a/n: I would like to thank snowcloud8 for beta-reading this chapter and keykidpilipili on tumblr for suggesting the name.
Prologue: Day 1
"Sora?" the brown haired boy opened his eyes, the sun shining down on his face. He sat up from his spot, and glanced around the beach, over the water, he laid back down, when a r_d-_a_r_d _i_l~
"Woah!" the boy shouted as he lurched forwards. K_r_ giggled.
"Give me a break Kai-"
"Giving up already?" Riku asked.
"If there are other worlds out there, then why did we end up here?"
"This world has been connected," a robed figure said.
"Who's there?" Sora asked.
"Tied to the darkness," the robed figure continued, ignoring the boy's question.
"Sora, don't ever change," Kai-
"The door, has opened," Riku said.
"What?"
"You understand nothing…" The robed figure remarked.
"Sora…" K- as sh-
A boy awoke as the rising sun shone through his window. He got up with a grunt and rested his left arm on his knee.
Another dream about him, the boy thought, But, it felt so real. He then, by chance, glanced at his calendar, and his mood brightened considerably. "It's the first day of Summer Vacation!" He hurriedly threw on his white checkered jacket, a dark t-shirt, and two toned beige jeans and rushed to the usual spot to meet up with his friends, not wanting to waste a single second of his all too brief period of freedom.
~Twilight Town~
Roxas was still deep in contemplation as he sat in the "Usual Spot" with his friends. The Usual Spot was a small area below the local train tracks, enclosed by a rusty fence in an alleyway. It was full of old furniture, trash cans, and various boxes, but ever since first discovering the place back in grade school, Roxas and his friends had spruced it up to serve as a hang-out.
"Doesn't it just tick you off?" the question pulled Roxas out of his trance. The energetic blonde with a fiery look in his green eyes was Hayner, Twilight Town's regional qualifier for the Struggle Tournament and Roxas's best friend, and was currently been pacing and ranting random, incoherent sentences long since Roxas had arrived at their secret hideout.
"I'm sorry, what were we talking about?" Roxas asked
"That creep Seifer decided to frame us for his latest crime!" Hayner snapped, "Pay attention Roxas!"
"He's seriously crossed the line this time," another boy Pence replied, "At least, I don't think his posse will be able to call themselves the 'Disciplinary Committee' ever again if we can prove it was them." Pence was shorter and stockier than Hayner, his blue jeans stretching way past his ankles, and wasn't the least bit intimidating, but he made up for it with his good heart and positive attitude.
"The sad thing is, it's not that much of a surprise," a girl sitting across from Pence, Olette, replied, "The town practically worships the ground he walks on, so of course they'd believe him over his favorite targets."
"And now the entire town's treating us like we're the 'klepto club!'" Hayner continued, "I don't know about you, but I'd rather not spend all summer with the entire town treating me like some kind of criminal mastermind!"
"What exactly can we do about it though?" Roxas asked, "Seifer has this whole town wrapped around his finger." All four of the teens paused. Hayner continued pacing, Olette started tapping her foot, and Pence glanced over at the camera on top of the oil drum that rested in the corner near the couch.
"Hang on, we might have some evidence!" Pence remarked, "If we can get proof that we had nothing to do with it, then Seifer's argument won't have a leg to stand on!" Pence rose to his feet and ran over to the drum.
"You couldn't have said that three hours ago?" Hayner remarked. Pence ignored Hayner and picked up the camera.
"They're gone!" Pence shouted.
"What?" Roxas and Olette jumped to their feet while Hayner stood up straight.
"Our, _ are gone!" Pence answered the other three, "Wait…"
"Pence now's not the time to be cute, if someone stole our _ we need to…" Hayner's hand went up to his neck, "What the…"
"Wait, so the thief didn't just steal the _, but the word too?" Roxas replied.
"Okay, even if Seifer stole our _, there's no way he could steal the word!" Olette replied.
"Well, unless someone in here's been dabbling in the occult, I'm pretty sure we have some proof that we didn't do this," Pence replied.
"We need to figure out what else is going on," Hayner commented, "Alright guys, let's go!" Hayner, Pence, and Olette hurried out of the usual spot. Roxas attempted to follow, but was hit by a sudden headache.
