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Bro I guess I lied when I said this account wasnt ded. Just follow me for stories on my AO3 if anyone happens to stumble upon this blog and likes the reads. Chapters are frequently updated, about 1-2 times monthly unless I get stuck. And I’m branching off from just Kingdom Hearts too.

Also cool updates are coming to the stories as well. so. yeahhhh if anyone see this. lol

[nyctoheart]

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Ascendant Recollection :CH 04:

KH - Ascendant Recollection : Chapter 04 :

Franchise: Kingdom Hearts

Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama

Love Interest: Riku

Rating: Teen

 Concerned with the events of what had happened to Alice, but intrigued by the burdened with the intel of a new impending threat, Yukari resolves to inform her team mates about the shrouded figures in her dream. But the conversation is cut short when they land in a new world that demands more than brazen strength.

 My team and I sat in the briefing room after heading back to the ship and setting it to auto-pilot. Joined by the very concerned slash suspicious expression of my peers, I could feel this weird tension wavering in the air as I discussed with them, the dreams, the people in the dark and how they were apparently after us.

 "Huh..." Goofy scratched his temple, thoughtfully. "So you're saying you have a kind of power that lets ya see things... that are happening or might have already happened?"

 "Seems fishy." Donald crossed his arms over his chest, closing an eye. "Also, inconvenient. Why can't you see the future??"

 I shrugged, as I held my head in my hands. I was still really drained from that overuse of magic on the Wonderland Heartless boss.

 "Yukari, how long... have you been having these dreams?" Sora asked, joining into the group discussion. "Is that why...?"

 "I don't know about that one." I stopped him, knowing he was about to mention the crying. I didn't want Donald and Goofy more concerned than they needed to be. "As for how long... maybe around a year and a half ago?"

 "Why didn't you say anything, to me?" He asked, sounding understandably hurt.

 "I mean, I just thought they were really bad dreams is all. Besides... There was... nothing you could do about it..."

 My refusal to look into his eyes as I said that, prompted a great, uncomfortable silence. Admittedly, I was still leaving out a lot of information. Like the Ladies of Light and Dark, my awakening powers, and what I had seen with Riku both on the island, and in whatever world he'd end up. I don't know why I was still holding back.

 "Okay... well..." Goofy decided to reawaken the conversation. "You said that we've got some baddies watchin' our moves, right? I mean... that sounds pretty bad..."

 "Not as bad as them sending Heartless after us!!" Donald screeched. "They're making us work harder than we need to!"

 "They're trying to kill us..." I clarified. "More importantly... they're trying to get rid of Sora."

 "Just me?" He asked. "What about you?"

 "They said something about... using me..." I responded, leaning my cheek into my palm. It was something that I'd completely ignored before, due Riku's appearance following the sequence but, my curiosity was renewed when the Lady of Light spoke to me.

 "Fine... We'll cross that bridge when we get there." Goofy supplied. "What's important is that we now know where that there Heartless came from in Traverse Town--"

 "And Wonderland!" Donald input.

 "But why are they trying to slow us down?" Sora asked. "They're obviously up to something."

 We all sat together, pondering silently for any possibilities. I recounted what happened in the dark void and my conversation with Lady Light. I suppose it was fine to tell them this bit of intel.

 "Maybe it has something to do with Alice's disappearance." I voiced.

 All the boys looked up at me with big eyes. Half ajar mouths, expressed more words than were being voiced in that moment.

 "When I was trapped in that cage... this sort of Dark pool formed at the bottom. It sucked both of us in... I managed to break free... somehow, I can't recall..." I lied a bit.

 "But Alice didn't." Sora noted.

 "You think, maybe it's got somethin' to do with that there Keyhole we found."

 "Or maybe... It's both!" I exclaimed, popping up from my seat.

 "That's an idea..." Donald said. "Have you had any dreams to confirm it?"

 I shook my head. "I told you everything I've seen for the time being."

 A break in the conversation with permeated by the intercom buzzing to live as Chip’s voice squeaked through with an announcement. "Looks like there's another world up ahead guys."

"I guess, we're gonna have to cut this meeting short." Donald sighed. "Maybe after we get through this one, and we see what we see, we could try heading back to Traverse Town and talk about it with Leon." Then Donald looked at me. "You won't mind telling him what you told us, right?"

 I shook my head, wordlessly.

 "Good. Then, let's check out the new world."

 Kingdom Hearts: Ascendant Recollection

Chapter 04

The True Heroes' Circuit

 Going to new worlds was far more mind boggling than I would have been able to assume. With only two new worlds under my belt, I realized just how... plain, my view of the outside worlds was, when I was back home. Each one was so different, and with almost nothing to compare to, having their own quirks and niches. They were all pretty unique in their own way.

 So when I mention the incredible culture shock I go through when I visit a new world, I wonder if I'll ever not feel this sensation with every new encounter.

 So far, this new world seemed a bit sparse. Our little party stood in the center of what looked to be a sort of court yard that caged us in with surrounding, marble columns towering high above our heads. The sky washed the area is beautiful blues against the whites and gold of the scenery. Everywhere, spotting the place about us, were lit braziers that accented the opposing, towering structures.

 The main attraction to the area were the two, enormous statues, what towered high above our heads. Two men, dressed in armor, stood for battle, against each other. Their swords crossed as they stood frozen in an eternal clash.

 "Awesome gate!!" Sora exclaimed.

 "Ahem--" I heard a little voice clear it's throat, and out of Sora's hoodie came Jiminy.

 It was terribly easy to forget he was around.

 "This here is, the Coliseum of Olympus." He went on. "Famous warriors from all over the multiverse come to gather at this stadium, regularly to pit themselves against each other in mixed martial arts tournaments."

 "Sounds like a lot of destruction of that precious world order..." I mumbled, clear enough for Donald to hear.

 He grumbled, rolling his eyes in my direction and I couldn't help but grin. I thought it was funny, but that rule was bound to hold some inconsistencies, right?

 "Forget that!" Sora said, stopping in his tracks. His eyes lit up as they locked with mine. A bright smile rocketed across his face. "Jiminy mentioned tournaments! We gotta Check it out!"

 "Wait a second- We don't have time to— Sora!!" Donald squawked as he chased after him, as Sora had already gone barreling his way past the gargantuan statues and into the enormous double doors.

 "We better go..." I sighed, as Goofy and I followed the two impulsive characters, in our midst inside.

 The interior, was just as golden, if not ten times more. It was more like a small lobby that was only the entrance to something greater. Flames in each corner of the room, lit up the place. And in one of those corners was a small... brown hair-legged, red headed goat... man, at work as he was putting up a plaque.

 He was the only one around so, Sora approached him.

 "Um..." Sora started. But the goat guy stopped him before he could get much of a real word in.

 "Great timing. Give me a hand and move that pedestal over there for me, will ya?"

 The four of us, turned to find said pedestal, sitting across the room. Its size was comparable to that of a large boulder you'd find blocking a cave entrance. With that being said-- it was huge. Sora would not be able to move it.

 My gaze slowly drifted in his direction, and I couldn't help be let go a soft, "Ahhhh... Sora?"

 "I got this!" He quickly cut me off.

 Eagerly, he jogged over to the enormous block of solidified clay and threw his entire weight against it. Nothing happened, as he let go a couple of dignified strains before giving up just as quickly as he'd volunteered.

 "There's no way I could move this thing!" Sora blurted out. "It's way too heavy!"

 "What's that Herc?!" The goat guy bleated angrily, turning on us. His face had gone hot red with something that was a mix between rage and mystification. But it was in those couple of seconds where, his eyes quickly registered that one person had instead been a group of people, that his temper dissipated.

 "Oh..." He managed. "Wrong guy. Thought you's was someone else. Anyway, we're closed right now, so you'll have to come back during business hours." He turned on our party and made a shoeing gesture with his hand, getting back to his previous task.

 "Uh... I'm sorry, but..." Sora wasn't about to quit though. His heart was already in it. "I'm actually interested in entering the tournament."

 To this, goat dude burst out into a fit of laughter. He swiveled back around on his little goat legs, just as a tear of could be squeezed out of his eye. "You!! Wanna enter the tournament?! Hahahaha!! That's the funniest thing I ever heard!!"

 He proceeded to leap down off the stool he'd been standing on, and strutted over towards the hunk of rock. "Can't even move a lousy..." And then he proceeded to attempt the move it. "Pedestal!!!"

 I nodded, pursing my lips, a bit tired of watch enough people struggle over pushing a rock across the room. "In any case..." I began. "You think, maybe there’s a way we could enter?"

 "Yukari!" Donald, snapped.

 "What? It could be good practice for us to learn to work together better and use our Keys." I retorted, whispered harshly back at him.

 "This ain’t no practice run circuit!" The goat man, breathlessly bleated as he came away from the stone. "Hero's only! You wanna compete? Show me your ticket or beat it!"

 The four of us, exchanged defeated glances, knowing none of us had, at any point before this, acquired any sort of ticket. So, we left, clunking back through the door we'd come.

 "Quite the hospitality, he had." I shrugged, stuffing my hands into my back pockets.

 "Stupid ole Goat-Man..." Sora pouted.

 "Yeah!" Donald added. "Heros only..." he let go a mocking grumble as he stomped along. "We've got two of your so-called Heroes, right here! Keyblade chosen and everything!! That's gotta be something!"

 "And something, that is indeed!" A low voice, slithered in through the boy's complaints.

 Our little party stopped and turned towards the enormous double doors, we'd come from. Within the shadows, a very tall blue skinned man swathed in black robes looked us over from within the shadows. His yellow eyes almost glowed as bright as the stark blue flame that sat on his head.

 "Mmm... I don't like this guy..." I said under my breath as he slowly began to approached. I watched carefully not allowing my eyes to leave him as he appeared to be gliding across the ground, black smoke trailing behind him.

 "Honestly, the old goat's gettin' stiffer by the year." The man continued. His black lips hid behind them, small sharp teeth that made me want to distrust the guy even more. "But it would be a shame if we allowed him to ignore young talent, like yourselves."

 "And... who are you, exactly?" I asked, as, being in the rear, I was closest to him.

 The blue man, scoffed a bit. His lips twitched just so, as though he'd suddenly felt offended. To which he quickly shrugged off, attempting to switch gears. "Meh... Details." He said, reaching his spindly fingers around my shoulder and turned me to face the boys.

 I groaned audibly to express my extreme discomfort.

 "I see you four are tryin' to apply as rookies. I'm thinkin’ I can probably help with that, seeing how you're little band of 'heroes' tickles my interests." The guy leaned in, now his flaming head close to mine. The boys all having been, at this point captivated by his presence. Slowly he lifted his hand up before my face and snapped. That was all it took a for a glistening, golden to ticket appear from nothing.

 "A pass!" Sora shouted with delight. I could see in his eyes as he was itching to grab it up.

 "Go on, kid." The blue dude, ushered. "Take it. It should be enough to get you in, to the torny."

 "...Mmm.... What's the catch?" I asked, looking distrustfully into his eyes.

 "Catch? There isn't any." The guy said, getting suspiciously closer as his elbow locked around my neck. I felt like if I made the wrong move, this would very much go from a chummy embrace, to vice grip. "I just know potential when I see it. And I can definitely tell from just lookin at you, that ya'll've got the eyes of true heroes."

 My eyes carefully shifted back towards the ticket, he'd still been holding between his index finger and thumb. My eyes darted around at my team before slowly reaching for the slip of shiny paper. The second I'd had a firm grip on it, the blue guy disappeared and a cloud of glittering black smoke. But of course, not before a an elongated smile slowly stretched across his long face.

 I coughed and sputtered, clearing the dust from my eyes, that smelt vaguely of pomegranates and ash.

 "Who was that guy?" Goofy questioned aloud.

 But no one here would be able to answer his question. I gazed down at the golden ticket which had been gifted to us. Obviously something wasn't right about this guy. It was even more obvious that he had less than good intentions. The way he'd seem to know exactly what we'd wanted and even hinted at how he knew who we might have been, made me wonder if he had anything to do with those less than savory characters from my dream.

 "Why don't..." I began to say, my eyes tracing the bright golden trim of our new entry ticket. "we go back and talk to the goat dude again."

 * * * * *

"What the heck!?" The goat man, bleated incredulously. "How in holy Hera's name, did guys get one of these??"

 The four of us watched on as he inspected the small piece of paper that confirmed our registration in the tournament to come. No one said anything as to how we'd obtained it, as if we'd come to some sort of silent agreement on the matter. But Sora did step forth eagerly to press the goat once again.

 "So this means you're gonna let us compete now, right?"

 "Well... I mean... It don't look like I got much a choice with this." The goat dude hummed, putting the ticket away. "But first, I'm thinkin' of puttin you guys through a crash course. Fish tail, over here mentioned how you's four may need to improve your team work, earlier. If that's true, who knows what else, you guys need help with."

 "Fish tail?" I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he referring to my hair style??

 "Follow me, right through here." He led us through the only door in the room, through to a dark passage. The sound of our clamoring footsteps slapped against the close quarters as we walked. "Oh, and by the way... the name's Phil. Whatchya rookies, call yourselves?"

 "I'm Sora"

 "Donald"

 "Yukari"

 "Goofy!"

 The four of us introduced one after the other.

 "Alright." Phil's grin could be seen faintly in dim light of sconces that lit the corridor. "You four seem pretty eager to go at it. Show me what you've got."

 The dark path had finally ended whence we were led into a much more spacious tunnel that broke off into a multitude of exits. Phil led us through one of them. On the other side was what had clearly been an arena set against the stark blue mid-day sky. The stadium itself was empty, indicating that the tournament wouldn’t seem to be starting for a while.

 I suppose this would get our party a little bit of time to get some practice in.

 "Alright, rookies." Phil announced. "Let's go! Show me what you've got so far!"

 For a moment, our team kind of just stood speechless, together as we stared Phil down, completely unsure of what to do.

 "Uh..." Sora vocalized. "What... What do you want us to do?"

 "Fight, of course." Phil said it like it had been obvious.

 "Who..?" I questioned, looking around for enemies and or opponents.

 "Each other! Last one standing is the winner!" Phil bleated, excitedly. Shooting his tiny fist in the air as he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Fight!!"

 The four of us scrambled around a bit once we all realized what was happening. But it seemed this would display who was the most competitive, and who was the most passive as both Donald and Sora simultaneously made the first moves.

 "Waak!!" Donald rose his staff into the air. Small bolts of lightning rained down around us, but none of them seemed to hit anyone. Instead, they appeared to serve more as a distraction than anything. I watched as Goofy rose his shield over his head to protect himself, whilst Sora dove in, straight for Donald.

 "What are you doing!?!" Donald shouted, bouncing to and for on his feet. Panic was in his eyes as he tried to read Sora's moves.

 "Sorry Donald!" Sora shouted, raising his blade overhead.

 I watched as Sora was about to strike Donald down, whilst Donald attempt to smack him away with his staff. As I'd expected, Goofy butted in and broke Sora's attack. Sora, leapt back right as Goofy went in for a counter.

 "Thanks for the save!" Donald called out.

 "You're welcome!" Goofy grinned, but then his expression quickly reverted back to that of something like determination as he readied his shield. "But now I've gotta take you down!"

 He charged Donald who was now running for his life, spamming flame magic at Goofy who'd blocked each attack with his shield. I realized how absorbed I'd been in watching the boys when the sound of footsteps came clunking in my direction.

 Almost too late, I summoned my Keyblade as Sora slammed his down onto my own. But something wasn't right. Where once my Keyblade was a bright, silvery double shafted weapon, in my left hand was now a blade, far more reminiscent of a key-- black and gothic in appearance with a heavy chain running through the center of the shaft's designs. From the bat winged hand guard encrusted with a deep violet gem, that encircled the handle, dangled a keychain with a black crown.

 "Wh-- Augh!" I cried out, shoving Sora back.

 If he'd notice anything different, he didn't bother mentioning it. But that was fine, all the same as I dove behind him and ran in the direction of Donald and Goofy.

 "Don't run away!" Sora shouted after me playfully.

 I grinned back at him, satisfied that his full attention was on me. I turned to face our remaining party members who'd been locked in an intense brawl- Donald continuously casting spells with Goofy blocking every, one.

 "Incoming!!" I shouted as I neared them.

 Startled, the two stopped what they'd been doing to scream their heads off as I'd coming bounding my way towards them. So much so, they had no way to anticipate just what I'd do.

 Probably thinking I'd tackle either one of them, Goofy directed his shield towards me. Donald, threw his staff in my direction and shouted, "Freeze!!" Narrowly missing him by a hair, I ducked and slipped between the two's feet. All that was left now, was for Sora to realize what was coming to him.

 I turned in time to watch a frozen Sora slip and slide into the other two. Donald and Goofy were knocked out of the way but, shivering, hoodie boy was still coming at me.

 I blocked as he rammed his blade down on mine. Catching the look on Sora’s chilled features, I caught a glimpse of bold determination. Maybe he thought he had this in the bag? I smirked, shoving my forehead straight into his, instantly catching him off guard and forcing him to lose a bit of his balance. Taking this chance, I threw up his guard, snatching his Key out of his grip and swiped at his feet, for good measure. I watched as Sora was flung onto his back, hitting the stone beneath our feet hard.

 "We're not done yet!!" Donald Squawked.

 I looked up to find him and Goofy come charging at me from short distance away.

 Two to one, huh? Or maybe...

 I glanced back at Sora who was officially down for the count. He lay sprawled out on the ground, completely unconcerned of the playing field for the rest of us. Using that to my advantaged, I shut my eyes, and concentrated, calling on the power of magic. The last time, I did it, I completely just wasted all of my energy by carelessly flinging out all of my magic at once.

 Aiming at the two’s feet, I shot a blast of ice that turned the ground beneath them into a thin slippery sheet. It didn't take much for the two's running to turn into a slipping and sliding as they slid right into Sora, and went careening over his body and into the dirt.

 "And it looks like we've got ourselves a winner!!" Phil cheered, prancing into the arena, where he hopped around the four of us.

 Sora sat up, massaging his head. "No way... I want a... a rematch.." He said between breaths.

 "Nope." Phil denied him. "I've seen enough. The little lady right here, trumped you all. And I think I see why. You've all got your short comings and I know just the thing to put you guys on track before the tournament starts. Scrape yourselves up off the ground and follow me."

 Obviously, we did just that as we shuffled after the goat dude to what appeared to be a sort of outdoor training grounds slash gymnasium. Clearly this guy was a seasoned coach, having everything from the dumbbells to the "save the rag-doll in distress" obstacle course. I gaped about the place for what little time I was able before Phil broke us up and got us busy with our individual training exercises.

 Phil put the boys to work doing various things that seemed to build on their reflexes. He actually set them in the course were they were tasked with saving rag doll civilians as they fought off wooden monster targets. Meanwhile, he kept his focus on me as he had me attacking a poor, sad looking, defenseless dummy. He was giving me tips on how to hit hard and where.

 "Don't just throw the your weapon around." He said. "It's an extension of yourself-- Like a longer arm. Use it to connect your attacks with your target, not just whack ‘em to and fro. Hit em' hard, hit em' right and they'll go down quickly and more effectively."

 I drew back my black key, my forehead drenched with sweat. I was exhausted. We'd burned through literally two worlds before this one with zero rest in between. I thought about how we were preparing for the tournament and how I wasn’t as ready as I'd like to be. Sure it was kind of exciting, but I was nervous about how I'd preform.

 "You got a teacher?" Phil inquired, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

 "Hmm, why do you ask?" I lowered my stance.

 "During that little buddy brawl, the very first thing you did was stand there and watch to see what your team mates would do-- see how they'd move, who'd attack first. After that, it was like you used their trepidations or short comings against them. Ya didn't land any solidifying hits though. You played really defensively. You seem to know a thing or two about a fight... I think I'd be pretty scared to see you actually start fighting back."

 I blushed a little bit. The only things I knew were what Riku taught me. Sure I'd watched a lot of beach brawls between most of the boys back on the Islands. Riku tended to toss me around a lot, just because I was always looking for tips on how to go against different opponents. Sora was fun to spar with, but I didn't think he took it as seriously with me as he did with Riku. But then again, it was all fun and games before. The stakes were a bit higher now. All in all, I found myself relying on my team mates to come through where I knew I couldn't.

 "In any case... let's take a break." Phil finished, trotting over towards the boys. "The tournament should start soon. I want all four of ya's to rest up and mentally prepare."

 Extending his generosity even further, Phil loaded us up with tons of apples, plenty of water, and lots of pep talk. A couple hours of training and a bit of recuperating was fine by me. It was a nice cherry on top to have the guy give us one more good confidence boost. It was evident he had a lot of faith in us.

 "You guys worked pretty hard." He noted, wrapping some measuring tape around Sora's bicep. I grinned, not once considering that Sora would ever grow out of his scrawny boy look. "You're efforts are sure to pay off... errm eventually. But for now, just take everything I put you though in the last two and a half hours and get out there and kick some booty!"

 "But wait..." I said thoughtfully. "You said earlier that this tournament was for heroes only. All we did was work out... How does that make us qualified, again?"

 "It doesn't." Phil agreed. "But it's not to say that your potential hasn't showed me something spectacular. It's not about how much you buff up your brawn, but your spirit. For example, let's use your heart. You'd want to have a strong, heart before anything else."

 "How would I buff up my spirit, then?" Sora asked, after taking a long drink of water.

 "Well, that all depends on you." A new voice spoke out. "You'll have to find out for yourselves, just the way that I did."

 Our party looked up to find a very tall, and very brawny looking man standing over us. His bright smile radiated in our darkened spot near our gate, where we'd be let out once the tournament began and we were called forth. His skin was a nice sun bathed bronze. Bright blue eyes glistened against a his curly red hair which was held up in a sweat band. He'd been dressed in a short, brown tunic that stopped dead mid-thigh. I was feeling a little jealous about his insane calf muscles that were wrapped up in his leather sandals.

