was in what I assumed a safe distance, I sheathed my sword, instead summoning my bow. I hadn't used it in a while, and I didn't want to get rusty, so I'd better start using it more often.

Running back a little more, (from what I'd learned, I'd be useless if I didn't) I pulled back the string, the cool, icy to the touch arrow between my fingers. I took a deep breath, before releasing the arrow. As I hoped, the arrow had frozen the armoured Heartless' foot, keeping it trapped on the ground. "There's your chance!" I exclaimed to the guys.

"Got it!" Sora yelled back, effectively cutting off one of the arms with one blow. Goofy had done the same with the other arm, and the Heartless roared. It stomped, making the two fall over from the impact. My eyes widened, and un-summoning my bow, I pulled my sword, calling out to the Heartless, "Hey! Big guy! Your aim sucks!" I provoked, grinning as its attention was diverted from Sora and Goofy. Then I paled when I realised it had a new target.

Me.

I yelped when it stomped its way over to me, forcing my jelly legs to move. "Crap, crap, crap!" I chanted. I had no time to attack. It was right on my tail! If I stopped to turn around, I'd be squished like a pancake!

The stomping behind me suddenly stopped, and I turned, seeing Sora panting heavily, a crumpled mass of the armour in front of him. I sighed in relief, walking over. "Thanks for that, Sora."

He grinned. "No problem. You helped me earlier anyway."

I smiled back. "Well, at least it's gone- Holy crap!"

One of the standing arms had fallen, right beside me, almost giving me a heart attack. While I regained my breath, Sora was laughing and I growled, smacking him over the head. "Ow!"

- Line Break-

I was currently rubbing my neck, trying to get a kink out of it. "God," I muttered, grimacing. "I'm gunna be sore in the morning."

Sora, who was walking beside me, laughed. "Tell me about it." His arms were positioned behind his head in a relaxed position, and his outrageously ginormous shoes were making small, 'tap, tap' noises against the ground.

"Let's go see Cid, I don't want to be here anymore than we have to," Donald said, crossing his arms.

I shrugged. "Well, whenever you're ready, I guess." We continued walking back to the First District, but I noticed Sora had slumped and a frown settled on his face. It caused me to frown as well, and I tapped him on the shoulder, gaining his attention. "Hey, you okay?" I asked.

Sora shrugged. "I dunno," he answered. "I'm just... worried. I'm leaving Riku here, and I don't like that." I gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Hey," I spoke. "I'm sure he'll be fine. He seemed to be pretty strong when I met him. Besides, you two can cover more ground to find Kairi." He grinned, agreeing with me.

"You're right! Riku can take on anything!" he exclaimed, going back to his cheery self.

"Yeah! That's the spirit!" Goofy added, laughing happily.

"Hey! It's Cid!" I exclaimed, pointing to said mechanic.

"Hey, young'ins." Cid shifted from his spot against the door of his shop, rubbing at his nose. "The gummi piece is installed and she's ready to go."

"Great!" Sora exclaimed, resting his arms behind his head again.

"Thanks a bunch, Cid!" Goofy added.

Cid waved him off. "Eh, it was notin. It let me work on a gummi ship again, so you rugrats are in my good graces anyway."

I smiled. "Thanks anyway!" We began to walk towards the docking center, (I was shaking thinking of takeoff) when Cid let out an, 'Oh!', slapping his fist against his palm.

"Leon wanted me to tell you guys that another member of our little group should be here next time you come over," Cid said, and I raised an eyebrow.

"Why hasn't he been here before?" I asked.

Cid shrugged. "With the amount of worlds disappearing and Heartless lately, we've got our hands full. He's taking a break and someone will be replacing him, most likely Leon."

I nodded. "Seems fair."

After the little delay, we continued back to the docking center. "I wonder who he is?" Sora wondered, grimacing when we entered the gummi ship.

I shrugged. "I dunno. We'll see when we come back."

With that being said, we entered our respective seats, (I quickly buckled myself with a seatbelt), and Donald turned to us. "Ready?"