"Huh?" his head felt light, and everything went dark.
"His heart is returning," a voice announced, "Doubtless, he'll awaken soon."
Roxas woke up on the ground, the world spinning. The sound of footsteps echoed louder and louder.
"Roxas, are you okay?" Olette asked. Roxas pushed himself off the ground, and Olette offered a hand. Roxas took it, and soon he was back to his feet.
"I'm fine," he replied, "Just had some trouble sleeping is all."
"Well, c'mon, we're going to try and talk to some of our neighbors and see what they know!" Olette replied. The two hurried off, but Roxas couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
"The investigation starts here!" Pence announced as the trio stopped outside Biggs' Clothes Shop. It was a small, family run shop in the marketplace. Biggs himself was a teenager, about two or three years older than Roxas, with dark-brown eyes and dirty-blond hair. He simply glared at Roxas.
"I never thought you'd do such a rotten thing," he remarked, "And to think, you used to be my favorite customer."
"Okay, first of all, the four of us were robbed too!" Roxas replied.
"And how do I know you're not just saying that?" Biggs replied, "For all I know, you delinquents could've hidden your _ in order to avoid suspicion!" Roxas growled.
"Next question; while I can understand how stealing a _ would be possible, how the heck would we steal the word too?" Roxas asked, "Speaking of which, I seriously hope we get the word back soon because that just feels weird." Biggs opened his mouth to reply, closed it, then closed his eyes and crossed his arms.
"Jessie's _ were also stole. Why don't you ask her?" Biggs deflected. Roxas' eyebrow twitched.
"Maybe she'll be less accusatory," Roxas replied, before turning to his friends, "Alright guys let's-" They were already at Jessie's Accessory Store across the street.
"Hey Roxas would you hurry it up?" Hayner shouted.
"Oh this just isn't my day," Roxas remarked.
"How could you Roxas? You used to be one of my favorite customers," Jessie started. Roxas groaned.
"So much for less accusatory."
"Wait, why are you singling out Roxas in particular?" Hayner remarked.
"I mean, you guys were probably his accomplices, but he's no doubt the ringleader," Jessie answered.
"What the heck did Seifer tell you to convince you of that?" Olette replied.
"Nothing. I haven't seen him at all since the theft happened," Jessie replied, "But all the evidence I could find pointed to Roxas."
"How would I steal a word though?" Roxas asked. Jessie paused.
"What the heck are you talking about?" she asked.
"What was stolen?" Pence replied.
"Same as everyone, my _ of…" her voice trailed off and her hand went up to her neck. "Okay, there is no way you could pull that off." She shook her head. "Okay, I'll try and let the others know about this, but Elmyra was also robbed. She might have information you can actually use."
"Thank you," Roxas replied, before turning to face his friends "Okay guys, let's…" they were already gathered around Elmyra's Candy Shop. "Why do you guys keep doing that?" He took off running before he could hear Jessie giggle.
"Oh why hello children, how's your day been?" Elmyra, a kindly old lady who ran the candy shop, said.
"You're not going to accuse me of robbing you, Auntie Elmyra?" Roxas asked.
"Oh heavens no, I know you'd never even consider such a thing!" Elmyra replied, "Besides, there's no way you'd be able to crack my safe then seal it behind you."
"... Auntie Elmyra why would you keep _ in a safe?" Pence asked. The elderly woman merely chuckled.
"Why, you can never be too careful, child," Elmyra replied, "Of course I'll need better security if the thief was able to steal a word from my vocabulary."
"Oh good. You noticed that too," Olette replied.
"Of course what really has me worried is Chiro," Elmyra continued, "The silly thing wandered off while I was setting up shop, and I haven't seen him since. I can only hope the thief didn't take him too."
"Meow." Roxas paused, and took a couple steps back. There, on top of the green overhang, was Chiro.
"What are you doing up there?" Roxas asked.
"Meow," Chiro replied.
"Why don't you get down here? Auntie Elmyra's worried about you." Chiro responded by jumping down, claws first, onto Roxas.
"Oh thank you, Roxas," Elmyra replied as she pet her cat and Olette patted Roxas on the back, "You're such a good boy."