 "Herc!" Phil bleated excitedly as he leapt from his spot. "Let me introduce ya kiddies!! This here is my protégé! The man I trained to become a true hero! Hercules."

 "Just guessing from the looks of your sun beat faces and the fact that you all seem to have been worked to Hades, I'm gonna say you guys are some new trainees Phil took on?"

 I looked back over at Sora who was gawping at Hercules's muscles and laughed. "Sorta." I giggled. "We're here for the tournament, so he wrung us out a bit."

 "Ahhh I see." Hercules's eyes slowly drifted across each of us. But he didn't seem impressed. More worried than anything, which was a bit discouraging. "Well, you guys had best be careful. I'd been checking over the roster for the tournament and by the looks of it, there are no shortage of shady characters amongst the applications, the year."

 "You think someone is leakin' the qualification tickets?" Phil asked, his voice now hushed.

 Me and the boys immediately started to catch others eyes. I think at that moment, we all felt the same thing-- the blue dude from before was definitely on the list of suspects. I mean, it could have been him, but really who's to say there weren't others.

 * * * * *

The tournament had finally kicked off and our party was doing well to barrel our way through the preliminaries. We'd gone up against many of interesting characters, to say the least but, the oddity in the situation was that there had been quite a bit of Heartless taking up the brackets. Seeing as this was the case, we did well to plow them down. Once we'd finished up our seed, we were sent back to the waiting area, to prepare for the next opponent.

 We had been met by Phil on the way in, who'd congratulated our hard work, but that had been the last thing on our minds.

 "How are the Heartless even competing??" Sora asked, his voice low as we whispered to each other.

 "Yeah," Donald spat. "They don't have the brains to apply for anything."

 "Maybe... it's got something to do with those people from the dreams..." I offered, refusing to meet the eyes of my party. That alone brought an odd discomfort to the atmosphere.

 "Alright, alright." Phil pulled us apart, cutting the conversation short. "Enough huddle, kids! You're next match is comin’ up. Time to head out."

 "Who's our next opponent, more Heartless?" Donald grumbled.

 I actually caught a glimpse at the brackets and saw that instead of fighting Heartless of any kind, we were going up against what seemed would be a single person. "Well... the board says, Cloud." I noted. "Kind of unassuming, but we'll just have to find out."

 And find out we did.

 When we stepped out onto the arena, we were met with the most edgy looking guy I'd ever had the pleasure of gracing my eyeballs with. This... Cloud character was swathed in a shroud of a tattered red scarf that practically hid a little more than half of his face away. Bright blue eyes and blond hair flashed against his crimson rags that hid beneath it, a sort of uniform of a dark sleeveless sweater and worn out, fatigues. He had a shoulder armor and a golden clawed gauntlet on one arm, and an enormous sword wrapped in bandages in his other. Also... the guy had one tons more belts than Leon, and I wasn't even about to bother counting.

 The boys and I stood close together, our weapons out. Sora stood front and center with me off to his left. Goofy took his right, with Donald holding up the rear so he could comfortably cast his magic as we protected him as best as possible.

 The first move was made by Donald, who threw out a quick, and small thunder spell. For a second the temperature rose as bolt of yellow lightning zipped down towards our opponent. To all of our surprise, the guy full on deflected the attack with his giant sword.

 The expression on his face was just as dead as when he'd approached. Keeping his unphased eyes locked with our party, he hefted his sword, once. Just barely could I see his eye brows scrunch together when his eyes made contact with mine.

 "G-guys!! Scatter!" I shouted.

 I had no idea what he was planning, but I didn't like.

 Sadly, this effort was waisted when he'd sliced through the air and a blast of stinging wind came surging  at our party. I braced myself as best as possible, ramming my Key into the ground. Sora was almost swept away but, somehow managed to keep himself rooted when he slipped onto his hands and knees-- his fingers painfully gripping the tile in ground.

 Donald and Goofy were least fortunate as they were sent blasting out of the arena. I let forth a mild curse but continued to hold on as the winds whipped and snapped, painfully at me on all sides. It only took a mere few seconds for them to die down before the sound of clunking boots, bolting in my direction, captured my attention. I could barely blink as I watched the... Cloud dude, come barreling directly at me. I stumbled a bit, unable to think fast enough as the palm of Cloud's hand, made painful contact with my throat, gripping it tightly to the point where I couldn't even scream out.

 "Yukari!!" Sora shouted.

 But I couldn't even tell where he was anymore. Cloud continued to run with me in his vice grip a little ways before shoving me straight into the ground. I just barely managed to choke out a stifled scream, the pain was so intense. The wind was full on stripped out of me. To make matters worse, it felt like I definitely cracked something.

 With wide eyes, I stared up into the blond man's single visible one, trying to control my breathing, as his hold on my throat only tightened. I tried my hardest to pull his hand away, but it was literally impossible.

 "Take this!!" Sora shouted, which was a pretty dumb move on his part. But it did cause the man's grip on my esophagus to ease up.

 The guy didn't even turn to look at Sora. He only rose, still latching onto my larynx before flinging me right into him. The sound of our bodies slamming together as we'd painfully collided was enough to make any mother worry. In unison, we both released adolescent squeals of pain when the sides of our faces smashed into each other.

 I lay on top of Sora, my head completely spinning from the prior lack of oxygen during my time being stuck in a choke hold. I tried to level out my breathing, but I... couldn't. I was having trouble somehow. Was it because this guy was way out of our league? Dude was fast, I couldn't read what he'd do at all. Even giant Heartless were easier than this. They were slow, and dumb. But this was different. This was terrifying.

 "Yukari, a-are you okay?" Sora asked, trying to sit up

 I would have moved off of his chest had it not been for the looming shadow that emerged before us. Cloud stood at the ready. His enormous sword hung just a few inches from my back. He had us pinned down, completely rendered spent. I tried to control my breathing as I looked him right in his bright blue eye. Met with a seasoned scowl, I could feel the disappointment coming off of him.

 "This fight was over before it started." Cloud said, his voice was low as he spoke. "You guys are just some random kids. What was Hades so afraid of?" But then the look in his eye changed when I noticed him gazing over at the Keyblade in my hand.

 Did he know about it? And who was Hades?

 A thunderous boom, cut through the air and shook the world around us. Almost instantly, it grew increasingly dark as some enormous creature leapt over the coliseum walls, slamming right down into the arena and completely blotted out the sun that hung high above our heads. Reaching near the size of whole stadium, was an enormous three headed rottweiler, which growled and drooled as it stood glaring down at us with it's enormous, glowing red eyes. It's three heads were trained on cloud, but I felt some serious anger and hatred brewing in the big hound that could be preserved for Sora and myself as well.

 Delayed, but I suppose it was from the shock, screaming erupted all around from the audience. People were running and fighting to get out of the of the stadium.

 As I gazed up at the creature, I felt my heart crawl into my gut. The hot breath that streamed out of the thing's nostrils smelt of brimstone and foul scented ashes. If I wasn't frozen from the fear of being stabbed by Cloud’s giant knife before, I was definitely paralyzed at the sight of the evil looking mutt.

 The thing let go a thunderous roar that shook the entire area. I could just barely hear Donald and Goofy screaming for Sora and I to get up, from where they stood nearing the exits.

 "C'mon, Yukari!" Sora grunted, pushing me up with him.

 "I... I can't! My back, it's-- Augh!" My screaming had come from Sora taking action, and pulling one of my arms around his neck. I yelped in pain, as he held my tight, where the rib in my back had to have cracked from Cloud's earlier attack.

 "Sorry..." He apologized. "But we've got to move!"

 Another roar, exploded across the arena. Sora and I looked back at Cloud who was now, down on the ground, clearly unconscious.

 "We gotta help him!" I winced.

 But it was clear that my priorities were not in order.

 "Move! Move! Move!!" Sora shouted, trying to pull me along as fast as possible, as one of Cerberus's claws was zipping right at us. But there was no way we'd avoid it. Even at incredible limping speed, nothing but a true miracle would be able to save us.

 I like to think I have a gift for calling things as I see'em.

 The strike from the big gargantuan puppy, never came.

 Instead, Hercules took up the spotlight, dashing in to save us, having caught the thing by its claws. Throwing back the creature, he tossed it through the air, causing it to land on its back. But the thing quickly recovered and dashed back in our direction.

 "Get out of here!" Hercules ordered us, bracing for impact.

 "Let's go, kids!!" I could hear Phil’s voice over the angry barks of the dog.

 It pounced and landed right on top of Hercules, shaking the ground beneath our feat and burying the hero under a mountain of drool and fur.

 My eyes went wide as I watched. Sora yanked me along, struggling to get us back into the vestibule. We'd barely made it inside in one piece but, we were all together and safe at least.

 "What's... going on?" Sora asked, as he set me carefully against the wall.

 He didn't really look any better than myself. The spot on his face where the two of us had crashed into each other began to bruise and swell pretty badly, and he had a bit of a limp. "What was that??"

 Phil let go a few nervous bleats. We watched as he paced around anxiously while chewing on his nails. I could see the beads of sweat pouring down his face. "That was freakin' Cerberus, the guardian of the Underworld! I can't even begin to imagine why he could be here." He rattle on. "Herc should be fine. He can handle it! But... but maybe not!! This just ain't good..."

 I sighed painfully as I clasped my arm tightly across my ribs. I was still having trouble breathing, but it'd gotten better. I knew I was freaking out, but this just wasn't the time.

 "What happened?" Donald asked kneeling next to me. He was no doctor, but I think it wasn't normal for a teenaged girl to by hyperventilating the way I was.

 "I think she might have broken a rib." Sora said. "She said her back hurt too much to move. That guy must of really did a number on her."

 "I see." Donald reached into one of his pockets, pulled out a special looking potion bottle. It was far more extravagant than the potion bottles I was used to. "Take this. It's an elixir. I don't have enough magic to heal bones, but this should help."

 I slowly, and shakily moved my arm to reach for the bottle. But, Sora noticed my struggling and knelt next to me, taking up the bottle in his hands. He'd opened it up and a sickeningly sweet aroma filled the air.

 I lifted my head as the elixir neared my lips. I closed my eyes tight when extremely bitter taste met my tongue but, gulped it down no less. "Elllgghh...." I voiced my very clear opinions on how that tasted. Despite that, I was already feeling better and calmer.

 "That should tide you over for now." Donald grinned. I could have been going blind form the awful taste of the potion but it looked like Donald was smirking.

 "We've gotta get back out there and help Hercules." I said.

 "Yeah." Sora nodded. The look in his eye was resolute. I was glad that he agreed and wasn't calling for me to stay back and rest at least. Holding out his hand, he helped me up and led the way back out into the arena.

 "Whoa, whoa!!" Phil jumped in front of us, his arms spread to stop us, try as he might. "I appreciate the sentiment you two, but this ain't no game! This is for real!"

 "We're not afraid." Sora said, standing tall, despite him looking worse for wear just moments ago. "Besides, we've fought bigger monsters than this."

 While it was true, this Cerberus wasn't as dumb and clumsy lookin' like the others. This definitely wasn't going to be a risk free fight. None the less I followed Sora past Phil and out into the area, where we were once again greeted by the big dog looming angrily over Hercules. As we barreled our way in, I'd spotted him right away against the enormous blotch of black fur, holding Cloud in his arms.

 The very first thing Sora did was immediately summon his Keyblade, reel back his arm and flung it through the air. The blade went spinning violently towards Cerberus in the most impressive arc I'd ever seen, before thwanking him in the eye.

 The mad dog shrunk back angrily, thrashing belting forth a gut quaking roar as it stomped about. Me and the boys ran past Hercules with our weapons, out.

 "Firaga!" Donald shouted, blasting a fire ball at the dog. It howled in pain at the attack.

 "Get out of here, Hercules!" I shouted, as Goofy and I stopped before him, ready to ward off any attack.

 Thankfully, and surprisingly... he obeyed, nodding as he ran back to the lobby with the unconscious Cloud plopped over his shoulder.

 Sora caught his Key when it circled back towards him. This was all just in time for the four of us to scatter under the mighty stomping of the big dog.

 For a while, we ran around under foot, taking whacks were possible when the thing stopped thrashing enough for us not to die. I watched as Sora dove in, conking the thing on the nose. Agitated, Cerberus snapped back with its wicked sharp teeth, as though we were the perfect dinner. I whipped my dark blade against one of its legs, and was met with an attack of his whip like tail.

 I went zipping through the air, at such an alarming speed, I thought the little broken rib I got earlier was about to be upstaged by a full on shattered spine.

 "Aero!" Donald quacked.

 On que, I was suddenly swept up by a gentle gust of wind. It carried me slowly through the air, to safely decrease my flying speed so I wouldn't snap my neck, most likely, before floating me down to the ground.

 Donald was at my side, grinning at me.

 "Thanks..." I said, sweating bullets at the prospect that I was mostly likely dang near about to die.

 Another roar drew our attention back to the fight as we watched Cerberus rear back on its hind legs. At its gut, I could see what seemed to be a fierce quaking before an enormous knot of something traveled up its throat.

 "I don't like that!" I called, backing away.

 "Be ready..." Donald suggested, holding up his staff.

 But that would do little to prepare us for what would happen next.

 Darkness, like inky wet tendrils mixed with hot fire, spewed out of the jaws of Cerberus as he came down on our party. Instantly I got flash backs from the cage with Alice, and I almost panicked.

 Would this stuff suck us in too?

 Our fate's would be much worse as we were all quickly overtaken but the endless downpour of dark waves, that crashed over us and swallowed us up. Imagine fighting against a tsunami of black water. This was a good equivalent. I could hear the boys crying out as they tried to untangle themselves from the grip, but it would mean nothing as the dark stuff kept coming. The tendrils slipped around my body and tightly squeezed me beyond the point of simply hurting. I was suffocating now, the stuff drifting into my eyes and nostrils. I clamped my teeth together and only accidently opened them when I was forced to draw in a breath.

 It was like I was being eaten alive by... well darkness.

 I looked around at my companions. Donald and Goofy were nowhere to be seen, but I could just barely catch Sora out of the corner of my eye. He was struggling just as much as I. And I knew in the moment where our eyes met, all I could see was a similar panic and hopelessness we'd shared, back when our Island got swallowed up.

 I watched him sink, his head slowly being pulled beneath as tendrils ripped his neck violently black into the dark stuff.

 "S-sora!!" I cried out.

 But within seconds I was sucked under as well.

 With the light immediately consumed, I at first thought that I had died. But in a mere chance of fate, I was lucky to even be left unconscious enough to be encompassed in what felt like a dream.

 I drifted through inky black darkness, descending slowly into the darker depths. I fought the urge to close my eyes for, I felt if I did none of us would able to make it out of this. I blinked rapidly, as I tried to focus on what was ahead of me and noticed my dark Keyblade still clutched in my left hand.

 "Oblivion..." I let the word fall from my lips. But it was as though my words weren't my own as another voice spoke along with it-- one that sounded sinister.

 Blinking again, I was met with that... Screecher, the Lady of Darkness. I was hardly surprised at this point. The low rattling of hisses flooded my ears, and wrapped around me like a safety blanket. Her black silhouette of a body moved like ink in water, slowly but surely slipping around my form.

 "You..." I said weekly, my eyes threatening to shut.

 "Me indeed." Came a gentle hiss from the creature. "It would seem that you've found yourself in a bit of a situation. I think that I may be able to help you..."

 "Help me...?" I let go a lethargic groan. "Why would you want to help me? You only want... to eat me."

 The thing threw her head back as she erupted into a fit of laughter. Her red mangled demon death and yellow, unblinking eyes seemed to enlarged when she'd calmed enough to shove them into my face. "Noooo... I don't want to eat you, silly." She chuckled. "You and I are a part of each other. Why… if I ate you, where would I go?"

 Obviously that was some real bull. But due to the fact that I could barely move through this dark space, I let her talk.

 "No... I just want to be of better service to you." She said, giddily. "Let me lend you my power."

 I wasn’t sure why, but her words didn’t immediately register as I was trying to focus about ninety percent of my attention on staying conscious. "The catch..." I blinked hard this time. I knew I was fading. "What is it?"

 "Catch???" She looked a bit hurt, but it seemed more like she was faking it really. "Why… there is none. It's either let me help you... Or you and your little band of kiddie heroes die here together-- become consumed by the darkness and turn in to Heartless as you wait for a new set of Keyblade wielders to come trotting along and destroy you for good."

 Somehow... that really woke me up. A fate like that would be one to scare any teen straight. I gazed about myself and realized only now that, I wasn't alone. I saw Sora, Donald and Goofy, all floating around me, looking pale and lifeless as they gently hung in the space of deep violets and blacks. Tendrils and inky stuff spilled out of them-- out of their eyes and mouths, which were pried open in fear and pain. Their entire eyes had turned completely black.

 "So what shall it be?" The Screecher, called for my attention again. "Stay here and die? Or take my offer to help you?"

 I watched as her dark claws crept up to my chest, sinking into my shirt and gently breaking the skin. Surprisingly there was no pain, but the alarming thing about this was that black ink began to flood out of the wounds she created.

 It seemed more like she was trying to scare me more than get me to trust her but, either way, my choices were quite limited.

 "I'll take your help." I decided. "But only this once."

 The Screecher narrowed her eyes. The grin on her face stretched wider than what was normal and I knew I would come to regret my decision. If not immediately, then surely so. She let go a few hefty giggles before raising her voice. "Only this once?" She sounded increasingly amused. "Silly child. Once this deal is made, this won't be the only time you call forth my power! This contract is binding. Without me, you are weak and it shan't take much for you to see that!!"

 As she blabbed on about her claim, she swirled around me at dizzying speeds. Before I could even blink she'd pushed her inky body into my own, melting through my pours and squirming into my eyes and mouth before white hot pain flared up inside of my chest and head.

 I screamed at the tip of my lung as it felt like I’d been suddenly set on fire. My body felt as though it had begun to move on its own-- the Key in my left hand shot forward and I went rocketing upwards. My body zipped through the sludge and smoke around me, until I was suddenly met with the blinding sun. Cerberus was still attacking, spewing orbs of darkness into the sky with two of its heads while the center one continued to flood the arena with the waves of Darkness.

 Levitating before his great size, what seemed to be Darkness of my own, spewed forth, attacking the giant mutt with tendrils the lashed and writhed. It fought back the currents of Cerberus's attack with no effort, consuming him in a sphere of light and darkness that rose and swelled, throbbing like a pounding heart, into the sky.

 "Stop!" A voice shouted in my head. "Stop this at once!! Don't let her take a hold of you!!"

 But that was just it-- I had already lost whatever control I had. My body was thrumming with pain now as the sphere began to grow and sprout tendrils of its own. It shot down towards the ground and began to rip through the stadium. The black waves drained through the cracks below, and hungrily began to tangle themselves into the foundation.

 "Y-Yukari!!" I heard Sora’s voice over the sounds of destruction. "Yukari, stop! It's over!!"

 I strained as I pulled my neck in the direction of his voice. My party members knelt on the ground, trying to keep hold of the quacking world beneath their feet. Each of them looked, understandably terrified.

 "Sleeeeeeeepp!!" The Screecher's voice rung through my head.

 This was met with a fierce pain that literally almost made me pass out. Only now had I realized I'd been deceived, but really what could I do?

 "Fight it, child!!" The voice from before came back. "Don't let her take you!! Fight back!!"

 The voice of the Lady of light, pierced through the Darkness. And in an instant the world around me quieted and the only thing I could see was her.

 "The Keyblade..." She said, her hand now on mine. "Let it go..."

 "I..." I protested. But why?

 "Yukari... Let it go. Yukari..."

 "Yukari!!" Sora voice ripped through my ears.

 A explosion of light burst from my chest and the dark Keyblade shattered to pieces like glass in my hand. My right hand flung forth and summoned the Oathkeeper where light, glared from the tip and bathed the whole arena a tingling warmth.

 Spent to nothing, I found my body falling whence the light died away. The air whipped around me, howling in my ears, carrying with it a gentle voice that was unmistakably the Screecher's. "You are miiinne..."

 My body plopped with a soft thud onto the deconstructed ground below as an air spell cushioned my fall enough to keep my face becoming a jelly mess.

 "Yukari!" Sora cried out as he and the boys came running over to me. "Yukari, are you okay?!"

 Cradled in his arms, I groaned, as I blinked to clear away the black dots. The boy's faces were blurred to heck but, for the most part I think I was pretty okay. Just completely exhausted.

 "I'm... I'm good." I mumbled, weekly lifting up my hand to give them all a thumbs up. If my cheesy, not-so-assuring grin wasn't enough to convince them, surely that would.

 "What was... all that?" Goofy asked.

 I hummed in thought as Sora, for the second this in the last hour, supported my weight, with my arm slung around his shoulder as he helped me to my feet and back to the lobby. Goofy took my other arm when he saw I was a complete wobbling mess. "Honestly... I have no clue." I answered, letting go a week laugh.

 And I think for that moment, I was okay with my response. I didn't let it swim in a stirring pot of mixed thoughts and emotions. I made a bad decision and it probably nearly cost me. That Screecher had greatly defined what was holding me back-- fear. Ever since learning of what fate falls upon those who become consumed by the Darkness I've been very afraid of the possible fate in this unchosen line of work as a Keyblade wielder. I didn't want to slip up and lose my heart to Darkness. I didn't want to become a Heartless, slithering through the void searching for my next victim. I wanted to remain myself.

 I wasn't afraid to fight, and I wasn't afraid to lose. But I was afraid of the darker fates we couldn't control. And the Screecher somehow knew that, outlining that fear and using it in her favor. She'd tricked me with what I could only assume was a vision... dream... thing that showed me a false fate of my friends so that she could take advantage of me. For what? I couldn't be sure, but I knew that it worked.

