Authoress' Note: After a suicidal consideration of rewriting Kingdom Hearts: Secrets of Memories, I have decided to create something along the lines of Kingdom Hearts Versus II. Deeply unhappy with Kingdom Hearts II and unable to attempt Kingdom Hearts III without some closure, I have decided to write a 'What if?' This is it.
Diclaimer: Characters, settings, rules of the Universe, and back story are copyrighted by Square-Enix and Disney. The storyline is a copyright of mine. I hope this to be perhaps my last serious attempt at an epic in fandom.
Theme Song: Gravity of Love by Enigma
Shall we begin?
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Ћε Grάγί†ψ öf Löγε
«Prologue»
A smooth line. Jagged edges. Circles. Dashes. Long strokes. A smile. The pupil of an eye. A perky nose. Perhaps…a wider grin. Longer hair. A defined chin. A cocky stance. Confidence. Exude confidence. Weapon on the shoulder. Legs spread apart. Confidence. Exude confidence.
But he's a child. He's still a child.
The girl sighed, lowered her pencil. Her hand relaxed; the pencil fell away, hit the paper pad. She stared at the drawing, had spent the better part of the day drawing in the lines of the sketch she etched out yesterday. And tomorrow, she'll color it, with her dwindling supply of color pencils. She'll color it and shade it and tear it out of the paper pad. The day after tomorrow, it'll go up on the wall of the room, taped amongst its sibling art. And she'll start a new sketch, clean it up, color it in, and tape it on the wall-
Tossing her head, she sighed and slammed the paper pad on the table. She brushed back her long golden hair, brushed eraser remnants off the lap of her white dress, and rose to her feet. Break the rhythm, the cycle, for once.
She sighed again, then decided to visit the subject of her art, the object of her drawings, the focus of her creative eye.
Pushing open the door, she stepped into a huge white room, so blindingly white that she could not see where the floor ended and the walls began. A few steps in and she saw hazily the outline of double doors across from her. But it was not her intention to cross the glowing room; there was something else in the room she had come to see. Someone.
A child with wild dark hair, sleeping.
She smiled as she approached the huge egg-shaped mechanism in the center of the room. Beyond she could see several more of these strange machines; two were also occupied but she ignored them. She had come to see the boy. She would deal with his two companions later.
She smiled when she found herself tip-toeing towards the pod. There was nobody but her; she was the only one in the room awake. And they were sleeping, behind thick walls. They would not awaken until she had restored all their memories. The castle may go up in flames and yet they will remain sleeping, enclosed in the pods; they could sleep forever, if she chose so.
But she made some promises. One of them was giving the boy and his friends back their memories. And he promised to find her. She hoped he would hold his promise, even though he would not remember her.
She raised a slim pale hand and pressed it against the smooth surface of the machine. She looked up at the peaceful face of the boy, felt a sudden want to run her slim fingers through his dark spiky hair. She wanted to touch his face, wanted to hug him, feel him next to her. He gave off a warmth that she had never felt before, a sensation that had never existed in her vocabulary, her experiences.
He was the one person missing in the short life she has lived, and now here he was, within her reach but still so far away, so distant. Why did it have to be this way? Why was she fated to adore him from afar, never to truly touch him and embrace him and tell him how much she cared about him? How was she even able to say that? Did she really care for him? Was that…possible?
She sighed, stared down at her feet. Then she looked up and touched the glass again, reached up to his slumbering, peaceful face, and traced his features. The curve of the closed eyelids, the slight feathering of eyelashes, then the bridge of the nose and the delicately flared nostrils, and the soft strong lips, and the chin. She pulled back her finger, then reached up and traced his eyebrows, then his bangs. She paused here, noticed the change in his hair. She had been drawing him with his short chocolate-colored spikes but now his hair had gotten longer, lighter. Sunburned, in her opinion. She'll have to remember that the next time she decides to draw him.