"It was no problem Auntie Elmyra," Roxas replied, tears in his eyes from his brief and harrowing encounter with the cat, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about the thief, would you?" Elmyra brought a hand to her chin.
"Now that you mention it, I did see a shape heading over to the sandlot while I was setting up shop," she replied, "At first I thought it was Chiro, but if he was up on the verdana this whole time…"
"Alright, then we've got our thief!" Hayner replied.
"Or at least, where he went after stealing everyone's _," Olette replied, "Now can we please hurry and figure out how to get the word back?"
"Sure thing!" Roxas replied, before turning to face the shopkeeper, "Thank you, Auntie Elmyra!"
"It was nothing, child," she replied, "Now good luck!"
The four teens arrived at the sandlot just in time to see three of the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee's four members conversing near some blue struggle bats: Rai, Fuu, and Vivi. Raijin was a bulky teen, with a healthy tan from the time he had spent training in the sun, and usually wore sleeveless tops to show off his muscle. Fuujin was the opposite: red eyes, white hair, and sickly-pale skin. Vivi wasn't like either one of them, simply a shadowy boy in a pointed hat with no discernable facial features except his glowing eyes. He looked more like a scarecrow than a boy, though that might be because he wasn't really a human being. It was Vivi who noticed the quartet approaching and pointed to them before covering the part of his head where Roxas assumed his mouth was. Fuu and Rai turned to face them.
"Thieves," Fuu remarked as she pointed to them.
"That was real low, y'know?" Rai added, pounding his fist into his hand. Vivi merely pulled the rim of his hat over his eyes.
"Oh yeah?" Hayner replied.
"That was a nice comeback there, blondie," a voice replied as a fourth figure stepped out of the shadows. The voice belonged to the leader of the Disciplinary Committee, a teen who kept blond hair and a long scar went down between his green eyes covered with a black beanie.
"Seifer…" Hayner growled.
"You can give us back the the _ now," Seifer replied, "They were undeniable proof that we totally owned you lamers!"
"Really Seifer, you win one time in a best of three match and that's supposed to make you better than us?" Roxas replied, "Of course, without the _ it would be easy for you to claim otherwise."
"I don't like your tone," Seifer replied before pulling out a blue Struggle bat, "But I suppose it doesn't matter what you did to the _, even if you burned or shredded them, because I don't need them to prove that I'm better than you!"
"Replay." Fuu added taking on a fighting stance herself.
"We're gonna wipe the floor with you, y'know?" Rai added, punching the palm of his own hand and cracking his knuckles. Seifer grinned as Hayner fell into his own fighting stance and Olette pushed Pence behind her.
"Of course, if you get on your knees and beg, I might go easy on you," he remarked, "If not..." He chuckled. "Well, I'll have some fun at least." Roxas' fingers curled into a fist as he walked up in front of Hayner.
"Roxas?" he questioned.
"Don't worry, I've got this," he replied. Seifer prepped a swing, and Roxas got on his hands and knees, much to the amusement of the Disciplinary Committee.
"Roxas!" Hayner shouted, embarrassment clear in his tone.
"Lost your nerve already?" Seifer taunted. Roxas smirked, then dashed past Seifer, and picked up one of the discarded struggle bats with his right hand. "What the?"
"Well Seifer, you said you wanted to prove you were better than me, didn't you?" Roxas asked, "And you can't exactly do that if I'm unarmed." Seifer lazily pointed his bat at Roxas.
"Well, if you wanna do this the hard way, then fine!" he shouted, before charging at Roxas. Roxas ducked under Seifer's first swing, then dashed behind him. He parried Seifer's second blow. "Stop playing around and fight me!" Seifer shouted charging at Roxas before the latter stepped back to avoid his second swing. "Stop playing around and fight me!" Seifer shouted charging at Roxas. Roxas stepped back to avoid his second swing.
"No, you're not worth the effort," he said with a grin. Seifer growled.
"Kneel, loser!" he yelled, jumping into the air. Roxas ducked under Seifer, and hit him in the side. Seifer grunted, spun around, and knocked the bat out of Roxas' hand. Roxas simply caught it with his left, and knocked the bat out of Seifer's hand. "Why you little cheat!" Roxas simply knocked Seifer over with his backswing.
