Mickey gasped from the adrenalin and shock. He placed his hands on his knees and took deep breaths. He occasionally looked up at the boy who continued to stand as still as a statue, just watching him. Even though his eyes were covered, Mickey could still feel the intense of his gaze.

Gus flew forward until he was right in front of the young man. "Thank you very much, mister..?" "Riku. My name is Riku." The boy's voice was so quiet and serious, that Gus frowned and flew back a little until he was beside Mickey.

Mickey walked forward, "Thank you for saving us. Where did you get your sword?" The boy frowned in confusion. "Your Majesty, don't you recognize me?" Now Mickey was the one that was confused. This boy already seemed to know him, and he even thought he was royalty. Where did he get that idea from?

"I'm sorry. You must have mistaken me for somebody else. My name is Mickey Mouse. I'm not royalty and I don't believe I've ever met you before." The boy seemed to have frozen for a split second, before he lowered his head, and replied in such a sad tone that it broke Mickeys' heart.

"The King from our world is missing. I haven't seen him for months. I don't know where he is." Mickey frowned in sympathy. Riku talked about the king like a brother, or a father he never had. On impulse, Mickey walked forward and wrapped his arms around Riku's waist. The boy looked down at the mouse, eyes wide with surprise.

Gus watched the scene, touched to tears. Mickey still held on to the boy, the need to comfort him becoming stronger. "Don't worry, Riku. Your king will never be apart from you, as long as you will keep him in your thoughts and heart." He felt Riku shudder and instinctively held him tighter. For some reason…he felt like keeping this boy safe was the only thing that mattered.

They stayed like that for about ten minutes, before Riku slowly let go of him. "Thank you…Your Ma-Mickey." Mickey smiled at him, making Riku smile back at him. The boy stood up, the smile melting into a frown that seemed to fill with bitter memories. "We better keep moving. We don't know if any heartless will show up while we're in here." Riku lifted a hand to create an exit, and all three people jumped out of the portal.

….

Riku looked around the strange town, his eyebrow raising to his hairline. "Where are we?" Gus put on his 'teacher' face and flew to Riku's side. "This is Mean Street. It's the place where forgotten characters can live on, living their regular lives, from when they had hearts."

Riku gave a start at this. "Wait a second. Did you just say 'had hearts'?" Gus raised an eyebrow, "Yes. Why?"

"Why aren't they Heartless?" Gus shrugged, "I don't know how that works, lad. There were no Heartless here until they chased me and Mickey for some reason." Riku had a frown on his face that made him seem more grown-up.

"I think I know the reason. The Heartless seem to have mistaken you for the King, Mickey." Mickey gulped, "Yeah…that's…that's pretty bad…" Gus shook his head with dread.

" 'Bad'? Boys, this is horrible! Now we don't only have the Blot to defeat, we have to defeat these Heartless as well!" Mickey nodded, "We don't have anything that can defeat them. My paintbrush won't work on them!" Riku stretched out his hands and Soul Eater materialized in his hand.

"The Keyblades are the only weapons that can defeat the Heartless." Mickey studied the Keyblade in the boys' hand. It was all red and black and a green eye with a narrow pupil was on the handle. Mickey shuddered: it looked like the eye was staring right at him.

Suddenly, a tingle ran through Mickey's left hand. Mickey watched as his hand began to rise automatically. Light suddenly gathered around his hand as he and Gus watched in nervous fascination as a Keyblade of Mickeys' own materialized. Riku had a small smile on his face as he saw that the Keyblade in Mickey's hand was the same as the King's .

There's something about the Mickey here…

Mickey laughed, "I got a Keyblade, Riku!" The boy nodded, a smile on his face. "That's the same Keyblade as the one that the King has." Mickey frowned.

"Who's this King, Riku? How did you meet him?" Riku looked at him gravely.

"It's not a happy story." Mickey walked forward. "Tell me anyway." Riku nodded shortly and sat down on one of the benches. He gestured to the space beside him, and Mickey sat down beside the boy. He waited until the boy gathered his bearings and began to speak.

"…About a year ago, me, along with my friends, Sora and Kairi, lived on an island and all of us would travel to the beach together. We all wanted to explore the world, and I saw a chance…when the darkness tempted me…" Riku clenched his fist and Mickey was startled to hear self-loathing in the boy's tone. He placed a hand on Riku's fist to remind him that he wasn't alone.

"Go on…" Gus nodded with Mickey's statement. He seemed to be engrossed in the story.

"Anyway, I found myself somewhere alone and a witch called Maleficent found me, told me that she saw Sora, and that he had forgot about me and Kairi, and had new friends, Donald and Goofy."

"Donald and Goofy? They're there in your world too?" Riku nodded. "They were with Sora, and they seemed to be good friends, so I assumed she was telling the truth, and I began to work with her to help me find Kairi's heart. I fought with Sora and Donald and Goofy, but they always seemed to win. I began to be even more powerful with the darkness…and I slowly became a different person. I managed to fight it, but I ended up in the darkness with the King…"

Mickey listened as Riku continued with telling his adventures in Castle Oblivion and what happened to Sora. He told him about this Nobody called Roxas and how important it is that he meets Sora. Riku looked back down.

"…And that's what happened so far." Mickey nodded, patting Riku's hand as the boy's form shook. For some reason, he wasn't surprised by the story. It was almost as if…as if it happened to him.

"Don't worry, Riku. You'll find your king and wake this Sora up. Just don't give up and believe. Believe and forget about the darkness and the pain you have bottled up. If you believe, anything can happen."

The boy stared as Mickey smiled at him. Slowly, a reluctant smile found its way on Riku's face. "Yeah…you're right." Riku placed a hand on the mouse's shoulder and squeezed gently. Mickey nodded.

"MOUSE!" Mickey, Gus, and Riku looked over to see a black rabbit with dark blue pants jogging towards him. Riku turned to Mickey.

"Who is that guy?" Mickey rolled his eyes and grimaced, "My half-brother, Oswald." Oswald stopped in front of the group, raising an eyebrow at the black-clad boy. "Who are you supposed to be?" Riku's frown deepened.

"I'm Riku. I'm a friend of Mickey's." Oswald just looked at him, then turned back to Mickey. "You were supposed to look for rocket parts, genius!" Mickey ran a hand across the back of his head. "We got a little side-tracked. Some new monsters arrived."

Oswald's frown deepened, "Well, that's going to take longer! You better get moving."

Riku stepped forward, "Hey…this is your brother. You could at least ask him if he's alright." Oswald glared at Riku.

"He may be my brother, but he's the one that stole my popularity. Thanks to him, I've been forgotten and exiled here ever since he took my place."

Mickey flinched. Riku just looked at the rabbit unemotionally. Oswald is acting like I did when I first touched the darkness. I better keep an eye on him.

…..

Gus led his friends through the portal. Riku was a little creeped out with all the moving objects, but he managed to hide his emotion. He gave reassuring nods to Mickey, who kept on looking at him in concern.

This is so weird, but at least they're only amateurs compared to Heartless. After the trio flew out of the portal, Riku looked at his surroundings. "Where are we?"

Mickey had the same questioning look on his face. Gus flew over in front of them. "This is Tommorowland. It's a land filled with technology of the future. It used to be full of people, but ever since the Blot…"

Mickey nodded in understanding. Riku followed his action. He watched the mouse hold out his paintbrush and summon his keyblade in his other hand.

"Let's go."