I. Prelude

.:a scattered dream that's like a far-off memory:.

From the way her companion lay asleep up on the clocktower, clothes rumpled (not to mention the same ones she had worn yesterday) and glasses carelessly tossed aside like they were meaningless, Shayla knew that Mir had most likely gotten into some sort of argument with her mother, and never returned home last night. It wouldn't have been the first time that the blonde girl had slept upon the Station's clocktower because of such events.

With a sigh, Shayla took up her leather-bound sketchbook and hit the heavily-slumbering girl in the shoulder with it. "Come on, lazy bum," she called out somewhat nervously, hoping that Mir wouldn't awaken in one of her moods. Shayla had caught the end of those enough to know that avoiding them at any cost was the best option. "Wake up."

"W-wha?" Sitting up a bit more, and putting her black-gloved hand to her face, she looked at the taller girl, whom towered over her. "Where are my glasses? You're blurry."

Shayla laughed. "Over there, Mir. You must have tossed them aside." She pointed to the black-framed glasses, which Mir reached for and put on, pressing her bare hand against the tower and pushing herself up.

"You got into a fight again, didn't you?" The dark-haired girl asked accusingly, tapping her foot. Mir laughed, rubbing the back of her head guiltily. "Well, you see, I…"

"You promised that you'd get on better terms with her, and stop all of your stupid fighting!" Shayla cut her off, gripping her friend's shoulders and shaking her lightly. "And before the end of vacation, too!"

Mir sighed, sitting down again and letting her legs hang over the edge. "It's not that easy." She frowned. "With any luck, she'll stop up by… Christmas. If I'm lucky."

"Christmas?" Shayla groaned, crossing her arms over her chest. "It has to be today, or else she can't give you the munny for the school trip to the…"

"Look. I'm getting a job tomorrow, so that I can pay it all off myself." Mir sighed, fidgeting with the edge of her black shorts. "Won't even have to go near her."

Rolling her eyes, Shayla pulled the downtrodden girl up by the arm. "Let's stop talking about that. It's still summer vacation, and we're gonna have fun. Michael's probably awake by now, and down in the Sandlot babysitting Seifer, Fuujin, and Raijin for his mom. She's got bakery duty today."

Nodding, Mir smiled and shrugged on her favorite jacket. "I'll race you down. Loser gets to buy today's ice cream."

Shayla smirked, preparing herself for the run.

"You're on."

.:Sandlot:.

"Gimme that, lamer!"

"But, I was reading it, y'know?"

"Can't read."

"Would you three knock it off!" the exasperated teen shouted, taking the picture book from the dark-skinned Raijin and handing it to his albino cousin, who flipped through the pages with deep interest.

"Grrr… when my cousin gets here, Rai, you're gonna get it!" the smallest boy growled, pointing an accusing finger at Rai. "Well, Michael can beat up that ol' cousin of yours anyway, y'know?" Rai frowned back.

"Look, Seifer, Rai," Michael said, kneeling down between the two boys. "I'm not gonna beat up anyone, especially not Mir."

"Why not?" Seifer groaned, the secret desire to see his cousin in pain, writhing and twitching in the sand, bubbling up. "It's cause she's my friend." With a sigh, seeing that no one was listening, he closed his eyes for one blissful moment of silence.

Yet, the sweet moment was interrupted by a shriek.

"Mir! Lemme go, you lamer!" Seifer cried, kicking as Mir lifted him into a headlock.

"Mir! Shayla! We were just talkin' bout'cha, y'know?" Rai chorused, his voice sweet and full of feigned innocence. "I know." Mir glared down at him, while Seifer gnawed on her arm.

"Oh, good!" Michael sighed, hoisting Fuu up into his arms. The small girl obediently dropped the book and hugged onto his neck. "Listen, can you give me a hand with…"

"Sorry, no can do." Mir smirked. "Gotta go get ice cream, Michael." She casually lifted a protesting Seifer upside down, shaking him as if robbing him of the few lonesome munny a five year old could have.

"Mir, stop bullying Seifer, or else!" Michael threatened, Fuu gently tugging on a strand of his hair.

"Or else what, lamer, you'll tell my mother?" she laughed. "Not the brightest idea."

"Yeah," Rai said, Shayla sitting on the sand beside him. "Mir's mom's a witch, y'know?" Shayla nodded in agreement.

