A/N: Well, I decided to retry a sequel to "The Hunting of the Sue". Alas, my days as a Lord of the Rings fangirl have faded somewhat, so I had a problem. Then I remembered my other fandoms and thought to myself, "C'mon, Inwë, it won't kill you to try something new." So here I am, writing my first Kingdom Hearts fanfiction. We'll see how it goes.
Disclaimer: As of now Square Enix and Disney own it all, but the plot and Sues and original characters are mine.
As a rule, I am not a video game person. I like to read and write and occasionally draw, but video games are not something I'm familiar with. I've heard my fair share about them, of course – one cannot be a teenager in America without knowing something about various video games, on purpose or not – but I don't play them.
You can imagine my shock when I found myself trapped in the…what did they call it…the World That Isn't There? No, that wasn't it…
But I digress. I need to backtrack a little before I start making sense.
My name is Rana Avari. You might remember me, I'm the crazy girl who got transported to Middle-earth and hunted Sues for a living. That was about two years ago…how old was I then? Fourteen? Fifteen? I'm seventeen now, or will be in a month or two. It's not much of an improvement over being fifteen, except for the obvious perk of having a driver's license. Got to appreciate that. I haven't been doing anything much since I left Middle-earth. I miss it terribly and think about the rangers often. Life in the real world seems so much less vibrant when you've stood side-by-side with truly great warriors and turned back the tide of Sues. Plenty of people have noticed the change in me since then. I've evaded questions well enough until now but I doubt it will last for much longer.
Anyway, I'll continue with the story of how I got to…really, I must remember the name of it…the World of Something Negative? Still not right…must try harder…
I was sitting very casually at my desk in my room at home. I wasn't doing anything to deserve to be thrust into this alien world. I was reading a book. It was a good book, too, a simple dictionary of horse breeds. Perfectly innocent. The hunting knife Kai had given to me before I left Middle-earth was sitting on the wooden surface of my desk, freshly polished and now sheathed. I glanced at it occasionally, thinking about how and why I had received such a kingly gift. A sigh escaped my chapped lips and I went back to my book. I flipped through it a little irritably without really taking in any of what I was reading. It wasn't much of a loss, I'd read and reread the books hundreds of times and I could remember most of it without problems. I dragged my chair back enough so that I could put my bare feet up on the desk. My short hair (I'd done different things with it since Middle-earth, when it used to be fairly long) kept getting in my eyes while I read and I finally shut the heavy volume with a snap.
"What, pray tell, is the point of having short hair when it's so annoying?" I asked, addressing the photo of a silver filly that was tacked to my bulletin board. She didn't respond, and I smiled fondly at the picture. Such a lovely creature, one that existed only in memories of better days.
"Don't answer that," I added, opening my book again and turning to the chapter on Arabians. Something in my field of vision moved and my eyes snapped back to the photograph. The filly was frozen in ageless beauty, as usual. I blinked slowly and turned my head. The hunting knife lay just as I had left it, and no other clumsy drawings on my bulletin board shifted at all. Deciding I was hallucinating (again), I grumbled something about my overactive imagination and tossed my book onto the desk. The clock on my wall said it was nearly six in the evening. I could smell something delicious cooking downstairs and was sorely tempted to get up and go sample some of whatever was being made.
That's when it happened.
I was halfway through standing up and shoving my hunting dagger into a drawer when I felt dizzy. I gripped the back of my vacant chair for support as the room swam in front of my eyes. My balance thrown completely off, I felt myself falling backwards. The chair tipped over but I heard no crash as it hit the floor. I lost my footing and plunged into…nothing. I was unconscious.
It was when I awoke that things got to be really weird. I still haven't figured out what happened exactly, only that when I finally pulled my mind back into the land of the living I was laying facedown on pavement and I hurt all over. I didn't open my eyes right away, instead just making sure I could breathe without too much difficulty. I tried to move my hands and arms to confirm that nothing was broken and felt my fingertips slide over something cool and metallic. I recognized the feel of my hunting knife and closed my fingers around the hilt. Thanks Kai, I'm sure it'll come in handy, I thought. With a groan of pain I rolled over onto my back and opened my eyes. The sky overhead was pitch black and dotted with a few distant stars. There was a strange neon glow to everything. I shifted my gaze slightly and noticed tall, modern buildings lining the street I was sprawled in the middle of. I sat up quickly as I realized this must be a city of some kind and looked around wildly for oncoming traffic. It wasn't necessary; the place was deserted.
