Author's note: This fic takes place after Kingdom hearts 2 and will contain some sotryline spoilers, so if you haven't beaten the game yet this is your last warning. Yes... I got the game the first day it came out and beat it 3 days later... I have no life.
Am I Heartless?
Part 1
Sora was sitting on the beach of the destiny islands looking up at the clouds. He had just helped defeat Xemnas, the Nobody of Xehanort and the rest of Organization XIII. The sun was shining bright and the gentle sound of the waves breaking on the beach was so calming that Sora felt himself slowly going to sleep.
"Hey Sora." Came a cheerful voice. Startling the young man enough to make him jump to his feet, slip on the loose sand, and fall face first to the ground all in a matter of seconds.
Sora spat out some sand and looked up to see his long time friend. An embarrassed smile crept onto the youth's face. "Oh, Hi Kairi..."
Kairi placed her hand over her mouth in an attempt to surpress a giggle. And failed. Despite herself she sighed happily. The Heartless had disappeared, Organization XIII and Xemus were gone, the doors between worlds were open so Donald and Goofy could come and go as they wanted, but most importantly both Sora and Riku were back.
"What were you thinking about?" Kairi asked, always straight to the point.
"Just things that have happened. Our past adventures and the friends we made along the way. New and Old." Sora said as he sat back down on the beach and dusted the sand out of his spiky hair with a fair amount of success.
"Oh? Like who?" Kairi asked, sitting down next to Sora.
"Well there's Mulan, Beast, Ariel, Tron, Auron, Yuffie, Cid, Aerith, Merlin, Pooh, Tarzan, Jack... I just wonder how they're doing and hoping they're well." Sora said, looking back up at the sky. "But after everything that's happened I can say this: I'm kinda glad that things have quieted down."
Kairi smiled and scooted up next to Sora. He had grown up some since she had seen him a year ago. Even if he was still essentially the same sentimental kid at heart. But that's what made him such a good friend and probably why he had saved everyone on two occasions. Kairi sighed and looked up at the clouds with Sora for what seemed to her like a very long time. However their cloud watching was interrupted by something black caught the corner of both their eyes.
They turned to see a young person laying lifeless on the beach. As they came closer to check on the young man's well being they saw that it was a young man, about their age being somewhere between fifteen and seventeen. He was wearing a black t shirt under a zipped up red vest with and black flame ridges along the corners, black pants with red lines down the sides, black spiked wrist bands, and black shoes resembling Sora's own brand. On his head was a pair of red headphones and a blank black baseball cap that hid all but a few strands of black hair.
Kairi knelt down and placed two fingers on the young man's neck, checking his pulse. "He's alive... Hey are you okay?" Kairi asked as she gave him a gentle shake.
The young man gave no response as Kairi's shakes rocked him back and forth.
Kairi gave a tired breath. This wasn't going to be a typical day. "Sora, can you give me a hand? We need to get him inside."
"Yeah. Here." Sora grabbed the young man by the shoulders and lifted him up, giving Kairi time to grab his legs.
Together the two carried their 'guest' into the nearby seaside shack and laid him on a pile of hay they sometimes used when they wanted to sleep here on the island instead of returning home. They then took a seat on some crates to use as stools and leaned against the wall.
"This guy sure has a thing for black." Sora and Kairi both turned to see a silver haired youth wearing a yellow vest and blue pants.
"Oh hi Riku." Kairi said, her normally happy face wore. Riku was one of the two people who she had missed deeply in the last year. "I've never seen him before... Have either of you?"
Riku shook his head and leaned against the adjacent wall. "His face doesn't ring any bells."
Sora scratched his head and looked again at the teen laying on the crude bed of straw and shook his head. "I've never seen him before either."
Kairi sighed. "Well where do you think he came from?"
Riku and Sora looked at each other, then back at Kairi and shrugged.
Kairi huffed and rolled her eyes. "You two can be totally useless sometimes."
Just then he young man drowsily opened his eyes and sat up, looking at his rescuers with a great deal of curiosity. Without a word he sprang to his feet and got into a defensive stance.