Seifer finally got himself free, and hid behind Shayla. "A witch? Yeah, right, Rai, Aunt Karine's more of a bi…" the younger boy was cut off by an abrupt smack to the back of the head, by none other than Shayla. "Be nice, she's still your aunt, snot-nosed little…"

"Shayla!" Michael glared, a sign for her to shut up. Mir looked at Rai, who was going to speak again. Ramming her hands over his mouth, she glared. "Stop saying that!" she hissed, Rai and Seifer sobbing and holding both their heads and their tongues.

"Mir, Shayla, you didn't need to go and do that… actually, you're acting weird today. The both of you." Michael frowned. "It's nothing." Mir grumbled, watching Fuu study Michael's hair.

Shayla frowned. "I'm fine." She insisted, a pouting Seifer scooting away from her and nearer to Michael, who sat down with Fuu in his lap, yawning sleepily. "But Mir seemed really angry when I woke her up." She hugged the sketchbook to her chest. "Maybe I hit her too hard?" She glanced back up at the older girl, who had lain back in the sand, a trio of toddlers waddling over to her.

"Well, Mir? What's your deal today?" Michael turned to her, as one of the toddlers, the blonde, fell onto her abdomen and remained there, hugging her arm. "I had one of my dreams again." Mir announced grimly, draping an arm over the giggling two-year-old.

"You did?" Shayla and Michael cried out in stereo, Fuu frowning at the increase in noise and lamers alike. Mir closed her eyes and nodded, Hayner curling into her side as Pence tripped over her leg.

"I saw people in black cloaks, six of them. They came here… and everything stopped." She said. "The trams, the train, everything but you two and me. The tallest one said that we were special, different from everyone else. Our hears, he said, were strong. Strong enough to summon up something… he said it was called Kingdom Hearts."

Michael and Shayla continued to listen intently both barely noticing how Seifer and Rai had begun to wrestle with one another nearby.

"Then… I saw another kid. He was our age, and had a sword that looked like a key. He looked at someone either near me or behind me… maybe I was standing in their place? I don't know, but he looked dead at me. We were on an island somewhere, I think… anyhow, he said 'I promise that I'll be back for you, Kairi.'"

"Kairi?" Shayla interjected. "Like the princess in the seventh book from that set you and I read to Fuu and Olette?"

Mir nodded. "Yeah. Then… there were two of them. Two of Kairi, two of the boy with the key for a sword. The two new ones were blondes with blue eyes, and they seemed to go together. Like two pieces of the same puzzle." Mir inhaled before resuming her re-telling. "Then I heard voices, and saw nothing but white. Someone, the blonde boy, I think, called out the name Naminé. Then the girl said 'Don't worry, Roxas!' Roxas…" she repeated the name softly. " 'We'll see each other again. You may not know that it's me, and I may not know that it's you, but we will see each other. I promise.' Then the girl called Kairi, I heard her. 'I just can't wait, once we set sail. It'll be great.' And she said a name too." Opening her eyes, Mir smiled a bit. "She said the name Sora."

Michael thought a moment. "So there's Kairi, Roxas, Naminé, Sora, six men in cloaks, and us having strong hearts." He said. "What does it have to do with us, Mir?"

Mir shrugged. "Another, final, nameless voice said that the heart was the difference between a Somebody and a Nobody."

Shayla seemed to ponder on it as well, before pulling Seifer and Rai off of each other. "Knock it off, lamers!" she hissed.

"All of the confusion of that dream, that's what's upset you?" Michael frowned, and Mir nodded. "Yeah. There was so much going on at once… I even have the feeling that some of the people in the dream don't even exist yet." She said, Hayner searching for warmth under her jacket. "Lamer!" Seifer hissed, crawling over to his cousin's other side and snuggling up. "Get your own cousin."

"Looks like you've got a little fanclub, Mir." Shayla giggled, Olette climbing up on her shoulders. Mir didn't respond, draping her arms over the boys. "Alright. Well… I still fail to see a connection." Michael huffed. "These people, what they said, they have absolutely nothing to do with us." He looked from Mir to Shayla, as Pence curled up in his lap, much to the discontent of a sleepy Fuu.

"We're our own people. Nothing to do with them." Michael looked at Mir, whacking her lightly in the head with a Struggle Club. "Stop being so emotional, okay?" Mir glared up at him.