 In the end, I was just so relieved that... my friends and I turned out okay.

 "Well, I think it was some sort of magic." Donald offered, but he didn't really sound convinced. "I'm gonna give you some tips on how to properly manage it."

 * * * * *

"Man!! I knew I was right about you. Crazy scary when you hit back. A little reckless though, but boy!! That messed Cerberus up so bad he complete vanished!" Phil excitedly greeted us when we'd came sifting back into the vestibule. "Just remember, rule no. 51: Don't get carless. Keep that up and you'll end up turning to dust."

 "Noted." I responded without hesitation.

 "In any case, you guys rocked that arena. Literally. Takes a ton o' courage to go at it against Cerberus. I'd say you guys have been promoted to junior heroes. But none the less still rookies."

 "Whakk!!" Donald was about to go, off. But stopped against his better judgement when he caught a teasing look I'd been shooting him.

 Even so, someone seemed at least a little pleased with the new title.

 "Heh heh." Sora smiled as he, not so covertly let me go and shuffled over towards the block of stone he'd gone up against when he got here. "Well after taking on some pretty big foes today, I'd say I'm just about ready to try this pedestal again."

 Phil let go a laughed. "You really think you’re ready for it?" He questioned, completely unconvinced.

 "Why don't you guys all try moving it." Hercules suggested.

 "Count me out." I said, tiredly as I took a spot on stool near the back wall. "I'm tuckered."

 "Alright." Sora nodded. "You guys gonna try?" He looked to Donald and Goofy who were already making their way over to him.

 On three, the boys pressed all of their weight into the stone pedestal as they slowly moved the thing inch by inch across the floor. I grinned, pretty proud they managed to achieve victory against the big ole' rock. But, once they'd fully moved the thing clear out of its old spot, there beneath it was yet, "Another Keyhole." I voiced.

 Sora nodded and got to work, whipping out his blade, and leveled it with the floor. Like before a beam out light trailed from the Key and into the hole, locking it for good.

 "That's the second one..." I said, as the boys huddled back around me.

 "We really should get back to Leon about this." Donald suggested. "It could actually be something pretty big."

 "Wait, you rookies are leavin'?" Phil inquired.

 "Yeah." Sora nodded. "We've gotta get going."

 "Sorry to leave so abruptly." I apologized. "What with that giant mess and the whole tournament situation."

 "Ehhh, don't worry about that." Phil waved it off. "That's a normal thing. Nothing we can't fix. I mean it does mean the tournament’s over for now but what matters is that everyone's safe. You guys just make it a point to swing by every now and then. I'll give ya another good trainin' session, for sure."

 "Annndd, the next time you see us, we're gonna be true heroes." Donald grinned, pointing at Phil as though to solidify a promise.

 "I'm sure lookin' forward to that." Phil laughed.

To Be Continued

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So I finally managed to make a ao3 and update it to the current chapter. I’ll probably still update here first until I get on my feet. I don’t tend to gain tons of traction anywhere I go, so I’m going to lay low and try to make make my ao3 more lively with other content. But only Kingdom Hearts and (maybe DMC if i don’t change my mind) will be displayed on this blog. 

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An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 3/? Fandom: Kingdom Hearts Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Riku/Original Character, Sora/Original Character Characters: Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Original Female Character(s), Kairi (Kingdom Hearts) Additional Tags: Action/Adventure, Drama, Romance, Suspense Series: Part 1 of Kingdom Hearts :: Ascendant Recollction Summary:

A girl with hardly any memories, strives to create some of her own. Tasked with the role of a wielder of the Key Yukari is met with the overwhelming struggle of uncovering the past of her ancestors. Through truth, she may release them, but at what cost will it be to the life she has long since been led to believe was her veracity?

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Ascendant Recollection :CH 03:

Franchise: Kingdom Hearts

Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama

Love Interest: Riku

Rating: Teen

The gang makes their way to a new world, filled with ups and downs. Still that’s the least of their problems, as the aforementioned underlying force from Yukari’s dreams, posses a new threat.

 I quietly slinked into the cockpit and took a seat, in the fourth empty chair, next to an unmanned console labeled "Teeny Fighter Controls." The boys hadn't immediately noticed when I came in as, they chattered away. Although Sora seemed to be more or less, listening then having been fully involved in their conversation. He was mostly looking about, taking in all the buttons and switches, and the view of space that hung over our heads, as the cock pit allowed a full 360 view. Amidst his ogling, he seemed to catch me sulking in my seat as when I looked up, he was there on his haunches, resting his chin on the arm rest.

 "You okay?" He asked with big, eyes.

 "Uh huh..." I responded half-heartedly, as I pulled my knees into my chest on the chair.

 "Well... How was your ten minute nap?" Sora supplied. "I thought you were tired."

 It was very clear I was in a mood. It was even more clear that Sora was trying get me to talk. In all Honesty, I truly wanted to say something-- to everyone, but I still wasn't... confident, I guess, about how factual the dreams were. I mean, yes, they seemed incredibly detrimental to share at this point, but how was I supposed to say to a bunch of strangers, and Sora, that I could see things while I slept? I mean, I'd been having these dreams for the length of several months, and only now was the crazy stuff coming to life.

 Maybe I should wait.

 "You think... Riku and Kairi are together, like we are?" I asked. I wanted so badly to talk about the point in my dream about where I'd seen Riku, but I held back. Besides, I wasn't even sure if everything was legit yet. And if they were... there where was Kairi?

 "Hmm..." For a moment, Sora hummed in thought. His half lidded eyes contemplated endless possibilities in a matter of seconds. "Maybe." He finally said. "I mean, it's hard to say for sure at this point. We've ran into some pretty crazy things, but we also met nice people."

 "More or less..." I said, recounting the fact, that Leon thought it was a good idea to beat up kids over holding a civil chat.

 "And you and me turned out to be Keyblade wielders!"

 "Sworn protectors of the world with endless opportunities of death at every turn." I remarked sarcastically.

 "They're bound to be just as well off as we are! Who knows, maybe even better."

 I looked down in to his deep blue eyes the sparkled with excitement. For a moment, we shared a small grin, delighting in the fact that we could still hope that our friends were in good health where ever they may be.

 Yet still... I couldn't help but feel guilty about not sharing what I'd managed to learn.

 I bit my lip as I prepared myself to speak. "Sora... I've been meaning to tell you that I-"

 "We've come across a new world!!" I little voices boomed from all around it. It took a minute for me to gather that it had been chip's voice coming from the intercom that was connected throughout the ship.

 "Convenient..." I grumbled.

 "Great!" Donald exclaimed, as I watched him hit a series of buttons before realizing he'd thrown the ship into a state of rest. "Let's head out immediately."

 I watched as he and Goofy made their way out of the cock pit, confident we'd follow.

 "Sweet!" Sora exclaimed, rising from his spot next to me.

 I frowned, yet still felt a bit of relief as I stood up and hesitantly followed the boys down to the air lock.

 The four of us huddled together around the exit. Donald felt the need to wait until this moment, to lay down a few ground rules.

 "Alright." He announced. "Before we head out-- something the two of you need to be aware, of, as Keyblade wielders. Protecting the balance and fighting monsters is a pretty big job. But, one thing to make absolutely clear is that you-- under no circumstances, tell anyone you are from off world."

 "Why not?" Sora asked.

 "To protect the borders of the world!" Goofy stated confidently, grinning as he stuck a finger in the air.

 "That's 'Oders' of the world, you dimwit!" Donald corrected

 "But that very order is being disrupted by the Heartless, isn't it?" I asked thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure the whatever world we go to, has already run the risk of having its whole state of peace of coherence pretty much thrown out the windows."

 "Which is why, stating the fact of us being off worlders, will make an even bigger mess of things." Donald, agreed. I watched as he moved to unlock the hatch. "It's pertinent that we keep business on a need to know basis."

 As he swung the door open, we were met by and impressive light show of energy the swarmed around the outside of the ship. A force field maybe? I watched as Donald and Goofy neared the exit, peering carefully outside.

 "Now, we're about to set foot on new ground." Donald informed turning back to look at us. "One thing to note is that you, under no circumstances, jump the air lock. Once we get down there, let's make sure to stick together, got it?."

 Sora and I nodded, wordlessly.

 "Alright. Let's get to it." Donald said, as he and Goofy step foot outside the ship.

 For a terrifying moment, I was led to believe, that these two were completely nuts as they had leaped to their deaths.

 Sora and I rushed to the exit to catch a glimpse of our new friends, go plummeting to their doom. Yet, once there we found no sight of them. They'd completely vanished.

 For a moment, we stood with expressions mixed with awe, horror and confusion-- completely unsure of what to think.

 "Do you think..." I finally asked.

 "Only one way to find out!" Sora shouted, taking a few steps back.

 "Wait a minute, you aren't thinking of-- Sora, no!" I tried to stop him.

 "Here I gooo!! Augh!"

 As Sora got off to a bit of a running start, he'd accidently shoved me half way through the exit, sending me dangling over the side. Noticing his mistake, he tried to somehow stop himself, as he reached out to make a grab at me. But he'd been much too late, as he'd sunk into the light that buzzed around the ship.

 Breathless, I found myself, once again gripped by fear, as I fumbled to try and keep myself from falling in, as well. But I was hardly holding on by the pads of my fingertips as I slipped and fell away from air lock and into the bright light, screaming for my life.

 Kingdom Hearts: Ascendant Recollection

Chapter 03

A Wonderland Deception

On top of the weird tingling and the slight dizziness from light travel, it was a weird experience to say the least. Getting zapped down to a new world, would have actually been quite exhilarating had it not included falling through an thicket of trees, and smashing my face into just about every single one. When I hit the ground, the loud thud of my head against the thick trunk, almost dulled out the sound of a little girl screaming in fright.

 I was starting to have a real bad relationship with trees at this point.

 Sitting up, I rubbed the back of my head, and blinked the black dots out of my eyes. Slowly my vision began to clear and the image of a blond girl, in a plain blue dress around maybe... eight to ten years old fazed into being. She looked at me with big black eyes. Her body language was apprehensive. She seemed just about ready to run.

 But... and you know I was probably losing my mind at this point from all the concussions I was getting and what not-- but this girl... actually seemed incredibly... small!

 She stood near the sole of my sneaker, blinking fearfully up at me. I wasn't able to really tell, but in comparison to her, I was at a height much larger than the clock tower back at Traverse Town. She was probably no bigger than my pinky.

 "Oh! I had no idea you--- How--? You’re so tiny! I didn't even see you! "I stammered over my words apologetically, feeling frantic about not having seen her. I could have squished the little girl, and never have known!

 "It's not that I'm small, but perhaps, that you still seem to be quite tall."

 "Still?" I asked. "You mean I should have shrunk before I got here?"

 The girl nodded. "Was that not clear? That door knob specially stated to, sip the drink so you could shrink."

 "Ah..." I paused for a moment, rubbing my head once again. Bad enough I had to keep up with this girl's rhymes, but I had no idea what door she was talking about.

 Coming to think of it, I'd landed in some thicket, alone, without my team. I'm supposing, Sora's fancy summersault out the airlock, left nasty effects for me and my crash landing, alone in the new world.

 "Well how do I get to your size?" I asked.

 "The shrooms, that around here, loom. Tall they are, but bland tasting treats. They'll help you shrink if you attempt to eat."

 I glanced around once again and realized that the trees, I'd come crashing through were indeed not trees, but mushrooms in which the girl had pointed out. In fact, this hadn't been the oddest, thing as I began to truly survey my surroundings. I sat in what I could only assume was more like great expanse of a possible field. Along with mushrooms, enormous blades of grass shot hundreds of thousands of feet in the air. The base of a giant tree trunk loomed so high in up, that it faded out of existence-- or at least just so, that I couldn't make any part of it out from where I sat with my size. I almost got tunnel vision when a gargantuan butterfly swooped down and picked up such a great wind that It tussled my hair.

 Turns out, that I wasn't the biggest thing here. Great...

 I looked back down at Alice, nearly shaking from the sheer disbelief of this world's capacity. I don't think I'd have too much trouble keeping the world order intact, here.

 I turned to find a mushroom, at my height. Gripping it in my hand, I ran a thumb over it, feeling for the texture. It was a boring, unexpecting looking mushroom. It was almost impossible to believe that it would make me shrink.

 "One bite?" I asked, looking down at the girl.

 "That's right!" The girl nodded

 Hesitantly, I pulled a small piece from the thing just to test its flavor. I wasn't keen on putting foreign plants into my mouth. Mushrooms were fine, but magical ones from other worlds??

 Carefully setting the small piece on my tongue I, bit down and met a chewy texture I really had no tolerance for. I would have spat it out had I not felt obligated to grow smaller. Continuing to process the chewy plant in my teeth, I swallowed and quickly began to feel the effects.

 At first my stomach bubbled before bursting into a fit of Butterflies. And before I knew it, the world around me increased in size and I went plummeting, once against, towards the dirt, right at the girl's feet.

 I groaned, sick of the falling.

 "Are you alright?" The girl asked.

 "Quite..." I said with a bit of a cheeky grin, standing and brushing the dirt from my clothes. "So... I'm sorry to bother you but, I'm a bit lost. I was kind of here with my friends, but I've gotten separated from them somehow. Have you by any chance seen a boy with brown hair, dressed in red, come through here-- or anyone for that matter?"

 "I wish I could say but, I've been alone this whole day." The girl said, with a droopy frown. "In fact, a little white rabbit is what I'm in search for. But the Cheshire cat failed to give a proper tour. So, now I'm quite lost in this maze. It feels less like hours and more like days. And worst still... the creatures with their odd features. I've been out running them for a while. Although, I haven't seen them in the last mile."

 Quickly deciphering her poetry speak, I noted that this girl had been thrown into a pretty odd predicament herself. She was in a place she wasn't familiar with and was searching for white rabbit, she'd most likely lost multiple times. Some... cat gave her bad directions and now she was here in this ticket, alone. I had to presume that the creatures she referred to were Heartless.

 "Well... I don't mind tagging along to keep you safe from the creatures. We can search together to we find who we're both looking for."

 "Sure!" The girl cheered, clapping her hands and twirling about, excitedly. "Oh! By the way, how do you do? My name is Alice, and you?"

 "I'm Yukari." I nodded, glancing about the path. "Ah...Which way do we... "

 "Follow me."

 On recommendation, I followed Alice diaper into the thicket of enormous shrooms and towering blades of grass. The expansive dirt, crunched softly beneath our feet as we walked. For a good while, the walk had been far from eventful so, I supplemented the silence for a bit of chatter. I asked plenty of questions, allowing Alice to do the majority of talking. At the same time, my mind began to drift away.

 I wondered where my party could have turned up and if we'd meet at any point during this visit. I was so... small in the world, it was almost mind shattering. I tried not to think too deeply about it when we passed enormous insects and a bed of rude and pretentious flowers, that hung over our heads, and prodded over our appearances.

 The wandering came to an end, when our surroundings began to shift from lush vegetation, to a manicured hedge maze. The sound of men, singing a light hearted tune, hung in the air, and I couldn’t help but notice a strange shift in the artificial sky that boxed in over my head. Sure it was bright and blue, but there was something incredibly off about the place.

 "This way, perhaps!" Alice shouted excitedly as she made a sharp turn around a wall of hedge.

 "Hey, wait!" I called, chasing after her. "It could be danger...ous..."

 My words trailed off as I ogled at what lay before me.

 "I... must have completely lost my mind..." I said under my breath as I watched Alice, merrily joined in with what appeared to be a group of... card men.

 When I say, card men, I actually mean, they were literally people made of playing cards. Their bodies were a tall length of Bristol paper, decorated with spades, respective to their number. They heads, hands, and feet were all spades as well. I marvel with confused amazement at their incredible articulation, as they bent and jumped and danced around. All the while I noticed they been holding paint brushes, dripping wet with red paint. I watched as they messily slapped the paint onto what appeared to be white paper roses that sat, elegantly folded within the beautifully treated, trees that had been forced to grow into the appearance of spades.

 The faint, musical number floated about the small clearing, bringing life to the artificial beauty around me. I almost settled into the mood when loud yelled, tore into my ears.

 "WHO'S BEEN PAITING MY ROSES RED!?!?"

 My soul nearly left my body, I had been so scared.

 The three card men, leapt from their tree and scrambled about the placed until they had the neat idea of stacking themselves together, to hide their presence. Alice, afraid of the disembodied voice, just like the rest of us, had run to my side and cowered behind me.

 I did say I'd keep her safe, didn’t I?

 The world began to shake as, aggravated stomping came from the exit, opposite of the way Alice and I came in. An enormous, menacing shadow, creeped slowly into view from over the hedge's height. I could feel Alice's grip on my arm tighten. My breath got stuck in my throat as I stood there. I was somehow more afraid of whatever the consequence of painting roses red, than the actual... thing... that was advancing.

 "WHHOOOO WAS IT!!??" The voice demanded once more.

 From the darkness, the figure emerge and stared wide eyed as a plump, round woman dressed in a regal red and black umbrella dress loomed above us. She had puffy sleeves and a raised collar, that seemed particularly pointed. Her big pudgy face was red with rage. Her hair was a tangled mess that seem more aggravated by her mood than anything. Atop her had sat an itty bitty crown that was barely holding its own.

 A legion of card men, came trucking into the scene on either side of this women. Seemingly very aware of the culprits, they surrounded the three card men who'd made a poor attempt to hide. Ripping them a part, they were dragged over towards the angry woman and thrown down in front of her.

 "YOU THREE!!" The woman, exclaimed, loudly, pointing her small, chubby finger in the direction of the guilty party. "WHO!! Painted My Roses Red??!"

 I watched, completely paralyzed as the cards tried their hardest to hide amongst each other, shifting the blame and pointing fingers before finally giving up and admitting to their actions. "W-we did Your Highness." One of them said. "We thought you might... like them r-red."

 "Oh? So you did, did you?" The queen asked. Suddenly her beast like features vanished, as she reverted into a friendlier version of herself. But this was short lived as she immediately resumed shouting. "Who Told You, You Could Don't Such A Thing!? OOOF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!"

 On que, red card soldiers emerged to take away the perpetrators, who were dragged away sobbing and begging for mercy, perhaps, never to be seen again. I clamped my molars tightly against each other when the angry peach of a women, stepped in front of me. Her face was serene, almost as if she was enjoying a cool summer breeze.

 "And Who... might you two be?" She asked. She had that gentle tone in her voice that heavily hinted on apprehensive.

 "Alice..."/"Yukari"

 Both of us spoke together, afraid that hesitation would get us killed.

 The woman... or I supposed I should call her the Queen, eyed us as though we were mere, ugly looking ants. I could feel Alice shaking as she gripped my arm tighter. I would have been too if I hadn't been trying to figure out where to look, out of the lady's royal respect. So I kept my eyes strained on  the perfectly trimmed grass beneath my feet.

 "Perhaps you already know this, but in case you might need a refresher, I am The Queen of Hearts. And I hereby dub you two guilty of treason."

 My stomach lurched from where it had been lodged in my throat. "Tr-treason??" I blurted out.

 "Cards!" The Queen shouted. "Take them away!!"

 Panic filled me, as my eyes darted frantically about at the card soldiers that closed in on me. I turned, looking for Alice who'd already been grabbed up. She screamed and pleaded while struggling to get free.

 "No, no, no! Let me go!!" Alice squealed over the hollering and thrashing.

 "Alice!" I shouted. I would have rushed to her aid but, I was grabbed up by a few of the card soldiers. Surprisingly, they were stronger than I presumed, and their grip on we was uncomfortably tight.

 I turned my head to search for the Queen who'd put us in this predicament.

 "Please!!" I shouted. "We haven't done anything! Let alone commit treason!! Let us go so we can explain ourselves."

 "SILENCE!!" The Queen shouted, exploding int a fit of red rage!! "The two of you appear, suspect, as those who've attempt the theft upon my heart!!"

 "What?!-- Augh!" I was yanked back by one of the card soldiers, that was trying to now bind my wrist. “No!" I shouted. "I-isn't there a sort of trial or something!?! To prove our innocence."

 I watched, as the Queen stared over me, her anger slowly dissipating. Her expression was quickly replaced with that of contemplation.

 "STOOPPP!!" She yelled, suddenly.

 And everything ceased.

 The cards that succeeded in binding my hands, held me by my arms, and shoulders so I wouldn’t escape. I looked for Alice who looking up at the queen with a horror stricken face.

 "Indeed." The woman, said as a devious grin slowly grew onto her face. "A trial, of course. It's only way. I'll hear your plea, but then it's OOOOOOOOOOF WITH YOU HEADS!!!"

 Seemingly used to this sort of behavior, the cards knew exactly what to do. They took no time in shoveling Alice and I out of the clearing, past the maze. It didn't take long before we were roughly ushered into an "open air" court room, existing within the hidden recesses of the hedge garden.

 Even as artificial as the hedge maze was, there still managed to be something regal in the appearance of the "room." An enormous long, red rug with gold trim laid, through the center of the area. It looked like a normal court room with jury and judge panel. There was the witness and defendant stands and everything. The only issue was, no one was around.

 As Alice and I stood at our spread podiums near each other, I could already feel that this was going to go horribly for the two of us. The Queen sat as the judge, reclining happily in her chair. What we were waiting for, I had no clue at the time, but soon found out when a nervous looking rabbit came running into the scene.

 "It's him!" Alice whispered to me, almost excitedly.

I watched as a white rabbit dressed in an a red outfit of puffed sleeves and fancy frilled collar darted up the spiral of stairs that wrapped up around tall pedestal, likely made just for him. Once at the top, the rabbit drew out a horn, and inhaled sharply before blowing out a sort of commencement tune, that settled over the court room.

