"Once upon a time, against all odds, a little boy from a small world rose up and saved the universe - twice. Now, two years later, he finds himself thrown into the fray yet again as the powers that created the worlds threaten to tear them asunder... and this time, he isn't alone."

Author's Note: Huh, I finally got me an account here. Interesting. Well, here goes nothin'... Oh! And by the by, I've only played Kingdom Hearts, KH:CoM, and KHII, so if there's been new information revealed in any games besides those three, I don't know it. And I do apologize for the slow beginning chapters; pacing is my greatest weakness! XD

Disclaimer: If I actually did own Kingdom Hearts, I would be obscenely wealthy - and this wouldn't be a "fan" fiction. There're a few things here that I did create, but I'll let you know when you see them.

I. Close Encounters

Something hot slashed across his face – it missed by inches. Sora fell back with a yelp, landing in a somersault and springing to his feet. The bright creature hissed and lunged again. His arm swung in an arc to smash it from the air, sending it tumbling into a bush. A burning smell reached him; his sleeve glowed red where it had touched the thing, and wispy smoke rose in ominous tendrils.

His adversary thrashed furiously, tangled in the scrub's tough branches – it was a tiny beast unlike anything he'd seen. Though it was roughly the size of a Shadow, the most harmless of the Heartless, there was no mistaking this for one of the world's dark enemies.

It seemed made of light itself, or something similarly insubstantial; it was translucent, shining like a fallen star, tiny wisps of radiance curling away from it like smoke. The thing looked almost birdlike, with an arrow-shaped head, two springy taloned legs, and a spade-tipped devil's tail. Its "wings" sported wickedly sharp claws, which lashed out at its woody prison to devastating effect, slicing through brambles and beach grasses as easily as paper.

Sora scrambled backward, the scrunching sand beneath his feet affording little traction. He accidentally kicked a thick branch, newly fallen from a nearby wind-bent tree; the boy snatched it up eagerly. Burning wood was easier to deal with than burning flesh.

No sooner had he moved than the bush smoked, sparked, and burst into flame. There was a flash of light – he threw up one hand to shield his eyes – and the bright raptor exploded from the fire like a striking serpent.

Instinct moved his arm in a thrust. The creature sailed through his improvised weapon as if it didn't exist, wingclaws lashing across his cheek as it flew past. The fiery agony came moments later. He sucked in a breath through gritted teeth, steeling himself against the pain – he hadn't faced combat like this in almost two years.

The bright bird-thing banked sharply, backwinging to land on the leaning tree. For a moment, boy and beast stared at each other. Sora tightened his grip on the smoldering branch, eyes wide, adrenaline slowing time to a crawl. The thing ruffled its wispy feathers smugly. Tendrils of smoke rose from the wood beneath its shining talons.

What is this thing?

With a deep breath, he closed his eyes and summoned a memory he hadn't called on since his return to the Destiny Islands – a memory of warmth, of power, of iron determination. Once again he felt the familiar pins-and-needles in his hands and arms, a whirlwind of sensation rushing from his heart to his limbs. He felt the rush of displaced air brushing his face as matter materialized where it should not be. The branch fell to the sand, useless, and he felt cold steel beneath his fingers.

When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer the high school boy who had once disappeared for a year. He was Sora, the Keyblade master who had saved the worlds – twice. He was a seasoned combat veteran who had eliminated thousands of otherworldly creatures like this one, armed with a priceless weapon.

The beast took one look at the thing that had appeared from nowhere, a strange creation somewhere between sword and key – and the raptor dived for him. Sora swung the Keyblade in a simple parry, as he'd done a thousand times before.

And the beast passed through it.

"What the – !"

There was no time for shock. It slammed into his face with a triumphant screech – only quick reflexes saved him from third degree burns. He dropped to his knees and rolled, shoving the thing away, singeing his fingerless gloves against its blazing form.

Sora scrambled to his feet, frantically raising his ethereal weapon, wincing at his stinging palms and the crimson beads trickling down his cheek. The creature, sent sprawling by the impact, scuttled upright in the same instant. It unfurled its wings aggressively, hissing like an enraged cobra.

The boy's eyes narrowed coldly, and he spat a mouthful of blood into one of the burning bushes. "No fair, man."

The beast opened its arrowhead mouth; it was like a window into some pitch-dark otherworld, entirely opposite its outer brilliance. The fangs, however, were fire-bright and needle-sharp. It snarled – a sound of whistling wind and crushed glass.

It gathered itself for a slashing leap –

A blast of energy exploded the sand between the combatants.

The bright thing's head whipped left and right in search of the disturbance's source, but the smoke from the various brushfires had thickened to the point of obscuring vision. Something dark came slashing through the fire behind it. There was a thick fwunk sound, and a scarlet blade-tip burst through its translucent chest.

With a gurgling sigh, the creature dissolved in a cloud of drifting sparks.