I grimaced, my hands gripping my chair, my knuckles white. "No." I answered, and I could see Sora shrinking in on himself.

If he heard my answer, he didn't show it, instead pressing the button that signaled my doom. I closed my eyes, muttering, "Goodbye cruel world..."

Once again, my body shrunk in on itself as we left, closing my eyes from the pressure, my back and head painfully slamming against my chair. Fighting back the scream in my throat, I waited out until the torture was over.

Finally, it stoped, and I was suddenly thrown forward, laughing merrily as Sora was actually thrown off his chair with a yelp. "That's what you get for not putting on your seatbelt!"

-line Break-

I yawned for the umpteenth time, marveling at the beauty of space while doing so. We had only been in Traverse Town for about two hours, so it was about 12:00, (for our unit of time, anyway). We decided to look for a new world as we didn't have anything else better to do.

We had been traveling for another hour, and the area we were in was infested with marvelous colors. I was passing my time watching them go by, occasionally doodling on the piece of paper resting on my lap.

I had drawn Sora when I didn't have anything else in mind. We had laughed ourselves silly for five whole minutes when I drew a chibi version of him munching on chocolate bar. He had pouted at first, but eventually laughed with us. My sides still hurt.

Donald and Goofy then requested for me to draw them, and I had complied. My drawing of Goofy was of him sleeping on the ground, while the one of Donald had him sticking his beak in the air proudly. They both liked it, and now I had nothing to draw.

Thankfully, at that time, Goofy had turned around, smiling as he said, "We've arrived at another world!"

I quickly shot up, thankful. "Great! Sora, get off your lazy- are you kidding me?" I stood there, giving Sora an unimpressed look.

He was hazardously sleeping on his chair, limps everywhere. He was softly snoring, drool collecting on the side of his mouth, completely oblivious to the world. I rolled my eyes, chucking with Goofy as Donald scoffed. "Watch this," I whispered, quietly walking over to him.

When I crouched near his face, trying not to snicker at his clear misfortune, I cupped my hands on either side of my mouth, and with a deep breath, I screamed, "FIRE!"

Sora squeak- ahem, screamed, limbs flailing everywhere as he fell off his chair. "Wha- what happened?!" he exclaimed, looking around wildly with blurry eyes. When he saw us doubled over in laughter, he narrowed his eyes. "What are you laughing at?" he asked. I only laughed harder, the drool on his face and dishelmed hair not really helping his case.

"You are!" Donald replied, making us only laugh harder.

Sora frowned, before the action alerted him to the drool. He quickly wiped it away with his gloved hand, and shook his head, and, miraculously, fixing his hair. I shook my own head. That was not natural.

"You guys suck," Sora said, jumping up and stretching.

"Says the one who threw me from a tree top," I argued, placing my hands on my hips while glaring at him. He froze, before chuckling.

"Fair point," he said.

"Anyways," Donald spoke. "We've arrived to another world." He jabbed a finger at the window, gesturing to the world. Sand. Lots and lots of sand.

Sora perked up. "Great! Let's get going!" With that said, we pressed the button, and off we were.

"Ah! My eyes!" was the first thing I had said. I was rubbing at them furiously, trying to soothe them from the sand that had immediately gotten in them.

"Ugh, why is it so hot?!" Donald complained, then making me realize the humidity. I quickly took off my sweater and tied it around my waist. Curse my affinity to cold weather!

After successfully getting the sand out of eyes, I was looking around the area we landed in, (making sure to squint my eyes).

"Huh..." I muttered. The buildings around us were almost stacked upon each other, cracked and some paint shredding off.

"Ack! Heartless!" Donald squawked, making my head whip to his direction, taking out my sword, ready to fight. 10 Heartless lay before us, dressed like thieves with striking, sharp swords that could easily cut me in half.

"C'mon!" Sora called, running forward and already slashing through 2. I tensed up, a determined expression lining my face.

I ran forward with him, ducking under a swing thrown at me, before whipping around and plunging my sword into the stomach of the Heartless, effectively destroying it.