 "Court... is now in session..."The rabbit said, in between labored breaths. I watched as he wiped his brow with a handkerchief and stood silently at the ready.

 "These two are the culprits!" Accused the queen, promptly starting the meeting, cutting straight to the chase. She aimed her little gavel at the two of us, waving it back and forth, from me to Alice. "There's no doubt about it. And the reason why? Because I say so, That's Why?"

 "Why, this meeting is absolutely flawed!!" Alice cried out, stamping her little foot in protest. "Neither she nor I have done anything wrong!! I don't know whether or not, you're truly Queen. But, I've never seen someone so self and... and so mean!"

 The Queen let go a very exaggerated gasp, placing a hand at her chest. I glanced about me as the card soldiers all around came undone and started to low-key panic from where they stood. I could only assume what was about to unfold as I turned back to the Queen of Hearts, now ready to fight my way out of the situation if I had to.

 "You dare defy me?!?! Both of you are guilty!!! Guilty of the theft upon the heart of Queen of Hearts!! OOOOFFFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!"

 The card soldiers leapt into action, moving faster than I could think. They yanked and pulled at my hair and arms, struggling to force me into submission.

 "No, No!! Oh, Please!" Alice squealed, as they closed in around her.

 "Hold it right there!!" A voice bolted through the air, like a rooster breaking the silence of dawn.

 Raking my head free from the grip of one of the card soldiers, I found Sora barging into the court yard, with Donald and Goofy immediately behind him.

 "You Dare Interfere With The Proceeding Of This Court!?" The Queen hollered. Her temper completely dissipated at this point. "Manner less! The Lot of You!!"

 "Just wait a minute. We know who the culprits really are!" Sora declared.

 "Yeah!! It was the Heartle--" Goofy began to speak, but quickly covered his mouth, realizing he'd almost said too much.

 "Hogwash!!" The Queen spat. "You couldn't possibly know what you're talking of, lad. Have you, any proof?"

 "Well... uh..." This was where Sora's 'planning' went south. I assumed he brashly rushed in to save the two of us, but with no forethought.

 "Very well." The Queen hissed, as she glared infernos in the party's direction. Her nostrils flared aggressively and, it almost looked like steam was spewing out of her ears. "I shall humor your claim. Bring me evidence of these girls' innocence. Fail and it's Off With All Your Heads!!"

 At this, the card soldiers, roughly picked both Alice and I off of the ground and shoved us into a cage.

 "Until your investigations are through, the Court is adjourned!"

 The slam of the gavel marked the definitive end of the session. I could truly feel the harrowing sensation of our predicament, when the boys approached Alice and my, engagement.

 "Yukari, where on earth have you been this entire time??" Sora asked, keeping his voice level.

 "I'm going to assume it has something to do with my... erm... rough exit." I said, eluding to the events prior without dropping any hints of our being aliens to this world. "I've been here probably just as long as you but, got... 'turned around' a bit." I punctuated my statement with air quotes.

 "Well this is a fine mess." Donald said rubbing his temples. "This is what happens when you meddle in the affairs of other worlds. Now what are we supposed to do about... all of this?"

 "Hey, I hardly did anything." I snapped a bit, keeping my voice low. "But Queenie up there is impulsive. She does what she pleases, and I for one can't be so sure, that even if you find your evidence, she'll let us go."

 "Indeed." Alice whispered, standing next to me at the bars. "It would be a far cry to believe she'd hear it if you plead."

 "Oh--" Sora seemed a bit thrown. "I know it seems a bit hapless, but we're definitely going to get you guys out of here. Don't you fret."

 "Not at all. With Yukari here, I feel I've got a lot of gall." Alice smiled.

 Her faith in me was shocking, considering I couldn't help her escape the Queen's wrath. I suppose it's more to do with my keeping her company than anything else.

 "We've just got one problem.” Goofy interjected. “We don't even know where to start looking for any proof."

 "There does in yonder woods, reside the Cheshire Cat." Alice suggested. "Do seek him out and ask him where this proof is at."

 I realized, Alice had spoken of him before. But, the way she did so made me think he might have been a bit misleading. I would have debated if that were a good idea or not. But before I could speak, the Card that stood guard next to the cage seemed to grow irritated, at our discussion.

 "Enough talking already! Get a move on.

 Sora gave me one last, worrisome glance before the party strode away.

 I sighed as I plopped myself down near the back of the cage. Pulling my knees into my chest, I wrapped my arms around them and tried to keep my through from souring. I watched as Alice took a seat as well, elegantly sitting mermaid style as she clasped her hands into her laps. The look on her face was troubled, which made me feel worse.

 "I'm sorry about this mess." I said. "But those guys were my friends. I trust they'll definitely help us out of here."

 Alice shook her head. I took it she didn't blame me, considering how we got here. "Of course you aren't to blame. Yet even with your friends help, I'm worried all the same. Without you here, I'm sure I'd have much more to fear..."

 I nodded, resting my chin against my knees as the two of us patiently waited for the boys to returned. We settled into the quiet, not wanting to draw more attention to our situation. It wasn't even long, before Heartless exploded into the room, with the boys bounding after them.

 "Oh no..." I grumbled, as I neared to bars of the cage.

 "Here's the evidence your Queen-liness!" Sora shouted, taking down the Heartless as they surged towards the Queen of Hearts. Right as one was about to drive its claws into the Queen's chest, Sora leapt onto the judge panel and destroyed it, sending it bursting in a fit of darkness.

 "How Dare You!?" The Queen exploded, probably more shaken at the fact that she'd almost been attacked. "The proof is nothing but a farse!! This is all the evidence I needed to confirm that you are the ones attempting to steel my heart. Off With Their Heads, All of them!! SIEZE THEM!!"

 Suddenly, the cage lurched upwards, shoot up towards the sky before locking in place, raised above the court yard.

 "Sora!" I shouted to him.

 "Don't worry abou-- Augh!!" But his words were cut through as he was cut off when the legion of card soldiers, leapt onto him. To my great dismay, a curtain suddenly wrapped around the circumference of our prison, obscuring our view of the outside.

 "No. Nope!" I said, getting up shakily, trying to maintain balance. Carefully I made it to the latch and tried to rip the door open with force. Of course, this thing was high grade, thick metal or whatever so it didn't budge. I attempted kicking it in, but this only managed to rock the cage. Alice yelped in terror, trying to keep her balance.

 "Sorry." I told her. "I'm just trying to get us out of here, so I can hel--"

 And then it struck me. The Keyblade.

 I mean, it was a Key, maybe I could somehow get it to--

 "Yukari!!" Alice screamed.

 My head shot towards her, wondering what the problem could be. But when I looked upon her, I found, a pool of what looked to be inky darkness, culminating at the bottom of the cage. What was more alarming was that it wasn't just latched on to Alice, but myself as well.

 "Oh Goodness! What is this?!" She cried out, trying to pull herself free, yanking her leg out with her hands. But no matter how much she managed to free herself, the stuff latched back on to her.

 What was more frightening was that it began to suck her in.

 For a second, panic whipped over my senses and I was frozen in place. My mind raced with frightening possibilities of what would happen if she was completely consumed. Where on earth was this coming from? A dark tendril, latched onto my wrist and yanked my down, into the pool. I fought against it as much as I was able, but when I wouldn't come to Darkness, it came to me.

 Where I thought I was panicking before, I was truly freaking out now. Somehow I was tumbling through an expanse of dark fluid that curled and tightened around my body. I shouted, silent cries that were stolen away by the Darkness around me. I tried to call out to Alice, but it was fruitless. I fought against a tugging sensation that occurred all over my body, like a swarm of evil hands pulling me deeper into the darkness. I fought until I felt another pull, one much more pure, yank me in the opposite direction.

 Suddenly light erupted from my chest and everything came to a halt.

 "Sleeeeepp~" A hiss sounded in my ears.

 I found it almost startling. But not as startling as another voice that loudly buzzed though my head.

 "Get up."

 My eyes, shot open.

 Slowly I sat up, with great confusion. The two voices that chased each other in my head, sounded nothing alike. One raspy and evil, while the other was warm and inviting. At first, I wondered if I'd imagined it, before I noticed a body, of pure white, standing near me.

 "Stand." The voice of a women spoke. But even as such, I saw no indication of lips or eyes. Whoever this had been, was a complete silhouette of light.

 "Who.... are you?" I asked, a bit apprehensively.

 Last time I even looked upon a creature completely eclipsed in black, I was always almost eaten. Who's to say this lady didn't have the same intentions.

 "We must hurry, if you want to help you friends." She said, completely dodging my question.

 "My... friends?" I asked. "Wait... where am I? What happened to Alice, is she--"

 "You are in the Darkness between." The woman, voiced beginning to walk away. Her steps were so light in comparison to my own, against the wet, dark ground. "Your enemies pulled your through it, in order to capture you. Perhaps they intended, to use or destroy you... But in the end, their intentions are not pure, either way. As for Alice, she has lost the battle with the darkness and was captured. She's already within the enemies grip."

 For a moment, I considered her words. "Well... Well we've got to go and save her!" I suggested.

 "You are not ready." The woman said. "To face the enemies alone, would be suicide."

 I pressed my lips together, knowing any further suggestions, would be met with disapproving responses. I wanted to suggest taking Sora and the others, but I had no idea what was going on, how I ended up here, or even how I'd get back.

 "Due to my deep connection with you... I only managed to pull you away from their grasp."

 "Deep connection..." I echoed. "Then... who are you? You seem a lot like that screeched thing. But somehow... different at the same time."

 The woman, stopped, to do what I could only assume was ponder. "I suppose one could call us the Ladies of Light and Dark respectively. While I reside within your heart to protect you... she seems only intent on your destruction."

 "D-destruction??" I stuttered. "Wait! Do I even get a reason as to why??"

 But the woman let go a yelp, clasping her fingers to what I had to assume was her forehead. "I... cannot fully recall." She said. "For whatever reason... those memories are sealed off. I cannot even remember how I came to be here."

 "Wait... your memories are--"

 "But this is not important. You enemies have sent a heartless out to destroy your friends. You must hurry to their aid, as they cannot defeat it without you."

 "Flattering." I grumbled. "But Sora's got a Key too. I'm pretty sure that--"

 "Now..." The woman, dubbed as the Lady of Light, threw up her hand and created a sort of... portal made of bright, shimmering, golden light.

 "Wait... Seriously?! You can't just throw all of this on me and not even explain!"

 "SCREEEEEEEEEEUUUGH!!" A loud hissing sort of cry, sounded from behind us.

 I filched, turning back to pear into the infinite Darkness to see what I knew was approaching.

 "You must leave, now." The woman's voice was urgent. "You will get your answers, when we meet again."

 "But I don't even know--"

 "SCRAAAAAAAAAGH!!!"

 "Now!!" The Lady of Light grabbed me by the shoulder, and shoved my through the portal. The greatest inconvenience of my days was being tossed through the air twice now. Sadly, where I thought those would be my last times, I couldn't have been more incorrect as I went hurdling through the air, screaming my lungs out as I fell through an enormous room of pinks and whites. The place around me seemed full of three dimensional objects, put upon passing them, they all turned out to be false, drawn surfaces. I screamed harder when I noticed a large, round table below me, that I couldn't decipher as a real one or a flat 2D plain as I went rocketing towards it.

 But I did manage to make out three little figures stood upon the tables top, scrambled about.

 I plummeted, right into the arms of Sora who'd ended up crumpling, unable to support the weight of a girl who'd fallen from the sky.

 "What the heck!?" Sora shouted, picking himself up.

 "What is that???" I responded frantically, ignoring Sora's mild curses.

 Erupting from below the edges of table was an enormous... Heartless. For lack of better terms, the thing was odd-- sporting doubled limbed, double jointed legs, that looked good for jumping. It was a mass of folded paper like arms that that did nothing more but absent mindedly juggled batons of fire about while stomping around the room.

 The table beneath my butt, had suddenly vanished. My party happily went slamming right into the floor below.

 I yelped in pain as I massaged the side of my face. Glancing around at my team mates, they looked a lot worse for wear. How long that they been dukin' it out with... whatever this guy was. I turned to look for the Heartless only find an enormous black shoe coming down upon the four of us.

 "SCRAAAAM!!!" Donald shouted.

 The four of us all leapt in opposite directions, narrowly missing getting squashed likes ants. I rolled to a halt and quickly got to my feet and summoned my Keyblade. I glanced about me, taking a mental note of where the boys all landed, before gazing up at the towering Heartless above.

 "Can I ask?" I shouted. "What in the world is happening!?"

 "Talk later." An unfamiliar voice sung. My eyes darted all around the expansive room in search of the one possessing the voice. It didn't take long to find a disembodied, floating cat head spinning around on the ledge of the gigantic fire place. Slowly, it came to a stop, looking directly at me before it's body, of deep purple and pink stripes came into existence before reclining in his spot-- a big grin spread long across his face. "Fight! For now that the gang is all here, the Heartless can be defeated."

 "This was all a trick!" Sora shouted, as he rolled beneath an attack from the papery arms of the Giant Heartless boss.

 "A trick??" The cat, who I quickly began to gather was the Cheshire, tutted. "Nothing of the sort. The Cheshire Cat is always here to help those in need."

 Upon those words, the Giant Heartless rose it's firey buttons over its head. Spinning them in its hands, fire quickly began to manifest before he plunged his twirling weapons down upon our party as a wave of fire came surging directly at our quartet.

 "Some assistance?" I could barely hear the cat's words as the four us screamed for our lives.

 I almost hadn't realized the twinkling, magical aura that fluttered brightly around Sora and I. Too panicked to think I shoved my Keyblade out before me to block the oncoming attack. To my great surprise, a flurry of a blizzard shot from the tip of my Keyblade and swamped half of the Giant Heartless in ice and snow.

 "Wak!!" Donald voiced. "You just did magic!!"

 No kidding. I could really feel it too, as I suddenly felt completely drained. Much like the Heartless, half of my body from the right arm up and bit down to my waist was frosted over. I shivered aggressively with teeth chattering as I tried to find warmth, drawing back my key. Looking up, I watched as the Heartless shivered and twitched trying to recover from my spell.

 "That was amazing, Yukari!!" Sora shouted, throwing a fist in the air.

 "But incredibly dangerous!" Donald added. "If you're gonna use magic, you'll have to focus it. Channel it through your Keyblade. Don't just throw it around recklessly, or you'll burn yourself out."

 "Yeah.." I nodded, shaking the cold away. Slicing my Key through the air, I could see it glitter with little flecks of frost. "Sora. We've gotta rely on magic to take it down." I said.

 "I mean... I'll try." He said, ready his blade, looking determines regardless.

 The Heartless, now somewhat recovered, groaned as he weekly took a step in our direction.

 "Looks like that really did a number on it. Sora, follow my lead." I ordered. "Donald, can you back me up with some stronger ranged spells? We're gonna try and freeze it for good, but I think I used up most of my magic already...."

 Donald nodded.

 "Goofy, we're gonna need you in front to block his fire. Together we can take him down!"

 "Yeah!!" The boys all shouted before we broke huddle and rushed into action.

 Sora, Donald and Goofy and I rushed the big boss, with Goofy holding up the front. He bravely blocked fireball after fire ball, while we all ducked numerous oncoming swipes of his baton. I could tell it was getting annoyed with us by the way it started stomping around.

 Donald held up the rear, casting spells that did more area damage than, to the Heartless-- which was outright perfect as Sora and I hit him with little blizzard spells as we darted around the thing’s ankles.

 The Heartless began to slow, stopping in its tracks and, bending it's odd legs to their fullest as it crouched down low.

 "It's gonna jump!!" Goofy shouted, breaking formation as he ran for any possible cover.

 The four of us completely dispersed as it leapt high into the air, nearly hitting the ceiling of the room. It was then that a bright idea formed.

 "Donald!!" I shouted. "Watch it's trajectory!! Aim you magic at where it lands. Sora!! Focus on the enemy, keeping firing your ice!!"

 The boys did just as I'd ordered, casting magical cold spells all over the place. It was only when the thing came back down, that I had grown increasingly worried. Now completely frozen, the Heartless would only be good for a frosty explosion!!

 "Duck and cover!!" I shouted, turning to run. Instantly I slammed into Sora and together we'd plopped into a heap on the floor, only to attempt to scramble back to our feet to get to safety.

 "Firaga!!" I heard Donald shout as he and Goofy appeared ahead of us.

 A big, blazing fire exploded from the tip of Donald's staff, right at the moment where the Heartless hit the floor and erupted into a explosion of snow and ice that, had it not been for Goofy’s shield, would have impaled us all.

 For a good while, the frost hung in the air, obscuring our vision. But whence it cleared we found the heartless, frozen and in pieces. While no longer functioning, it had still not completely disappeared. Sora and I quickly disposed of the thing, sending off yet another one of those large, pink crystalline hearts that floated up into the air, before vanishing out of sight.

 "Phew!" Goofy exclaimed, wiping his brow. "Glad that's over."

 "Good, lord... What is all that racket?!" A voiced whined. I looked to find a talking door knob yawning sleepily. It's baggy eyes looking our party over with great distaste. "Do humor me a bit and tone down the brawl, could you? A door knob isn't to get any rest around here, he can't..."

 The thing, finished off its sentence with a grand yawn, opening it's maw perfectly wide, and holding it just right for us to notice something beyond the depths of his... esophagus.

 Suddenly both Sora's and my Key lurched towards the door, as if being controlled by some guided hand. Promptly, a beam of bright light shot from the tips of out blades and right into the door knobs mouth before dying away. A loud clunking noises sounded before the door knob could, conveniently close its mouth.

 "What... was that?" Sora inquired.

 "Sounded like something... locked." I suggested.

 The four of us continued to gaze on as something fell from the door, and rolled onto the floor at Goofy's feet. To which he picked it up to inspect what looked like a sort of bright green rock.

 "Ahyuck, it's a Gummi black!" Goofy explained.

 "It's doesn't look like a normal piece tough. Let's have it here." Donald urged, as he took it from Goofy to look over himself. As he turned it in his hand, he hummed in thought, furrowing his brows. "Haven't seen one like this before..."

 Clapping suddenly filled the air, cutting through our revelation. We all turned back to the newly appeared table that sat in the middle of the room to find the Cheshire cat, once more.

 "Superb performance! You're powers certainly do bloom true, if I do say!! Keep it up and someday you'll be florist! I can't wait to see what you'll do next."

 I frowned at such a poorly placed pun.

 "Who are you, really, Cheshire cat?" Sora asked. The tone in his voice informed me that he'd met with this cat more than he'd liked to.

 "Alice is neither here, nore there-- or available for any occasion." The cat echoed. It was only then that I realized that his body had phased out of existence, while his voice reverberated impressively around the great room. "She's past from this world to where I cannot speak... Borne off by the shadows, she has fallen to the darkness of obscurity. Perhaps, your feminine friend could shed some light upon your situation. Tip toeing around the truth will only get you thrown into deeper Darkness."

 All of the boys' eyes landed on me as, I became the new subject of interest.

 "Yukari... what's he talking about?" Sora asked. "Does this have something to do with why, Alice... didn't come back with you?"

 He Donald and Goofy traded worried expressions. I bit my lip, now fearing what I'd been putting off. But if what they Lady of Light had said, about our enemies was true... then I suppose it was indeed time to tell the boys about the dreams.

 "We should get back to the ship." I sighed. "There's... something I've been meaning to tell you."

To Be Continued

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Heads up. This unplanned and abrupt Hiatus, is about to end.

as soon as I  get out of school and proofread chapter 3

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that time when Sora begged Siax to see Kairi...

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[finalmix]

[vacantgestures]

@bananaapplewaffle 

Sorry if this is a weird way to say thanks.But i have NO CLUE how to reply in comments and I dont wanna seem like I ignored you. So...Thanks a ton for the comment and glad you like the fic.

I’ll delete this when I come back to this blog

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Ascendant Recollection :CH 02:

Franchise: Kingdom Hearts

Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama

Love Interest: Riku

Rating: Teen

After the destruction of the Destiny Islands, Yukari finds herself dumped into a new world. Now she finds herself with not just a key, bigger list of responsibilities than she’d asked for.

Kingdom Hearts: Ascendant Recollection

Chapter 02

A World Beyond The Sea

If you're ever to take anything away from my story, just know that, getting inhaled by an enormous island eating storm is absolutely not fun.

 Something else that isn't fun? Waking up on a cold slab of concrete. My head pulsed with intense pain. In fact it was probably from that three that hit me on the way up. I blinked a couple of times, before I realized that my vision might as well have been permanently blurred.

 As I lay in an unfamiliar place, trying to recall the last few hours of the evening, I sighed, a bit frustrated as I stared up at the night sky. Spotted with stars, It was nothing in comparison to the spray of twinkling lights that blanketed the night back on Density Islands.

 My home...

 Thinking back, what had happened to it? What had caused that storm? I remember the dream that showed Riku conversing with that figure in the secret place. He'd made some sort of deal and it somehow unleashed... that dark... stuff and I woke up to a storm. But, had that really been a dream? And what did happened to Riku? And Kairi and Sora for that matter? I'd met up with Sora when things got crazy but, my other two close friends had been nowhere in sight. I supposed it was time to get a move on.

  Sitting up I gazed about my surroundings. I sat in the middle of some sort of enormous court yard. Brick walled buildings surrounded me on all sides with twinkling, light decorations flickering gently in the dark. Street lights lit up the world around me with banners draped upon them reading, District 3.

 Carefully, I stood up. Stumbling on my feet, I struggled to make it to the closest wall for support. Had I managed to get some sort of concussion? I blinked back the dizziness and blurred vision as I trudged up the set of stairs that led out of the court yard. At the top, I found a small compartment of houses that led down a pathway towards a pair of large wooden doors.