I heard a moan close by me and whipped my head around. There was a second girl lying next to me on the street. I recoiled from her as I saw her appearance. She was wearing a weird black coat that was a little too small for her, highlighting the fact that she had very pronounced curves and a waist that was only a few inches thicker than my wrist. She had long, curly silver hair and a tan. She was still asleep it seemed, but when I moved away from her she slowly opened her eyes by batting them repeatedly. They were abnormally large, as I've come to learn is meant to imitate the look of Japanese anime but come out horribly in real life. One eye was yellow and the other was sky blue. When this Sue – for what else could such a creature be? – spotted me she narrowed her eyes and frowned at me.
"Like, who are you?" she demanded in a not-very-regal voice. I stared at her for a moment. Being this close to a living, breathing Sue brought back memories of the "old days" when I'd been kidnapped by such creatures and almost killed.
"Er…well, I'm usually called Rana Avari," I said slowly, not extending my hand to shake hers in case she tried to chew my arm off. The Sue sat up and tossed her hair over her shoulder with an air of disdain.
"I am Xede," she responded, "The fourteenth member of Organization XIII."
"Organization what?" I asked in bewilderment. Xede gave me a startled look, her mouth hanging open and revealing pearly white teeth that I was almost envious of. She stood up quickly and I did the same, not wanting to be off my feet if she wasn't. The Sue brushed off her black coat with a gloved hand and pursed her red lips in annoyance.
"Like, the Organization XIII. With Axel," she added when my face did not register understanding. It still didn't make sense to me. Something, though, seemed out of place. Then it dawned on me, a profound truth that could not possibly be ignored. It was so astronomically and mathematically sound that I almost collapsed under the weight of such fact:
"How can there be fourteen members in a group called Organization XIII?"
Xede opened her mouth to answer, paused, and closed it again. My superior logic had once more foiled a Sue's master plans. Unfortunately the Sue did not drop dead from shock in the same way the last Sue I had defeated with reason had. Instead, she stared at me as if I wasn't right in the head.
"Like, do you even know who Sora is?"
"No."
"Riku?"
"No."
"No one? Like, how can you, like, possibly be, like, a Kingdom Hearts fangirl?" It was my turn to frown and I stared at the Sue quizzically.
"What's that? I've never heard of it before," I said. It was true; I never had until that point. I am a sadly uneducated teenager. Xede glared at me as if I was scum unworthy of basking in her presence. I thought she was about to say something to me when she abruptly turned on her (high) heels and stalked off towards the largest group of buildings in the abandoned city. I blinked slowly and realized I was being left alone and had no idea where I was. I sighed in disgust at this turn of events and charged after the Sue, feeling that I was definitely going to regret tagging along with her.
Everything was quiet except for the clicking of Xede's shoes on the ground and the patter of my bare feet, punctuated by curses and gasps every time I stepped on anything sharp (pebbles, glass fragments, and uneven places for the most part). And the street was cold. I felt like I was walking on ice that had been thawed slightly but still not enough to be comfortable. Xede ignored me altogether and kept craning her long neck, looking for something or someone while we walked. I can't complain about her too much, she was quiet for a Sue and didn't seem to care that I was following her. It was a change from the old types of Sues I'd encountered who couldn't shut up about Legolas and Orlando Bloom. This one was almost…tolerable. I hate to admit it, but I didn't mind her company. The fact that I was probably in a strange fandom and didn't have any reason to dislike her must have helped.
"Did you, like, see anyone when you woke up?" Xede demanded suddenly, stopping and turning to look me in the eye. I was unnerved by the golden and azure gaze and cleared my throat nervously.
"No, just you," I answered, watching while her face fell. She put her hands on her hips and shook her head.
"Like, I totally thought it'd be easier to, like, find Axel!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air and continuing on down the road. I jogged to keep up and suppressed a wince every time my sore feet hit the pavement. I didn't know or care who this 'Axel' was. I felt sorry for anyone who had a Sue after him, but on the other hand Xede's pursuit of this guy meant that I had to walk more and faster. It wasn't doing me much good, seeing as I wasn't entirely sure that Xede even knew where we were going.
Just as I was about to suggest that we stop for a break, Xede halted and I ran into her, banging my nose on her shoulder – she was a good foot taller than me, which I find insulting – and shoving her forward a few feet. I let out a yelp of pain and walked to the side to see around the obnoxiously tall Sue. Xede was glaring at, apparently, nothing.
"Why are we stopping?" I asked, shifting from foot to foot to alleviate the pain in each and glancing from the Sue to the empty space in front of her. Xede did not answer for several seconds and I wondered if she'd even heard me.
