DISCALIMER: I DO NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS, OR ANY APPEARING FINAL FANTASY OR DISNEY CHARACTERS

Kingdom Hearts

Door to Awakening

Chapter 1:

Re:turn to the Garden

Noa hated flying. The twisting, turning, dodging, and just overall vibrations of the gummi ship made him nauseous. Which is why he was strapped in quite nicely in the passenger seat of the ship while his partner Elwing flew. Noa was very glad to have an ace-pilot like her at the helm. Especially while going to Radiant Garden, which has had a lot of activity floating around it lately. So, at the current moment, their ship Halberd was weaving in and out of Heartless ship onslaughts, while also dead-eye firing back. All the motion and shaking was making Noa sick. He slumped down in his chair, a flop sweat coming onto his forehead. He rested his temple on the inside of his gloved palm, trying to keep down his lunch. "Elly, do you think you could keep the ship a bit more steady, please...?"

Grinning some, Elly wrapped her fingers tightly over the controls pressed to her palms, her arms still slightly bent at the elbow. Elwing had always been up for an adventure or the occasional journey. It got her blood racing, her heart pounding. Though the fighting wasn't half bad, it wasn't as invigorating at the mission itself. And with a passion for excitement and adrenaline, it wasn't too surprising that Elwing had a need for speed. Lifting her right hand in order to punch in a few more numbers and turn some knobs, Elwing replaced her hand over the control. With that simple motion, she thrusted her arms forward, sending them into a spiral, while calling over Noa's frantic squeals and complaints, "Steady enough for ya?!"

Noa's hand quickly shot to his mouth. When their spiraling had ended, Noa slowly steadied himself, and released his hand from his mouth. Both his hands shot to the armrests and gripped them as hard as he could. He gave a death-glare into the back of Elwing's head, but slowly rolled his eyes, which unfortunately made him even sicker. He gave a sigh and tried to peek over her shoulder. With a grumble, he said, "Elly, are we close yet? Can you see the Garden...? I'm really looking forwards to having my feet on solid, unmoving ground..." He slumped back into his seat, rapping his fingers on the metal of the chair out of impatience.

"Look at the window Noa," Elwing said impatiently.

Noa grumbled. "I'm trying to, but your head's in the way..."

Sighing some, Elwing rolled her eyes a bit, and simply pressed auto-pilot. Reaching for a small button on the edge of her seat, she reclined back far enough so that he could clearly see the expanse of Radiant Garden before them. "Better?"

Noa blinked and sighed with relief. Radiant Garden was beautiful to begin with, but the relief he felt to see its beauty made it even more astonishing. "Heheh...yeah...." Noa was finally able to sit up slightly, now with just the hum off the engine giving him a slight bother. He unstrapped a few of the belts holstering him into the chair and breathed a sigh of relief. He felt horrible about his condition. How bad was it to be the Captain of a ship you couldn't stand to be in? Just because he was the better fighter didn't make him the better pilot. Oh well. He was in charge, though he never pushed that on Elly. They had known each other all their lives, and secretly Noa had some strong feelings for her, but he couldn't let any of that get in the way of his duties. He gave a small clear of the throat and took on his strong face again. "Alright, we're close enough. Begin docking and prep the transporter for Departure."

Ely gave a small smile of laughter. It was always funny to see Noa trying to all strong and leader-like. Staring back at him for a few extra moments, Ely blushed ever so slightly. It was true any girl would most likely be attracted to a man with power, both physically and in status, but that was the last reason Ely seemed to feel a deep connection with Noa. She had known him almost all her life, and even though they were close friends and comrades in battle, she could always feel a stronger emotion than friendship sink in every time her gaze fell upon him. Ely quickly realized she had been staring, and shook her head to clear the thoughts. This wasn't the time. Still smiling with amusement, she sat back up, and punched in the correct keys on the Halberd's command panel, mumbling a quick "Yes, sir," to keep Noa in the feeling of leadership.

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A few minutes later, Noa and Elwing were beamed down to the Receiving Dock on the Gummi Platform in Radiant Garden. When the light from the beam let up, Noa rubbed his eyes to quickly adjust them. Blinking a few times to correct his eyes, he gave a small smile. He had always felt like Radiant Garden was his home. It felt peaceful and warm inside his chest every time he came here. Maybe it was because they had made frequent trips to this world, and it just seemed that way, or maybe it was the world itself. Radiant Garden was in fact known for its hospitality, flourishment, and overall brightness that radiated from this world. It was hard to believe that in its past, the Garden had been taken over by darkness and decayed into the abysmal palace known as Hollow Bastion. But that had been about 95 years ago, and was too far in the past to affect the world's current mode.