 Pushing past them, I was met with a darkened alleyway, lined on either sides with town homes. Lit windows kept the darkness away as I made my way out of the narrow passage and into a greater plaza that, had me surrounded by shops, hotels, and big bright neon signs that did little to help my head ache. I gazed up at giant clocktower that hung above my head, reading just a few minutes past ten.

 So far, I was vastly amazed. Everything here was just so... big. Back home, the tallest things we had were the humongous mountains on the mainland that sat lazing against the big puffy clouds that passed by on the horizon every day. Even the trees on the mainland had nothing on the size of the buildings, only growing so high-- often rivaling the size of some of our biggest homes, which were still not as big the shops and hotels around me.

 On my way towards yet another set of doors, I found myself being slammed into. The world went completely sideways as I was forced to catch my balance while, a blubbering man, frantically held onto me for dear life.

 "H-help me! Please!" The guy sobbed aloud, gripping my shoulders tightly. "They! They're coming this way!"

 The man, attempted to hide behind me but, instead dragged me down to the ground with him. I shook him off, and turned to find a group of the little creatures come running in our direction.

 For a second. Panic set in.

  I remembered that I had only defeated them before in my dreams. I'd been in possession of that weapon-- The Keyblade. But now I was defenseless. How was I supposed to protect both this guy and myself?

 I turned back to the man that had been freaking out at my feet as if I was supposed to be able to protect him. But I wasn't really much help either. With one more look at the oncoming enemies, I turned run. "Let's get out of here!" I shouted to the stranger.

 It took him a moment to scramble to his feet. Yet, somehow he managed to trip and fall, crashing right into me once more. I hit the ground hard and everything began to multiply. Pushing myself up, I let go an agitated sigh as I turned to look for the guy. He was there, on the ground, cowering. Now with the creatures hovering over him, he sat there paralyzed with fear, sobbing uncontrollably.

 "What are you doing?" I called out to him, trying to blink the stars out of my eyes. "Get out of here! Run!"

 Sadly, even in my attempts to snap him out of his moment of terror, he would not budge. Instead, he stayed there as the creatures went in for the attack, and proceeded to claw out the poor man's heart. I watched as the creatures danced in delight at the retrieval of the prize before the man's body was consumed, only to be replaced by another little black creature.

 Feeling a bit frantic, I found myself nearly frozen to my spot. My body suddenly felt like lead. It had to be from the prospect of death now becoming a harsh reality. I managed to stammer out of few words as the creatures lurched toward me. I felt my heart dive into my stomach, and shut my eyes waiting for the worst.

 "Yukari!" I heard a voice call out.

 Somehow melting away the fear, the familiar voice shook the terror away. My eyes shot towards the sound of the voice, and watched as the new comer had entered the scene.

 "Sora!" I exclaimed delighted to see he was safe.

 And it appeared that he was more than that, as he ran towards the monsters, brandishing what looked to be the same weapon I'd received. Although his held a different appearance, sporting a yellow boxed hand guard that connected to a long silvery shaft. The little prongs at the end, opened up into a true key look, that housed the emblem of a crown.

 Sora wasted no time in dispatching the group of little black shadows. And much like in the dream each and every one of them disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. Once he'd taken care of the things, he approached me, as I was still sitting a bit stunned on the ground.

 "You alright?" He asked, extending a hand for me to taken.

 I took it, using his weight to support my unsteady balance whilst simultaneously glancing around to ensure no more of those things would be likely to jump us. "Yeah." I answered. "Thanks... You really saved me from.. whatever those thing were."

 "Heartless."

 "What?"

 "They're called Heartless." Sora repeated.

 I looked at Sora suspiciously. "How do you..."

 "After I woke up here, I ran into a bunch of them myself." He explained. "A guy named Cid, saved me. He told me I might be able to find you, Riku, and Kairi here as well. So, I went out looking. But so far, I've only found you and of course… more Heartless."

 I gazed down at the Keyblade in his hands. I wasn't sure if I should press the issue, or not. But given the circumstances maybe it could wait. "So, are you saying, Kairi and Riku, were there when... it happened?" I asked.

 Sora nodded quietly. A distracted look in his eyes offered more than his words. "...Yeah. I saw them." Was really all he intended to say.

 "Did... something bad, happen?" I asked.

 But Sora ignored my question, bringing up a new subject. "I've got to get you to safety. Wouldn't want to get jumped before we're prepared. Maybe Cid can help us out with that."

 I watched as he pushed open the doors to "District One," as implied by the sign hanging above. I wondered what had happened that I had missed. Sora's hiding the possibility of bad news didn't sit right with me, but it was better to let him figure things out before forcing him to talk.

 Following close behind, I glanced around at how much brighter this district was compared to the last two. More buildings, more shops and more lights. It was distinctively homier than the last, but lacked... people. I had to wonder where everyone was. I suppose the threat of those... Heartless, was quite serious, this night.

 "So, do you know where this... place we're in, is?" I decided to ask, sparking up another conversation. "I mean, it seems like we finally got off the Island."

 "I was told this place is called Traverse Town." Sora responded, stopping near the guard rail that sat before a plaza spotted with lights.

 I gazed around at three enormous doors that seemed to serve as entry ways to other possible areas around the town. "But we didn't even have to use the raft." I recalled. From the dreams I'd been having I guess I wasn't too surprised about that. "I highly doubted it would have worked anyways."

 I caught Sora look at me from the corner of my eye, but I refused to meet his gaze.

 "All of this is crazy..." I went on. "Storms and monsters... what's even going on? Things were so... dull before. Everything's just happening all at once and…"

 My words began to trails away as I went to look at Sora. But my gaze found the face of a newcomer who stood just a few feet away from us. Sora noticed and turned to investigate where my attention had landed.

 The man standing before us had shaggy, long dark brown hair that went past his shoulders. His facial features seemed soft, rugged and unfriendly all at the same time, as he held it together with a scar that ran the length of his face, between his nose. Adorned with black jeans and a tucked in t shirt beneath his matching jacket, I wanted very much to say something to this guy about his many belts that hung around his waist.

 "They know you're here." The guy mumbled. It wasn’t until that moment of him speaking that I realized his weapon. It looked like a mix of a gun and-- Okay, get this. His weapon with a flippin' sword stuffed into a gun.

 I suppose I couldn't offer too many jokes. Sora was running around with an novelty sized key.

 "And they'll keep coming, so long as you wield the Keyblade." The man continued.

 I raised a brow. I didn't have my weapon out and on display. "But--"

 "Stand back, little girl. This is between me and your friend here."

 Offended, I frowned, muttering a quieted, "Rude..." under my breath.

 Sora himself, already had a sort of sour look on his face as he gazed over his silvery Keyblade. Sending, testy glances at the guy, I worried about the decision he was about to make. "There's no way you gonna get this." He sneered. To which, he hastily got into a stance, indicating he was ready to fight off another nuisance if he had to. I also figured it was partly to seem intimidating.

 "If that's really how you wanna do this," The man scoffed, readying his gun blade... thing. "Then let's go, kid."

 "Now Sora..." I said, trying to allow him a chance to think rationally. "Think about this for a--"

 “Aaaagh!!”

 Sora leapt at the guy, screaming his battle cry. The man, didn't even let him get much of a chance as he shot a burning hot, ball of fire in his direction. Sora narrowly rolled out of the way, and the ball of fire, continued to come careening right at me.

 I launched myself out of danger, cursing Sora's rash decision. I made it to safety in time to watch him jump the guard rail that hung over the plaza, only to be immediately chased into the open area by the man.

 I watched on feverishly, as they fought, Sora almost always just missing a deadly blow. He was taking more hits that he was dishing out. It didn't take long for his movements to become sluggish and clumsy.

 "Behind you!" I cried out.

 Sora had stopped moving for just a second to catch his breath. But it was clear, at that moment, the man was simply toying with. Another burst of fire shot towards Sora who looked up when he'd heard my voice. Just barely, he scrambled out of harm’s way, only to be met with the man's blade that nearly sliced through his neck.

 Sora blocked in time, going on to throw up the man's guard. Gripping his Key with two hands, he prepared himself to run the guy through it seemed. His face was beaded with sweat and worn with exhaustion. Sora was at his limit. This wasn't just some brawl on the beach like we had been used to. The was the cruel reality of the outside world. And in the last few hours of being here, Sora most likely had more time to experience that than myself.

 The man spun, effortlessly, out the way as he kicked Sora in the back. Sora stumbled on his feet, trying to keep his balanced, but the man had the upper hand. He wasn't worn out like Sora had been. With the butt of his sword, he slammed the hunk of metal right into Sora's temple and almost immediately, Sora dropped his weapon.

 "Sora!" I shouted, leaping over the guard rail, bounding over towards him.

 I watched as his body collapsed, hitting the ground harder than what sounded safe.

 Conveniently enough for me, the fact that I decided to start running like a psycho, caused the dizziness to resurface. Dropping to my knees, I crouched over Sora's body and latched onto his shoulders. Gently I tried to shake him awake but he was out cold. His head rolled around on his shoulders as a small groan sounded from his lips.

 With a bit of a sigh of relief, I let my mind rest easy knowing that he was alright.

 "Step aside little girl." The voice of the man throttled in my ears.

 Looking over my shoulder, I watched as he came closer to the two of us. I was seeing double at this point but I fought through the wave of nausea that came with it.

 "I'm not moving." I said, squeezing Sora's shoulders tightly.

 The man, let go a sigh, as she threw his weapon onto his shoulder. "I don't have time for you. Make this easy and move out of the way."

 For a split second I thought back to the dream I'd had just earlier that evening. The Keyblade that formed in my hand when I needed it most. That voice that spoke to me saying I had some power within me, that was beginning to awaken. For a moment, I did hesitate. This was all so new. Things were just happening so fast. But I wasn't about to let to creep have Sora without a fight.

 Shakily, I got to my feet. I tried to control myself as the dizziness attempted to prevent me from steeling my nerves. Cautiously, I held out my hand in hopes to summon the Keyblade as I did before. I didn't know if there was a specific way to do it. Yet all the same I found myself concentrating on thoughts of protecting Sora, getting back to Riku and Kairi and just staying alive.

 And somehow that worked.

 Within seconds the Keyblade materialized in my possession, weighing heavily down on my right arm as I gripped it after it had appeared. I swung it once, twistingly before aiming it at the man before me, who'd then stopped to, gaze at my Keyblade.

 "Another one?" The man said, as though he couldn’t believe his bothersome luck.

 "Just tell me what you want." I demanded. But at the same time, I wavered. The spinning world around me forced me to shut my eyes. Clamping a hand against my head, I garnered a sympathetic response from the Stanger.

 "Kid-- Hey, you alright? Hey!"

 But it had been too late.

 The world had turned upside down all at once as I felt myself tumbling towards the ground. The sound my blade clanging loudly as it made contact, left a horrible ringing in my ears. When I hit the stone tiling, the world didn't stop spinning. It was like everything continued on as I felt myself passing through what seemed to be memories all around me. They mixed and blurred together. The cacophony of voices swirling around my head didn't help the dizziness, but I could just barely hear the sound of faint hissing, coming out over it all.

 "Get up." A voice tore through dream.

 My eyes opened abruptly. Glancing around I found myself in a whole different location. The room around me was bathed in sea of deep emerald greens. The ceiling, the floor-- all of it looking somewhat lavish or fancy, in design. I noticed that I was been lying comfortably in a bed that was not my own. I easily discounted that this whole crazy night might have been a dream, when I noticed Sora snoozing in an arm chair at the foot of the bed. His head hung on his neck, while drool began to slide down the corner of his mouth.

 "Oh good." The voice from before spook. "You're awake. How's your head?? Looks like you got yourself a concussion somehow."

 I wasn't sure how I hadn’t seen her before but, a girl stood at the bedside. She seemed pretty young, sporting short, dark brown hair and eyes. She wore a cropped tank top with belt straps and khaki colored shorts. Fish nets sat on her arms beneath big orange gloves that matched her ankle boots which housed long, thigh high socks.

 As loud as her outfit was, I was surprised I hadn't noticed her when I opened my eyes.

 "Uh... It's fine." I said, almost forgetting that she'd asked a question. I lifted my hand to my head, and felt some bandages wrapped around the circumference of my noggin. I suppose it was as bad as I thought.

 "Squall didn't even touch you, so I guess he got a little worried when you just passed out on the spot. We couldn't figure out how you got banged up without him even laying a finger on you."

 "Uh... well, that might have actually be the tree that hit me on my way here." I confessed sheepishly.

 "The what?"

 "The name's Leon." The man with the scar promptly corrected the girl, not allowing me a chance to respond. He had also seemingly appeared in the room. His edgy brooding look was almost difficult to notice.

 Well when you get hit hard enough...

 Ignoring the man, the girl shrugged and moved to Sora. "Hey, wake up, ya lazy bum!" The girl shouted, kicking at the arm chair.

 The impressive jolt, woke Sora from his slumber. Upon sleepily opening his eyes, his gaze met with the girl, who'd been kneeling over him. "Gimmie... a break... Kairi..."

 "Kairi?" The girl, inquired annoyed. "The name's Yuffie! Wake up, Nerd!!"

 Again she shoved the chair and Sora jolted awake. Shouting expletives.

 "Yeah... I think you might had hit this one too hard." The girl said rolling her eyes.

 Sora's attention immediately landed on the man, calling himself Leon and stood from his seat, ready to fight once again. "You!! You're the one that attacked me out of nowhere! What's your problem?"

  "While I am inclined agree that arguing on that notion would seem appropriate at any other time," I said, drawing Sora's attention to me. "I think, it wasn't without reason."

 Sora quickly looked me over before he realized the bandage on my head.

 "Did he beat you up too?" He asked, concerned.

 "Tree." Was all I said before he nodded understandingly.

 "You alright?" He attempted to confirm.

 "Wait, seriously.... How on earth did you get into a fight with a tree?" The girl, now known as Yuffie, asked.

 "Enough." The man's voice cut through each of our words as we all averted out attention toward him. "We've got more pressing matters at hand. And it's got to do with the two of you, both wielding the Keyblade."

 "Both?" Sora asked, his eyes catching mine.

 "I can summon one too." I shrugged.

 "Wait... then why didn't you tell me?"

 "It doesn’t matter." The guy said. "Both of you seem to be the chosen wielders of the blade. Initially the plan was to get it from you so we could conceal you hearts from the Heartless. I didn't think you'd come on your own of course, but I was willing to do what I needed to get you to come along."

 "Even if that meant beating up a kid?" I noted. "Sounds like the mindset of bully to me."

 "Regardless." Yuffie sighed heavily. "You guys were running around completely oblivious to how dangerous of a threat you posed for yourselves. The Heartless can seek you out via the Keyblade."

 "Meaning, we don't have lot of time, before they make their presence known." Leon went on. "This place is infested. They're crawling around everywhere. It's crazy to even think that the keyblade chose you two—Kids, of all people."

 "Rude..." I interjected.

 "Why don't you start making sense" Said demanded. His tone held plenty of frustration in it. "Maybe explain what’s really going on around here."

 "Well, okay." Yuffie said, taking a deep. From that, I could tell she was about to give us a very condensed version of a story we might well need the full details to. "We're pressing for time so... here goes. So you know that, there are worlds outside of your own. But the thing is, they've been a super-secret up until this point. And that's all thanks to the Heartless who've been shaking thing up. They're kind of making a grand mess of things."

 "The Heartless." I said. I was pretty sure Sora said it to me before, but.. "Those are the creatures that keep chasing us around. But what are they really?"

 "Those without hearts." Leon confirmed. "The Darkness in peoples' hearts is what attracts them. See that you don't fall prey, for there is Darkness within every heart."

 "We've learned that a man named Ansem was studying those creatures a while backs." Yuffie continued. "He recorded all he knew about them in a compiled report-- like their behavior and stuff. Sadly we don't know a whole lot about those nasty buggers, but we do know that we could probably learn more about them form the reports."

 "Well maybe... you could show it to us, if it’s not too much trouble?" I suggested.

 “That’s… the thing." Yuffie frowned. "We can't."

 "Because...?" Sora chimed in.

 "Because." Yuffie emphasized. "We don't have 'em all. We've got like a few pages with us, but the rest of them are all scattered about the place-- maybe even across the worlds. Getting them back is a real pain."

 "So for now... you’re saying the only real defense we have against the Heartless that we currently can be sure of is the Keyblade." I supplied.

 "Exactly!" Yuffie nodded, slapping a fist into her palm and pointing at me as a big grinned danced onto her face.

 "The Heartless, tend to greatly fear the Keyblade." Leon spoke out. "Even as this is the case, they'll continue to seek you out."

 "Well... neither of us asked for this." Sora said. "Is there no way to return it or--"

 "Obviously not?" Yuffie answered matter o' factly. "Who are you going to give it back to? The Keyblade chooses it's master, and it looks like you two are the new lucky owners! It's yours for good."

 "Okay, hold on." I said. This was all coming at me pretty fast. In a matter of just a few hours so much has happened. Now, I'm being force fed a ton of info-- and the ‘too long didn't read’ version at that. "Can we back track for a second? You're saying that we didn't know about other worlds until now because those Heartless are taking over, right? So then what about us? What happened to our island?? Last we saw of it, it was being pulled apart. Sora, you said, you were looking for Kairi and Riku. Where are they?"

 Leon and Yuffie stood there with pursed lips and I listed off my many questions.

 "Just because we've got Keyblades, that automatically makes us official monster slayers? Not even any trainers? At least have us be better informed before we get thrown back into it. I hardly know how to use this... Keyblade thing."

 "The fact that you're sitting here, right now, possibly means that you're world is gone." Leon finally said. "Mayhaps, it's been consumed by the Darkness whenever the Heartless came. I'm sorry to break it to you, and I don't know how to say it any easier, but you probably won't be seeing you friends, family or world any time soon."

 "Leon--" Yuffie's voice was soft.

 "No." But Leon's was firm. "This is the reality of their situation. There is no sugar coating it."

 I pressed my lips tightly together. I found myself looking at that really, nice rug as I tried to find some composure. I hated that my gut feelings tended to turned out right. But I wouldn't allow myself to believe that earlier today, really was the last day that I would see the ocean.

 I looked up at the two strangers, as they both stared at me expectantly. I could read their expressions perfectly. They were sympathetic, but they really were counting on both of us being on board. I looked over at Sora. He looked pretty deep in thought too. But This Leon dude was right. We didn't really have a whole lot of options anyways. We were now, two fifteen year old kids without a home and nothing to our name except our new, very priceless looking weapons.

 I let go a sigh, attempting to get my decision out, before a loud explosion sounded right within the room. That awful ringing caused my brain to vibrate around in my skull as the world started to double around me. Leon readied his weapon, barking orders around the room.

 "Yuffie, get a move on! You two are with me. Let's go!" He shouted, as he tore through the mini horde of creatures that entered the room.

 I hastily, but carefully got out of bed, which had still managed to be a mistake. Sora who had already summoned Key was nearly out the hole int he wall when he noticed.

 "Yukari, can you manage?" He asked.

 Hesitantly, I summoned my Key. Somehow it felt more heavy than I was used too. I suppose a toy wooden sword was nothing compared to this.

 "I'm good." I said, shaking the stars out of my eyes. I had to be at least 90% right now. Any less meant... turning into one of those Heartless which, was not an option.

 Sora nodded, leading the way out of what I realized was the room of a hotel. We had then, found ourselves in a fancy looking back alley lined with hotel balconies. Leaping over the side we were met with tons of creatures that spotted the length of the alley. Following the man's lead, the two of us hacked and slashed our ways through the enemy horde with surprising ease. I had initially thought, they would have been tougher to deal with, but the little creatures exploded upon impact of the Keyblade, making contact with their black bodies.

 "Where did he go?" Sora shouted, when we'd entered the Second District through a side door of the alley.

 The Heartless quickly closed in behind us, right as we slammed the door. Even still, more lay ahead. The court yard was swarming with the things dancing about, and chasing after people who, let's be honest, should have known better to stay inside.

 "Who cares, let's just keep moving!" I cried out moving ahead of Sora.

 I dashed through another creature that had been chewing on some guys leg. Free of his assailant he clumsily scrambled to his feet and thanked me frantically.

 "Get out of here." I told him. "Make sure you tell everyone else to find safety."

 The guy nodded running off as we continued to free others in need of help. But there was no real point. With one defeated, more spawned in its place. It was as if there was no end to these guys.

 "Let's get out of here." Sora shouted to me, ducking into the alley that led to the last district.

 I followed behind. Once through the door, we were immediately met with the sounds of screaming.

 "Save meee!!" A panicked voice, cried out, resonating around the walls of the district three courtyard.

 "Fight, Goofy!!" A familiar voice screeched, angrily at the first.

 For second I could have sworn, I'd heard that voice somewhere before. As we ran into the square I looked all about myself but saw… nothing. That was until we looked up and noticed the two.. animal people fighting for their lives on the tiny space of a balcony above our heads.

 A single Heartless had them pinned down, but there was nothing we could do to help them.

 "I'm trying!" One of them shouted. This one looked like a sort of black bloodhound, but with the characteristics of a human. He charged towards the Heartless, a bigger one than I'd seen up until now, in attempts to knock it down. But the thing effortlessly swatted the dog out of its, way, sending the dog flying over the side of the balcony.

 Sora and I inched forwards with anticipation, as we watched.

 "Thunder!" The other voice belonging to a white duck... man?! who went barreling after the Heartless.

 Instantly I recognized him from the dream, which would then prove, the dream wasn't exactly that.

 "Maybe we should get up there and help them?" I suggested, glancing over at Sora who's eyes were strained on the pair. His features had been knotted into something of painful anticipation, like he couldn’t bear to watch, but he didn't want to look away.