"Someone's coming! OMG!" she squealed at random, making me jump. I gripped my hunting dagger in my hand and wished I hadn't stopped practicing with it over the past few months. The Sue might be excited about company but that only made me more apprehensive. My eyes scanned the gloom uneasily as I waited, holding my breath, for someone to walk around the corner. Nothing happened for thirty seconds…forty seconds…one minute…one and a half minutes…
"Aww, don't pull my leg like that!" I snarled at the Sue, who was still giggling and bouncing up and down on the spot, "I really thought someone was coming -!"
Xede's girlish smile froze and slid off her face along with all the color in her skin. Her gold and blue eyes widened in shock and her mouth dropped open. Strangled gasps caught in her throat as she tried to breathe properly and failed. For a moment I thought she was choking on her own drool and took a step forward, intending to pound her on the back until she was all right. That's when I saw the weird disk-like object sticking out of her back. Xede collapsed forward and did not stir again. I could only stare in horror before looking around for her killer. No one was there, not on either end of the road. I lifted my knife into a more defensive position and crept over to Xede, crouching down next to her and checking for a pulse that wasn't there. I felt a bad for her now. She had seemed rather harmless for a Sue and I preferred to see Sues like her sent back alive to wherever it is Sues come from. Well, that and now I was very worried about getting one of those disk-like things stuck in my back.
I backed away from the body and turned in a slow circle, waiting for an attack to come out of the darkness. I could hear and see nothing, but Xede's perfume masked any smell of blood in the air. I was panting slightly as the adrenaline coursed through me and urged me to flee. I wanted to obey but I decided it would leave me open to an assault from the assassin in the shadows.
"Who's there?" I shouted. It was unlikely that an attacker would reveal himself so lightly, but it felt better to yell than to sit there quietly and wait for someone to make a move. Suddenly, I felt a presence behind me and whirled around, knife up, in time to parry a blow from a second disk. This one was being held, not thrown. The man holding it was taller than me (why is this always the case?) with oddly cut red hair, green eyes, and simple tattoos under his eyes. He was wearing the same kind of coat that Xede had been and there was a diabolical grin on his face that was directed at me.
"I'm Axel," the man replied to my earlier question, "I hope you and that other little Sue enjoy the Void!" With that he summoned the other disk into his free hand – I kid you not, the thing just vanished from Xede's corpse and showed up again in his hand – and slashed at me. I danced clumsily out of the way and almost tripped over poor Xede.
"Wait! I'm not your enemy!" I said quickly as I dodged and darted as far away from this 'Axel' as I could. What Xede saw in the guy, I know not. Axel laughed at me and threw one of the disks. It burst into flames halfway towards me and I had to roll out of the way. My pant leg caught fire and I beat it out with much swearing and blistering. Axel wasted no time in rushing forward, the sharp spikes on his weapon grazing the side of my face and leaving gashes as I scrambled out of the way.
"Axel!" called a new voice from right behind me, "You need some help?" It was a female voice dripping with sarcasm. I didn't even have a chance to turn before I felt someone grab me and wrench my dagger from my grasp. I watched in despair as my only defense was tossed to the side like a child's toy. But that didn't mean I'd stop fighting. I struggled valiantly against my unseen foe until I was panting and exhausted. Axel had paused in mid-attack and eyed the newcomer warily.
"Thanks, but no thanks. I can handle one or two Sues by myself, Larxene," he said with an exasperated sigh.
"Oh?" purred the woman I couldn't see, "This one looks more like that other type of Sue…what are they called…a fangirl?"
"I'm not anything!" I replied in my defense, renewing my efforts to escape, "I swear, I don't even know where this is or who you people are!" Axel tilted his head to one side and surveyed me, twirling his weapons idly.
"Right," he said sardonically, "I've heard that one hundreds of times from Sues. I admit you're not much to look at -."
"Oi! Show some manners!" I interjected angrily. Axel merely blinked and continued.
"You're not much to look at, but most fangirls and these Revised Sues that've been poppin' up everywhere aren't." He lifted one of those weird disk things and looked like he was going to throw it at me. The woman holding onto me sucked in a sharp breath and released me suddenly. I bolted out of the way and turned, staring at both of them. The woman was about my height – at last, proof that I am not short – with slicked-back blonde hair and wide blue eyes. She looked more like a Sue than I did. As soon as she saw I was up, she summoned throwing knives in the same way Axel had summoned his own weapons. Staring at the place where my dagger had fallen, I backed up a few paces as my assailants came closer.
"Wait for me to get out of the way before you start setting things on fire, Axel," she said icily as she shot the redhead a look. He smirked softly in the semidarkness and did not reply.
