Author's Note: This idea came to me some time back, though it took me a great while to figure out how to compose it into a story. I had several different methods in making Sora and Riku switch places, but thought either they were taken, sounded too cheesy, or just didn't work out too well in the long scheme of things. I do apologize that this chapter will probably seem dull, but hey, everything must have a dull beginning, yes? This was my first time attempting to portray Sora, and believe me, it was no easy feat. I still don't think I did a very accurate job of portraying him, as he's just a bit too energetic and lively for me to quite capture with words. Also, I tried to bear in mind that he has a bit more simpler of a vocabulary than my typical third-person writing style does, so I tried my best to incorporate that as well.

This story takes place directly before the events of Kingdom Hearts I, where Sora is fourteen years old and Riku a year older.

Please leave a review and let me know your thoughts! I'm always eager to know what my readers are thinking, and I'm always open for suggestions in improving the story. Also, I'm quite curious to hear what people thought of this being written in first-person. I greatly debated over writing this in third-person, actually, and am still considering switching over to it. If anyone wouldn't mind telling me which they'd prefer seeing, I'd be more than grateful.

As always, a big thank you for reading! Enjoy!

Cover art was done by KeybladeMosstar, who's writing talents exceed many of the average authoresses. I'd highly recommend you go read her work, namely her story titled MISFITS.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, or any of their characters. All rights belong to their respective owners, Tetsuya Nomura and Square Enix to name a few.

"I've been having these weird thoughts lately...

Like, is any of this for real...or not?"

The soles of my shoes hit the warm sand as I raced across the beach against my best friend, Riku. I was winning, but then again, I would always be winning until this point in the race. It would happen this way every time. I don't know whether it was Riku toying with me, or my energy would give out, but he always manages to bound past me within the last fifteen-seconds of the race. I wasn't going to let him beat me this time though. No; this time, things were gonna be different.

I climbed the wooden ladder as fast as my hands could grasp the steps, and leapt up to my feet without a moment's delay. Riku continued to run below me; he always took a different route than I did. His route was probably shorter in the long scheme of things, but it never worked for me. He'd stay on the shoreline until he reached the short, brick wall not too far from our finish line, but because his legs were longer than mine, he could jump over it with ease. I would always end up managing to jump it, but then I'd trip up over those thick, prickly bushes that are located right along the edge afterwards. Not fun.

He was gaining up on me, I could tell that much as I reached the ramp that stretched across the shallow water (aka: Riku's route) below. I stole another glance over towards Riku, continuing to pick up my speed, until I felt my foot fall straight through the wooden plank, just before the entire platform fell through. I couldn't help but give out a small yelp of surprise as I shot through the new hole in the ramp that I'd created and fell into the shallow water below.

Riku, not fully seeming to notice that I'd fallen, had reached my spot at almost the very same time, and ended up tripping clean over my leg, sending him spiraling to the ground on his face, hard.

"Whoa, Sora-" said Riku breathlessly, as he pushed his upper body from the ground, water streaming from his drenched silver locks. "What are you doing down here?"

"Well, what does it look like? I fell, you idiot," I murmured bitterly, both out of frustration and from my backside rather hurting. My fall wasn't pretty, and it's not like I fell on anything soft, either.

Riku frowned, standing up alongside me as he cocked a brow in response to my statement.

"Fell? What are you talking about?" he asked, glancing up towards the ramp above. "Since when have you not been able to handle heights?"

"No, Riku, I fell through the ramp. See that big ol' hole up there?" I pointed frantically above my head, as if exaggerating would help me to get my point across better.

"Okay, fine; let's start over, even though I would've won fair and square if I'd kept going-"

"What?" I asked incredulously. "You fell over me! If you hadn't stopped to talk to me, I would've been up on my feet and creamed ya within seconds flat."

"Uh-huh, keep telling yourself that, Sora."

"Well, you just wait and see; I'll-

"Sora..."

"But I will!"

"No, Sora, it's not that," Riku replied, shaking his head and pointing at the ground underneath me. "It's just- what are you sitting on? It looks like some kind of...trapdoor or something."

