Heartless

A Kingdom Hearts Fanfiction

All rights go to Tetsuya Nomura and Disney (If I owned Kingdom Hearts...*sigh*)


Chapter 1: Life of My Own

The crystal fissues past the town of Hollow Bastion reflected a glorious sunset. If not for the heartless that roam freely, the citizens would freely gaze endlessly at the site. Only the brave or the foolish would dare tread the path...

...Or unless your part of the Restoration committee.

A tall blonde effortlessly sliced through a herd of Lance soilders. HIs blade was enormous: how in the world the man managed to lift it was a mystery to his allies. Not to mention how fast he could move. The heartless stood no chance against his powerful swings and were banished to nothingness. The blonde scoffed at how easily he tore apart a miniature army in just minutes, not noticing a Morning Star stealthfully creeping up behind him...

"Cloud, watch your back!" A minute later and Cloud would have been crushed, save for Roxas who bounced the heartless up from behind and knocked it clean into next week, releasing a captive heart. The smaller blonde, clothed in the usual checkered skater style he preferred, smirked at the dumb founded Cloud,

"So much for master swordsman, huh?" The teen laughed. He held his two most prized weapons in hand, Oblivion and Oathkeeper, ready to fight in case another sneaky heartless popped up. Cloud simply looked away and continued down the path back to the town.

"I hope your not expecting a 'thank you'." Roxas lost his smile, "Uh, well no...but maybe a complement for doing a good job?" Cloud ignored the comment and kept forward, upsetting the younger. This only proved that he was still not trusted. Sure, he had once been a pawn to Organization XIII, a slave to Xemnas and his plan to retrieve Kingdom Hearts. But that was in the past. Roxas was now living in Hollow Bastion on his other side Sora's suggestion. Since going to Twilight Town would have just been too depressing and Sora's friends agreed to watch over the blonde. Well, mostly the ladies since Leon still held him under contempt and Cloud didn't trust him with his back turned. Cid had been a bit more accepting; hell, he even let him stay at his place for free!

But that didn't make up for the fact that he used to be a part of a current major problem and that he wasn't the kind and well loved Hero of light. And most of all never will be. That's why he put up with the shunning, the harsh looks. To be something other than Sora's nobody. Roxas wanted to just his own life and for everyone to acknowledge that. And working for the H.B Restoration committee wasn't a bad start.

"So, uh, what did Leon want us to do anyway?" Roxas twirled his keyblades while following behind Cloud.

"Clear out an unusual amount of Heartless in the fissues before they decide to rampage the town. Then head to the old castle and clear out some of the rubble." Cloud's voice was just as monotone and lifeless as with anyone, but Roxas could feel an extra bit of coldness towards him. "I think we cleared out enough here. Let's head on towards the town, kid."

"It's not kid, it's Roxas." the teen mumbled. Suddenly he came crashing into Cloud's broad back. "Hey what's the deal, man?" Moving around to see what could have stopped the usually calm man, he froze. Blocking the way back to town was a huge, ivy like wall. The pitch black wall looked like it was sprouting sharp vines.

"The hell? When did this pop up?" Roxas came an inch away from the wall, resisting the urge to touch.

"Don't know. Cut through?" As if he had to ask. Roxas already started cutting away at the vines, just for them to grow back two times as thick. "...Well, let's just go ahead and say that won't work."

"UUUUUUGGGH now how are we supposed to get to the castle!" Roxas thought of other routes, to come out blank. To make matters worse, here came a brand new selection of heartless. "Get rid of these guys and this wall might just disappear!" He charged into the fight, slashing mercilessly through armored knights, grabbing a surveillance bot every now and again to reduce the numbers even more with their chrged up beams. No lie, it was fun just to bash around his enemies, but right now Leon would have his ass if the mission wasn't completed by dinner time. Cloud soared through the small fry, using his sonic blade to speed through them. Didn't take long to get rid of them all.

"...The wall's still here." Cloud stared at the wall. Roxas huffed heavy breaths.

"Leon's gonna freak out..." He held his head down just thinking about the lecture he'll get. Then Aeris would have to scare him off with some "lemonade" just to get the brunette off his back. Thank the stars for her unusual tastes. "So what could be causing these vines? It's darkness, no doubt, but something else, too..." The more brooding of the two examined the wall carefully. No coubt about it, there was something else to these vines. But he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Well, if it was easy to figure out, that would be just no fun, right?" A familiar cackle streamed through Roxas' ears. Just a turn of the head away the all too familiar and annoying dark haired Freeshooter sat upon a ridge of debris just ahead of the wall. His signiture smile plastered on his face as his one golden eye peered straight at Roxas.

"Xigbar! What's up with this wall! We don't have time to play with your shitty jokes!"

"Whoa, Roxas! Langauge much? When did you get so much fire?" A stupid question. Being locked in a world for almost a year to live a huge lie. Then have it stripped from your painfully because your nothing more than the insignificant shadow of the almighty Keyblade wielder and savior of the worlds. One just has to wonder really when Roxas became so angsty.