Since the days of Hollow Bastion and the fall of the original Radiant Garden, the world had completely renewed itself into what it once was: a happy and abundant village of happy-faced townspeople surrounding the structural heart of the world, the castle. The evil Heartless castle that had become the heart of the world as Hollow Bastion was now completely whipped from existence. The walls around the village had finally closed off, leaving only a small gated entrance/exit for those wishes to travel into interesting areas, like hiking on the Ravine Trail, and taking in the scenery at the Dark Depths, and, of course, the wonderful eye candy that was the Crystal Fissure, which had now doubled in size, and beauty.

As Noa reflected on the world's beauty, he and Elwing had since left the Gummi Hanger that was an attachment on the right side of the castle and were making their way through the halls to meet with the current ruler of the world, Ress Ahtel. Ress was the type of man whose smile could light up the room. The air around him seemed to make you feel comforted and safe. Like everything was going to be OK. He was a man of late twenties, and had slicked-back shoulder blade-length blonde hair. His eyes were an extreme shade of almost glowing bright blue. Ress was not so much a researcher like his infamous ancestor (though not by blood) Ansem the Wise, but he was more of a philosophizer. He leaned more towards simply thinking about things rather than doing physical research over the topic. He believed the mind was the only true tool anyone needed. Not much was known about Ress's past. He, much like one other inhabitant of Radiant Garden who has since been deemed unmentionable, landed in Radiant Garden with no memory of his past.

Thinking of the greatness of the man Ress Ahtel began to make Noa feel almost self-conscious about his own appearance. He wore black shoes with a silver outsole and very baggy black pants with leather "armor" from his waist to just above his knees. He wore 3 black belts, one horizontal across the waist and two cross-crossing to make an "x". His shirt was a little more odd than the usual. On the torso, it was normal enough, just a black shirt, but each of his sleeves were different. His left sleeve was tight against his skin, while his right was very loose, and came to a bell opening at the bottom with a thick silver lining on the trim. He wore two black wrist-length gloves on each hand, and, over all of this, he wore a sleeveless white long coat that reached to the floor. As far as his hair and eyes went, they were both black, his eyes a little more of a grey, and the length of his hair went to just below his neck. His face was nothing special, he thought, and clearly gave away his age, 17, and he was an average 5'11" in height.

After going over his own attire and overall appearance, Noa glanced over to look at Elwing. She was a bit smaller than him, only coming up to about 5'4", and her powder blue hair that was a bit longer than Noa's was accented by her deep violet eyes. Her outfit was mostly white and light blue, which also accented her hair. She had white shoes with a blue outsole; she wore a blue shirt which also acted as a skirt than came down about midway on her tights, and started just above her bust. It was a light blue, but had two large darker blue stripes going vertically down it, and a small silver heart crest on the chest. She also wore a white sleeveless open coat, except her was just as long as her shirt, and it also had a sequential heart pattern on the ends, and on the collar and running down the inside. Above all this, she wore a loose blue belt at her waist, and white fingerless gloves on each hand with a golden ring on the wrist. She also wore a necklace with a silver star as a pendant, a gift Noa had given her years ago on her 12th birthday, which was 4 years ago, making her a year younger than Noa, 16.

After giving Elwing a quick look over, Noa's eyes yet again traveled up her body and landed on her eyes, where they remained. He stared into them for as long as he could before he felt she would notice, and quickly turned away, trying to hide the red in his cheeks. After a few more moments of silence, Noa and Elwing came upon the door leading into Ress's study. Noa took in a deep breath to calm himself, and reached his fist up, giving three quick knocks on the door. A few moments later, they heard a response of "Come in," from the inside. With a glance towards Elwing, who gave a nod, Noa reached down and grabbed the handle of the door, and pushed it open.

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Alright, everyone, there it is. Chapter one. Sorry it's a bit short, but I felt like this was a good place to stop. Bit of a "cliffhanger" if you even want to call it that, just to see if people will come back for more!

Which reminds me, I'm the type of person who kinda relies on comments, and in the case of , reviews. So please, if I don't get at least a few reviews, I will not continue the story, for I will see no point. Seriously, even if it's one person, I just need reviews.

So, yeah, that's about all for now. Hope to see you in the next chapter!
-Grim