"Huh?" I spread my legs further apart and peered down at what I'd initially thought was the remains of the wooden ramp, until I began to further examine it. I dusted the sand particles off of the surface of the smooth wood, and noticed the metal hinges along the side.

"Hey, Riku, you're right!" I exclaimed gleefully, crawling off of our newest discovery to better examine it. "This really is a trapdoor! Pretty cool, huh?"

Riku frowned slightly as he crouched down beside me, examining the trapdoor more carefully.

"I wonder though," he thought aloud, more to himself than to me, "if it was always here, why didn't we ever notice it before?"

"It was probably buried under all the sand that I just stirred up," I replied dismissively as I began searching for a handle or anything that I could use to lift the door. "That's why we never noticed it before."

Riku's lips parted slightly as he gave me that look, that look he'd always give me when he thought I was being stupid.

"An unlikely theory, Sora."

I wasn't listening to him all too well by that point, as I finally found a metal handle along the side of the door. I grinned up at him madly and asked, "You ready to go see what's inside?"

He shrugged as his eyes darted from me to the door. I could tell that he was thinking hard, because that's always what he'd do when trying to make a decision about stuff.

"But anything could be down there," he began to say. "We don't even know if we'll be able to get back-"

"Nah, Riku, you worry too much," I informed him, as I grasped the metal door firmly with both hands and began to pull. Dang, was it heavy!

Riku came alongside me and began helping me yank the trapdoor open; I think he was a little surprised at how heavy the door was, too.

"I'm not worrying, Sora," he told me seriously as we swung the door back so that it lay flat in the shallow water. "I'm just trying to be methodical, that's all."

I rolled my eyes; I know when Riku was being paranoid and when he wasn't. This was one of those times though; I could mainly tell by the uncertainty that haunted his eyes.

"Aww, forget it," I said. "Let's just get down there and see where it leads to!"

RIku leaned forward to peer down into the opening that we'd just made within the sand, as we slightly banged heads when I moved forward to do the same. It was pitch-black down there, or what all that I could make of it, at least.

"I wonder how far down it goes," I wondered aloud, as Riku began searching the sand for a rock. "I mean, I'd sort of hate to just jump down there and fall a hundred feet - That'd definitely hurt more than just falling through a ramp."

"Well, let's find out then," Riku replied, twisting a small rock between his fingers before dropping it into the darkness below. After only a few seconds we both heard a dull 'smack' of the rock hitting something. I grinned up at him.

"See? It's not deep at all," I informed him as I stood up. I hovered one foot over the hole as Riku looked up at me, giving me that darn look again.

"But, Sora..." he said uncertainly, beginning to peer down the whole again. "If we heard the rock hit the bottom after only a few short seconds, then why is it so dark down-"

Too late; before he could finish, I had already jumped into the hole, holding my breath as I did so. I had expected my feet to hit the ground after only a few seconds, since the rock had, after all. Only I was quite surprised to find that I was still falling, while watching the patch of daylight shrink into the distance above.

"Riiikuuu!" I shouted, reaching up towards the trapdoor. I should've listened to him - oh, why didn't I listen to him? I felt foolish and fearful as I continued to plunge deeper into the darkness below, with no hopes of landing anytime soon.

After what seemed like eons had passed - though in actuality it had probably only been thirty-seconds at the most - my fall gradually slowed, until it felt almost as if I were floating downward instead. This sensation was actually quite enjoyable, as I played around with gliding from side-to-side in the dark hole, slightly surprised by its width. Soon, I could make out some kind of platform below me. It was circular, and was glowing in florescent shades. I slowed to a halt as my feet gently collided with the platform of which seemed to be made of stained-glass, drawing in a breath with awe. I'm not sure why I hadn't noticed it from above, but not only was the platform colored, but it had an elaborate pattern upon it. It wasn't just any ol' pattern either, but instead it was-

"Me?" The words escaped my lips as I stared at the design incredulously, for the picture of which I had been standing on was an elaborate artwork of me, and-

"That's not accurate," a voice broke in from behind me, interrupting my thoughts. "We're not the same height."

