A/N: That's right, ladies and gents! I am back on the strain of writing! I admit I was rather reluctant to return to Fanfiction, but now I am glad I did, and hope my efforts in the writing department will blow you all away! So what're you waiting on?! Read, I say! :D
Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts or any resources owned by Square Enix, I wouldn't be writing this-instead, I'd be rolling around in mountains made of money!
Chapter 1: A Heartfelt Shatter
"Sayla, you're so grounded. Sayla, you're so stupid," I murmured back to myself. Oh, I should explain this, shouldn't I?
It just so happens that I found myself skipping my chores to go out and play video games with my friend Sara. Yeah, not my best idea. But, hey, when your parents go off on a trip to Hawaii only to find their flight was cancelled and return to find no trace of me, I guess as much was expected. I mean, I was having a blast taking turns and playing Kingdom Hearts with Sara.
Kingdom Hearts had to be the funnest game ever invented.
Sara had no idea that I had skipped out, otherwise I was certain she wouldn't have let me come over.
When my phone rang, and the caller ID showed up as Mom, I answered, figuring they were checking up on me from the plane. Instead, I endured a festivity of screams and relent. I let them know I was at Sara's, so they came to pick me up. They went off on me in front of my friend. It was a little embarrassing, I admit.
So here I am. I am locked in my room for the next couple of weeks. I guess it wasn't so bad considering I had a week's supply of Doritos, my trusty iPhone (4th Gen), and my neighbors shitty Wi-Fi network.
I leaned against the white wall where my bed was pressed against. I listened to a whole bunch of rock and country. I hated love songs. Ick. Yeah, don't make me sick.
Oh, I am straying from the story, aren't I? Back to the dialogue!
"Two weeks can't be that bad," I tried to reassure myself. But who was I kidding? It was practically torture! The only exceptions I was allowed to leave was when I had to go to the bathroom, or eat. Which either scenario was nice, I supposed.
I suppressed my boredom by going to some of my favorite websites; namely Fanfiction. It was a website that harbored hundreds and thousands of stories. The variety I would read plentied. Sometimes I felt like reading anime, cartoons, books, games, or even comics.
To fill in the gap of time that was supposed to be spent at Sara's, I opened up a Kingdom Hearts fanfic page.
"Yaoi, gross," I scrolled down my iPhone. It wasn't that I disliked Yaoi, it's just romance in general disgusted me. I didn't believe in true love. "High School story..." I considered it, but decided not to read it. "Female OC falls into Kingdom Hearts Universe. Hmm, interesting," I grimaced.
As I made my decision, I proceeded to read it. After a few chapters and wasted hours, I have suddenly reached my verdict.
The story was tasteless and pathetic. The character from said story was relatively beautiful and could wield a Keyblade. Did I mention that at chapter three the OC and Sora kiss?
"For crying out loud," I rolled my eyes, and turned my iPhone off. I got a little annoyed when my brown hair jarred my eyes. I swept the bangs out of my face to reveal green-colored eyes. "How come I can't get away from everything and be thrown into some cool world? I wish to be apart of some cool Kingdom Hearts adventure."
But I knew that this was reality, and it was impossible. Much less likely. I didn't care, I supposed. My wish was more rhetorical if anything.
I yawned, and cuddled with my lovely iPhone, my prized possession that I could not possibly live without!
"The Keyhole...it shouldn't be doing this," huffed the cloaked figure in brown. That figure was Ansem, prematurely.
Maleficent gaped at the figure through the corner of her eye. She smirked, tapping her staff against the ground. Even as an almighty witch, she knew better than to speak out against The Seeker of Darkness. Instead, she sighed half-heartedly. "It's too soon for the Keyhole to be reacting...we haven't even begun our plan, yet. Is it trying to tell us something?"
"Perhaps you should give it some time." A woman wearing a black veil silently approached them. She held a staff in her hands.
"Sitka, you should know better than to intrude," murmured Ansem. It was something about his aura that seemed to silence her.
She looked away from his hood, and continued, "All I mean to say is that the timing is too perfect."
It was as though the Keyhole had just suddenly come to life and swirled around a variety of colors in the castle of Hollow Bastion just like in the end of the game. It was like it was just suddenly completed.
The three observed it carefully, as though it was going to explode...However, Sitka, behind her veil, focused her dark energy quickly.
I floated downward. This was one messed up dream. It was like I fell underwater and hit solid ground. Nothing but darkness entwined my surroundings. It was a little unnerving.
