Ean: Alright, I have less then ten minutes to publish this before teh library computer cuts me off, so this is short. i've been working on this for a while and hope you enjoy it. Thank you.
The island was magical in a way unlike Destiny Islands. Here, you almost felt as if you could fly. For some, you could.
Peter glided over the ocean effortlessly, showing off for the newcomer.
Luckily, Sora had no problem with thinking happy thoughts. He had a great girlfriend and great friends. This day couldn't get much better.
They flew over land, but when they tried to dominate the water, Sora's shadow wouldn't let him. It grasped the edge, scared of becoming distorted on the water's surface.
"Just take it off!" Peter suggested when Sora told him of this.
"How is that possible?" the foreign boy asked, never having this difficulty with his own shadow before.
Peter guided himself to where Sora was and examined his feet thoughtfully. "Just give it a bit of a tug here, and... presto!"
Sora shot off after being released of his shadow's fear. The air was salty and cool, so different from the ocean air of his home.
They soared over the world, feeling more alive than ever. There was no hindrance, no worry, and no restraint. It was as if they would be young forever.
But as they flew, something different and more sinister took the shadows place. When Sora left Neverland, he didn't lead a shadow; instead, he led a Shadow.
"You kill a Heartless like this." Leon demonstrated with his blade.
Sora watched his mentor, eyebrows scrunched in confusion. "Why do we kill them? It's not right to kill someone."
"Sora," Leon explained patiently, "Heartless aren't alive in the first place. They're bad things that steal hearts."
"How do you know that they're not alive?" The brunette lowered his keyblade slightly.
"It's simple. They don't have hearts. If you don't have a heart, you're not alive." He brought his long blade back up. "Now let's get back to some drills."
Why? Sora thought as he stared into the stormy sea. Gray clouds hovered over the choppy water, completing a grayscale picture of gloom. Dark shadows swirled like paint, erasing every trace of the white canvas.
'You can kill them because they're not alive. They're Heartless.'
Heartless… the word teased his mind, bringing the hazy itch of a faint memory. Heartless… Kairi was heartless.
The reminder of his ex-girlfriend brought a grimace to Sora's features. He loved her, yet she just couldn't resist leaving him for his older, better looking best friend. He acted fine, congratulating them, but Sora couldn't help but think of her as heartless.
Hearts
A small, whispering voice invaded his consciousness, bringing with it a shiver of doubt that ate at him. The feeling wasn't entirely unfamiliar. A shadow of it had been stalking him ever since Neverland.
'You can kill them… they're Heartless.'
Hearts
Sora left his warm bed to stand by his open window, observing the gray, foreboding sky and equally gloomy sea. The tropical island looked more like Hell than Paradise.
Wandering cerulean eyes landed on the far off house of the Lovelock's; Kairi's house.
Hearts
Stockinged feet lifted over the sill, balancing on a minute ledge. No thoughts entered Sora's mind as he scaled the two story wall and landed in the white garden. Luminescent white flowers followed his moves as the front gate creaked open in the silence, and the teenage boy took to the streets.
Only feelings occupied his brain, feelings of doubt, envy, and anger. They crashed against his sanity like the waves of the shore.
'… kill… Heartless.'
The sand coated streets left Sora's feet numb. They didn't itch or sting s the grains embedded themselves in his soles, the socks offering little protection.
A lone cat questioned him as he passed through the sleeping streets.
"Sorry Sora, but what I feel for you isn't the same as what you feel for me. Maybe we were meant to be just friends."
A familiar doorway stood before him with a dark window, framed by lace curtains, haunting him from above it.
He threw small pebbles, one at a time, at the window with lace curtains. He waited in that night air until he saw her pale face guarded by mahogany hair in that perfect laced window frame. With a crook of his finger, she was soon on her way to him.
HEARTS
"XII, XIII, I have an assignment for you," Saix said to the two blondes. Neither one looked at each other as they waited for the debriefing. "There is strange activity in the Destiny Islands. It's not a huge threat, but there is something very queer about it. Find the oddity and, if possible, eliminate it."