"So, who wants to get rid of her?" Larxene (I think that's what her name was) inquired with false sweetness, smiling viciously at me. Axel rolled his eyes and stopped walking.
"Aww man, I knew this was gonna happen when you showed up!" he sighed, making his weapons vanish just as easily as he had called them forth, "Fine, you finish her off. If you're gonna kill somethin', I'd prefer it if it isn't me." He waved at his comrade dismissively and pulled up the hood of his coat. Weird black smoke appeared around his feet and he started to disappear.
"Wait!!" I said quickly as Larxene grinned wolfishly, "I hate Sues, I was a Sue hunter once!" Axel paused and the smoke faded abruptly. He gave me a curious, wary look from beneath his hood and walked over to me. I resisted the urge to back away, instead holding my ground and staring at him defiantly.
"A Sue hunter?" he repeated, sounding interested, "Did the DSD send you?"
"Uhh…no. What's…er…what's the DSD?" I said slowly, cursing my honesty and wishing I didn't sound so much like a Sue. Axel frowned suspiciously and leaned forward so our faces were inches apart. He has bad breath, but I decided it wasn't the best time to say so.
"The Department of Sue Destruction. If you were ever a Sue hunter you should know all about it," he answered.
"I wasn't a professional," I countered, "I just helped some people in another…umm…I helped some friends get rid of Sues." Axel raised an eyebrow.
"Is that a fact?" His tone and the look in his bright green eyes told me he thought I was lying. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I realized I couldn't convince him otherwise.
"Larxene, I'll meet you back at HQ," Axel said in a bored tone as he turned away and stalked off. His blonde friend raised her hand, sharp knives glittering in the pale light. I gritted my teeth and glanced at my knife, lying frustratingly out of reach; and at Axel, who was about to call that smoke stuff again and leave. This wasn't going to end well unless I did something about it. Standing there like an idiot with no weapon obviously wasn't going to work, nor was trying to convince them that I was telling the truth. I would have to work with their sympathy. I mean, it's not like they don't have hearts!
"Wait! Please!" I screamed desperately, giving the two of them my very best pleading look, "I swear, I'm not a Sue! Please just let me leave, I'll never come back here again! Please!" Larxene let out a shriek of laughter and teleported over to where I was standing (man, I wish I could do that) and held one of her knives up near my face. I do not like that woman, her with her sadism and her pointy metal objects.
"Don't be such an idiot!" she giggled with mock surprise, "Sues don't get to leave this place alive." I shrank away from her but found myself backed up against a wall. Cowering like a child, I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for the inevitable.
"Hold it, Larxene." Both of us turned and stared at Axel, who had stopped again and was watching us from a few yards away.
"What now?" Larxene demanded, "Axel, she's a Sue! You've only ever fallen for one of them once, and I don't want to be the one to tell Superior that you've done it again."
"Like I've told you before, distasteful cruelty isn't my style."
"More like you've gone soft since you died," Larxene muttered, glaring at me as if this was all my fault. I shrugged and smiled sheepishly to show I couldn't help it.
"Let's take her back to HQ. If she really is a Sue hunter, we could use the extra manpower," Axel continued as if he had not heard his comrade's snide remark. I wondered vaguely what Larxene had meant by "since you died". Was I dealing with vampires? Again? Destiny Ambar had been quite enough trouble by herself, and she was just one. I did not like the idea of spending any amount of time around creatures that eat humans.
"I can't believe this!" Larxene exclaimed suddenly, making me jump, "You've finally lost it!"
"Yeah, well, you still have to listen to me, Twelve."
"Oh, bringing rank into it, are we?" Larxene snapped, looking murderous, "I'm not obeying an idiot!" Axel glared at her (the effect was somewhat lessened by his hood) and folded his arms across his chest.
"C'mon, Larxene, you know you don't want to fight me over this." The blonde woman hesitated and glanced between me and Axel, obviously unsure of whether or not I was worth the trouble of a battle. I tried to look small and insignificant. After a moment, the throwing knives vanished from between Larxene's fingers and she lifted her chin proudly.
"Fine. I'm sick of standing out here in the cold anyway. I'm blaming this all on you when Superior finds out!" she declared haughtily before she disappeared in a rush of black smoke. I stared at the place where she had been standing and thanked all my lucky stars that I wasn't going to be sliced to pieces – yet. I shifted my gaze towards Axel and smiled weakly.
"Thanks," I said.
