AN: The Disney characters don't age. Ever. :) That, and I know it seems unclear at first, but by the end of the first chapter most of it'll be explained.

Chapter 1

A girl with purplish-red hair and green eyes sat on the steps to the basement of the castle, thoroughly bored. And avoiding Donald. She was supposed to have her magic lesson this afternoon, but having Donald as her mentor took all the fun out of learning magic. The only spell she'd been able to master was Fire.

She grinned. Fire was an excellent spell. She conjured a small fireball in her hand and watched the flames dance.

She didn't see the broom coming up behind her until it tripped over her. She yelped as it tumbled into her fireball and ignited, rolling down the stairs. She managed to move in time before the next broomstick walked into her. The broomsticks weren't very intelligent. They always continued on their pre-programmed routine, regardless of what (or who) happened to be in their path.

The broom that tripped over her seemed to be fine, if a little...er, a lot, charred. It had rolled to the bottom of the stairs, gotten up, and continued on its way.

The fifteen-year-old sighed. How was she going to explain this one? She considered. Maybe she didn't have to. She stood up, glanced around to make sure nobody was around, and walked off, hands in her pockets and an innocent look on her face.

She hadn't gotten two steps when she heard, "KOKO!!!"

Koko froze. Donald was in the basement? Crap...

"What is THIS?!" Donald demanded, appearing at the top of the steps, holding the charred broom.

The pattern on the carpeting suddenly became fascinating. "Uh... looks like one of those broomsticks the king uses as cleaners."

Donald glared. "I can see that. But WHY IS IT BURNT?!" he yelled.

"Uhm... Wasn't it always like that?" she asked hopefully. At the outraged look on Donald's face she said, "Er... I mean, it was like that the last time I saw it?"

"Rrraaaaaaa!" Donald cried, swinging at her with the broom. She yelped as it hit her in the head. It didn't hurt much, since Donald was a mage he wasn't that strong physically.

Koko took off down the hall at full speed before Donald thought to use magic. She ran out the door to the garden, still hearing Donald yelling behind her. She saw Goofy laying on the grass in front of some bushes. Thinking fast, she dove under the bushes.

"Koko?" Goofy asked. "Whatcha doin' under there?"

"Shhh.... Donald's after me again. Don't tell him I'm here."

Goofy gave her a thumbs up and winked.

"Where'd she go?? Goofy! Did you see Koko come by just now?" he demanded.

"H'yuk, she went thata way," Goofy said, pointing.

Donald crossed his arms. "Goofy... Tell me the truth," he said slowly.

Goofy fidgeted. "Well, I promised her I wouldn't tell ya she was hidin' under the bushes... Oops," he said, slapping his hands over his mouth.

Koko hit her forehead with the palm of her hand. "Ah, Goofy..." she muttered, somewhat disappointed in her friend. It wasn't as if he didn't mean well, though.

Zzzzt!

Koko yelped as she was hit with a bolt of lightning. She dashed out from under the bushes at top speed, running towards the courtyard and from there back into the castle. Her best bet now was to hide somewhere until Donald's rage subsided.

It wasn't that Koko was scared of Donald. She just didn't appreciate getting zapped over stupid things. Not that destroying one of the magic brooms fell under that category... but she still didn't want to get zapped.

She'd lost Donald so she slowed to a walk, panting. She saw Pluto down the hall walking towards her. As soon as the yellow dog noticed her, he broke into a run and jumped on her.

"Oof," Koko grunted as she landed on her back with Pluto sitting on top of her, wagging his tail happily. He dropped a letter with the king's signet on her face and then galloped off, pleased with himself.

Koko sat up and opened the letter.



Koko-

Please come to the throne room immediately.

-King Mickey



Koko sighed. Did he already find out about the broomstick? Man that was fast... She got up and headed towards the monstrous doors leading to the throne room. She knocked before entering through the small cheat-door. She remembered how that door had amused her to no end when she was little.

"Your Majesty?" she asked nervously.

Mickey was pacing the throne room. He looked up when Koko spoke. "Hello, Koko. The reason I called you was..."

"The broom! I know! I'm sorry!" she blurted.

Mickey raised an eyebrow. "Broom?"

Koko froze when she realized Mickey didn't know about the broom yet. "Uh..." she looked at the floor again and shrugged. "You'll hear about it from Donald soon enough," she sighed.