"Alright Roxas!" Hayner cheered from the sidelines.
"Wha- Seifer's just having an off day, y'know!" Rai remarked as Roxas twirled the Struggle bat in his left hand.
"Tournament decides." Fuu stated.
"Hey, Roxas!" Pence shouted. Roxas turned to face his friends, and was stunned by a flash of light. Pence grinned as he lowered the camera.
"A little more warning next time," Roxas remarked as he rubbed his eyes.
"Sorry, just had to immortalize the moment!" Pence replied. Just then, a white blur leapt down from a nearby building, grabbed the camera from Pence's hands, and glided downhill to the marketplace. "Huh?"
"The thief?" Olette remarked.
"C'mon! We can't let him escape!" Hayner shouted. Roxas hurried after his friends as Fuu and Rai helped Seifer to his feet.
"Oh, this is far from over," Seifer growled.
The thief twirled and danced between buildings, past shoppers, and through a hole in the wall into the woods. Roxas then ducked through the hole and into the forest, where the thief leapt from tree to tree.
"Get back here!" he shouted.
The chase came to a stop outside the Old Mansion, where the thief simply paused in front of the rusty-old gates. Roxas ran up to the thief.
"Alright, guys, we finally-" it was at that moment that Roxas realized that he had left Hayner, Pence, and Olette behind at some point during the chase. "Oh come on!" He turned to face the thief. "Doesn't matter, you can either give back what you stole, or I'll make you give them back!" Now that Roxas got a good look at the thief, however, he noticed something was up with them. Namely, their fingers were far too long to belong to a human being, and were bound by metal bands. The thief's body was completely concealed by white cloth, with a zipper keeping their hood shut. To make matters stranger, while the thief clearly had visible ribs, they moved like their bones were made of jelly. Roxas suddenly had second thoughts about confronting this creature on his own, especially when the zipper concealing its face opened up, and its jagged, rubbery jaws briefly popped out as it pulsated.
We have come for you, my liege.
Roxas brandished his struggle bat, clinging to his one instrument of self defense as the creature didn't so much walk as stretch its legs in his directions, pulsating with every step. When it took one step too close, Roxas took a swing with his Struggle bat. It sank into the creature, stretched it in the direction of the swing, then bounced back, the thing none the worse for wear.
"What the heck are you?" Roxas asked. The creature didn't respond, but wrapped its tendril-like arms around Roxas.
We'll go together.
Roxas struggled to break free and felt the weight of his bat change and a tingling sensation briefly pass over his hand. Without thinking Roxas gripped the weapon with both hands and sliced through the creature. The thing let out an almost human shriek as its body glowed and dissolved, and the stolen photographs scattered across the grass. Roxas paused and stared at his weapon. His blue bat had been replaced with a silver key with a gold handle and silver chain. The token at the end of the chain depicted a circle with two smaller circles on top of it, with each circle being on opposite sides of the chain. In a flash of light and ones and zeros, it vanished from his hand, replaced once more by the bat.
"The others are gonna be happy to get their photos back!" Olette replied as the quartet regrouped in the Usual Spot.
"Hey, we got the word back to!" Pence replied.
"Hey, Roxas, did you get a good look at the thief?" Hayner asked. Roxas nodded. "What did he look like?"
"It was like something out of a nightmare," Roxas replied. Hayner didn't press and glanced over at the recovered photos.
"Hey, this is from when you won the contest at Auntie Elmyra's shop!" Olette remarked.
"And this is you and Jessie," Hayner commented, "Hey, Roxas is there something you wanna tells us?"
"I was her first customer," he deadpanned, "Nothing more, nothing less. There is nothing going on between us."
"Whatever you say, Roxas," Hayner said.
"Hang on, all of these are pictures of Roxas," Pence commented.
"Huh, so that's why they assumed we were the thieves," Olette replied, "But why would the thief want all these pictures of Roxas?"
"I dunno, maybe the thief wanted Roxas?" Pence suggested. Roxas flinched when Hayner laughed.
"Please, why would the thief wanna steal a bonehead like Roxas?" He asked, still chuckling.
"It actually tried to take me when I got separated from you guys," Roxas cut in, "I barely managed to break free". Olette gasped, and Hayner paled.
