Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, but I do own my OC's

A/N: Alright guys, this is my first try at writing a story with my own OC in it, I hope that when you see "OC" that you haven't made up your mind that its probably going to be a Gary Stu or self-insert, I urge you that if it looks like its going in that direction to tell me about it and what I should do to fix it. I hope you enjoy the first chapter!

Everyone always lived in fear of the heartless raids. The number of people taken at a time varied, and it didn't matter whether the person taken was your best friend or worst enemy. Those monsters didn't know the difference; it was all the same to them. I never imagined my family would ever be marred by those monsters. I was terribly wrong………………

(Three Days Earlier)

"Ryker! It's time to get up!" A woman's voice called rather loudly."

"Come on mom, just five more minutes please!" He yelled back with an annoyed tone in his voice.

She was about to say something else before she felt a tug on her nightgown. A little girl stared up at her with puppy dog eyes.

"Mommy……Can I go wake him up?" She whispered with a soft voice and a look of mischief in her eye.

"Of course Sofi," she said as she bent down close, "get him good for me okay."

Sofi nodded her head in understanding and crept out of the kitchen and up to the base of the aged wooden stairs. She began her ascent being very careful to not hit the steps that squeaked when you stepped on them. The six years she had lived in the house gave her the advantage of knowing which ones creaked and which ones didn't. She counted to herself softly. "One…..two……big step……four…….big step…..six." When she finally reached the top of the stairs Sofi moved her head just enough to stare down the hall with her stunning blue eyes. She saw that her brother hadn't locked his door and left a small crack in it. Sofi smiled big and tiptoed over to the door and opened the door just enough to squeeze through, but not enough to let the light from the rising sun enter his room through the windows in the hall. Sofi got ready, took a deep breath, and screamed "SNEAK ATTACK!" right before she leapt in the air, her gown and blonde hair flying behind her as she flew through the air.

"Wha…!" Ryker lifted his head a split second before his sister slammed his head back down into his pillow. She jumped up and down repeatedly. Every time she came down her brothers back popped loudly. Sofi then proceeded to poke at his sides where he was extremely ticklish. "No! Please no! Don't do that!" Ryker screamed as tears ran out of his eyes. If one listened carefully enough you could hear Sarah, his mother, laughing hysterically down in the kitchen. When the onslaught finally stopped he wiped the tears from his eyes and looked at his sister and found she was pointing her finger almost menacingly at him, but also sweetly at the same time.

"Are you going to get up now brother?"

"Do I have a choice?"

His answer came when Sofi raised her arms up and spread her small fragile fingers out and squeezed them back and forth in quick succession, "No." Ryker let out a defeated sigh and finally complied with his sister's, and mothers for that matter, wishes. He jumped out of bed and landed with a heavy thud on the carpet. Ryker grabbed his covers and threw them back hoping to himself that his mother would accept his haphazard way of making his bed. His sister's voice brought him back to reality. "Brother…….would you give me a piggyback ride?"

"Do I have a choice?"

Sofi smiled with love for her brother and made her bear claws again, "no!" Ryker chuckled to himself and knelt down for her to get on. Sofi climbed on and wrapped her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist. "Let's go!" She exclaimed excitedly.

Ryker took off without a moments notice and sprinted as fast as he could down the hall. Sofi squealed with delight as they got to the stairs and Ryker jumped the whole way down without touching the steps and landing with a thunderous boom on the hardwood floor.

"Ryker Severne Artaith! How many times do I have to tell you not to jump off those stairs? You are going to break a bone one of these days and I'm not going to feel the least bit sorry for you!" Sara said in an aggravated tone, even though she had a smile on her face.

That boy is never going to learn

Ryker mumbled a quick apology and knelt down to let his sister off his back. She whispered her thanks in his ear and went back into the kitchen to wait for the breakfast of pancakes and hot toast that Sara was cooking.

"Hey mom, where is dad anyway?" Ryker inquired when he saw that his father was nowhere in the vicinity, he usually never missed a Sunday breakfast.