 "Ah... I don't think we'll need to be doing that." He said, carefully stepping back. "Seems like they're coming to us."

 "Wah--?"

 "aaaaauUAAAHAAAHHHHH!!!"

 The sound of screaming, closing in, caught my attention as I realized, with great displeasure, that the two were now rocketing right in our direction.

 Sora and I both moved to escape their trajectory, but found it to be a fruitless effort, as the bodies of the two newcomers collided with ours, sending us all right into the cool pavement.

 I can say with unwavering confidence, from the bottom of the pile of bodies, this was not a wonderful place to be.

 "Keys!!" The two shouted in unison upon, I assume, the sight of both of our weapons that had been flung across the court yard.

 But their revelation was short lived as an incredible rumbling, shook the ground beneath us. This was then promptly followed by, walls spring up around the yard, and blocking off all of the exits, preventing escape.

 "What happening?" Sora asked aloud, to no one in particular.

 His question was quickly answered when a barrage of armored parts came crashing down out of the night sky. All around us, the pieces fell-- an armored helmet, clawed gauntlets, boots and a torso. The enormous clang of metal rattled my insides an shook my vision. It was great wakeup call but it did little to help my head ache.

 At first the pieces stayed in their places, unmoving. The silence of the night managed to come back, as the ringing subsided.

 "Uhh..." Sora's voice permeated the quiet. "So, who are you guys, again?"

 "Ah!" The dog, who was comfortably on top of our pile, grinned wide. "The names, Goofy, and this here is Donald!"

 "Are you freaking kidding me right now??" I asked, irritated, from the bottom of the heap.

 At the sound of my voice, the ground began to shake. The parts of armor began to rattle as they slowly lifted themselves from the ground, and began hovering before encircling us at dangerous speed.

 "I don't want to sound too urgent." Agitation, was quite prevalent in my voice. "But may this is the best time to get, off??"

 It was in that moment that the boys scrambled to their feet. Sora and I made a grab for our weapons before the four of us huddled together, back to back as the parts, violently encircling us, closed in. The wind from the vortex it was creating, throwing my hair every which way. I clenched the my Keyblade tightly in my hand, hoping this wasn’t the night of my death.

 "Thundaga!!" The duck man, shouted.

 For a second, the world around us darkened before the temperature rose, significantly. From the sky, an impressively sized vein of lightning, came down and struck the armor, without managing to hit us. This threw the monster out of its attack. sending it flying across the length of the court yard. Seemingly dazed, buy only momentarily, the thing twitched and flinched as it stumbled and floated its way to its feet until all of the parts were in their respective places to form a sort of "body."

 "Let's beat him together!" The dog shouted, charging towards the thing with nothing but a shield.

 "Attaaack!!" The duck screeched, flailing his magic staff around, while blast what appeared to be magic spells.

 Sora and I exchanged brief glances of blatant awe struck before following the two into battle. I gripped my blade tightly running into danger. My eyes made contact with the torso, section of the thing and noticed a sort of heart design of red and black, with a X mark running through it. Interestingly enough I realized some of the different, little heartless I'd seen, had those on them as well-- the little buggers with the knight helmets seemed like underlings to this guy?

 I narrowly missed the swiping of both the clawed hands as I threw myself to the ground. Rolling back to my feet, I continued to barrel towards the thing. Of course, this was all while it was coming right at me.

 "Hey!!" I shouted towards the duck. "Can you hit it again!! With that lightning?"

 The duck, having caught my attention furrowed his brow. "I'll need some time!"

 I nodded before I turned to find Sora had paired up with the dog to take down the feet. They were making great progress until they got kicked back and sent flying. I watched with bated breath as the armored boots both came careening in my direction. Skidding to a stop, I hoped to get out of the way in time before they rammed into me.

 Unfortunately for me, I took the blow, being thrown back even closer to the massive armor. Stumbling to my feet, I narrowly avoided being crushed to death. I rolled desperately for my life, slashing at the armor as I did so. Aggressively, I threw my blade through one of the boots and it exploded in a grand fit of dark smoke. Sadly, I wouldn't have time to avoid the other foot that had come rocketing right towards me.

 But it seemed I wouldn’t have to, as the dog, who called himself Goofy leapt in front of me with his shield braced for impact. Impressively the foot imploded before the dog threw his shield at an on-coming claw.

 "Move it!" He shouted, ducking for cover himself.

 He didn't need to tell me twice.

 I dove to the ground right as my head would have been taken off. The wind the claw picked up threw my hair across my face, and into my eyes. I watched as is made preparations for a round trip.

 "Get up!" Sora shouted, as he yanked me up by the shoulder.

 I hadn't even notice that Goofy had already been back on his feet, with his shield in hand.

 "Get ready!!" I heard the duck shouting from across the court yard. He'd come charging our way, with his staff risen over head. "Back me up, Goofy! You two, be ready to finish him off!"

 "Right!" Sora and I exclaimed.

 "THUNDAGAAAA!!" The duck shouted, once more.

 Again, the atmosphere around us dipped before a vein of lightning, larger and more expansive ripped through the air. It targeted only the enormous body of floating parts, ripping the claws to pieces and severely damaging the body and head. Both of the remaining pieces clattered loudly to the ground. Goofy flung his shield at the helmet, while Sora and I rushed in after to deliver the finishing blow.

 Together, we tore through the twitching torso piece with our blades. The thing shuddered violently before exploding into bits of shrapnel and Darkness that clouded the air.

 The boys cheered at the sight of the creature’s demise, while I watched as a shimmering pink, heart floated up into the sky before vanishing into the stars.

  "So, you guys were looking for us?" Sora inquired.

 He and I, along with a Leon, Yuffie, the animal duo and a new girl, stood in the middle of the first district. Surrounded by lights, and other dwellers of this world.

 The new girl, who had introduced herself to me as Aerith, wore a kind smile. She'd been dressed in a light pink button down dress and heavy brown boots. Silver bangles covered her wrist. Her long, light brown hair was tucked into a braid. At that moment, she had been checking my head wound whilst casting what seemed to be multiple, very light doses of healing magic at it. I wasn't going to insist she stopped, because it was definitely getting rid of whatever concussion I had.

 "These two had apparently been sent out to find you, at the request of their king." Leon clarified. "I supposes its only remarkable that there is two of you, but nonetheless, you seem to be prime suspects."

 "Request of your king?" I echoed, thinking back to the letter, the duck man had been reading. I wondered if it was pertinent that I shared the fact that I could see things like that through dreams-- events of people and places and what not. But, I don't know how useful it would be. They'd probably just find that creepy and invasive.

 "You should come with us, on our vessel!" The dog appointed. "We'll be traveling around the multiverse, taking down Heartless together like we just did."

 "We couldn't do it properly without a few Keyblade wielders." The duck egged on.

 "But, what about our friends?" Sora looked to me, with a hopeless expression on his face. "We still haven't found them and we don't even know if they're ok."

 I bit my lip as I stared him. I kindly thanked Aerith, and moved closer to Sora placing a hand on his shoulder. "You said, you looked everywhere in this town." Maybe... they aren't here? Maybe they ended up, somewhere else."

 "She could be right." Leon stated. "This isn't the only world out here, beyond yours. If you go with these guys, you’re bound to find them."

 Sora's frown failed to dissipate even at that bit of confirmation.

 "But, you won't be coming with us, looking like that." The duck insisted.

 "What's wrong with the way we look?" I asked, furrowing my brow.

 "Your faces--"

 "E-excuse me?" I put my hands on my hips. If he was trying to say we had to look like animal hybrids to get into their crew, they had another thing coming.

 "The frowns, you too have." He clarified. "Our ship runs on smiles. If you guys come with us looking like that, we'll exploded before we make it off world."

 I couldn’t tell if this was an exaggeration or not.

 "You guys need to be happy!" The dog agreed. "We'll help you find your friends along the way-- no problem. We'll all be in this together."

 For a moment, Sora face’s was knotted only with concern. I felt like it had been partially my fault for calling out the fact that our island couldn't have possible survived what happened to it. Even still, he'd been really weird about not telling whatever he omitted when I asked about Kairi and Riku.

 I looked back at the duo and forced a grin, for Sora's and Riku and Kairi’s sake. I wanted to find them and ensure their safety more than anything. But, if all the worlds were being taken over by the Heartless, then a reunion would be short lived. "I'll take up, you guys' offer if a smile's all you need."

 Sora looked up at me, curiously.

 "We're gonna find them." I told him. "Together-- and with their help."

 "And we'll still be helping you guys out too!" Yuffie exclaimed.

 I looked over everyone. All genuine, warm smiles across their faces as each of them nodded. Our situation may have seemed hopeless but we definitely weren't alone.

 "Yeah." Sora finally agreed. A big toothy grin, grew across his lips. “We’ll go with you guys."

 The duck nodded, satisfied, as he held out his hand. "Donald Duck." He introduced himself.

 "The name's Goofy." Declared the dog, slapping his hand onto Donald’s.

 They looked to us expectantly waiting to join them.

 "Yukari." I said, placing my hand in next.

 "And I'm Sora."

  After our little huddle we said our goodbyes. The crew each lent us an impressive lump sum of potion's which would help us out with small ailments along our journey. They gave us a bit of money to start, bid us a safe trip, insisted we come back if we found anything useful or needed anything, and sent us off on our way.

 This of course, transitioned into getting to see the vessel that Goofy mentioned prior.

 On the outside, it looked like a little toy made of blocks for giants. On the inside, would be the homiest, space ship I'd ever had the pleasure to grace my presence with. A quick tour around the ship allowed me the chance to learn that it included, four dormitory rooms. A small men's and women's shower, a kitchen that housed enough room to fit that max number of occupants, a lounge room that Donald corrected as the briefing room, as well as a cockpit where'd we be spending the majority of the flights, prepping for world visits.

 "Welcome to our ship!" Goofy announced.

 "Get some rest if you need it." Donald suggested. "Who knows when we'll come up, on our next world. Best be prepared for bigger encounters."

  "And don't even think about touching this and that like you own the place!" Went a very angry, very squeaky, and very tiny voice.

 Our quartet, looked down to find the smallest, cutest, little chipmunks I'd ever seen. Both of them skittered around our feet, as they attempt to hold our attention due to their size.

 "All day I slave away at getting this vessel spotless and ship-shape! So don't try and trash the place, first chance ya get." One of them spat.

　

I knelt over and picked them up in the palms of my hand. Both of them were dressed in little, yellow aprons. A pocket emblazoned with a cog sat in full view. One of them had droopy eyes and big red nose, and double buck, gapped teeth, while the other eyed me suspiciously, sniffing at my gloves with its little black nose.

 "These two are Chip and Dale." Donald informed, as he headed away from our growing party. "They're the ones responsible for the maintenance of the gummi ship."

　

"Howdy! I'm Dale!" The red nosed one greeted with a soft smile.

　

"And you two, take off your shoes when you go into that cockpit!" The one I presumed to be chip, hollered, before they boys leapt out of my hands and scurried off. But not before Chip could get in his final, nag. "I won't have ya dirtying it up!"

 "Just make sure to refuel and get some rest." Goofy reminded. "You can join us in the cockpit when you’re ready"

 Sora and I nodded as Goofy left us alone near the entrance of the ship. I looked to Sora, who'd been gazing around in complete awe. I had to say this place was amazing, but at the same time, I felt like the rest, Donald and Goofy mentioned, seemed like a welcoming treat after everything we'd endured tonight.

 "I guess, I'll go check out the rooms." I said. "Wanna come with or--"

 "Sure." Sora nodded.

 Together we wandered around until we found the dorms. The first one I found, I decided to claim, plopping myself right into the bed. It wasn't super comfy, but it was still a place to lie my head when things calmed down, I suppose.

 The room itself was pretty sweet too. An expansive wall made completely of sealed, air tight glass that showed the stars and things of space that zoomed by. Everything was simplistic. A small locker like closet a desk and chair, and a bed.

 I looked up to find, Sora had been gazing out at the view of space. His face on the verge of drooping.

 "Sora?" I called him away from his thoughts.

 He looked at me, with a changed expression that masked whatever he was feeling. I suppose I wouldn't try to bring up what had been really been bothering him. Didn't want to explode the ship just yet.

 "If you get scared, you can sleep in my room." I teased.

 Sora grinned a bit, as he joined me at the bed side. Rolling his eyes he sat down. "You think they're okay?" He asked, in a quiet voice.

 For a moment, I wasn't sure what I should have said, but I had no way of knowing the truth. "I do." I said, smiling softly at him.

 "But the Island is--"

 "Who cares about that right now." I stopped him. "What matters is that you and I are together. We're safe. And as long as we stick together, and work with Donald and Goofy, we'll find the others."

 "Do you really believe that?" He asked.

 "Why not?" I shrugged. "Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense not to hope."

 For a second, Sora’s face went dark. I could see in his eyes that something had been bothering him.

 "What is it?" I asked.

 He stayed quiet a moment longer before deciding to respond. "I... I mean, back before we got to Traverse Town... I met him in the storm-- on the Island before you came." He twisted his mouth a bit, before continuing. I guess he was still trying to make sense of what he was about to say. "Riku said... He wasn't afraid of the darkness." Sora continued. "Do you think he meant, THE Darkness? The one that has to do with the Heartless?"

 I frowned at this revelation. But what could I say? I hadn't been there when it happened, I couldn't even be sure of the context. I shook my head, trying to put it out of both of our thoughts.

 "I don't think we should worry about that yet." I supplied, for both of our peace of mind. "We'll ask Riku what he meant when we find him."

 Sora nodded quietly. "Yeah..." He agreed. "When we find him-- Him and Kairi. And then maybe they'll join us."

 "Quite an idea! It wouldn't hurt grow the group." A voice chirped, startling both Sora and I.

 Looking down at the floor, we found a smartly dressed cricket standing proudly at our feet. In a tail coat an top hat, a wide grin spread across his tiny face as he did a gentleman’s bow. "How do you do?"

 "Ooookay, I guess privacy is out the window." I said under mind breath, staring wide eyed at the little bug.

 "Whoa.." Sora awed. "You're so small. What are you doing here?"

 "Jiminy Cricket's the name!" He introduced. "I couldn't help but over hear your discussion. You say you've lost your world, eh? Well the same thing's happened to mine. So I've taken up residence with the crew and have been sent out to record the goings on for the journey ahead at the request of the King."

 "Ahh.." I tried not to be rude and inquire why he'd been eaves dropping. "Sorry to hear about your world. Glad you made it out okay."

 "But of course!" The cricket supplied, jumping onto Sora's knee from the floor.

 "I’m, Sora and this is Yukari." Sora greeted. "Nice to meet you. I'm guessing you'll be pretty busy with all that writing."

 "Oh, of course! Feel free to suggest anything I might miss."

 "Yeah, sure." Sora turned to me, as he got to his feet. The cricket, Jiminy leapt on to his shoulder as if to hitch a ride. "I'm gonna head to the cockpit with the others. You comin'?"

 "Uhh... I think I'll catch a quick nap." I said, eyeing Jiminy. "Wake me up when we're ready for landing."

 Sora nodded before he headed out of the room, closing the door behind him.

 Once alone, I sighed, lying back in the bed. I found myself gazing out at the stars that flew by. Sora's words about Riku hadn't left me. Closing my eyes I hoped that maybe it wasn't something that was cause for concern, but the dreams would ultimately correct that notion.

 I was taken to a scene where a communion of conveniently shadowed figures stood around a sort of magical table that projected an image of... Sora Donald Goofy and I, back when we'd pledged our party-ship in Traverse Town. Now feeling very watched, I floated closer, attempting to grasp the going's on.

 Within the dark room, low lit by green flames, I gathered that there had been about six shapes, conversing with each other.

 "The little brats, took down that Heartless!" One of the voices raged. "Who would've thought?"

 "Such is the power of the Keyblade." Went another voice. "Their powers aren't their own."

 "Why not just turn them into a Heartless and be done with them." A woman's voice happily chimed in. "Solve to problem, quick and easy."

 "Those brats' friends, are the king's lackey's. Swoogle me eyes! Their all bilge rats by the looks of them." Spoke another.

 "You're know prize, yourself." Went yet another.

 "Shut up!!"

 "Enough!" A final voice boomed from the shadows. Her voice was the only one to be matched with a face, as she stepped into the little light that danced about the room.

 Looking into her yellow eyes, her blacked pupils gazed evilly at the image of our party on the table. Draped in high collared robes of black and violet, her green skin and horned cowl, complimented the cunning expression that waltzed onto her black stained lips. "The Keyblade has already chosen these two. But will it be they who conquers the Darkness, or perhaps will it swallow them? Either way, we shall watch them closely, as they could pose to be useful. Especially the girl."

 Her grin grew wider, and in that moment, it looked as though she had made direct eye contact with my ghostly form, sat across the room. But, before I could take much stalk in the idea, I was thrown into another scene.

 Dizzying colors of blue, spun around my vision until I found myself in the strangest, place I'd ever seen. Blue cliffs, rose up around me, ushering heaps of rising... water falls defying gravity in every means possible. Water shot towards the heavens as if this place existed in reverse. What was more, was the chunks of rock, floating through the air. Completely awe struck, I almost hadn't noticed a figure of blue and yellowed, curled up atop one of them.

 Urgently I found myself reaching out to them. My heart raced at the sight of their waking face, a mess of confusion and fear.

 "Riku!!" I shouted.

 But of course he couldn't hear me. All the same, he sat forth, gazing about himself as if looking for the source of the voice.

 "Where... where am I?" He asked, the silence.

 I tried again to call out for him, but was met with no sign of him being able to hear me. My heart, lurched into my gut when I felt myself being pulled away from the scene. The world around me began to darken, and Riku’s image began to blur.

　

"W-wait! I'm not ready yet!" I cried out to no one. But that didn’t matter. The darkness around me quickly took over. Tendrils of black, smoke and ooze, shot out from the darkness. A hissing sounded in my ears, flooding my body with immediate terror. The pitch black face with yellow eyes and red mangled teeth appeared from within the darkness.　

　

"Sleeeeeep!!" the thing hissed, coming at me with alarming speed.

 I screamed, trying to fight the thing and get away, but realized, I had woken up, back in my dorm upon the ship. Breathing heavily, I checked myself before realizing my face was drenched with tears.　

To Be Continued

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[vacantgestures]

Ascendant Recollection : CH 01 :

Franchise: Kingdom Hearts

Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama

Love Interest: Riku

Rating: Teen

A girl with hardly any memories, strives to create some of her own. Tasked with the role of a wielder of the Key Yukari is met with the overwhelming struggle of uncovering the past of her ancestors. Through truth, she may release them, but at what cost will it be to the life she has long since been led to believe is reality?

I ran through the quite morning air as my lungs filled with the scent of the salty sea. Every step was a quiet one, as my bare toes lightly tapped the surface of the shore. Wet sand began to squeeze through the spaces between my toes before to the water slapped eagerly at my ankles. I stopped near the docks, drawing in a sharp breath as I hopped onto the enormous, vacant board walk. I excitedly, I rushed over to the railing, leaning over it to pear out at the dark blue waters.

 As I stood there, I felt the ocean spray, mist against my face as I stared out at the faint glow of the sun, peeking out at the horizon. The wind brushed, gently through my long black hair, as I strained my ears for the sound of the seagulls that would rise with the sun.

 "Sssssssllllllleeeeeeeaaap...."

 There it was, right on que.

 I waited again for another familiar cry of hisses but none came.

For the longest time, I had assumed that it had been some sort of sea creature that waited in the ocean. But the voice only came to me in times of solitude and most often when I would stare out at the waters.

 I leaned over and gazed down upon the distorted image of myself, reflecting back at me below. The sound of the water lapping against the docks’ hold’s was comforting. Leaning back, I sank down to the plank of the boardwalk and sat there, dangling my feet over the edge as I waited. My green eyes glanced back the way I'd come every once, and again until a silhouette appeared in the distance.

 I stood up promptly and watched a boy my age came trotting out of the deep purple, morning shadows. He strode over to me casually, with a medium sized sack slung over his shoulder. Excitedly, I hopped down off of the dock and hurried to meet him at the edge of the beach.

 I grinned as I neared him, glancing curiously at the sack in his possession. "Morning, Riku." I greeted.

 "Morning, Yukari." He returned, as he gazed down at me with his bright, turquoise eyes. He was a tall boy, standing half a foot over me. His bluish silver hair nearly glowed against the light or rising sun.

 "That the sail?" I asked, in reference to the sack.

 "Yep." He nodded. "Hopefully we can have it fixed up and hoisted by noon. It's got a few holes, but nothing too strenuous."

 I nodded as the two of us headed back towards the dock. My eyes fixed on the ocean once again. Somehow, this time it seemed to have grown louder than when I'd been alone.

 "By the way." Riku spoke out, his voice rising to compete with the sound of the waves gently collapsing, in the distance. "I thought Sora said he would be here with you today, for sure."

 "Really?" I smirked, rolling my eyes at him. "This early? You know that guy sleeps like the dead, right? We probably won't see him until after the sail's finished."

 "Of course," Riku chuckled. "I was only joking. We'll just make sure to have him do the rest of the hard work when he does get to the island."

 I laughed a bit, feeling that awful sense of dread from earlier leave me.

 Approaching the boat, Riku carefully placed the burlap into the bottom before moving to untie the ropes form the dock. Handing them off to me, we worked to neatly arrange them, as we'd been instructed by the adults. Once that job had been done, I made a grab for the oars, handing them off Riku before using my teenage girl strength to push the boat away from the shore.

 Riku hurridly extended a hand to help me into the boat, to which I quickly grabbed hold. Together we got me safely seated, as we began to float gently away from the dock. I glanced back at the shore, staring off at the line of little wooden boats that had been left for the young kids to take out to the islands, where we were headed.