I whirled around and grinned to find my best friend standing behind me, his turquoise eyes serious as he turned them upon me.

"Riku!" I exclaimed gleefully, racing over to him and snatching up one of his hands whist pointing at the artwork with my other. "Look at this! This is us! Why do you think there's a picture of us down here, huh?"

"I- don't know," Riku muttered softly, as he shook himself free of my grasp and bent down to further examine the platform. "But it's weird, how did this get down here, and where are we really? The whole thing is so bizarre."

A frown creased my forehead, as I crouched down beside him and ran my fingertips along the smooth, stained-glass. Suddenly, a thought hit me-

"Maybe," I began slowly, my eyes fixated upon my stained-glass face, "we're not on Destiny Islands anymore. Maybe we're in another world!"

"Another world," Riku repeated thoughtfully. "Hmm, wouldn't that be something. A world below Destiny Islands-"

"We'd be rich!" I exclaimed, beginning to think about all of the possibilities in discovering this platform below our world, with mine and Riku's picture on it. "We'd be making a massive discovery! Just think, Riku- we could go out and get cheeseburgers and ice cream every day!"

Riku sighed alongside me and shook his head, some of his silver hair brushing against my face.

"Sora, that's considering that we find our way out of here," he informed me, bursting my bubble in the process. "At this point, we're on this huge platform made of glass, with no means of resurfacing. Looks pretty ominous, if you ask me."

"Ah, Riku, you're always such a party pooper," I muttered darkly as I turned my gaze upwards towards the infinite darkness above, with not even the slightest trace of our trapdoor back on the Islands in sight. I slowly turned my head to gaze upon the platform. Though it was huge, its space was still limited, and apart from the flat, smooth surface of the glass there was nothing left or right. A part of me actually agreed with Riku, but of course there was no way that I was gonna admit to that!

"Well, I think that whoever set this thing up had planned for us to find it," I said, slowly rising to my knees as I stole another glance around. "I'll bet there's just some kind of trick to all of this; we've just gotta solve it."

Riku straightened himself and crossed his arms, his serious gaze dropping to the ground.

"Maybe," he murmured under his breath, though I don't think that he actually believed me.

I slowly began to circle around the edges of the platform, my rubber soles squeaking against the stained-glass flooring as I went. My mind was racing frantically as I thought back to any mystery book or crime show that I'd seen, where detectives would have to uncover secret passageways and solve mysteries such as this.

The once awe-inspiring artwork soon became dull as I made my fifth lap around it with no ideas coming to me whatsoever. Riku stood rooted on the spot, his eyes surveying the picture carefully.

"Maybe someone'll come looking for us eventually," Riku muttered thoughtfully, as if finding some ounce of hope for the first time since we'd fallen. "And they'll come looking for this trapdoor-"

"I don't know," I said with a frown. "We had a hard enough time finding it to begin with."

I let out a loud sigh of frustration and threw myself down on the glass, right smack in the middle of Riku's face.

"I give up!" I cried, throwing my arms into the air in defeat. Normally, I was always the one cheering people on and I was notorious for never giving up, but I had to admit this time I was clean out of ideas.

Riku looked thoughtful, taking a few strides to join me on his own face. He offered me a small smile.

"I never thought we'd go down this way," he muttered softly, without turning his gaze up to look at me. I shook my head furiously, tars slowly forming in my eyes. I sniffed and wiped them away irritably as I turned my head towards my best friend.

"I mean, we can't just like- be trapped down here forever, right? I mean, there's- there's-" I swallowed back against the tight knot that had begun to form in my throat, refusing to let out the sob that threatened to thrust itself out of me. Who ever thought our harmless little race could end up like this? I knew racing was sometimes dangerous, but I never would've thought that it'd cost us our lives. Sheesh!