A dark portal appeared and both cooperatives stepped through, from the enclosed gray room to the open dark night. Waves washed over their ankles, soaking the hems of their cloaks, as they stood in that secluded cove. The female's face contorted into a snarl while the younger male looked on with curiosity. Something about this place felt… familiar.
They moved silently up the shore until they found a deserted street. It was so silent that you could hear their silence. Something was most definitely off.
Not even scattering pebbles made sound as they moved farther into the village. The female flipped her dagger for entertainment.
Something moved in her peripheral- the first movement they'd seen- and the dagger was on it before the sound could even reach them.
The sound was a meow.
"Larxene, did you just kill a cat?" the boy asked as they moved towards the corpse. Its eyes were wide open and yellow; the same color as their heart shaped kingdom- the same colored eyes as their prey. Its black pelt was long and sleek with a dagger poised perfectly over the heart.
Larxene bent down and pulled her weapon from where the fur was matting with dark red blood. The color stained the sidewalk, and it looked like a shadow swarming over the ground.
"Let's keep going." She stepped over the carcass and continued down the street. With one more reluctant glance back at the cat, her younger companion followed.
Even more wary of sounds, it was a knife to the eardrum when they heard the whisper.
Hearts
They followed the sound to an unassuming street corner. The house that set before them that wasn't much different than the others. It was white with red shutters and luscious green grass. But there was something about the moon that made the white glow, the red blood, and the green sickly.
At first, they thought the shadowy form in front of the gated entrance was also a trick of the moon. But as they moved closer, it also moved. Color could be made out and they recoiled at what they saw.
Hunched on the ground was a human form. It was male in appearance and slightly familiar to the Nobodies.
The male blonde struggled to remember… something. He was so enamored by the nostalgic scene that he didn't notice what the female noticed.
"Is that darkness around him?" she asked, rather rhetorically.
They inched closer, quiet breaths in sync.
Hearts
The voice grew louder as they drew nearer.
"It's… eating him."
"Swallowing him up."
The boy's back was to them, but they could see his hands digging through red. Black tendrils were weaving up his arms, like shadowy snakes. As they went higher, they left the skin dark and ill-defined. They watched as it climbed higher and higher.
Finally, Larxene managed to pull her eyes away. "Roxas, I don't think he's gardening." The boy once again examined the hands. The red thing by him was coating them. It looked kind of humanoid.
"Holy Heartless…"
"Roxas, what the Hades is that?" For the first time, Roxas heard fear in his superior's voice, something he was told was not possible.
The figure turned to them, a lunatic smile on his darkening face. The tendrils were now encircling his vacant eyes, turning the blue to yellow. He raised his hands to his mouth, taking a bite of the dripping red mass concealed within them. The movement revealed what it'd been over: the form of a young girl with mahogany hair. Her white nightgown was now a ghastly red. The cavity in her chest didn't seem real. She was a beautifully mangled doll; gorgeously grotesque.
The figure smiled its manic smile before taking another bite of its breakfast.
"Oh my Xemnas, it's her heart!"
Hearts
Without a thought, Roxas summoned his Keyblade to his trembling fingertips. Muscle memory took over as he lunged, the point of his weapon aimed at the thing's chest. The blade passed clean through, meeting little resistance and bringing forth no blood, just more shadow. It watched him with wide, glowing yellow eyes, its expression one of devilish delight, before vaporizing into the shadows.
Roxas felt a pain in his own chest, right where his missing heart would be located, as he watched the dead muscle fall down beside its original owner. Her expression was sad, yet full of love. She must have cared about that figure, once upon a time. Now there was no hope for either of them. The blond haired boy glanced at his companion, whose face was emotionless, like his. She was also missing that vital organ that made humans so real. There was no hope for any of them.
Heartless
11/26/11 Edit: Ean: More minor edits while I have time, but more will appear later. Suggestions are appreciated. / Thank you to MidnightSchemer3 for helping my with some phrasing. I'm happy to say I MOSTLY did this by myself. I've been having a lot of help lately on my KH stories.