"Just move the stupid wall!"

"No can do, old friend. We're looking for someone and having you and your older twin there poking around won't help matters! I have orders too, you know. But unlike you, mister , I could lose my existance over it. SO, like, ciao!" Xigbar saluted the two blondes and headed off into a corridor of darkness. Roxas nearly blew up. Even back in the organization he never really enjoyed Xigbar's presence. Something about him pissed him off. Cloud didn't seem nearly as bothered.

"Hey, kid, let's jump over."

"The hell! That's not even remotely possible!" No lie, since the wall must've stood a good amount of meters above the two.

"I'll give you a boost so get ready.."

"Wait, I told you, we can't-" And up flew the younger blonde as Cloud grabbed his collar and flung him over the wall without breaking a sweat. Roxas didn't even have time to scream as he came butt first on the hard ground to the other side. Cloud followed, landing gracefully on his feet like a cat. The ex-SOILDER really did have too many tricks up his sleeve.

"Warning next time! I almost had a heart attck!" Roxas tried to clam his rushed breathing.

"With what heart?" Silence. No need to worrying about ending his labored breathing, it stopped completely at the last statement. Cloud continued forward, not noticing that Roxas stayed where he was. It was a lie to say that words couldn't state how he felt: He felt like pure shit. It was true that he had no real heart...but he never tried to look back to it. He just ignored the fact, re-wrote it to 'it's just not only my heart'. But there was no going around it, 'cause somebody will be there to remind him. He has no heart. No matter how much he clenched to that spot on his chest, no heart will beat. He almost cried, save for the fact that he still had a mission to complete. And it only pushed him on. Someday he'll get the acknowledgement he deserved. Heart or no heart, nothing will stop him get a life of his own...and damn him if he's going to continue to take more of Cloud's bull.


The castle never was very welcoming. What once stood tall and proud lined with elevators and pathways was lined with debris and Crimson Jazz families. Ever since the old witch was taken care of, the old building was nothing less of creepy. You could very easily get lost in the many corridors. Thus the case set for a girl a bit to headstrong1 for her own good. It was a dare to go in and retrieve a notable piece of evidence that she went inside from a few other Hollow Bastion teens. She ruffled her black and red plaid dress with was topped with a short long sleeved black hoodie. The bangles and studded cuffs she wore made a small music, helping the short girl remember why she ever agreed to the stupid task.

It was a few hours ago...

"Ai, you don't have to actually do it. Don't listen to those idiots." Her best friend had warned. Key was always very smart and held good advice. Which is why Ai didn't try to hard to make new friends. But the caramel colored girl wouldn't let anyone call her a punk unless they meant her clothes.

"I know it's kinda dumb.." Ai twirled her almost ebony shoulder length locks in contemplation, "...But if I don't do it they won't let me live it down. And I'm no pussy." Key shook her head, her light brown bobbed hair wavingaround in a calm manner. She tought about it for a second...

"Want me to come with you? Two heads are better than one, though I hate the cliche. And no one said you had to do it alone." Ai smiled at her.

"Nah I'm gonna avoid your mom throwing a huge fit. Besides, how hard can it be?"

And OF COURSE it's harder than anything in the world. AI had the right path at first, then a few heartless came her way. Evasion led to her to mess up her mental map of the place and now she was in some room with a few ways to go.

"Crap." She tapped her black combat boot on the floor, not noticing the sound echoed and caused some weird looking floating metal heartless to appear. "Double crap..." She tried to run but then ran into a dead end. "TRIPLE CRAP..." 'Cornered and doomed? Best day ever.' she thought. There was nothing she could use to defend herself, either.

"Ok so I finally found you, now leader won't catch his period on me!" Ai watched a dark haired male with an eye patch smile from behind the barrage of monsters. Weird enough he had on a long black cloak. It wasn't that cold in Hollow Bastion, either. But what's weird over someone who could possible help?

"I don't know you at all, but please! If you can help me!" AI backed all the way intot the wall.

"Hehe, surrrre. BUt in exchange you gotta come with me, okay?" Now that's weird. A stranger pops up from thin air and in exchange for being a humanitarian, she would have to follow him...how she never heard him coming was an even further mystery. But, at the moment where you could die, you would agree to anything.

"FIne, whatever, JUST DO SOMETHING!" One of the metal monsters were too close for comfort.

"Alright, let's have some fun!"


So, yeah, this was just something I started writing in the middle of U.S Government. Class is boring as all hell. So I'll make it my first story to Fan Fiction. Not my best idea but something to show I don't do anything on the site. Next chapter should hopefully be a bit more...thrilling. I mean we got Xigbar action and the real journey begins. And of course, the obvious OCs in the mix...my bff and me love KH. Alot. SO why not? Plus, Cloud is a bit mean at first, but it is all good. Roxas is the tragic hero, no? I'm gonna try really hard to make this good...

So...um..rewiew on how to improve?