"Hit me with that again and you'll see emotional, Michael." She hissed, Seifer and Hayner, who was a little too young to understand but was following Seifer's example, giggled at her threat. Shayla, Olette, Rai, and Pence all did the same. Once realizing that the threat had been empty, and that Mir had absolutely no real intention of hurting him, Michael laughed too, Mir smiling softly. Fuu frowned, looking around before sighing.

"Lamers." She announced, the laughter ceasing at her word. Mir smiled, almost sleepily. "You're right, Fuu. But you know what?" she asked, the child's eyes narrowing as if to say 'What?'. Seeing her look, Mir closed her eyes.

"We're the coolest lamers in all of Twilight Town."

.:Old Mansion:.

"Sir?" the man underneath the hood asked. "DiZ, what is so time consuming that we aren't tracking the Organization VI?" he asked, in the falsetto that was so obviously accompanied by two round ears.

"Relax, my friend." Spoke the rich baritone, "They've let themselves be known to one of the local children. She saw them in a dream."

The mousy figure thought for a moment. "What else did she see?" he asked. DiZ smiled.

"She saw the Keyblade Master as he shall be thirteen years from now, as well as the Princess Kairi of Radiant Garden. And… some Nobodies."

"Nobodies?" he asked. "What in the worlds are Nobodies?"

"Nobodies, my liege, are the bodies and minds left behind after one's heart has fallen prey to darkness." DiZ sighed. "Only those with strong, determined hearts can ever become Nobodies. Even then, only those with a fierce will and impressively strong heart could ever retain their human form. There are only six that I know of."

"Who, DiZ?" the King asked, hanging from the taller man's every word. DiZ's voice dropped guiltily. "I knew them as Xehanort, Braig, Dilan, Even, Elaeus, and Ienzo. My assistants. But now…" he eyed the monitor warily. "I know that there will be at least five more to come."

"Five!" he cried, in disbelief. "How do ya figure?"

"She mentioned people who were the Keyblade Master and the Princess, yet completely different entities, not even in existence yet. She called them Roxas and Naminé."

"And the other three?" the King asked, looking at the three lounging teens and their charges from the screen.

"None other than these two young ladies and the gentleman." DiZ laughed. "She spoke of an encounter with the Organization, one that has yet to occur. What I can only assume is that Xehanort's Nobody said that the three of them possessed strong hearts."

"They're targets." King Mickey mused, his voice grim as he watched the trio lead the six children to a place where they could gather some lunch.

"Exactly. The sensors here, they say that nothing's happening yet. However… that may change at any second. I fear that we must be on guard, King Mickey. At least until the threat is negated, whenever that may be."

To that, the King of Disney Castle fell silent, merely watching the monitors.

"Poor kids."

.:Thirteen Years Later, White Room:.

Just as it had been for the past fifteen years, perhaps even longer, Twilight Town was bathed in light from the eternally setting sun, never to reach its goal. Yet there were places where the light never really reached, places warmed by their own ethereal glow.

Places like where the small Nobody sat, busily drawing out things that she had never seen before. Yet these things seemed so radically important, she just had to record them in the only way she deemed fitting. Through her magnificent artwork.

The little Nobody girl looked thoughtfully out of the window, where she could see the overgrown gardens and the tops of trees. Returning to her artwork, she failed to notice the other figure entering the room.

"Naminé, why aren't you downstairs tending to Sora's memories?"

She quickly turned around. "He's resting, and his heart is refusing them right now. So… I'm drawing a person that I remembered."

"Who?" he asked, peering over her shoulder.

"I was hoping that you could tell me, DiZ."

DiZ examined the picture. "Ah, that's a girl who used to live here."

"Here in the mansion?" Naminé blinked.

"Heavens, no. I meant in town."

"Oh." Namine furrowed her brow. "Well, why is she important?"

"Because she prophesized your very existence, Naminé."

Smiling softly, she looked at the girl the picture portrayed. "She looks… sad."

"The girl, Miranda, had several issues with her premonitions and her mother."

"No, that's not her name." Naminé announced softly. "It was… Mir."

DiZ shook his head. "That was only a nickname. Not her true name."

"Oh. DiZ, where is she now?"

"Hmm?" he turned to leave. "She's been gone for thirteen years. The town's residents don't even remember her. If they do, it's just barely."

"Did she have friends?"