A growl behind me made me tense up and I dropped to the ground, a wishing sound and small pieces of my hair falling in front of my eyes telling me I was a... hair away from death. I gulped, before flipping onto my back, eyes widening as the Heartless raised the sword over its head; then down to me.

I raised my own sword to block it in time, the two swords clashing in a 'chang!' I grunted, trying to push back against the weight, my hold already losing.

"Guys!" I called, trying not to let go. "Little help here!" My voice steadily got higher with each syllable as the Heartless was slowing pushing back my sword.

Suddenly, the weight was lifted off of me, Goofy tackling the Heartless, rendering it dead. I sighed in relief, jumping up, shouting out a, "Thanks, Goofy!"

I noticed Sora was surrounded by 5 Heartless, all of them eyeing him with malice. I could see he was in a tight spot, so I quietly crept behind two of them, and with one swish, and a cry of surprise from them, they disappeared. I could hear him sigh in relief, before quickly dealing with the other surprised Heartless. Seeing there were no others, I sheathed my sword, waiting until Sora finished the others.

I huffed, still slightly out of breath. "That's gunna hurt in the morning," I sighed, prodding at a bruise forming on my hip, grimacing as it stung.

"Hey! Guys! Over here!" Sora exclaimed, waving his hands to tell us to follow him through an alleyway. I sighed, pulling down the bottom of my shirt to cover the large bruise, and following after the excited boy.

I looked around the small back alley, slightly paranoid that random Heartless would randomly appear and strike. "There's nothing here, Sora," Donald said, aggravated.

Sora frowned, crossing his arms. "I could've sworn I saw two people coming into here. They looked scared too."

I frowned, worry settling into my veins. "Are you sure, Sora?"

He was about to reply, when I heard a quiet gasp coming from the crates from a back corner. I spun around, my eyebrows furrowing together. "Hello? Is anyone there?" I called out. I heard quiet whispering, so I added, "It's okay, we won't hurt you."

When I thought that maybe no one was there, a pretty girl that could pass for royalty, yet slightly beat up, poked her head up. "I'm sorry, I thought you were here to hurt me," she said quietly, yet filled with power. My eyes widened. Wasn't this Jasmine from the Aladdin movie? It had to be. I'm never going to get used to this.

"That's okay," Sora told her, giving Jasmine a friendly smile. "Who are you?" he asked, although I already knew.

She smiled, straightening up. "I'm Jasmine, daughter of the Sultan of Agrabah." She suddenly deflated, frowning. "But that was before Jafar, our royal vizier, took over the palace, and thus, Agrabah." I frowned with her. She eventually shook her head, smiling at us. "Who would you be?"

"I'm Sora," he said. "That's Donald, that's Goofy, and that's-"

"Please, Sora," I interrupted him. "I'm not mute, I can introduce myself." I smiled at her. "I'm Valerie!"

Her eyes widened in shock, and I was about to ask why, when I heard a tiny gasp from the crates. I raised an eyebrow, wondering why they hadn't come out before. Jasmine turned around, and looked over the crates, giving a soft smile to whoever was there. "It's okay," she spoke kindly. "They're friendly, and she's here too." I frowned again. Did this person know me? But, how did they?

Jasmine offered a hand to the person, and a little one grabbed it. I felt my heart rate escalating. Was that...?

And that's when a small, blond head poked out from behind the boxes, grass green eyes widening at me. I felt the breath leave me in an uneven gasp, tears springing to my eyes and my heart stopping.

"...Pip...?"

AN: You guys have no idea how sorry I am.

Almost a week after I had posted my last chapter, my computer charger broke. I cried. I CRIED. I had tried to get this chapter done on school computers, but I could only do so much. But my computer has recently been fixed and I rushed to get this out.

I hope you aren't too disappointed with me. I'm gunna try my best. That little cliff hanger should keep you going for some time, I hope.

On another note, I dressed up as Sora for character day at my school. Why? I don't know. Did I care? Not really. So many people asked who I was and it made me sad. Why you not know Kingdom Hearts, people?!

Other than that, I have not much else to say. If you have any questions, please don't be afraid to ask! I'll be more than pleased to answer!

Until next time!