"Relax, we aren't gonna hurt you." Riku said, the familiar sound of superiority in his voice. He didn't understand why the young man seemed so agitated.
Sora nodded. "We found you unconscious on the beach and brought you in here..."
The young man looked back and forth at the three people who saved his life and nervously inched towards the door. From the look on his face all three could tell he was completely terrified of... Them?
"You're on an island." Riku stated calmly. "One we've spent our whole childhood on. You think you could hide here from us?"
The teenager in black and red looked like he was about to burst into tears for a second then ran out the door.
"Well that was strange." Sora said. "What you think was his problem?"
Kairi hung her head slightly. Her eyes showed concern for this newcomer to the Destiny Islands. "I dunno. But he seemed scared of us."
"Scared of us?" Riku questioned, raising an eyebrow at Kairi. "I can understand him maybe being a little intimidated of me but why would anyone be scared of Sora?"
Sora gave his white haired friend a friendly jab on the shoulder. "Knock it off Riku. We should go look for him."
Riku nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he's probably in shock or something. We should try to get him to a hospital or someone who could give him a look over."
Sora and Kairi agreed but before they could walk out Wakka, Tidus, and Selphie all burst into the shack.
"Guys, these weird... THINGS just appeared out of nowhere and attacked us. We tried to fight'em off but nothing seems to work on 'em." Tidus said, out of breath.
Riku and Sora exchanged mixed looks. Silently they prayed it wasn't what they thought it was. Not after what they had just been through a week ago.
The two Keyblade bearers nodded to each other. "You guys stay here. We'll check on things outside." Riku said.
Sora and Riku headed out the door and shocked to see a small group of Shadow Heartless, small pudgy black creatures with antennae that never seemed to stop twitching, These things were the weakest and most common of all Heartless. Soldier Heartless, although not nearly as common as Shadows these Heartless were weren't as annoying since they lacked the Shadow's ability to go '2-D' and slip by most attacks. And floating along side the small group of Soldiers and Shadows there were a few Red Nocturnes, small airborne Heartless that seemed completely free of gravity. They wore small red robes and a mage's pointy straw hat and possessed relatively weak fire magic compared to other Heartless. All together this was a group of low class Heartless, not too much of a problem for skilled fighters like Riku and Sora.
Riku summoned 'Way to the Dawn' and Sora likewise called 'Kingdom Key' and were about to charge the Heartless when they realized the Heartless weren't even paying attention to them. They were struggling with something they had surrounded and pinned to the ground.
"Get off of me!" An unfamiliar voice called out from under the Heartless, a few Shadows were knocked away by a thrashing arm with a spiked wrist band on it.
"That has to be our new 'friend'." Riku said, brandishing his 'Way to the Dawn' Keyblade.
Sora nodded and leapt, coming down on a Soldier and vanquishing it with ease. The Heartless, now aware of the Keybladers, turned their aggression towards Riku and Sora. Riku easily took out two Soldiers and a Shadow with a quick combo.
Sora and Riku continued their attacks, making quick work of the Heartless. Thinning their already small numbers proved to be almost child's play after fighting powerful Nobodies like the Organization.
"AH! I'm on fire!" Riku and Sora turned to see that one of the Red Nocturne's fire spells had hit the guy in red and black. He quickly tossed his headphones aside, took off his red vest and hat, and began to stomp out the flames. Sora and Riku saw that he wasn't hurt and quickly finished off the final Heartless. After making sure that no more were around they approached the young man.
"Hey, you okay?" Riku asked.
The teen in red and black hid his face and turned away from the Keybladers. "Please don't look at me!"
Irritated at this teen's response to their gallant rescue, Riku grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around. "Now look! Why were those Heartless attacking... You...?"
Both Riku and Sora stared in shock and wonder at the sight of the young man's facial features. He had yellow eyes, not that that was totally unusual but the thing that made Riku and Sora stare was the two long black antennas that hung in front of his face and constantly wiggled like worms. On the chest of his T-shirt was the Heartless insignia.
To be continued...