The world was silent, save the crackling fires. Sora blinked. The Keyblade's tip danced in the air as his hands trembled, still aiming at where the thing had been. Slowly he became aware of his own pounding heart, his shallow breathing. His eyes fell on the blade that had felled what the Keyblade could not: a dark sword, fashioned in the shape of a bat's wing, a large blue tiger's-eye stone set just above the hilt.

Sora breathed a sigh of relief. "Hey, Riku."

The tall figure that materialized out of the smoke was indeed his childhood friend. It was difficult to discern most of him from the night itself, with his dark green jacket and leggings blending with the surrounding blackness, but his albino-white hair and face stood out like a beacon.

"You alright?"

"Yeah," Sora answered in a quavering voice. I think. Then, almost sarcastically, "You know, I was starting to think you weren't gonna show up."

"People don't usually leave a big beach party to go wandering by themselves." Riku stooped and picked up the blade, flicking the sand from it before hooking it onto a belt loop. "Good thing I followed, apparently."

Sora massaged the back of his neck sheepishly. He couldn't dislodge a cold weight that had begun settling in his chest. "Uh… yeah, thanks for that. I don't know what happened there."

Riku's eyebrows raised. "I didn't get a good look at it, but that didn't look like any Heartless I've seen. You sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine, just rusty." The boy hesitated. Then, running a nervous hand through his hair, he raised the Keyblade and inspected it. After a moment, he sighed again, completely bewildered. "Weird… this thing looks okay, too. But it didn't work."

Silence.

"What?"

"It didn't work, Riku. The Keyblade. That thing just phased right through it – like fighting a Nobody with a stick."

The albino boy stared for a moment. Then he narrowed his eyes.

"So then it's not a Heartless – at least of the old kinds. And it's not a Nobody." The unspoken question hung in the air between them.

Sora opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by yet another voice calling out from the distance.

"Why is everything on fire?"

There was a bright blue flash, a rush of cold air, and a nearby blaze died with a sudden hiss and a billowing cloud of steam. Moments later another fire met the same fate. Before either of them knew what was happening, Kairi vaulted over a fallen dead tree and pointed at a third patch. A bolt of blue light lanced from her fingertip and collided with the flames, instantly hardening into ice crystals that vaporized the moment they were born – dousing the fire in the process.

The redhead girl dropped her canvas knapsack and doubled over, hands on knees, panting. For a few seconds no one moved. Then she looked up, taking stock of the charred remains of local flora and the two boys' startled faces. Blinking, she spread her arms incredulously.

"Am I the only one worried about hidden arsonists, or did I miss something?"

Sora grinned. "We're lucky you still remember that Blizzard spell. But you missed the good part."

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Yeah, as always." Then, folding her arms seriously, "Was it another shiny thing?"

"There's more of them?" the two blurted in unison.

"Yep. Not too many, though – I've only run into three so far. They don't do so well against ice."

"But they do fine against Keyblades."

Her eyes widened. Oddly enough, her face lit up in a relieved grin. "Oh, good! Yours didn't work either? I thought I was doing something wrong."

The boys exchanged worried glances. If the supposedly unstoppable weapons could consistently fail against this enemy, it didn't bode well for the future. But before they could dwell further on the problem and how they might remedy it, Kairi was on her knees rummaging through her bag. Grim-faced, she withdrew a dark, gleaming object.

"Anyway, I found this."

It was a glass bottle – probably green, though it was too dark to tell. The logo of some old beverage company had been stamped into its side with faded gold lettering. She bit down on the cork and tugged it out, with an ease that suggested she'd already broken the seal once. Up-ending it over her palm, she shook out the bottle's contents: a rolled slip of parchment, and something that looked like a marble.

She pocketed the marble and held out the parchment for them to inspect. "It's addressed to you, Sora – three guesses who it's from."

"Should've seen this coming," murmured Riku as Sora took and unfurled it. Words scrawled across its rough surface in a familiar, scribbling hand. A small red seal, stamped with a very familiar sign, adorned the bottom.

Sora read it aloud.

"Dear Sora,

Sorry if this is a bad time to drop in. I haven't been traveling much since the whole Organization incident; maybe that's why it took so long for anyone to realize what's goin' on. Several close friends have told me about some bizarre things happenin' on some of the worlds – things that can't be explained by anything you all know about. I can't say much here, the paper's too short and there's a chance it could be intercepted. We're gonna need all the help we can get for this one. Meet us back in Radiant Garden as soon as possible, and bring your friends – Riku's a great fighter, and Kairi seemed pretty scrappy in that last showdown against the Nobodies. I promise I'll explain everything once you're here.

Listen, sorry for being so cloak-and-dagger, Sora. I know this is hard and it's only been a couple of years. If there's any way I can make it up to you, just say the word.

-Mickey

P.S: The tides have turned."

He looked up at his friends. Despite everything this meant for their lives on the Islands, despite everything logic said was bad about this development, he found himself almost grinning. "Well, here we go again."