Mickey seemed to dismiss that, as he continued, "We've found some information on the whereabouts of Kairi."

"My mother?!" Koko exclaimed, shocked.

Mickey nodded. "This way," he said, leading her to a secret door behind the throne. It opened, revealing a downward staircase. "She disappeared when you were only a year old," he explained, leading her down the staircase.

"So you've found her?"

Mickey hesitated. "Well, no... But we know why she disappeared. Twenty years ago when Donald, Goofy, Sora, Riku and I closed the door to Kingdom Hearts, Riku and I remained trapped inside. We got out within a few days and met up with Sora, Donald and Goofy and went in search of the door to the light, but we never found it."

"But what does that have to do with Mom?"

"I'm getting to that," Mickey said patiently. "After two years of searching countless worlds, we decided that the door to the light probably wasn't meant to be found yet. So we went to Destiny Islands to find Kairi, and Sora and Riku stayed there with her. Then three years later, Kairi started remembering things about her home world, and once she described it to Sora he realized it was Traverse Town. So he took her there to visit, and she decided to stay. During this time she got pregnant, and we could never get her to tell us who the father was. And then about a year after giving birth to you she just vanished. And it wasn't until now that we knew why."

Koko remained silent, waiting for the king to continue.

"Apparently not all the heartless were destroyed. Since Kairi's heart had been transferred to Sora, she was without a heart for a long period of time, and this is something that one can never really fully recover from. It weakened her resistance, and once she got back to Destiny Islands after the door to Kingdom Hearts was closed, she was infected."

"Infected?" Koko asked.

"By a Heartless."

"W-What'dyou mean?"

"Well, with the door to Kingdom Hearts closed, the remaining Heartless disappeared. Died off. Except for this one. It found Kairi and lived within her, slowly feeding off her energy. About a year after you were born is when it consumed her completely."

"So... there's no way to bring her back?" Koko asked sadly. She'd always imagined meeting her mother. Guess she can kiss those dreams goodbye, she thought bitterly, staring at the floor yet again.

"Well, I wouldn't go that far," Mickey said, smiling. "If she were never infected in the first place..."

"Well, yeah, but..." Koko trailed off. They'd reached the end of the stairs, and before them lay a room that looked vaguely like the Gummi Garage, and in it was a ship that seemed half Gummi Ship and half... something else entirely. It was equipped with parts that in all of her days hiding from Donald in the Gummi Garage Koko had never seen anything like.

"This is a Gummi Ship with the ability to travel through time," Mickey said.

"So you guys can go back in time and save Mom?" Koko asked, awed as she walked up to the ship and laid a hand on the hull.

"That's where you come in," said Sora, walking up behind her. Riku was with him.

Koko blinked. "Wha...?" She was both surprised by their sudden appearance and confused by what they said.

"You see, a person can't exist in two places at once. Meaning, none of us can go back there, since we were alive. You, on the other hand..." Riku said.

"Me? You mean I'm gonna go?" she said, almost excitedly.

The three nodded.

"To Destiny Island? And get to see Riku and Sora when they were my age?" she said, her face vivid with excitement.

"Whoa, hold on," Sora said. "This isn't a vacation. Yes, you will see

Riku and I as we were when we were your age. Yes, you will actually get to meet us." The look on his face indicated he wasn't entirely comfortable with this notion.

"But under no circumstance can you tell them you're from the future," Mickey said.

"Top-secret!" Koko agreed happily.

"We've figured out when she was affected. We'll be sending you back there two days BEFORE that. You'll need to find the Heartless and destroy it before it can infect Kairi," Riku said.

The four walked inside the ship. It was rather large inside. The pilot's seat was in front of the main window, and behind it there was enough room to spread out blankets for a bed.

"Cid already programmed it to get you to the right place and time. All you have to worry about is once you get there," said Sora.

Riku pushed a button on the controls and a panel opened up, revealing a view screen. "This will allow you to communicate with us while you're in the past."

Koko nodded. The three explained several more details of the ship and her mission to her, and it was decided that she'd leave tomorrow morning.



Well? Review! Tell me whatcha think!

Random facts: Writing Mickey's lines was hard. As was trying to figure out how to put Donald's trademark scream into letters.

Erik (my brother): This had more BS than Star Trek! It doesn't make any sense! Where'd the time machine come from??

Me: Mickey built it. Duh.

Erik: ....