"…no, absolutely not! That color is disgusting…"
"…about the clothes! We're here on…"
"…but he won't remember everything. How terrible…"
She froze, swallowed a gasp of surprise, and quickly turned towards the double doors far from her and the memory pods. The three rather female voices were bickering but they were nearing. They were here. Who were they? Her hands slid away from the glass and she took a trembling step towards the pods. If the owners of the voices meant harm to the boy or his friends, then they'll have to go through her first. Her priority is the boy; her duty is to protect him and make sure he successfully has his memories restored to him. She'd die before someone interferes.
"…now listen, we'll explain to that poor girl what he said. That should be enough to clear things up for her…"
The voices were at the doors. Her mouth went completely dry and she shook as the doors opened.
"…I'm sure she won't mind us intruding-oh! There you are, my dear! I hope you don't mind us interrupting you and your business," the tiny woman in green chuckled as she flew in with a woman in red and one in blue. They flew.
"Yes, see, we're here to talk about that boy you have in that…that thing, whatever you call it," the woman in blue hemmed and hawed. "What do you call it, um…"
She made some hand motions.
"Naminé. My name is Naminé."
"Ah, right. Naminé," the one in red said decidedly. "I think Yen Sid said that. You do know who Yen Sid is? He's a wizard. We're here to deliver some orders. His orders."
Naminé blinked. Yen Sid? A wizard? What did a wizard have to do with this?
"That boy's grown some," the one in green mused as she circled the pod. "We're going to have to change the measurements, I think. What do you think, Flora?"
"We're not here about the clothes, Fauna. Get down here. We're not here for measurements. Do understand, Naminé, that we don't mean to interrupt you and your-your processing his memories, if that's how you'll put it."
"Restoring his memories," Naminé clarified. "Yes, that's what I'm doing. But…why…?"
"We're going to have to wake him up, that's what!" the dumpy one in blue declared. "That's Yen Sid's orders-"
"Merryweather, please!" Flora cut in. "Please lower your voice. Now, Naminé, we did get orders from Yen Sid. He wants you to stop the process. He's…detected something that requires the boy's immediate attention."
"What?" Naminé gasped, quickly looked at the sleeping boy. "But-but his memories! His memories haven't come back; the restoration's been unusually slow. We're trying to speed it up. We need more time!"
"We know," Fauna said sweetly. "We understand, dear, truly we do. But we have to leave out some of his memories. There are more important things at stake, dear, and that's why we came to you. We need you to help us."
"Yes, His Majesty King Mickey has also met with Yen Sid and has expressed concern about that-that Organization," Merryweather added. "His Majesty is worried about the Organization's activities. Something about a…simulated town…if you know what I mean."
"Merryweather we can hear you. There is no need to whisper," Flora said calmly. "But yes, we're also here because of your fake…city, if you put it that way. We need you to destroy it immediately."
"He won't like it," Naminé declared. "DiZ won't delete it. We're not done with him yet. His memories haven't restored yet. We're waiting-"
"Yes, we know dear but if you'll hear us out, maybe you'll understand," Fauna said quickly.
"Yen Sid," Flora said, now studying the boy's two sleeping companions. "Yen Sid…has been keeping track of things, from the boy's whereabouts to the activities of the Organization. The boy is to open the Door of Light to save the realm of light and the Organization seeks Kingdom Hearts to become complete beings. That means unleashing the darkness Kingdom Hearts has been storing. Two opposing forces are right now at play here in the Universe. However, Yen Sid's detected a third force. A third enemy."
"A third enemy?" Naminé whispered. She only heard that term used few times before, and never sincerely.
"Yes, a third enemy," Fauna agreed with a nod of her head. "We don't know what this new enemy's up to but it's no good, we can tell you that. Yen Sid thinks…this third enemy is working against both the boy and the Organization. It seems to be moving against us all."
"Even the Heartless?"
"This third enemy wants to take down everything!" Merryweather exclaimed.
"And that's why we need you to wake up Sora," Flora said, pointing at the sleeping boy. "Now."
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Authoress' Endnote: There's no point in asking if it was good or bad or should I stop writing. I already have compiled serious material for this new story, amongst all my other stories, and I only ask for your acceptance. After that, let's play. So be good and do review, even if you're not the type to review first chapters. I only need to know, then you may do whatever you wish with the following chapters. Arigatou gozaimas'.