"Oh, the schedule got flipped around; he ended up being on the day watch today instead of later in the week." Sarah explained to her son.

"Oh," was all he could say as tears began to well up in his eyes. The bad memories always flooded back whenever those things were mentioned. His mother quickly changed the subject. "So, how many pancakes do you want?" "Three! Three! I want three!" Sofi piped enthusiastically. Sarah laughed as she scooped Sofi up into her arms, "Okay, okay, you can have three. What about you Ryker?"

A look of pain still crossed his face. "I'm not hungry……..I'm going to go walk around the town for awhile, you can save me a couple if you want too. See ya later!" He said as he raced out the front door. Sofi jumped out of her mothers' arms and called after him, "bye brother," but the goodbye never reached his ears as he ran down the main street towards the square. His mother looked in concern but decided it was best to leave him be for the moment.

I know better than anyone that mentioning anything about the raids in front of Ryker upsets him………but he asked, I didn't want to lie to him.

"Momma, the pancakes are burning!" Sara snapped out of her thoughts and quickly flipped them over on the other side. "Thanks Sofi." Her daughter beamed and showed her dazzling smile, it never failed to cure anyone's bad mood if they were around to see it. "Can I go look for brother after I eat?" "Of course you can."

o-o

Ryker continued his race down the main street, his auburn hair whipping in his face. He hated hearing anything having to do with the raids, especially when he heard his father was on watch duty. That was the most dangerous job of all. Sitting on top of those really high towers, if a raid did end up happening, they were very difficult to get off of them in time to escape. Sometimes it wasn't even the heartless that killed them, one misstep off those towers and you were done for. Ryker shuddered at the thought of falling off one of those towers and hitting the ground. He managed to shake the disturbing thought from his mind. By the time he reached the gigantic carved fountain located in the middle of the town he was drenched in sweat. He hung his head down breathing heavily trying to catch his breath. When he finally looked up, he stared in awe at the stunning sight. It really didn't matter how many times he had seen it, it always amazed him to see that kind of natural beauty. The rainbow that radiated from the fine mist coming out the top of the fountain was the highlight of the whole village.

The sun glinting off the water and the rainbow it created was absolutely majestic. Ryker sat down on the marble bench that traveled around the circumference of the fountain and basked in the cool mist, savoring it on his hot skin. Sitting like this made him recall a time when he was younger and first saw the fountain, a time where everything was normal……….

o-Flashback-o

Sarah and Robert strolled along almost aimlessly down the very well kept cobblestone road, it was meant to be a very leisurely walk, but their son had other things in mind. "Mom! Dad! Look at this, isn't that awesome!" Awesome seemed to be a word that Ryker used a lot lately, if anything he looked at seemed interesting, that was the one word you could expect him to say from everything to a caravan of ants traveling down the road, a strangely shaped fruit in one of the merchant stalls. Yes, awesome was a word to describe anything in the eyes of an eight year old boy. Robert looked at his wife and winked before calling out to him. "Hey Ryker," he called, "do you want to see something more awesome than anything you've ever seen before?" Ryker's eyes slowly became saucers as he turned the statement over in his mind and let the words slowly roll off his tongue, "more awesome than anything?" He gave his father an incredulous look, this had to be impossible. There was no way that there was something more awesome than anything, but nonetheless his curiosity was definitely piqued. "I have to see it! What is it?? Tell me! Tell me!" he cried.

"I might…..I don't know, should I Sarah?" Ryker responded by making his most innocent face and dropping down on his knees for effect, "Pleeeaassse!"

Sarah just chuckled at her son and nodded her head. Her eyes couldn't help but wander down at her cradled arms, "you two go on, I'm going to go buy some things for Sofi, so I'll catch up later." Robert nodded in agreement. A moment later his arm was jerked out of socket from Ryker grabbing him and taking off, he had no choice but to begin running with him. "See ya later hon!" Sarah smiled for a moment and waved enthusiastically before she continued on her way to the store.

o-o

"Come on dad! Hurry up; I want to get there as fast as possible!"

"Come on son! Slow down, you know I'm not as young as I used to be!"

