Prologue: Through Skies and Seas

ROXAS

I opened my eyes. Sunlight streamed through the window by my bed, and I sat up, holding my head.

It was that dream again. Or was it a dream? I couldn't really tell. Because while it was indeed taking place during my unconsciousness, it felt like I was really there. I couldn't move of my own will, but I could react to what was going on. I was someone else—weird, huh—and I was always with two other people: a pretty girl with short brown hair, and a strong-looking guy with silver hair. We were talking and laughing, sitting on a low tree branch by a coast. It was calm and peaceful, but unnerving. At least for me.

"Hey! Roxas!"

I jumped and looked at my window. Getting up on my knees, I unhooked the latch and opened the glass doors. Below were three figures, one jumping up and down, all waving eagerly. I squinted against the light as I peered down at them.

"Are you awake? It's already morning! Get up, you bedhead!" Hayner hollered, cupping his hands around his mouth.

I grinned. "At least my hair isn't as messy as yours! Do birds live on your head?"

Hayner crossed his arms and sulked as Pence and Olette laughed at him. "Just get down here, will you? We don't have all day!"

I waved, then headed inside and changed out of my pajamas. In a few minutes, I was already dressed, fed, and headed out of my house.

My name is Roxas, and I'm a sleepy resident in sleepy Twilight Town. Sure, there are a few weird rumors here and there, but we've already gone and disproven them. No big deal, especially in a place where no one really cares in the first place.

My closest friends are Hayner, Pence, and Olette. Even though we don't always enjoy the same things, there's always the one thing we've unanimously agreed on that we all valued the most—our memories together. We've been best friends since we weren't even half the size we are today. Well, as far as I remember. Hayner always makes fun of me for having such a bad memory but hey, it's what I've been born with, right?

But while we are best friends, I never told them about the dreams. They would just blow them off as just another weird thing about me and tell me to forget about them. I guess it's normal for them to think that, but they never felt the dreams. They never experienced them, what it felt like to be in another's body, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel. So I just kept them to myself, wondering if I'll ever get to the bottom of them.

At any rate, this day went by uneventfully. It was the usual hanging around town, visiting our favorite haunts and investigating more rumors Pence had dug up, and beating the crap out of Seifer's gang. And of course, we wrapped up the day with some sea-salt ice cream at the top of the clock tower, watching the trains go by. As we munched on the treat, Pence said, "Wouldn't it be nice if this could last forever? Just sitting up here, being together, eating ice cream…"

"Pence, you eat too much in the first place," remarked Olette, delicately licking a runaway drop of ice cream.

"It's what I do best!" Pence said defensively, waving his already-clean stick in the air. He examined the end and sighed. "No winner today either, huh."

"Dream on, Pence, you'll never get the winner stick!" remarked Hayner. "Only people who measure taller vertically than around the waist are eligible."

I smirked as Pence began poking Hayner's face with the sticky piece of wood.

"Gross, Pence, that was in your mouth!"

"Serves you right for calling me fat!"

"Guys, knock it off! It's dangerous up here," fretted Olette.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. I burst out laughing, doubling over and holding my sides. I didn't even notice the three of them stop arguing and stare at me before joining me in my random fit of laughter. As quickly as it came, it faded, and we recovered slowly, finishing up our ice cream and piling the sticks behind us.

Hayner leaned back, cushioning his head with folded arms. "You know, Roxas, your laughter is pretty contagious."

I turned to him. "What?"

"It's true!" said Olette, giggling at me. "Every time you start laughing, we can't help but laugh too."

"That's right," agreed Pence, gazing forlornly at the stack of ice cream sticks.

"It's like…a disease," teased Hayner. "Roxas is diseased, Roxas is diseased!"

"Oh, thanks!" I snapped playfully. Standing up on the ledge, I hunched my shoulders and curled my fingers. "I'm going to contaminate you, Hayner! Roar!" I began wiggling my fingers, ready to tickle him.

At the realization of my intentions, his eyes widened and he flinched automatically, being extremely ticklish.

"O-oi! Not here—ack!" I pounced. Pence held him down as I attacked, poking at his sides and his neck, where he was the most sensitive.

"Arrgh!" he yelled as he thrashed under our grip. Behind us, Olette shrieked, "Guys, stop it! We're more than seventy feet up here! We'd be dead if we fall!"

We all stopped and peered over the edge together, then gulped at the height we were at. We slowly untangled ourselves and lowered ourselves back on the ledge. With a sigh, I tilted my head back till I was looking at the sky, stained with shades of red and orange and purple. The night sky was already creeping up behind the dying sun.

"Summer vacation's almost over, huh." The others followed my lead, and we sat there, staring up at the heavens.

"This entire summer felt like forever, but we only have a week left," Pence agreed.

"And we never even looked at our homework," Olette added.

Hayner was silent, closing his eyes.

"Today's already ended and we didn't really do anything interesting."

"Classes will start soon and it'll be back to boring old school again."

I chuckled softly and looked at Hayner. His eyes were still closed and I thought he had fallen asleep.

"Hayner?" I asked, reaching for his shoulder. Suddenly, he snapped open his eyes and jumped up.

"You're all too solemn!" he exclaimed. He looked down at all of us and glared. "Tomorrow, we're going to the beach!"

"The beach? That costs money," I said, standing up beside him, "and we are broke, you know."

He stamped his foot. "We can get jobs!"