 I turned back to Riku and watched him work at the oars. The boat chugged along atop the surface of the water as waves lapped at the sides. I'd offer to help, but whenever I rode with Riku, he'd always refused it. I hardly doubted he need the help, but at least it gave me something to do and keep my mind distracted.

 At sixteen, Riku was already pretty muscular. It didn't help that his yellow muscle shirt did little to nothing, to hide this. And it absolutely didn't help the fact that I'd developed a crush on him within the past three years. I could never really explain when or how I started to feel the way I had, but I could only attribute it to the amount of time we'd been spending together, alone more often, the older we got. But I feel, I owe it more to Riku's desire to see what lie beyond the sea.

 My thoughts were halted, by the light thud of the boat bouncing against the shore.

 In no time we had made it to the island and moved quickly to dock the boat and get to work on our latest project. We walked quietly along the shore side, heading to our work spot. As we did, I gazed out at the network of an interconnected shack and bridge way that the adults from the main land, had worked hard to put together for us when we were small. Imposing looking trees towered over the small bit of land. For years the mass of a jungle like thicket had grown wilder and wilder.

 I inhaled sharply as Riku and I headed into one of the passage ways, that led to the side of the island where a thicket of coconut trees grew. Passing over a bridge that stood over a small cliff, we made it to our destination, where our project, lay in assorted pieces-- a raft, that we'd been secretly working away from most of the other kids who hung out of the island, still had yet to learn about.

 Riku set down the bag, he'd been carrying and began to pull from it, a large, thick sheet, which I presumed would be the sail for our small vessel.

 "It's... not so bad." I said, observing the tears that spotted the cloth.

 "We can fix it up." Riku said handed me a sewing kit. The needles inside had been clearly meant for the handiwork of thick leathers and quilting. Still I suppose it would do just fine.

 I nodded, taking the kit in my hands and adjusting the sheet so I could count off all of the tears in the material. Silently the two of us went to work, sitting across from each other as we pressed the needle through different section of the would-be sail. Slowly, my mind began to drift away, as I looked up at Riku who'd been working diligently. His brows were knitted in concentration as the light breeze swept his hair across his forehead. Turning away, my attention was met with the purple sky, bleeding into the orange of the morning sun. The ocean reflected and deep burgundy as, specks of light blue twinkled on the surface.

 "You seem pretty distracted this morning." Riku's voice spoke out over the ambient noises.

 I didn't bother looking back at him. I knew he'd still be nose deep in the sail if I did. Instead I  continued to gaze out at the ocean-- The dread was teetering it way back into existence.

 "I... guess, I’m just a little nervous." I slowly began, trying to break up my obvious growing fear of the idea of leaving the Island.

 It had been a long time now, but, Riku, and a couple of our other friends had planned to leave the place we’d called home. It was Riku who conceived the idea when we were little kids. Now older and with ample time on summer break, we’d decided to take matters into our own hands to craft a boat to see what lay beyond the vast, infinite plane of blue. The idea that we were alone out here, was a crazy and slightly scary thought. But wouldn't it be even crazier and scarier to find out that all our lives, it hadn't been that way?

I sighed shrugging my shoulders as I looked down at my stitch work. "Never mind. It's dumb." I said, now regretting feeling like a weakling in front of him.

I noticed Riku had stopped what he was doing to look up at me. "It's not dumb." He said. "If something is bothering you, you know you can talk about it."

I glanced over at him with uncertain eyes. I'd kept a lot of things hidden. Not just from Riku, but all my friends. I'd never told anyone about the dreams, or nightmares. And never had I even considered mentioning the voice. At best, everyone would think I'm crazy. At worst, no one would know how to help. It's not like I haven't had my chances. I just... worry about how I'd be treated afterwards.

"Yeah..." I finally decided to say after what felt like a very long and uncomfortable pause. My eyes darted back to the stitching as I tried my best not to feel the stare that Riku had placed on me. I probably had worried him. I regretted it but, I refused to bother with the topic any longer as I insisted on keeping my eyes on my work until we'd finished.

 Kingdom Hearts: Ascendant Recollection

Chapter 01

Ebbing Summer Haze

With the rising sun, the air grew warmer and the sky brightened to its stark clear blue. We'd managed to make significant progress on our raft, with the only task left to be done-- mounting the sail, adjusting ropes and harnesses, and making provision for our trip. Late in the afternoon, our small duo had become a quartet, as the island began to trickled to life with other kids from the main land, including the two who'd shared in our plans to sail into the unknown.

 A girl with bright, rose red hair, approached with a huge bundle of ropes. She dropped them near the raft, where we'd been making very small fixes, to account for any problems we might have on our journey. The idea itself was a bit nerve-wracking but I let it be for the time being.

 "Thanks Kairi." I said grinning at her.

 "Of course!" She smiled, her violet eyes dancing with enthusiasm. "I'm just so excited. You and Riku have made so much progress without us. I almost can't wait, once we set sail!"

 Kairi was a girl of a much slimmer frame than my own. She was fifteen and had about one or two inches on me. She dressed herself, in somewhat of a stylish get up of black and white tanks tops, a lavender skort and an array of yellow, black and silver bangles and bands on her wrist. Around her neck, dangling below the black choker, was the necklace she'd always worn, ever since she showed up on the island when we were all little. A pearl-ish like bead hung from a black cord, glinting brightly against the sun's gaze.

 Kairi herself had no memory of where she's come from before. But I had to wonder that even she felt there was something heavily important about that necklace for her to never go a day without it. The prompting of her arrival had been what started this whole ride of preparation for a trip to "anywhere but here." But I could tell that Kairi had to be to most eager of us all, having nothing left but a memory of her grandmother as a constant reminder that she may still have family somewhere out there.

 "Once Sora, gets his share done, things will definitely start to speed up." Riku’s voice came in from behind me. I glanced back at him as he came away from the raft.

 "Hey, I have been doing my part!" Called another voice.

 I watched as a boy with spiky chestnut, brown hair and deep blue eyes entered our spot nestled amongst the palm trees, lugging a sack over his shoulder. Plopping it down as he reached us, he let go a combo of rhythmic pants, before wiping the sweat from his brow. "You're the one makin' me do all this work!" He complained.

 "That's because you slacked off on helping out on the raft." Riku said with his hands on his hips. He was now looking down at Sora was faux pity.

 "What?" Sora, attempted to straighten. "I helped plenty!"

 "Yukari did more than you." Riku mocked.

 I watched as the two stared each other down. But it was clear that Riku had Sora beat with his collected demeanor. At fifteen, Sora was pretty short, next to Riku. Standing at about Kairi's height. He was dressed in red jump suit and hoody, and strode around in his loud, yellow shoes.

 The rivalry between the two had gone on for years, but only seemed to have begun when they entered their tweens. It wasn't really a matter of question, who the fastest, strongest, and probably boldest kid on the island was. I often overheard some of the boys discussing it, and Riku's name always came up. Sora never really let that stop him though, as the two were close friends, and their rivalry never seemed to get the better of them.

 "Alright you guys." Kairi announced, rolling her eyes. "We've still got tons to do! Might as well not stand around."

 "Yeah, yeah." Sora, crossed his arms over his chest.

 Riku shrugged. "Of course. I want to be done with raft by sun down. You're still more than welcome to help, Sora." He teased.

 Sora grinned, but had no words to offer as he started for the raft.

 The rest of the day was spent doing the expected-- working at raft and attempting to finish up with the provisions until, even that turned into just relaxing and falling back into the routine of the usual shenanigans we'd often found ourselves getting into. It wasn't long before dusk made itself apparent and the four of us found ourselves lazing about on the now completed voyager.

 We basked in what was left of the sun's glow as it began to sink below the horizon. The sky was a blood orange, and the ocean had been tinted pink. As we sat around the raft we held a small conversation of what we almost always talked about, somehow the topic had only become more frequent as the days of the raft's completion carried on.

 "Do you really think, we'll find something out there, if we go to the end of the ocean?" Kairi's voice trickled into the silence as she spoke to no one in particular.

 "Dunno..." Sora shrugged, as he worked at what appeared to be a flag, he'd been. Earlier he'd insisted, we'd needed one. And now he was sanding away at the pole, absent-mindedly as he gazed up at the sky. "I guess, we're just gonna have to find out when we get there."

 I sighed, slipping my feet into the shore. The rise and fall of the water, deposited sand on my legs. My eyes drifted up to the sail as I leaned back on my palms. "You never know." I voiced. "Tidus and Wakka claimed to have swam out super far once. Said, they didn't see anything but water all around... Maybe there isn't anything out there."

 "We'll find out, when we find out." Riku insisted, setting down a stick he'd been whittling at. "And… say there is something at the ocean's edge, maybe it's where Kairi came from, or someplace new. Had she not showed up, we probably would never have thought there could’ve been other worlds to venture to in the first place. We’d have just kept on living our lives in this same unchanged scenery."

 For a moment, everyone was silent as Riku's words carried through the salty ocean air. I wanted to say something-- About the trip, the idea of other worlds, Riku's feeling of just getting out of here, anything. Instead, I let the silence linger long enough for someone else to break it.

 "Welp!" Came Sora's voice to my right. He'd sprung up from the raft, having dropped the pole and going into a deep stretch. "I'm goin' home. You comin' back with me Yukari?"

 I glanced over at Riku on my left, who'd not removed his gaze from his stick before looking up at Sora.

 "Uh... yeah." I answered slowly, rising from my spot.

 "I'll head out too." Kairi said. "I'm pretty beat. We should all head back together."

 "Yeah." Riku agreed, solemnly.

 We made our way back to the docks, where we unfastened the boats and headed back to the mainland. It was then that we all said our goodbye’s and went our separate ways as night began to assert itself. Sora and I headed back to his house, where we'd indulged in one of our favorite past times: Eating.

 To make things a little bit clear, I lived with Sora and his family for as long as I could remember. Apparently I had suffered some sort of trauma as a kid, and lost my memories during the events of losing my family. The only odd thing was, that no one would tell me what happened. All the adults said that my mom passed, and my father vanished. None of the kids on the island seemed to know much, either. But it didn't bother me as much as I felt it should have. I suppose you can't miss something you have no memory of.

 In the meantime, Sora and I had basically become siblings. I looked out for him as he did for me. I helped him with his chores and his homework and in turn, he kept a smile on my face, weather he intended to or not. Our relationship was a really positive one, as he was the slightly older brother who acted goofy, while the younger sister made sure to keep him in check.

 Once showered, I threw on an oversized t-shirt and some shorts and joined Sora in his room, with what was essentially a layout of food. We ate and talked the evening away, mostly about random stuff, like how good the food was, what we'd want to eat the next day and etc. Eventually the discussion quieted, as we slowly finished up and gathered our utensils and bowls and took them to the kitchen to clean them up. As we did on occasion, we took snacks back to his room and kinda just laid around, reading. I partook in an adventure novel while he skimmed through the pages of his comics.

 Partway through my read, my mind drifted to other thoughts. I might sound like a broken record, but yes, I was thinking of the whole ordeal of leaving the island, and most importantly, Riku's odd behavior from earlier. I recalled the distant look in his eyes before he left. There was something about it, I wasn’t too fond of.

 "Hey Sora?" I called out to him on his floor. I'd had myself slumped in a bean bag he’d thrown in a corner.

 "Hm?" He didn't look up from his comic, but I was quite aware that I had his attention.

 "Do you think... Riku's been acting a little weird?" I suggested.

 Sora put down his book and sent me an inquisitive look. "I'mmm... not sure what you mean. Weird, how?"

 I hadn't expected to get this much of his attention, but maybe he was feeling it too? "Oh well, I dunno. It just feels like he's a bit more... distant..." I found myself trailing off as a frown took shape on my lips. The image of Riku's solemn expression flashed into my mind.

 "Well... maybe." Sora somewhat agreed. "It's probably him thinking about the outside world way too much." He then proceeded to shrug it off, rolling onto his back as he resumed his activity.

 Granted, that's what it felt like to me too, but it seemed like there was more. It was as if, I'd struck a nerve earlier when I suggested there may not be anything beyond the ocean. His expression was so... guarded and closed off. I wished I'd just asked him.

 Dissatisfied with outcome of the conversation, I closed my book and released a heavy sigh. "I'm goin' to bed." I said, masking my frustration. "Are you getting up early tomorrow?" I asked, turning at the door.

 "Wake me up." Sora said with his nose still pressed into his book.

 "Uh huh.. We'll see about that." I grinned, knowingly as I headed away from the door.

 Once in my room, I plopped faced first into the bed. I stayed like that for a minute before I lifting my faced, and turning to the night stand beside my bed. It had been littered with keepsakes, nick knacks and photographs of nothing but good times with my friends. All that was missing was blood relatives...

 Sitting up on my haunches, I scooted to the edge of the bed and reached for a palm sized wooden charm, in the shape of a yellow star. Looking down at it, I felt a little better as I ran my fingers over the little scratches and nicks. Turning it over in my hand I found the words "Prop of Riku and Yuka" carved in small, barely legible, letters on one of prongs of the star. From the same prong, was a wooden leaf, tinted a greenish blue, leading off into a gimp chain the dangled from the tip.

 The charm had been made in reference to poupou fruits, which was a special "delicacy" that had the power to supposedly bind two people together for life, if they'd shared one. Riku and I had made it a few years back in secret. It was a weird thing for us to do, considering the whole meaning behind the legend but, the charm itself was tied with good memories. These days I'd been far too embarrassed to keep it with me at all times. Imagine if anyone found out about it!

 Exactly!

 Besides, I wouldn't want to be caught with it, and suddenly have Riku involved. I mean, his name was on it.

 Lying back, into my pillow, I clutched the charm tighter in my hand, doing my best to remain positive. Tomorrow was right around the corner.

 As my mind slowly began to turn off, I drifted away into a dream. My dreams, were not the usual kind as, often, I found myself wandering around in a place I'd never seen. I had to assume for a long time that if there were outside worlds, these would be it. Yet, I'd never come across much, to discount them as dreams... perhaps not until that night.

 As my soul was leaving my body, I was pulled across the top of the ocean's surface. Sea mist, zipping behind me as the water began to blend with the reflection of the sky before it turned to stars. I gazed up in awe at how close I'd come. I didn't have much control over the dreams. I was just along for the ride.

 A shooting star suddenly whizzed past me. When I turned to follow it, I was treated to a top down view of an expansive hedge garden that sat within what appeared to be a sort of grand court yard. Enormous white columns rose up into the sky, adorned with intricate, golden designs.

 But it didn't seem as though the garden was my focus as I drifted closer towards a hall that opened up to a view of the court yard. A long, expensive looking carpet with golden trim ran the length of the hall. Walking along it was... A duck?

 The pitter-pat of his... feet, slapped along the rug as he walked. He was dressed as though he was some sort of mage, as a wizard’s had sat atop his head. A large grin ran the length of his bill as he seemed in a good mood. Involuntarily I floated alongside him as he walked. I wouldn't bother trying to converse with him, as my experiences with the dreams had led me to realize that if anyone lived within them, they could neither see nor hear me.

 The duck... man continued on until he made it to a large set of doors, towering several tens of feet above my head. At first I wondered how he intended to get through on his own. Yet my question was answered when the duck pressed his knuckles to the door, and initiated a sort of patterned knocking. Once completed, a small box outline appeared, and a hundredth portion of the door swung up. I tried not to think too hard about the need for such an entrance, as I followed him inside where I found an impressive space, of near complete... nothing.

 The long red rug from the hall, ran the length of this room as well-- all the way down to the other end of it. A throne of fancy wood and gold designs, sat lonesome at the back of the chamber, The echoing of the ducks feet intensified, bouncing off the emasculate marble surfaces.

 "Good morning your maje.." The duck began to greet the empty seat, which at first led me to believed he was a bit loony. Yet this was before he began to realize, the room had been empty from the start.

 Stopping halfway into the room, the duck glanced around, almost nervously before a the golden coat of a bloodhound lit up from behind the throne. Black ears flopped against its head as it trotted over towards the duck man, with an envelope in its mouth.

 "Pluto?" The duck trailed off.

 I blinked rapidly at the realization that the dog was a pet... to an animal? This had to be some dream I was dreaming. 

As I watched the dog let loose the envelope into the Ducks feathered hand, he barked once before running off.

 The duck man watched him go, looking right through me as he did. His face growing more nervous by the second before turning back to the envelope, opening it up to a letter. Peering over his shoulder, I decided I would sneak a read.

  Dear Donald,

Please forgive me for leaving so suddenly, but trouble is brewing, and there's no time to lose. I'm not sure why, but the stars have been blinking out... one by one. Hate to leave you, but I have to check into this. As the king, I have a favor to ask you and Goofy...

There is someone out there with a Key—the Key to our survival. I need you and Goofy to find him and stick with him! Got it?

Without that key, we're doomed!

You should start by heading to Traverse Town and seek out Leon. I'm sure he'll be able to get your guys pointed in the right direction.

 P.S.

Could you tell Minnie "Sorry" for me? Thanks pal.

  As my eyes glossed quickly over the contents of the letter, my throat went dry. As I neared the end, the duck sprung up into a full panic attack, screaming and gesticulating wildly before sprinting towards the exit.

 I turned to rush after him, eager to see how this dream played out but, the second I stepped foot out the door, I was sent plummeting into a chasm of vast darkness that stretched out all around me. My heart thundered loudly in my ears as the air around me ripped the scream right from my throat. The sound of a loud, rattling hiss, boomed from beneath me.

 I managed to turn midair to find an enormous creature of black flesh and yellow eyes gazing up at me from the pit below. The gargantuan... thing screeched as it let go the most painful cry I'd ever had the great displeasure of hearing, screaming the word "Slleeeeeeeppppp!!" Before opening its maw of red mangled teeth.

 I tried, helplessly to stop myself from falling, as I found that I was going to end up in the belly of that thing if I didn't. Of course it was no use. Letting go another disemboweling shriek, I watched terrified as I plummeted right into the creatures black esophagus, launching myself up right like a spring board, right into Sora's forehead.

 "Agh!!" I heard his pained yelling, as he sunk down to the floor, clamping his hand over his forehead.

 "S-sora!?" I exclaimed, looking down frantically over the edge of my bed.

 "No, no!" Sora stopped me, as he slowly got up. "I'm alright. It's my bad."

 "What... are you do in my room at this hour--" I asked, as I glanced towards the ticking clock on my night stand. My eyes went wide as I found it read 12:00 p.m.

 "We slept in!?" I shouted, leaping from the bed, towards my dresser. I yanked out my outfit for the day and hastily ran to the bathroom.

 "Well... yeah, that's why I came to get you." Sora called from near the bed.

 I did my morning routine at the speed of light, splashing water on my face and scrubbing my teeth and freshening up every way possible in a matter of a minute before throwing on my shorts and halter top.

 "I thought you were getting up early." Sora mentioned, his eyes following me around the room as I hastily yanked on my black thigh high, leg warmers.

 "Well yeah--" I said, grabbing my usual off-the-shoulder orange, and green backed, shirt, slipping it on and tucking it in to my shorts as I headed out the room with Sora following me immediately behind. Already having been late, I would sadly have to miss breakfast as, the two of us thundered down the stairs rushing out of the door, bidding Sora's mom good bye for the day.

 "Just, hurry." I said, running down the path to the beach.

 Sora and I hastily untied the last boat and got in. He took up the oars and started rowing as I hurriedly slipped on my shoes that I'd carried all the way to the boat. I let go a heavy sigh as I started to pull back a large portion of my hair and began to braid the lower half of it into a loose French braid. Digging into my back pocket, I pulled out the ribbon I always used to set the braid in, but that hadn't been the only thing that had come out of my pocket.

 A loud THUNK resounded in the bottom of our little boat. Sora and I had glanced down to see what it had been, only to find my Poupou charm lying between his feet.

 "Is that a--?"

 "It's nothing!" I said quickly, swiping up the charm before Sora could even finish his statement.

 I found myself blushing fiercely as I silently fumbled with my hair, now working on wrapping a rubber band around a braid, I'd left to dangled near my ear. For a moment, an uncomfortable silence settled between us and lasted a minute too long.

 What the heck? I don't remember putting the charm in my pocket. Maybe that happened when I was rushing around the room, getting ready. I probably hadn't realized it while I managed to trip over my things but, somehow the charm made it into my back pocket. And now Sora-- of all people had seen it. I couldn't even begin to imagine what might have been thinking.

 Slowly, Sora went back to rowing the boat.

 "So--"

 "So--"

 Both of us spoke at once. Making eye contact, I caught that awkward glance he gave me and instantly, his ears went red.

 "Uh..." Sora began. "I was just wondering, about this morning."

 "This... morning?" I asked looking up at him.

 "Yeah... well, I mean-- earlier" He corrected himself. "When I came to get you... you were crying in your sleep."

 "What?" I asked.

 "Hey, I don't know. I thought the same thing. But.. I just wanted to make sure...  everything was okay."

 I blinked, gazing at Sora with wide eyes. That awful feeling of dread settled onto my shoulders. I felt pretty lame, hiding my problems. But like I'd mentioned before-- I didn't think anyone could help or even begin to understand. I wasn't usually one to complain. I didn't really want to inconvenience people with my problems.

 But the way Sora had spoken, wondering if things were alright... Maybe I just needed to be more convincing.

 "Things are fine." I told him. For the most part, it wasn't a total lie.

 Sora didn't seem fully convinced, but kept his eyes on the island for the remainder of the boat ride. After docking, we were greeted by a few of the other kids who hung out on the island before making our way to the Riku and Kairi.

 "You guys are late." Riku said. "That's normal for you, Sora, but Yukari? Your laziness must be infectious."

 Neither I nor Sora gave an immediate response as we exchanged glances with each other before taking a spot in different places around the raft. Of course Riku caught this as his gaze lingered, dancing between the two of us. But it would be the arrival of Kairi that was dismiss the odd exchange altogether.