With Robert's heartbeat in his ears, he almost didn't notice to jabs people were making at him, "Having fun this morning Robert!" One shopkeeper laughed. "And who says old guys can't run fast?" Another said.

"Yeah, yeah, ya'll are real funny guys!" He yelled back trying to sound irritated, but he burst out in laughter instead. Robert knew everything was in good nature, the village they lived in was very close knit, everybody knew everybody. When they finally got within sight of what he wanted to show Ryker, he planted his feet as hard as he could and made both of them come to a screeching halt, or a smash-to-the-face halt, depends on which one you're talking about. Robert managed to pick himself up off the rock road and caressed his scraped face gingerly. "Are you okay dad??" "Yeah….I think so..." He managed to grunt. "I need you to close your eyes and let me guide you okay?" Ryker pouted, but after some coaxing finally complied and closed his eyes. Robert held onto his hand and walked him the last fifty yards to the center of town looking back occasionally to make sure his eyes were closed. Ryker's next question made his father smile warmly. "Dad…….is it raining?" "Open your eyes and you'll find out."

Ryker opened his eyes and was met with a stunning sight. A rainbow seemingly coming out of nowhere hung over the fountain. He was captivated by its eye-catching beauty, he knew in his heart that in a way it was artificial, but how could a rainbow that looked so tangible be manufactured. The boy lifted up his head and closed his eyes, savoring and tasting the fine water droplets that hit his face. "Awesome," was all he could manage. It was then that it dawned on him that the water wasn't being reused at all, upon closer inspection it looked like a trench had been dug and covered with a metal grate. The water was being funneled away from the fountain. "Dad…….how does the fountain keep running? Why doesn't it run out?"

"That is a very good question; tell me, would you like to hear the history behind this fountain?" Ryker's face showed his distaste, "history? Are you kidding??" "Trust me Ryker, this is better than any history lesson you've ever been taught, this is the history of how this village came to be."

Robert started before his son could object again, "A very long time ago, this village didn't exist. Did you know that?" Ryker shook his head. "Well when people came to this area, they wanted to colonize a village, but they couldn't find a good enough place to start one. They were about to give up when they stumbled across this natural aquifer. The water was so abundant and constantly flowing out of the ground so they knew this would be the perfect place to build the village. This marble fountain was carved as a monument of how this town was formed."

"What about the rainbow? How did that happen?"

"Nobody knows, everyone thinks it happened by accident, maybe over time the marble got tiny cracks in it and started to mist because of the water pressure beneath it. Ryker nodded his head in deep thought, "Will it run forever?" "I'd like to think it would, as long as this village stands, I believe it will run forever."

"I guess that's a pretty cool story……." Ryker said slightly bored. Robert laughed and grinned big, "I knew you would be enthusiastic. Come on, let's go back and find your mother and sister, we can both give her a big hug and get her soaking wet!"

"Alright! That's what I'm talking about!" Ryker laughed and smirked at the same time. "Let's go!"

o-o

"Brother," Sofi whispered softly. Ryker's mind snapped out of his reverie and looked around before finally setting his eyes on his sister. "Why are you crying brother?" His sister asked very concerned. "What?" Ryker's hand flew up to eye and touched it gently before discreetly letting it run into his lips.

Yup, definitely tears

"Oh Sofi, I'm not crying, it is just the water that's getting me soaking wet." He explained as he shook his head back and forth making Sofi shriek, "you got me wet brother!" "What? I didn't hear you, I what," Ryder smiled menacingly as he scooped her off the ground and gave her a bear hug. "No! You're getting me wetter brother! Stop it! Stop it!"

RING!! RING!! RING!!

The sound made Ryker stop dead in his tracks, his sudden lack of movement made his sister ask what was the matter.

His heartbeat was in his throat.

The fear was almost paralyzing.

No! Not again! Not again!

The sounds of scurrying steps were getting closer.

The cries of fear and whimpers were filling his ears.

One thought filled his mind…………RUN!

A/N: So what did you think? Love it, hate it, Neutral at the moment? Let me know!!