"Hey, sorry Roxas, I didn't…"
"Don't worry, I don't think it'll get the chance to try again," Roxas replied, "It just screamed and vanished after I managed to break free from its grasp." Silence filled the Usual Spot.
"Did it get away?" Pence asked.
"Considering that last I saw it was cut in two, I highly doubt it," Roxas replied. Silence once again filled the room.
"So in other words, there's no use worrying about it," Hayner replied, "Heck Roxas, I'd argue that you probably won't have to worry about anything ever again." Roxas gave him a look.
"What're you talking about?" he asked.
"Think about it; you managed to defeat a monster that can steal words from our language," Hayner replied, "Honestly, I wouldn't want to mess with you!" Roxas grinned.
"I guess that's one way of looking at it," he said.
"C'mon guys, regardless of what happened, we should probably get these pictures back to their rightful owners," Olette replied.
"Elmyra gets her pictures back first, Biggs can give back Seifer's," Roxas stated.
"Sounds good to me!" Olette replied, "C'mon, let's go!" The quartet took off running, but when Roxas stepped into the sun, he blacked out.
"Where… Am I?" a voice asked.
"Who are you?" Roxas replied.
"Who are you?"
Two figures stood in a dark room, lit only by the half-dozen monitors corresponding to the single computer.
"Organization miscreants," one of the two figures remarked in a deep voice. A red cape was draped over his shoulders, and he wore dark brown robes on his body. A brown, leather belt wrapped around his torso diagonally, running from his right shoulder to his left hip, with three brown pouches adorning it. He had a brown scarf wrapped around his neck. Below his scarf, his robes and cape opened, revealing a circuitry pattern on a black fabric. His head was bound entirely in red bandages, and a single, yellow light peaked out from the dark void beneath, right where his left eye would be located, with his right obscured by a rusted buckle. Dark wisps leaked out of the seams in his bandages.
"Why would the Nobodies steal photos?" the other figure asked. He appeared to be a grown man in a black coat, his features obscured under the shadows of his hood.
"Those empty husks couldn't tell the difference between the pictures and their target, both were ones and zeroes to them," the first figure replied as he rose from his seat. He walked across the room to the hooded man, the sound of his footsteps being the only evidence that the man had feet.
"But how did they steal the word?" hooded man asked, "The word isn't programmed into the simulation, and if it had stolen the word from their vocabulary, they shouldn't have been able to know how to say it, which they clearly did."
"It was a security measure," the bandaged figure replied as he walked past the hooded man, "When I realized that the photos were gone, I put a filter in place that would keep the inhabitants from hearing the word. I had hoped that it would keep them from noticing, but it merely alerted them to the anomaly." He then turned to face the hooded man, his "eye" glowing far more brightly than normal. "If my plans are to work, Roxas must remain under the delusion that it is a normal boy! Otherwise, all of our efforts will have been all for naught!" The glow subsided, returning to its original dullness. "Regardless, we must locate and seal this breach, lest the Organization exploit it and take our prize from us." He chuckled darkly. "Though I wouldn't mind decreasing the number of husks in this world, wouldn't you agree?"
Restoration at 12%.
a/n: This is based off of an AU I wrote for my tumblr blog, but with some changes too keep it from being redundant. The idea was to, in short, iron out a few of the continuity errors in KH2's plot. Darkness isn't going to go back to being the embodiment of all evil in the world after Chain of Memories declared it wasn't, for example. I decided to alter DiZ's design to make him appear less human and more ethereal, partially due to some reveals later in the game that make DiZ's design come across as kinda... "Politically incorrect" let's say. His design was actually inspired by the design of the Ethereal's from World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. No, I never played the game, but I do have a couple of player's guides. And I probably shouldn't have watched so many Silent Hill videos while writing this prologue, since that is partially what influenced the tone of the later portions of this part of the prologue. Yes, part. To match with KH2, I have divided this prologue up into multiple "days". While I can't promise to update in real time, I am going to watch the cutscenes of KH2's prologue to make sure I don't stray too far from canon. As it stands, this is going to be less of a complete "Alternate Universe" and more of an "Altered Universe", where I make little changes to the journey here and there that helps create a somewhat different story. All in all, I hope that you enjoy this journey.