 "Alright, guys!" She announced. "Lot's to do!"

 "You mean Sora's got a lot to do." Riku corrected. "The sail's fixed, the raft is finished-- but of course it’s no thanks to him."

 "What?" Sora spat. "I gathered a bunch of provisions yesterday."

 "Because you slacked off on the raft."

 "Gathering necessities is just as important-- and just as tiring." Sora stuck a thumb into his chest and shot Riku a look of resolve. "I'd say I carried my weight. Let's just split the remainder of work!"

 "So you can slack off on that too?" Riku rose a brow at Sora, his expression conniving.

 "Guys..." I sighed, rolling my eyes. Knowing the look on the boys' face, I knew what was about to happen next.

 "A race!" Sora proclaimed. "First one to the finish has to do all of the provisions."

 "Really?" I chimed in, the sound of exasperation already alive in my tone.

 "Alright." Riku agreed, without a moment's hesitation. "Sounds like a fair deal. Kairi?"

 Riku turned to look at her. Kairi smiled and shrugged, shaking her head. "Yeah, yeah. I got you."

 We had all up and headed towards the starting line. I stationed myself to the side-- My job would be to ensure a winner in case there was a close call. Kairi was the ref.

 This activity between Sora and Riku had become a regular occurrence, as the rivalry between the two had grown, stronger over the years. It was always over little things, and today was no exception. As the two readied themselves, stretching and warming up and what not, I couldn't help but over hear their brief conversation.

 "So just so we're clear, me winning means, you get to do the rest of the provisions, on your own. And if you win, then I--"

 "How about we make it more interesting, and the winner also gets to share a poupou fruit with Kairi."

 My heart sunk, at hearing those words.

 "W... What?" Sora stuttered. His face turned a light shade of red, but he tried to play it off by looking increasingly perplexed. "What are you talking abou--"

 "You heard me. Winner shares a poupou with Kairi." Riku smirked.

 "But that not what I--"

 "Alright your two!" Kairi called out, announcing the commencement of their race. "Ready!"

 Sora had been clearly flustered. But Riku was well and ready. It was at moment that I realized that Riku may have only said that to distract Sora. But there was still a part of me that thought otherwise.

 "Go!!"

 On Kairi's mark, the boys dashed from their spots, Sora getting a rocky start, stumbling over himself a bit. As the two disappeared into the obstacle course, the sound of seagulls and the waves crashing in the distance, returned with the calm.

 "You alright?" Kairi asked, before I could fully relax.

 I had realized then, that I was frowning. "Uh, yeah." I said quickly. I didn't bother forcing a smile. But instead, I thought I'd try a little bit of honesty. "I was actually just thinking about this whole... thing we're doing."

 "Seeing what's past the ocean?" Kairi inquired.

 "Yeah." I nodded. I waited for just a moment before continuing. "Have you ever thought... we might be doing something a little dumb? I mean... it is just a raft."

 "Well... actually, yeah." Kairi said. She sighed a kind of wistful sigh as she leaned against the cliff side. A cool breeze brushed by and swept her hair across her face. From a clasp on her belt she pulled out a little trinket of Thalassa shells, she'd been working on for days. She'd mentioned that it was a sort of good luck charm that sailors from the old times, used to ensure they’d be safe on their journey. I wondered if she was more nervous than she let on. "But..." She spoke, breaking through my thoughts. "I think it would still be fun to try and see what sits outside of our little island."

 "I mean... but," I drew circles in the sand as I sat cross legged. My thoughts were getting jumbled as I attempted to safely express myself. "We do know that there might be other worlds out there. I mean we have an idea-- since you came here."

 "Yeah, but, Yukari... this place has been all you've ever known. You grew up here on Destiny Islands. More than anything, you should be more excited at the prospect of leaving, right?"

 I shrugged, pulling my knees into my chest. "Iunno... Maybe." I let go a small sigh as I stared out at the sea. I know if I ever left home, I'd miss it. Leaving would be fun, but would we ever find our way back if we did?

 My thoughts were cut short when the sound of panting neared our spot.

 "Here they come." Kairi noted, as she put away her trinket.

 I readied myself for the end game as the two boys came speeding in our direction. I watched intently as Riku leapt over the gap in the bridge. Sora pumped his arms, shoving his foot into the dirt to propelling himself a bit farther. But it only caused him to trip at bit, and he wobbled out to catch himself.

 Riku laughed, almost breaking concentration. Still, that didn't stop him from gaining a burst of speed at the last second as she propelled himself across the finish line. Sora had been right behind him, but all his power had been drained as he saw his defeat. The look on his face was crestfallen as he bent over, gripping his knees, gasping for air.

 "The winner is Riku!" Kairi announced. "Looks like it's decided. Sorry Sora."

 "C'mon, I want a rematch!" He wheezed. From the look he was giving, I could tell his face hadn't been red from just running.

 "Nah," Riku said decidedly. "Have fun with your chores."

 "But-- I--!" Sora began to protest, but Riku had stopped him, slapping a hand on his shoulder.

 "I wasn't really serious about what I said earlier." He said, low of enough for me to catch.

 I watched the color came back to Sora's face, as the realization hit him.

 I sighed, shaking my head. "You guys are dumb." I mumbled, turning to leave. With not much else to do, I found myself wandering away from the group. Kairi had already went off somewhere, and Sora was now about to become the only active working party member.

 My feet wandered around the beach as I found random ways to kill time. Picking up shells, skipping rocks, wading in the shore. My mind was constantly drifting back to the dream I'd had last night. Part of me didn't feel like it was just some dream. The letter had mentioned something about a key, and finding a man named Leon in a place called Traverse Town. Even more disturbing was the idea of the stars blinking out. I thought maybe that was just a normal thing, but after seeing that letter, I can't be so sure.

 After some time, I'd reached the old rocky alcove near the water fall, and quietly snuck my way inside. Riku, Sora and I had been calling it the secret place for years. Since we were kids we'd been coming to this place and drawing on the walls, making weird little kid pacts and what not. Over the years, the other kids came in here and helped to fill up the cave with drawings as well. In some instances, it almost seemed kind of primitive, but I thought it was unique.

 At some point, Riku and I would leave secret messages to each other in different locations and we'd both have to look for the next. At first it was just something we did for fun, but later it became a normal thing. I still hadn't found Riku's last message as of late and wondered if he'd even managed to leave one in a while.

 Gazing around the small cave like spot, I stopped to stare at the wooden door that sat against the back wall. It was incredibly out of place, and no one seemed to know how it got there. As kids we'd tried to get it open but, to no avail. It was seals shut with no way in, and who knows if there was any way out.

 looking away from the door, I turned to leave.

                                  "This World Has Been Connected."

 I stopped in my tracks, as a voice softly trickled into the caves, crevasse and echoed around me.

 Slowly, I turned, thinking I wouldn't find anything and that I'd just imagined it. But sadly, I was wrong, as I found a sort of... figure. It's posture seemed odd as it stood there hunched over. The lack of form from within made it almost seem as if there wasn't much of anything inside.

 "Who... are you?" I asked. Somehow my feet were frozen in place. I couldn't move, no matter what. It was almost as if this... thing was holding me here.

 "Tied to the Darkness... Soon to be eclipsed, just like the worlds that have vanished before it."

 "Darkness? What a-- what are you even talking about? How did you even get here?" I barraged the guy with questions as if part of some sort of fear response.

 This time, the mysterious visitor lifted his arm. Weak, blue and black flames began to swirl around his wrist and for a horrible second, I noticed that he'd began to move towards me.

 "You still do not know..." He muttered, the flames intensified, spreading up his arm. The sagging  sleeve of his cloak, now centimeters from my chest. Still, I had no control over my body. "You do not know...why lies beyond the door!" The man's voice rose, booming throughout the cave, as the dark flames from around the man's wrist, exploded around me. I was thrown back against the powerful gust, surging dangerously towards the mouth of the cave.

 My eyes popped open, and were treated to the red evening sky.

 Had that really been a dream? I sat up and found myself sitting near the poupou tree that sat near the edge of the ocean. The wind gently brushed my bangs across my by forehead. The cool ocean air, lightly salting my cheeks. Gazing out at the ocean, I thought back to what Sora had told me earlier about crying in my sleep. I wondered, how often that had happened and if maybe that signified the instance of whether dreams were real or not.

 I sighed, frustrated, running my fingers through my hair. "This is just too much..." I grumbled.

 "That sounded like a pretty long sigh." My ears perked up at the sound of Riku's voice.

 I turned and watched him cross the bridge, that hung over the beach as he approached. For whatever reason, seeing his face made me think of what he'd said to Sora earlier before the race-- about sharing a poupou fruit with Kairi. I turned back to face the ocean. Joke or not that sort of thing still kind of hurt. I admit I was crushing on Riku harder that I would like to acknowledge.

 "Is this where you've been all day?" He asked, taking a seat next to me in the sand.

 I glanced over as he leaned back on his palm, one leg propped up with his other on resting on his knee.

 I didn't respond to his question. Instead the two of us sat there, enjoying the view, and relishing in the silence. That was, until Riku spoke once again.

 "Today's our last day here." he said. His voice was soft, like it always got when he went into contemplation mode. "Tomorrow... we set sail."

 I looked over at Riku again and saw the small smile that had danced onto his lips. He seemed so peaceful I didn't want to ruin his mood by asking the annoying questions. "You're pretty excited." I noted, pulling my knees into my chest.

 "You aren't?" He asked. I could feel him looking at me, as I stared intently into the dirt. "I guess you’re not." He finally realized. "You've been acting pretty weird lately. Are you nervous about leaving?"

 After all the dreams I've been having as of late, I was more than eager to say, yes. I imagine, that if the dreams hadn't been so... pressing, then maybe I would have been just as excited as my friends. But it was all so nerve-wracking. 

"Of course not." I said, choosing the path of a liar yet again. "I'm just really tired. We've been at this for days and my excitement is just eclipsed by the fact that I'm ready to eat a big meal and pass out."

 Riku let go a light chuckle. "Uh, huh. Well if that's the case, wanna come over for dinner?"

 "Oh, well... I guess." I mumbled. "I'll ask Sora if he's ready to leave."

 "I meant, just you." Riku corrected.

 I fought the never ending battle of uncontrollable blushing as I watched him get to his feet. "Ahhh.. we.. ah. uh. What?" I inquired, stupefied.

 Riku laughed at my reaction. "My mom's making your favorite. I just thought you'd be interested."

 I bit my lip as my gaze shifted back towards the sand. Despite everything, my mind was still a mess. I was well aware the he wasn't doing it on purpose but, I felt like he was giving me the run around.

 Wow... at fifteen I didn't think I'd ever think that.

 I let go a very sharp, but quick sigh as I stood up. I brushed the sand away from my clothes, fixed my hair and did literally anything I could to keep from making eye contact.

 "I think I'll have to pass." I said. "I have to get ready for tomorrow. And let's be honest, Sora's gonna need help prioritizing."

 The grin that formed onto Riku features was like a breath of fresh air. He nodded understandingly, shrugging his shoulders as he did. "That's fine. I'm heading back, now. Wanna ride with me?"

 "Sure." I answered without even thinking. It was sort of a reflex that I had only then cursed myself for.

 I followed Riku down to the docks. We passed Sora and Kairi who'd been chatting away as they walked along the shore. I waved at the two and Kairi waved back. At the same time I shot Sora a sort of "go get em'" wink, permeating a uncomfortable grin that sprung onto his face. I giggled to myself as I turned to catch up with Riku.

 For the most part, the boat ride was calm. We held idle chatter, discussing this and that. The sound of the ocean lapping at the boat somehow eased my nerves. The prospect of food and sleep, was welcomed whole-heartedly. It wasn't until we made it ashore that I could hear the distant rattling of the hiss from that thing, echoing across the ocean. I stopped to stare at the setting sun. Red on the horizon, I felt it's warmth wash over me as it attempted to counter that evil presence that lingered.

 "Yukari?" Riku's voices pulled me away from my angsty thoughts. “What is it?”

 "Nothing." was all I said before turning away from the scene.

 We walked the rest of the way back to Sora's house in silence. The sound of our footsteps sifting in the sand, filled the quiet. The chirping of the night time critters began the first notes of their nightly songs. The distant noises of the ocean took a back seat, fading into the whistles of the wind.

 "See you tomorrow." I said, once we'd made it to Riku's house.

 "Sure you don't wanna come in?" He asked, testing me.

 "I'm good." I rolled my eyes. I couldn't help but laugh a little.

 "Alriiight." He shrugged, my smile was infectious as one spread across his lips. "Your choice."

 "Good. Night. Riku." I punctuated, continuing down the path.

 Had I not realized that this might have been my last happy exchange with Riku, I would have stayed with him that night.

 Long after a hot meal, I decided to just relax. Sinking into my bed I pulled out my poupou charm and looked it over. The little nicks caught the light of the moon as I turned in my palm.

 "The winner gets to share a poupou with Kairi." Riku's words echoed in my mind.

 Frowning deeply, I tossed the charm onto my bedside night stand and rolled over. Slapping the pillow over my head, I somehow managed to suffocate myself, comfortably enough to pass out.

 The dreams came swiftly, but as usual, were unwelcoming.

 My body felt heavy, drifting downwards, as I sunk beneath the surface of the great blue ocean. With half lidded eyes, I watched as the rays of moon light spilling into the sea faded, trickling off and becoming distant beams of hope. The deeper I went, the darker it became. With the darkness, came a great feeling of unease. The warm waters turned cold, and my senses turned alert.

 "Wake up." A voice reverberated all around me.

 The moment it spoke, I found myself lying face down on a solid black surface. Reacting sluggishly, I got up and gazed around, finding that there had been nothing but complete and total darkness all around me. The only thing that existed within the space of complete black was a sort of sphere, that radiated a golden aura. What's more was that there had been a girl, trapped inside.

 Carefully I approached the encasement. As I got closer I could make out more details of the girl. She wore nothing but a little black dress that seemed much too small for her. The straps of her dress worked much like a ribbon, lacing around her slender neck. The oddest, and most disturbing feature about her was her face. It's not that she looked terrifying or misshapen or anything but... She had... my face. While much paler in comparison, with her exceedingly long lochs of hair being colored, white-- she could pass as my twin.

 But I didn't have any me memories of siblings, or even a twin for that matter. I was certain if someone knew about this, they would have told me.

 "The time has come," The voice from earlier spoke once again. "Your powers begin to awaken, and a difficult path lay ahead. Still... there is so little time."

 My confusion by the words being chanted around me was no more perplexing than the girl who floated before me. Looking up at her gave me vertigo, but I couldn't stop myself form reaching out to her. If this was a dream... then she couldn’t have been real. But... if this wasn't?

 "Behind you!!" The voice shouted, cutting my trance short.

 I spun around, to find a little gathering of odd creatures. I didn't have much of a chance to get a good look at them as I was too busy trying not to get jumped on. Stumbling out of the way, I turned frantically to find, more coming at me. I glanced back in the direction of the girl, but somehow she and her little bubble vanished.

 "Wh-augh!" The next thing I knew, the ground beneath me disappeared and I was sent tumbling into an even greater chasm of darkness. Instead of the fierce pain of crashing into an unseen ground, I was thrown into a completely different scene. It didn't even take me long to realize that I was standing in the secret place.

 But I wasn't alone.

 Two figures stood facing each other at the back of the cave, near the door that wouldn't open. One of them was Riku, and the other was the hooded figured I'd encountered earlier that day. But wasn't that just a dream? There's no way that had actually happened. 

Watching on, the scene played in silence. But it was clear, that the two had been exchanging words. The conversation seemed to be going smoothly as Riku's lips turned up into a smile.

 I frowned, knowing all too well what they had to have been talking about. From my earlier encounter this strange clocked figure had pestered me about other worlds vanishing. And it was on Riku's lips that I could make out the words, "To go to other worlds."

 "Riku, No!" I shouted within the dream. But of course it was no use. My voice would never reach him as I was thrown back as a gust of terrible black flames came spewing from the door, throwing me out of the cave and out of the scene.

 I was sent tumbling back into the black void where the little black creatures began to swarm me. Now able to get a better look at them, they all had small bodies and yellow beady eyes. Antennae on their heads flitted about as they twitched and crept around, ready to pounce. Of course this instinct proved correct as, together, the horde lunged forward to attack. I screamed, uncertain of the outcome, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't be anything good.

 Instead of impending doom, a great light, erupted form where my heart was, blinding both me and my enemies. It took a mere second to recover from the flash, but when it did, I found that the creatures were gone, and I was grasping a new item.

 It weighed down my had as any sword would have, but this seemed to be a bit different. This thing resembled the shape of a key, but was, increasingly detailed. A double shafted blade of white and silver, tipped with a heart and flower-like pinwheel design. The hand guard was winged, blending seamlessly into the shaft. What I found peculiar was that my poupou charm, dangled from the hand gaurd, like a key chain.

 "What... is going on?" I asked aloud.

 I didn't think I'd get a response.

 "The Keyblade..." The voice from before trailed off. Yet the word itself echoed around me, repeated itself over and over.

 I'm guessing this thing was a... Keyblade.

 "Fight!" The voice shouted, abruptly.

 I spun around to find yet another swarm of the little creatures dancing about. The voice said, fight, but a little more context would have been nice. I mean, aside from the fact that these guys had tried to maybe, possibly kill me before, what had they done to deserve annihilation?

 As the creatures leapt towards me I swung my new weapon out to attack. The weight of the thing was far more daunting than that of a wooden, toy sword. With every blow, I dealt damage. Every swing caused the things around me to explode into little plumes of black flames. I fought my way through the horde, to no avail. They didn't let up and they just kept coming. Somehow I tried to out run them, but still, they overwhelmed me.

 I found myself waist deep in the things. They latched on to me, dragging me down as I tried to slash at them. Where one disappeared, five more seemed to take its place. It wasn't long before I was overtaken and forced down in to the sea of creatures.

 "Don't be afraid." The voice went.

 But if it said anything else, I couldn't hear as I was almost instantly completely swallowed by the mass.

 My eyes shot open and I threw myself forward in bed. Drenched in sweat I attempted to calm myself down, checking myself for bruises, scratches or any sign that maybe the dream, hadn't been a dream. But that was the least of my problems.

 Loud rattling sounding in my ears. My eyes shot towards the window as the loud howling from the outside shook them. What in the world was going on?

 I got to my feet and rushed towards the window, raking it up. Looking up at the sky, I was more than surprised to see an enormous sphere of... I don't even know what it was, sitting in the sky. It sat over the small island where all of the kids on Destiny Island, hung out, yet still it was sucking up everything with the ability to be uprooted.

 Somehow my mind went back to the dream. I recalled the moment where Riku had been in that cave. What if that wasn't a dream? Then maybe Riku had actually gone back to the Island.

 I jumped form my bed and burst through my bedroom door and clamored down the stairs. Sora's mom had called after me, asking where Sora had gone but I didn't stop to answer, and that hadn't made me feel any better.

 As I ran to the docks, I found that the Island was in shambles. It was like terrible storm was about to destroy everything, and I feared that I may not have been too far off. As I untied a boat form the dock, I noticed that three of them had already been missing. For a second, I wondered how stupid could my friends be, yet here I was all prepared to head in to the very eyes of the storm myself.

 Rowing the boat out onto the waters was an incredible feet. The ocean angrily swiped at my tiny vessel as I made every efforty to steer myself without tipping over. But the ocean had bigger plans. Not even ten seconds after I'd exited the boat, and intense waves washed up against the shore. The tide rose incredibly fast and swept not only my boat away, but the others and the entirety of the dock.

 For a moment I paused, shaking before I turned wordlessness to the sky. The great sphere above my head was black, pink blue and every colored combined to make something look as evil as it did. Fear had gripped my so tightly I couldn't even verbalize just how distressed I was. I watched hopelessly as the thing sucked up trees and chunks of the island. The entreaty of the "tree house" made by the grown up had been fully uprooted and vacuumed into the sky.

 And that was only before the ground beneath my feet shook violently. I ran away from an edge as the island split between my feet before lifting itself into the air. I was thrown to my knees, the force was so incredible. For a moment, I began to hyperventilate. I was here alone. I didn't see my friends which caused me to think the worst had happened. I dug my fingers into the wet sand, and held on for dear life.

 My only solace was a voice that screamed out over the howling winds.

 "Yukari!!"

 My ears perked up at the sound of Sora's voice. Frantically I looked around for him, only to see him come leaping down from one of the rising land masses above me. He just narrowly missed getting slapped by a coconut after he'd somehow dodged a wooden crate.

 "Yukari hold on!" Sora shouted again.

 But what good would he have been able to do?

 I watched in horror as he was pulled right out of the air. For a moment, he was suspended before the sphere could managed to pull him into it. But I wasn't about to just let it happen. I wasn't sure how, but I managed to escape the hold that fear had on me as I rose form my spot and dashed towards Sora. Somehow I managed to grab at his wrist whilst simultaneously hooking my arm around the truck of a palm tree.

 "Grab on to my waist!" I shouted.

 Sora was on his way to doing so, when another great tremble in the ground caused him to lose his grip. I watched, terrified as I tried to reach out for him, screaming his name at the tip of my lungs. But, even this didn't matter as my little tree, lost the fight with the wind and was uprooted.

 I let go of it as it went propelling towards the sphere.

 I just want to let it be known that, getting caught in a vortex was not something I would have readily added to my bucket list. Yet, here I was.

 "Yukari!!" I heard Sora's voice whizz past as he shot by. But it only took a few more second for my palm tree to come back and slam me in the back of the head.

 Needless to say, the world around me when quiet as I lost consciousness, whilst still spinning around in the deadly vortex.

 To be Continued

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