"Hello?" I said, taking a few steps before stopping
Nothing happened. I huffed, and repeated myself, except a little louder. "HELLO?!"
"Are you...Are you inside the door...?" whispered a frail voice.
"Huh? Who's there?" I looked around nervously. I wandered with a form of uncertainty until the person spoke again. At thirteen-years-old, I typically wasn't used to this.
"It's me," the person who spoke repeated.
I nearly jumped out of fear before a blinding light struck below myself and revealed a beautiful stained glass decor, and a frame that looked like Sora leaning sideways. Sora? Maybe I was having a pathetic Kingdom Hearts dream. It wasn't at all plausible, I think.
"Where are you?" I asked, looking around.
"I...I wish I could tell you," repeated the figure. It sounded like that of a female.
"Fair enough," I said, crossing my arms. "Well, where am I, at least?"
It was clear that I was at the Station of Awakening. But, hey, I thought that I would mess with the spirit in my dreams.
"My name is Sitka...And you are in danger," she warned.
This managed to pique my refined interest. I staggered, "What do you mean?"
"Find the door in the your dream...And leave as soon as you diverge. Before you get caught," she warned.
A door? Here at the Station of Awakening? It must be like the one Sora used to awaken from his dream. And by grave danger, I naturally wasn't worried. I kept reassuring myself this was a dream and that, regardless, I would awaken anyway. But I figured I would comply, in any case. I continued sarcastically, "Sure, okay. I will find a magic door out of thin air, easy."
I rolled my eyes and awaited a reply. I was dumbstruck when Sitka hadn't spoke. My disembodied hallucinations was just a mere complexion of those Fanfictions that I wasted away my time on.
"Okay, um..." I said with a pathetic stutter. "Abra cadabra!"
Nothing. Of course. I guess times like these were when Plan B was supposed to be inclined. "Wake up, you crazy son of a-" I was prepared to pinch my arm, until a small, jet-black portal wriggled on the floor. Emerging from said hole was none other than a tiny heartless. It's large, yellow eyes reminded me of large bug eyes from a pathetic cartoon show. Disgusting.
"Sitka!" cried Ansem, breaking his usual-creepy calm state of being.
Sitka blinked, her whole blank eyes returning to their normal shade of grey. She exchanged a look to the overlord, and addressed him with a look that said Yes? It was a little more trivial than it should have been to meet her expression behind her dark veil.
"Did you contact the source?" asked Ansem.
"Yeah...There's...This child," Sitka recollected. She glanced bitterly at Maleficent, as though Ansem had disappeared from the room. Sitka continued, "She is inside of the Keyhole..."
Maleficent had a grim expression on her face. It was hard telling if that was her typical expression, or if she was genuinely malevolent. However one would perceive it, her expression typically meant no good. "That must be what is making the Keyhole react with such negativity...How do we extract her? She'll just make things worse!"
Fire grew at the hedges of Maleficent's ragged and aged dress. The fire was green and ominous. That's usually how you could tell to get the heck away from her.
Ansem held up a dismissing hand to the witch. Even though you couldn't see Ansem, it was evident he was rather bitter. "Not true. In fact, if anything, we could make use of her. She could increase the speed of Kingdom Hearts significantly."
Sitka didn't say much. She was always quiet and obsolete. Not much less could be expected from your every day introverts. She probably wouldn't be considered as far as an introvert, if you truly thought about it.
She had a bad feeling for the girl she met at the Station of Awakening. She knew that the door would either open to reveal a light path, which would undoubtedly lead her to Traverse Town; or a dark path, namely here: Hollow Bastion. She figured that girl had a righteous heart, hadn't she?
That girl is me, Sayla Baker.
"Get away from me! Eek!" I cried, running to another edge of the Station. Even though the heartless was slow, I was still scared as hell of it. I had tried kicking it, but to no avail. The deviance of my opponent seemed obliged more the reason to attack me.
"Why won't you just DIE?!" I sat on my butt, submitted.
The heartless finally made its way to me and just stopped beside me. I just rolled my eyes. I expected it to just attack and finally wake me up. This dream started to bore me.
To my chagrin, the heartless just nuzzled its head against my hand. I opened her my eyes wide, in shock. I yanked my hand away. "Aren't you supposed to be bad? Why aren't you trying to steal my heart?!"
I discerned the idea of this being a dream temporarily, and found myself talking to the small black creature with antennaes. I was sitting on Sora's head. I found out that Sora rhymed with Sara and that was pretty funny. I found myself snickering.
