Chapter 11: Reunited

...Me thinks Riku appears in this chapter. :3

Oh God, I hope not...

The group left the house and wandered into the Third District. Everything was quiet... too quiet... As they left the alleyway, they soon learned why.

There were a couple Soldier Heartless sitting around a card table playing poker. As they stepped into the main part of the Third District, the Heartless looked up at Sora, then set down their hands of cards.

"Bout that time, eh chap?" muttered the one.

"Cheerio," said the other.

Just as they were about to attack, a certain hot silver-haired guy showed up and killed both Heartless in one swing. Their savior grinned at them, or more at Sora, and said, "There you are. What's going on?"
Sora just stared at the person. "Riku!" He tugged on Riku's face, as if to make sure the person before him was really real and not a robot. After his delusions about Kairi, there was a distinct possibility that this Riku was a fake as well.

"Hey, hey, cut it out!" the silver-haired pretty boy said, knocking away Sora's hands.

Sora looked him up and down. "I'm not dreaming this time, right?"

Riku gave him a confused look, but before he could answer, Ryo had tackled him. "I hope not," the fangirl said dreamily. "And if you are, don't wake up!"

"Um, Sora? Who the heck is—" But Riku didn't get a chance to finish his question. The girl had knocked him over and was kissing him with fangirl finesse.

Andrea rolled her eyes and turned to Sora. "Hey, wanna go grab a snack or something? Last time Ryo went this star-crazy, it took three hours to pry her off."

"And the last time Riku got a fangirl attachment, it took a crowbar," Sora replied with a sigh. "Okay, food first, then we buy a crowbar."

So Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Andrea left Riku and his current fangirl and went to get some dinner. They went to the café in the First District, and when their food came, a terrible mistake was made. The waitress gave Andrea a triple-chocolate mochachino with whipped cream and chocolate shavings on top. Needless to say, the already hyper crazy became even more hyper.

When they returned to Riku, he was still being hugged and loved by Ryo. Andrea was bouncing off the walls of the Third District as well, and that made it all the harder to pry Ryo of her newly found fandom. It took a good ten minutes, but Sora somehow was able to free Riku from Ryo's glomp attack.

"Now that we aren't being interrupted anymore..." Sora said, giving Ryo and Andrea 'the look'. He decided it was his turn to hug his friend. "Riku!" He stopped just before giving the hug, however, and finally realized what had been off about this whole situation. "Wait a second, where's Kairi?"

Now it was Riku's turn to realize what was wrong. "Isn't she with you?" Sora's sad expression told him everything he needed to know. "Well, don't worry. I'm sure she made it off the island, too." He looked up at the sky and smiled to himself. "We're finally free. Hey, she might even be looking for us now."

As he was talking and making no sense, a Shadow appeared behind Riku. "We'll all be together again soon," Riku continued, not noticing the monster behind him. "Just leave everything to me. I know this—"

Sora smashed the Heartless in one swing, something he wasn't ever able to do before or after. "Leave it to who?" he asked smugly.

Riku was amazed, just as Sora had planned. "Sora, what did you—"

"I've been looking for you and Kairi, too," Sora said, gesturing to the rest of his party, "with their help."

"Who are they?" Riku asked.

Donald, always wanting to be the center of attention, decided to introduce himself first. "Ahem. My name is—"

Sora, on the other hand, didn't think him important enough for an introduction and interrupted him as always. "We visited so many places and worlds, looking for you."

He thought that Riku would be happy, but he couldn't help but feel he was wrong somehow because of Riku's reaction to the news. "Really? Well, what do you know? I never would have guessed."

Goofy was oblivious to the sarcasm and made the fatal mistake of talking. "Oh, and guess what? Sora's the Keyblade master."

Donald rolled his eyes. "Who would've thought it?"

Sora was an easily distracted person and thus forgot entirely about his friend being apparently upset with him. "What's that mean?" he snapped at his feathered friend. He was also so distracted, apparently, that he didn't notice Riku taking the Keyblade from him.

"So, this is a Keyblade?" Riku inspected the sword he'd just stolen.

"Huh?" Sora stupidly looked at his hand. "Hey, give it back!"

Riku jumped back, and Sora tripped over his own two oversized feet. The silver-haired teen took one last look at the blade before tossing it back to Sora. "Catch."

Sora caught the Keyblade, but the weight knocked him back to the ground because he was weak and not muscular like Riku.

"So you're coming with us, right?" Ryo asked dreamily. "We've got the coolest space ship in the universe."

"No, he can't come!" Donald snapped. "I don't want another smelly guy on our ship! Besides, we don't have enough seats!"

Ryo gave Donald a cold look. "Well, we'll just leave you behind, then. You're a rather useless member of this expedition anyway. You're a Disney character. Thus you're expendable."

"Come on, Donald," Sora begged. "He's my friend!"

"And my boyfriend!" Ryo added.

"I don't care!"

Goofy and Andrea watched the argument like one would a tennis match. Then Andrea realized that the reason for the argument, Riku, had disappeared. "Uh, guys? Riku kinda left."