"Of course."

"They're not there anymore, either… are they?" she asked, almost grimly.

"Surprisingly, they are."

Naminé stopped her drawing, and looked at out of the window. "How?"

"They've just been there, I suppose. Haven't aged much, either, now that I think of it. And they show no memories of Miranda… at all."

Naminé frowned.

"That's depressing."

.:Sandlot:.

"What's wrong, Seifer? Not usually like this, y'know?" a concerned Raijin asked an unusually mundane Seifer Almasy as he focused on one particular spot in the sand. "You guys remember those three that used to watch us and the lamers when we were little?"

Fuu thought for a moment. "Michael."

Rai laughed. "Yeah, and Shayla. But that's only… two, y'know?"

Seifer shook his head. "No, there was a third person. I remember her. But… I don't remember her voice, or face, or name. But she was there. She used to call me a lamer and take naps with me."

Fuu shook her head. "No such person." Rai nodded in agreement. "Yeah, no one like that, y'know?"

Seifer frowned, opening his mouth to ask Vivi, but remembered that he was born after the girl left. The small… whatever he was… blinked up at Seifer. "Whoever she is," the nine year old said, "I wanna meet her. She sounds nice."

Seifer smiled down at Vivi, letting the youngest member of the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee climb upon his shoulders.

"Something tells me that she was, Vivi."

.:Thirteen Years Ago, Clocktower:.

"I can't believe that we agreed to spend the night up here with you, Mir." Michael sighed, shivering into the blanket and telling himself not to look down.

Shayla laughed. "No one said that you had to come. We could have had fun up here, just us girls."

Michael shivered again. "That's what I'm afraid of." He frowned. "What you two are going to say while I'm gone."

Mir laughed. "You have nothing to worry about… because there's nothing to say."

Shayla broke into a fit of laughter, and Michael frowned. "That's not funny!" he stood, his blanket falling beside Shayla as he pulled out his Struggle Club. "You wanna eat your words?"

Mir smiled. "But you told Seifer and Rai that you wouldn't hurt me."

Michael growled. "I… I changed my mind." He insisted. At that, Mir stood up, too. "Go ahead. Your best shot."

Shayla frowned, an uneasy feeling creeping up her spine. "Michael, I don't think that's such a good idea…"

"I'll be fine, don't worry." Mir smiled, as Michael came running at her, prepared to strike.

Skillfully, Mir jumped atop the ledge in order to dodge the attack, but something felt wrong.

Frowning, she quickly realized that she was off balance upon the small ledge, and gravity was pulling her downward.

"Mir!" Shayla cried out, reaching for her friend. Mir reached back, but before she could grip Shayla's hand, she felt her arm fall limp at her side.

"Sorry." She mouthed, as they seemed to ripple away into nothingness.

Mir closed her eyes, waiting for the pain of the impact, but surprisingly, it never came.

Instead, she felt smooth glass gently pressing against her back. A room of polished white seemed to gleam around her, yet thirteen figures, clothed entirely in black, surrounded her in high chairs.

"We are the Organization XIII, controllers of Nobodies everywhere." The one in the highest seat called out, his voice echoing throughout the grand hall. But it was not him that Mir watched. It was the one in the seat closest to the ground. That blonde hair and those blue eyes. The one whom she had seen in the dream.

"Roxas." She whispered, surprised to feel weight on her shoulder. Spinning around, she saw that although this was clearly some sort of dream or premonition, one hooded man actually noticed and could touch her.

"Young lady, what you see before you is yet to be. In your age, there are only six of us, not thirteen. But…" he smiled underneath his hood. "You've already been promised a position here as the fourteenth. Cryogenically frozen until a boy's power awakens, until the Keyblade comes to him."

"Sora?" she asked, and he laughed. "Yes, Sora."

"But… why me?"

"Dear child, you've already shown more strength with your friends than the entire Organization. But… because of dreams like this one, you're also the first to dabble into the Darkness."

Mir frowned, but nodded. "When I become this fourteenth person, what else do I become?"

He smiled again. "You become a Nobody. Now, you've heard and seen more than enough. Time to sleep."

Placing his gloved hand on the back of her neck, Mir felt the pain of the collision that she didn't remember happening course through her body, and she fell onto the glassy, mirror-like floor again.

The world fell black, the sound of the surf all that remained.

.:End Prelude:.