The heartless tilted its head sideways like a lost, confused puppy. I smiled. "If you want to be my friend so bad, you should help me leave this crappy place."
I could have sworn I saw that heartless nod in consent. Now, I felt like I was the confused one. Just as the heartless sunk back into a black portal, I gritted my teeth, "Hey, you, get back here!
As the heartless disappeared, pink double-doors formulated through a sparkle of light. Unlike with Sora, I was glad there was no tutorial. I scurried to the door, and clenched my fists triumphantly. "Finally! Goodbye dream world, HELLO Doritos!"
Usually I wouldn't trust magic doors, but hey, why not, since this wasn't real? It didn't even feel real. I felt lighter here. As I opened the door, I saw a set of mixed colors. I shrugged, and entered.
I stepped out, and found that I wasn't in my room, but instead in the presence of...a girl in a black veil, a figure cloaked in brown, and a scrawny female with black horns.
I gulped. I was pretty frikkin sure that I was still in dream mode. I was hoping to be home, and, as another ulterior, to at least be in the safety and company of Sora and friends.
"Leave, both of you," whispered Ansem, to where I couldn't hear.
I was alarmed. I glanced backwards at the Keyhole, which was dead once again. I knew I couldn't back-track to the safety of my dream.
"But, Master Ansem..." Sitka started. Her voice was familiar. She sounded like the lady who tried to talk to me in the Station of Awakening.
"He said to go, inept girl," Maleficent dissipated in her green fire, although interest was evident in her eyes as she wanted to observe herself.
"Of course," she nodded behind her veil, darkly. She held open a hand and a fiery heartless bird appeared. She leaped onto the bird and flew off. Did the heartless just yield to Sitka?
Damn. If Sitka was bad, and I listened to her...I was in a trap. I looked away from Ansem's gaze. Even if I wanted to, he had no face behind that cloak of his. He was reduced to just a heart.
"What is your name?" asked Ansem.
"What's yours?!" I snapped, even though I already knew. I sure hoped this was some awful dream. Or nightmare, rather.
"I...have many names," he approached me quietly. I sure wished I had something to defend myself with, at least. A shield, even! When I blinked, he wasn't there anymore. My heart skipped a beat. He stood behind me.
"-But you may call me Ansem."
I spun around, and fell on my butt. My expression changed from fear, to slight annoyance. "My name is Sayla," she paused, and then smirked. "Sayla the Great."
"Your posture says otherwise," he said. He observed her, and gasped lightly. "It can't be...Heartless...It seems they are drawn to your presence."
"Huh?" I raised an eyebrow. I probably would have been more intimidated if Ansem had a body. But he didn't, fortunately. "Are you crazy?"
He summoned a few soldiers. He pointed at me, who backed away. They surrounded me, and my heart started racing.
"It's sink or swim. Either they are, or they're not drawn to you. If not, you'll make a decent meal for them to feed on," said Ansem bluntly.
The soldiers closed in on me. Just because a heartless was nice to me doesn't mean all would be. Heartless were like people, equal. Instead of the soldiers attacking, they stood in front of me protectively, as though shielding me from Ansem. I was taken aback.
"Ah..." he said.
"What?" I ask.
"You...You are different, per say, Sayla..." he said. He turned his attention to the soldiers, and held up a dark, quivering arm. Immediately the soldiers turned to Sayla venemously.
Could they have free will if someone wasn't using the dark forces around them? In a way, Ansem was manipulating them. I half-expected them to attack, but instead, Ansem shook his head. "No, no. Spare the prisoner. Instead...Show her to the chambers underground. That will be her new room."
"Prisoner?!" I gasped.
"I didn't stutter. And, should she pose a threat, punish her," said Ansem ruthlessly.
I was a prisoner? I didn't dare back talk as a soldier held its sharp arm into my back. I swallowed my pride, and started walking.
I needed Sora, or Riku. Now.
A/N: Heheh! Immediate plot twist! What, you thought it'd be that easy for Sayla? That she'd get to travel with Sora right away? Nah, that's Mary Sue-ish. Getting caught by the antagonists, however, isn't so much ;)!
Just so y'all know, I won't be changing the plot of Kingdom Hearts. On the contrary, I will be going along with the plot. This story just takes place a little before Kingdom Hearts 1 starts and I have a sideplot that involves Sayla you will learn about soon enough. Can anyone guess? REVIEW OwO!