Sora looked up, as did Ryo. "Riku?" He looked around, but it was just as Andrea said. Riku was nowhere to be found. "Nice going," he muttered to Donald. "Oh well. At least he's okay. And who knows? Maybe we'll run into Kairi soon, too."

Ryo shot Sora a pointed look. "Speak for yourself! I want him back, now!"

"Oh, come on," Andrea said, grabbing Ryo by the collar and dragging her away.

They went up the stairs and passed a small house that up until recently had been vacant. Now, however, there was a light on inside. Andrea stopped dragging Ryo and gaped at the house.

"Hey! Someone's in our house!" she shouted. She threw open the door, only to find the Final Fantasy gang inside. "What are you guys doing in our house?"

Aerith tilted her head. "Your house? But we bought this house fair and square. We have the deed right here." She held up an official-looking piece of paper.

Andrea reached into her pockets and dug out an identical piece of paper. Both girls scrutinized each other's copy, then cried, "We've been swindled!"

Goofy sighed. "Gawrsh, does it really matter? You're never here anyway."

Ryo nodded in agreement. "Okay, I guess it's fine. We just need this house back after everything's over."

Aerith nodded and the deal was struck.

That out of the way, they moved on to more important matters. Cid asked, "You guys ever hear of Maleficent? I hear she's in town."

Sora stared blankly at Cid. "Who's she?"

"A lady who badly needs a manicure," Ryo said. "She could climb trees with those nails."

Cid slapped his forehead. "A witch, man, she's a witch!"

"She's the reason this town is full of Heartless," Leon added. "Don't take her lightly."

"She's been using the Heartless for years," said Aerith.

Leon leaned back against the wall of the house. "We lost our world, thanks to her."

Cid sighed. "One day, a swarm of Heartless took over our world!"

"Then was nine years ago."

"I got out of that mess and came here with these guys," Cid explained.

"That's awful!" Donald said, trying to scoot closer to Aerith. She noticed, however, and once again bashed him over the head with her ultimate weapon.

"Our ruler was a wise man named Ansem," Leon said. "He dedicated his life to studying the Heartless."

"His report should tell us how to get rid of the Heartless," added Cid.

"Can't be that easy," Ryo muttered to Andrea, who nodded.

"Where's this report?" Sora asked.

All the Final Fantasy characters looked down. "We don't know," said Leon. "It got scattered when our world was destroyed."

"Scattered?" Donald repeated. "But I thought Aerith stuffed her bra with them." Aerith smacked him again. "Then Yuffie does?" Yuffie stabbed him with multiple ninja stars.

Cid rolled his eyes. "I'm sure Maleficent's got most of the pages."

Sora donned a determined expression. "We'll just have to get them from her, then!"

"So, anyway," Aerith said, changing the subject once more. "I've been thinking about the bell in the Second District."

"The one that rang a bit ago?" Sora asked.

Yuffie nodded. "The one above the gizmo shop. There's a legend about it, you know." She fluttered her eyes at Sora.

Right. Big shoe fetish, the Keybearer reminded himself. "What's the legend?"

Everyone looked at each other. They didn't know. They just knew there was a legend. "It's all boarded up," Aerith said. "Nobody can get in there, anyway."

Cid rubbed his nose. "Heck, go check it out. Ring it three times and see if anything happens."

Everyone thanked the ADD Final Fantasy characters, and they proceeded to the Second District. Sora led the way up mass amounts of stairs, through the Gizmo Shop, and up a ladder, where they found the bell's string. Andrea declared that she wanted to ring the bell, and when everyone agreed that she could, started swinging from it.

The bell clanged wildly. One... Two... Three... Sora and friends watched as the fountain on the other side of the District turned. It stopped the third time, and the keyhole appeared. The problem was that Andrea rang the bell a fourth time. The block in the fountain tried to turn once more, but got stuck halfway between the first and the fourth side.

"Andrea, stop! You broke it!" Donald shouted.

Andrea stopped swinging on the bell's rope. "Did not," she said.

"Did to!"

"Did not!"

"Did to!"

"Did—"

"Will both of you shut up?" Sora asked. "Let's just got, fix the block, and lock the stupid keyhole."

The group climbed down from the shop's roof and walked the twenty feet to the fountain. Just as they were about to reach the block and fix it, a giant suit of armor appeared.

"Another one of these?" Andrea dug in her pocket and pulled out a bomb. She tossed it into the Guard Armor, and it promptly exploded. "Take that, repeat boss!"

Problem was, it wasn't a repeat. The Guard Armor flipped upside down and became Opposite Armor instead.

Ryo sighed. "You know what?" She reached into Andrea pocket and pulled out an even bigger bomb. "Everyone in the coat!" she shouted when she lit the thing.

Everyone did as she said. A few seconds later, there was no more Opposite Armor. "Good," Sora said, putting his Keyblade away. "Now we've got to fix the keyhole so I can lock it, and we'll be good."

Donald and Goofy ended up being the ones to push the block to the right wall, and then Sora locked it. It was rather simple, so they ended up leaving for the next world.

Woot. We got the chapter done. Please leave a review. Thank you. :)

Yes, we have returned again!