"Hey, don't thank me just yet. Superior has the final say about whether or not you're a Sue, and I'm not all that convinced myself." Axel shook his head at me and beckoned me over lazily. I wavered on the edge of disobedience before shuffling over and staring at my bare feet.
"You ever traveled by dark portal before?" Axel asked, and after I shook my head he added: "Well, this'll be an experience, then." He lifted a gloved hand and a large circle of that black smoke appeared in the air in front of us. I blinked at it and cast a hopeful glance at my dagger, still sitting on the cold pavement several feet away.
"Don't even think about it," Axel snapped.
"It was a present…" I murmured. The redhead sighed and gave my knife a critical look, as if it might sprout wings and try to stab him to death at any moment.
"Maybe I'll come back for it later. For evidence," he replied. I smiled broadly at him and he promptly shoved me into the portal. It felt like falling with a purpose, though I didn't know where I'd end up. There was no ground and there was no sky, only darkness everywhere. I didn't like it much and hoped I wouldn't have to travel this way again. Then I felt solid…something under my feet and stumbled forward, toppling out of the darkness and landing flat on my face in a long hallway. Axel stepped out of the smoke behind me and grabbed my arm by way of helping me to my feet. Then he dragged me down the long corridor. I had to jog to keep up with his long strides and couldn't help but stare at everything around me. Doors lined the walls, most of them with bars on their windows. Once or twice I saw large, lustrous eyes peering out at me from behind the locked doors. Captured Sues? I thought to myself as we passed. That seemed a little odd, considering how Larxene had seemed so bent on just killing me. Then again, everything here seemed a little odd.
"What is this place?" I asked in awe as we kept going and the space between doors widened. Axel glanced down at me quizzically.
"You honestly don't know, do ya?" My blank look was answer enough and we abruptly paused by a window. The entire deserted city sprawled out in front of us, neon lights and darkened streets reflecting the sky like a murky pond. We seemed to be in a building suspended in the air. Fear of heights…fear of heights…
"This is the World That Never Was," Axel explained while I reeled away from the window and tried not to panic about the fact that there was nothing supporting the fort we were in, "The home of Organization XIII." I nodded mutely and did not regret it when we took off again and sped down the hallway, away from the view. Climbing trees was one thing; this was entirely different.
"Here we are," Axel said cheerfully when we stopped again, this time facing one of the locked doors. I tried to see into the room beyond but it was too dimly lit. There was a weird murmuring noise coming from within it and I couldn't help but recoil.
"I hope you don't mind some company," the redhead continued brightly. I turned my head slowly and gave him a look. This only seemed to encourage him and he positively grinned when he unlocked the door and tossed me inside. I landed on the floor and rolled, sitting up immediately when I stopped and snarled at Axel's smiling face.
"Oi! At least put some lights on!" I yelled as he shut the door behind me with a clang and moved away. A second or two later pale lights flickered on overhead. The room was small, only about ten feet by ten feet. There was a cot in one corner and a toilet and sink in the other. Great, I was in prison. Not exactly what I had planned on.
I heard the small whimpering noise again and squinted. There was something curled up underneath the cot, something small and Sue-shaped. I nervously crept towards it and cleared my throat to get its attention.
"Hello? Are you all right?" I asked softly. It stopped whimpering and opened its eyes – they were large and lime green – and turned its head towards me. I gulped. After surveying me for several long moments it crawled out from underneath the cot and shook itself off.
It was a Sue, though what fandom it came from was beyond me. It was shorter and much skinnier than me, with spiky green hair and an ashy complexion. Its pupils contracted to slits when the light hit them.
"Like, who're you?" it asked me timidly. A timid Sue is a disturbing sight, unless they're faking it for Legolas' sake.
"Rana Avari," I replied. The Sue stared at me drowsily for a minute before sliding back under the cot.
"Er…and you are?" I inquired a little more loudly. It twitched and opened its eyes again.
"Don't remember," it answered sleepily, "But, like, I remember where I'm from."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. I'm, like, from, like, Naruto." It paused thoughtfully and then added, "I'm a ninja." I raised my eyebrows and scooted away from the Sue quickly. I didn't know anything about the Kingdom Hearts world, having only heard the name that day, but I'd heard of Naruto and knew that Sues from that realm were particularly large in numbers. What was a Sue from that world doing here? And why did Axel and Larxene and this mysterious Superior know so much about Sues? I sighed to myself and decided I would have to wait until morning for answers; little knowing that there was no sunrise in this world.
A/N: 20 pages, double-spaced. Not too bad for a first chapter. Please read, please review, and please rest easy in the knowledge that all flames will be donated to Authoressinhiding for her (thus far unused) flamethrower.