I slowly brought my knees to my chest and rested my head against them, feeling a terrible sense of defeat overpowering me. Only moments ago, Riku and I had been racing across the sandy beach up above. Only moments ago, my only thoughts were of lunch and who'd get to sit next to Kairi next semester at school. But now, everything was different, since it didn't look like there would be any sort of homecoming.

Just as I began wondering how many years it'd take for someone to discover our rotten bodies down here, a voice rang across the darkness from nowhere that the eye could see. "So much to do...so little time."

"Huh?" I muttered aloud as I turned to to face Riku, who looked almost as confused as I was. "Did you hear that, Riku?"

As he began to open his mouth to respond, the voice spoke again, nearly causing me to jump out of my skin. "Do not be afraid- step forward."

I raised a brow uneasily while springing up to my feet.

"Well, okay; if you say so," I said with a shrug, as Riku slowly rose from the ground to join me. I swiftly took a few steps towards the center of the platform and shot a glance upwards. "Okay, voice," I thought to myself, glancing around expectantly, "I'm where you said to go, now what am I supposed to do?"

Just as I thought this, the platform began to shake uncontrollably, nearly sending me flying into Riku from behind me. I grabbed onto his arm to keep my balance, and I think my eyes must've nearly shot out from their sockets as I watched the scene in front of me unfold.

I rubbed my eyes and blinked several times, thinking that what I was seeing before me couldn't be real. In front of me stood three doors, each with an emblem engrained upon them. One was unmistakably the sun, with its radiant beams shooting in all directions, while the second door, the one that rested in the middle of the three, had a moon and sun emblem upon it. I couldn't quite make out the last one, as it didn't really look like any kind of design to me. All that I saw was a big, strange looking black blob in the center, with what almost appeared to be lightning streaks coming from it.

"Power sleeps within you...if you give it form-" the voice continued, though I still was unable to find a source for this said voice. "Choose wisely; your heart shall guide you to your inner light."

I blinked, turning my gaze over to Riku, who looked nearly as befuddled as I was.

"So...what do you think this means, Riku?" I asked him, lacing my fingers behind my head and cracking a grin.

Riku hesitated for a moment, stealing a glance towards the door with the black-looking blob, before turning his gaze back onto the sun-imprinted one.

"It's some kind of riddle," said Riku slowly as he turned to face me. "Your heart will guide you to your inner light."

I was getting a bit frustrated by that point, as I let out a sigh and glared at the three doors. My guess was that only one would lead us out of here, while the others- well, I'm not quite sure what they'd do, but I knew that I wasn't too eager to find out.

"Your heart...will guide you to your inner light-" I repeated, slowly making my way towards the door with the emblem of the sun. The echoing of my shoes hitting the glass died down, as I paused in front of it and slowly brought my hand up to the engraving.

"...guide you to your inner light..." I muttered slowly, realization beginning to hit me as my eyes widened in surprise. "Hey! Hey, Riku! I think I just figured it out!"

I turned eagerly towards my friend, my heart pounding furiously in my chest and butterflies filling my stomach. He reached me and gave me a curious look, his face remaining expressionless as I frantically pointed at the sun emblem on the door.

"Look! This is light!" I told him anxiously, a grin plastered onto my face. "This is what that voice was talking about, I'm sure of it!"

Riku brought a hand up to his chin, thinking about what I'd just said.

"Then, if this door is light," Riku said slowly, turning his gaze upon the final door with the black blob (for lack of a better word), "that one must be darkness."

It made total sense, all of it did: the 'light' was the door of which stood directly in front of me, represented by the sun, and our heart would show us the way to the light! From the moment the doors appeared, I had a feeling about that door of light- a warm sensation in the pit of my stomach that I couldn't even begin to explain. I knew this was the right door, I just did!

"This is it, Riku," I said cheerfully, my eyes tearing with joy. "This is the door that we're supposed to go through; this is the one that my heart had shown me. Get it? 'Your heart will guide you to the light,' it all fits into place."

Riku studied me for a minute, and then turned back to face the door of darkness.

"I- get what you're saying, I guess," he mumbled, his eyes still fixated upon the other door. "But, I've always felt inclined towards this door- though I can't explain why."

