Story Title: Friends Always

Chapter Title: Sora 1

Author: Mathais

Rating: PG-13

Category: Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy

Warnings: Possible BL, Final Fantasy Crossover, Discontinued

Pairings: Pending Riku/Sora, Tidus/Yuna, Minor Squall/Rinoa, Pending Leon/Cloud

Summary: Separated from his friends, Sora tries to find his way back to Destiny Islands. There is the small fact that he meets his friends other than Riku and Kairi, though.

Disclaimer: Characters of Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy do not belong to me. They belong to their owners.

References: None.

OoOoO

"Where are we?" Sora gave a cough as his face removed itself from the ground.

"Gee huck, I don't know." Goofy lifted himself from the ground as he answered.

"This place seems peaceful." Donald answered, as he made sure his items were still where they were.

"Donald, Goofy?" Sora's blue eyes widened in shock as he took in their forms. Donald, a powerful mage, had become an eighteen-year-old boy with long blue robes that were just the right fit to be maneuverable. The sunlight around them flashed over his golden bracelets. Goofy was a twenty-two-year-old man with bracelets made of a shining silver and iron armor that was well polished and undamaged. It made Sora feel young, as he was only fourteen.

"What?" Donald asked, cocking a brow at the teen.

"You guys are human." Sora managed to squeak, disbelief coloring his voice.

"What?" Goofy looked at himself and Sora was proved true.

"It must be to blend it. They probably don't have talking ducks or talking dogs here." Donald reasoned as he stepped toward his friends, though being humanoid slightly threw his balance off.

"Probably. We shouldn't worry about it since it has happened before. Back to the earlier question. Where are we?" Sora turned around, stretching with his senses.

After running after Pluto, Sora, Donald, and Goofy had fallen into the sudden gap that had appeared. After hurtling through the sky, they had landed into the ground face first. The area around them was a lush green area. There weren't any trees, but there was a lot of grass.

"A plains area?" Donald guessed.

"Maybe there are Heartless here even after the door was sealed." Sora spoke cautiously as he readied a spell. Experience told him that there are enemies to fight here, even if it wasn't Heartless. "Are you alright?"

"I might have broken something." Goofy replied as his arm hung limply to his side, though it was already set. Sora was impressed; Goofy hadn't yelled.

"Heal!" Sora called out, releasing his magic. It appeared in the form of four golden bells over the hurt knight's head, sparkling with green light. They rang softly, ribbons trailing down to encase Goofy's body. Sora allowed the spell to stretch out, pouring more magic than he usually would into the spell. Slowly, the knight's bruises healed, the pain fading. With even more magic, the broken bones themselves mended. The Cure series was usually used to add stamina to the affected. Sora, however, was especially proficient in the spell due to a little help from Merlin and with more magic than he usually spent, maybe even double, he was allowed to heal physical breaks and hurts.

"Okay now Goofy?" Sora asked, his tone soft.

"Sure huck! Thanks!" Goofy gave a silly grin, back to normal.

Sora closed his eyes as he took a deep breath. What he found was overwhelming! The world held many deaths, more than he was used to, more than there should be, and was full of darkness. Yet there were summoners about also! There were so many that Sora snapped his eyes open and took deep breaths. He clutched his heart. The world's magic was amazing. The only things that surpassed it were special places, like the dream-like Wonderland and Hollow Bastion.

"What happened?" Donald rushed to Sora's side.

"This place... It would draw Heartless any day now with all the darkness here! There's so much magical energy in here that my senses just couldn't take it!" Sora exclaimed, his tone slightly panicked. "Only places like Hollow Bastion and End of the World had this much!"

"That's not good. Should we expect anything?" Goofy looked like he was a second away from bringing out the Save the King, his main weapon, that was strapped to his back.

"Perhaps we should heal up at the Rest Point?" Donald pointed to the glowing circle of light that only those three could see. Most transported them to the Gummi Ship, but though this one probably lacked that ability. Once all three stepped into the circle, light filled their bodies with warmth. They felt a nourished force overcome them, their energy replenished. All the magical energies that they had used in the battle with Ansem along with the stamina returned to them in the midst of the glow. They stepped out shortly. (1)

"It's getting dark." Donald pointed to the setting sun. "Perhaps we should set up camp?"

"What should we use this time? We're out of Tents and Camping Sets are low, but we do have a lot of Cottages." Sora announced after he rummaged through their subspace item containment. It was very handy considering all the stuff they had and not enough room to actually out them on.

"Let's use a Camping Set this time. We should save the Cottages. Maybe we could find some place that sells these kinds of things here."

"I hope this isn't a monster populated world." The knight sat down on the ground as Sora pulled out a small circle with the words 'Camping Set' engraved onto it.

"Move back," Sora warned, his tone only slightly teasing, "you know how these things love explosions." Both of King Mickey's men followed the sage advice, drawing back from the supposed radius.

Sora tossed the ball onto the ground. There was a magical flash and, true to Sora's word, the ball exploded. Smoke billowed out of the area that the explosion had taken place and the trio had to cover their eyes to protect them from the hazardous gas. When the smoke and light disappeared, a green tent marked with red along with three color-coded sleeping bags and a ring of stones with firewood were in its place. A bucket of water was conveniently placed next to the stones.

"Mind lighting a fire Donald?" Sora called back as he dragged the three sleeping bags away from the fire with Goofy's help.