I cocked a brow, and I'm sure that my mouth was gaping wide open at him.

"No way, Riku, it's definitely this door," I confirmed, jerking my head towards the door of light. "Besides, the riddle mentioned your 'inner light,' not your 'inner darkness,' right?"

"True," he admitted, though I don't think he sounded very convinced. "I guess you're right. I just thought if that were the case, then I'd feel more drawn to that door, that's all."

That was certainly baffling, and I couldn't even begin to understand it. Though I usually liked to believe him, and normally I did, I knew with certainty that he was wrong- this door was the one, I just knew it.

"Look, I'm positive that it's this one, Riku," I told him seriously. "I don't know what kind of feelings you're getting from that door, but I just know this door is the one."

I pouted slightly, giving him the most pathetic look I could muster. Riku chuckled lightly, and stepped across my glass feet to return to my side before the door of light.

"Okay, if you're really sure, Sora-" Riku said slowly, hesitation filling his tone.

I grinned at him before flinging open the door. The moment I did so, light began to infiltrate the room. I was completely blinded, unable to make out a thing, since it forced me to cover my face and glue my eyes shut.

"You still sure about this door?" Riku called to me from somewhere within the sheer light.

"Yeah, you go first!" I called back, though I wasn't really sure why we were both shouting, considering the light was soundless and Riku was right beside me.

"Uhh- okay."

"Good; I'm right behind ya."

"You'd better be," Riku muttered out of the corner of his mouth, taking a few slow strides towards the door. "Or else there'll be hell to pay."

"Yeah, yeah, I am," I retorted, barely opening my eyes a crack to be able to make out Riku's silhouette standing amidst the overpowering light.

He continued to move forward deeper and deeper into the light, with me being about ten feet behind him, until suddenly, the door slammed shut. BAM! Just like that.

"Hey! Riku!" I shouted, bringing my fist up to the door and pounding on it. "Open up! I wanna come, too!"

It was no use; the harder I pounded, the more soundless my fists became, until the door slowly began to dematerialize into nothing by sparkles and dust on the wind.

Great, this was just great! The one door that I had a really good feeling about was gone, along with my best friend. I was now standing alone on my glass ankle, with only two ominous doors in front of me- this was just my luck.

I took a few steps towards the remaining doors, my footsteps resounding against the glass as I went. My heart had told me to go through the door of light, not either one of these. At this point though, I didn't feel as though I had much of a choice: it was either go out one of these doors before they decided to disappear, or sit there to rot on the stained-glass portrait of myself. Either way, I figured that I'd kinda be left in the dirt.

I drew in a breath as I carefully turned the knob of the door of darkness; I figured since Riku had such a good feeling about this door, then perhaps it wouldn't be so bad after all. Once I'd flung it open, I felt as though it were a mistake, as my body was sent backward by a wave of dark vibes, springing from the door and dissipating the moment it seemed to hit the platform. I squinted through the doorframe, only this time it wasn't due to sheer light, but instead the infinite darkness that was beyond. I couldn't see anything through the door; only darkness, that led on into oblivion.

I seriously didn't want to go in there, and for one brief moment I considered flinging the door shut and waiting for the empty platform to consume me. But of course, I knew that was more of a guaranteed loss than anything else so far, right?

I drew in a deep breath, as I carefully set my foot down into the doorway.

"Well, here goes nothing!" I said to myself, because hey, who else was there to hear me but me?

I squeezed my eyes shut as I crossed over the threshold, stepping into the darkness entirely. I turned around to get one last look at the platform, but found that the door had already vanished; I was now completely surrounded by darkness.

"Oh, this is great. This is just great," I muttered to myself, since I discovered that it somehow seemed to comfort me to hear my own voice. I threw myself against the wall, and groaned in my own frustration. Wait a sec- the wall?

I brought out a hand in front of me, and began patting what seemed to be a wall that I couldn't see. I tried to brace it, but the moment I tried to do so my feet no longer were rooted to solid ground, and I felt myself falling straight through the floor. Falling down...down... into who knows what else.