"Sure." Donald took out his Save the Queen staff and pointed it at the place where it was be best to have a fire, namely the ring of stones. "Firaga!" A large ball of fire shot from the tip of the Save the Queen and landed within the stones. Flames crackled to life instantly as Donald sheathed the staff back in his subspace compartment.

"Who's taking first watch?" The former duck asked.

"Huck, it's my turn." Goofy answered, not at all concerned.

"It's last watch for me." Sora headed inside the tent and went inside his red sleeping bag after stripping to his boxers. "Wake me when it's my turn Donald."

"Make sure that you wake me up Goofy." The court mage ordered sternly as he entered the tent and fell fast asleep in the blue sleeping bag.

OoOoO

Sora's watch found the boy polishing his blades.

"Ultima Weapon." Sora murmured as he took his cloth out and started polishing the blade. It is the most powerful Keyblade I have. Yet its true power paled in comparison to one of my other Keyblades— The Keyblade Master cut that thought off as he took to polishing his other ones.

He polished the Lady Luck, Oblivion, Divine Rose, and Lionheart before he came to a well-known Keyblade.

"Oathkeeper..." Sora whispered as he ran his fingers over the edges of it. Kairi... I know that I'll go back to you someday! I will! After I find King Mickey for Donald and Goofy, I'll come back with Riku and we'll be together again! He put away that particular Keyblade and brought out some more.

After going through the rest of them, Sora pulled out his last version of his weapon. "Kingdom Key." This brings back painful memories. This is the most powerful of all Keyblades in the respect that it is the Keyblade in its truest form. This is the one that, with the help of the others, sealed Kingdom Hearts. While locking Riku on the other side. Just you wait! I'll come back with Riku and the others will get King Mickey back! Sora nodded as the sun broke over the mountains. Just as he was putting away his Keyblade, a low growl made him freeze.

It isn't Heartless! Sora's mind raced because the Keyblade was telling him so. Then it must be a local monster! Crud! I might need Donald and Goofy for this. "Donald! Goofy! We're under attack." Sora whispered as he edged toward the tent. Both rushed out, their weapons held in front of them in preparation for battle.

The camp disappeared after that and a flame struck the ground where Sora was. By dodging, Sora managed to avoid it before looking at the landscape. Ten figures in the distance were charging toward them. They were mixtures of many different animals from birds to snakes and were reddish. A magical visor appeared over Sora's eyes as he used his one of his abilities, Scan.

"They're called Chimera Brains!" The Keyblade Master yelled back at his friends. "They have a water tolerance, but that shouldn't matter!"

He took this opportunity to roll underneath a wave of water that was emitted from one Chimera Brain, using Guard against a blast of flame as well. "Aqua Breath and Megiddo Flame respectively!"

He saw Goofy take this opportunity to reflect a Megiddo Flame back to sender. Sora jumped high into the air due to his Hi-Jump skill, avoiding the Blizzaga sparks that Donald had released. As he glided over to another batch of Chimera Brains, Sora watched as the mage's spell suddenly blew up into huge multi-pointed ice crystals that blew several enemies away. The Keyblade Master ducked beneath a wild swipe from a Chimera Brain, rising up immediately afterward and sliced the creature's head off. He rolled to the side as something that looked like someone coursed the power of all the bolts of his Thundara spell into one bolt and fired it hit the ground. The residue shocks gave a Chimera Brain the chance to slam a fist into the teenager's chest, blowing him back several paces. A harsh foot jammed into the grassy ground stopped the movement as Goofy appeared before him, bashing in the head of a Chimera Brain. Another ball of flame launched out, followed by three more. They found their mark in two Chimera Brains who exploded upon impact.

Sora gave a vicious slash with his Ultima Keyblade, the fine lines slicing deeply into the monster's chest, though it didn't bleed surprisingly. He changed to an overhead slash which managed to kill that one, lightning appearing around him due to his Thundaga spell. It shocked the rest of the Chimera Brains and he went savagely into attacks, slashing to the left before thrusting to the right. He had no time for these monsters, not right now.

More attacks from Sora finished off the enemies as he managed to calm himself out of his rage.

"Anger management classes." was the first thing out of Donald's lips.

Sora merely grinned sheepishly. "Sorry guys, but we can't afford to waste time. We have to save Riku and King Mickey!"

Donald nodded in agreement, his bracelets jingling.

All of the sudden, the knight in their group raised his head. "Do you guys smell something funny?"

The brown-haired boy took one whiff before a slightly horrified expression crossed his face. "Sleep powder!"

It was too late to react though as they fell unconscious.

OoOoO

A figure straying from his group on a yellow bird called a chocobo came up to the group.

Blonde hair was revealed as blue eyes stared at the figures on the ground. He could smell hints of sleeping powder in the air and he figured some of the experimental Chimera Brains had gotten out. After witnessing the battle, he was amazed at the caliber of skill that the trio had, despite being relatively young, especially the kid. Quickly, he ran back to get his other group members to come. A few minutes later, a redheaded man holding a ball called a Blitzball and a black-haired strong man with a saké bottle came over to them with the blonde man leading. No words were exchanged as the three hefted the bodies onto their chocobos and returned to their group. All the while, the blonde man was thinking, why does this boy seem so familiar to me?

OoOoO

(1) The characters have no need to call it a Save Point, so I will call it a Rest Point.