"You can only get paid when you're sixteen, Hayner, and we're all still fifteen," Pence said.

"I'm sure if we tell them our reasons, they'll make an exception!"

"Hayner, you're so naïve," Olette remarked.

"No I'm not! We know the store owners well enough anyway!" He swung his arms, gesturing, but struck my back in the process.

"W-woah!" I yelled, wildly peddling my arms. I wobbled dangerously on the ledge, seeing the tiny buildings dance before my eyes.

"Roxas!" I heard Olette and Pence cry, and I felt Hayner's calloused fingers brush my wrist as he tried to grab my hand. I automatically reached out in response, but misjudged the distance and ended up clawing at empty air instead.

The last thing I saw as I fell were the frightened faces of my best friends and the sunset staining the darkening sky as the bells chimed ominously into the night.

Dong…dong…dong…dong…dong…dong…dong…

SORA

It was that dream again. The one where I was a completely different person. I was sitting on a clock tower, eating ice cream I couldn't taste, with three other kids next to me. There was a tall one with gelled blond hair, a chubby one with a bandana, and a girl with green eyes, with a pretty laugh. It was strange. It was like I was there, with those kids, as if we were friends all our lives. At first, it felt just like a dream, but it's been coming more and more often now that it didn't seem like an ordinary dream.

I would have thought about it more, but then a crab fell on my face and I became too distracted by the sharp pain on my nose for anymore thinking.

"Ow! What the hell is this?" I yelped, pulling the crab off of me. I shook sand out of my hair, rubbed my throbbing nose, then looked up to find myself face to face with Kairi.

I felt my face flush instantly and I fell back again. "K-k-kairi!"

She snickered. "That's what you get for dozing on the job, S-o-r-a!" She sprinkled more sand in my hair and laughed again.

"Stop that! I was just taking a break, that's all," I said defensively. We caught each other's gaze for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"Hey! Sora, Kairi, you're both slacking off now!" called Riku, tossing another large branch on the sand. He dusted off invisible…well…dust off his yellow top and stretched his arms.

"Sorry, Riku!" Kairi sang, dragging me out of my sitting position. "Come on, Sora, get up!"

"Alright, I'm coming, I'm coming," I groaned, brushing sand off my pants and yawning. The sun was already beginning to set, painting the sky with warm colors. A streak of purple acted as the mediator between the reds of the light and the blues of the darkness.

"Let's at least finish the base before we go home, okay?" Riku said. He picked up the branch and took off running inland where our project sat, unfinished.

"Race you to it!" he yelled, waving the piece of wood in his grip.

"Oh, no you don't!" I answered, grabbing my armful of branches and taking off after him. Behind, Kairi giggled as she picked up the pace with several loops of rope.

We reached our project quickly. Kairi and I leaned over, gasping for breath. Riku towered above us as we watched us act like dying animals.

"Why race me when you know you'll end up like this?" he sneered in typical Riku fashion.

"At least we tried," I retorted, tossing the bundle at his feet. He picked it up and headed towards the site, unwrapping it and spreading the branches before him.

I am Sora. I live on a string of islands called Destiny Islands. Ironic, huh?

I grew up with Riku, even though he was a year older than me. We explored the islands every day until we found a tiny one not far off from the coast of the island we lived on. We swam there (the water was shallow) and found a whole new playground. We would go there all the time but never anywhere else. We never would have even thought of other places than our home until Kairi washed up on the shores of our island. She couldn't remember where she was from but quickly settled in with our people, being adopted by the mayor and by us. And she was our muse for the raft we were building now. If she wasn't born here, she must have been born somewhere else, right? Somewhere that is not here…getting there and exploring there became our new goal.

Taking the rope from Kairi, Riku set to work braiding the branches together, which I had already shaved and smoothed beforehand. The sun sank lower behind the watery horizon. The ocean was like a distorted twin of the sky, reflecting the same lights on its surface.

At last, Riku jumped up and clapped his hands. "It's finished!" The three of us gathered around the makeshift raft, which was well-made as expected of our handyman. It was a handsome little thing, large enough for three people and a sack of provisions. It even had a tall mast from which we hung a red flag.

"Let's test it on the water, to see if it floats," I suggested. Riku nodded in agreement and we began to hoist the raft over the sand.

"But guys, the wind's getting stronger. Let's hide it for now and call it a day. We can always come back tomorrow," Kairi said nervously. She was right; the soft ocean breezes grew more powerful, whipping our hair in our faces. I felt sand getting into my mouth from my own messy locks.

"We'll be fine, Kairi," Riku said reassuringly. "It'll only be a second, really."

She bit her lip but nodded, backing up anyway. As we drew closer to the water, though, the waves were growing taller and the skies clouded.

"You know, Riku, we should listen to Kairi. Look at the size of those waves!"

"Sora, it'll be okay. It's only a test float."

With a sigh, I backed into the water. It was ice cold and stuck my pants to my legs. I shivered as I continued to walk till I was waist-deep in the freezing water. Riku, being taller, only suffered the cold at his knees. We lowered the wooden contraption till it touched the surface, then gingerly let it go. It sank.

"Dammit!" swore Riku as we quickly pulled it out. "Sora, did you bring the right wood?"

"I don't know, but let's get out of here first! The ocean's getting rougher!" I replied, trembling from the waves.

He gave me a look of annoyance as he walked out of the water, dragging the raft with him. Relieved of my burden, I followed his lead, but suddenly, the sun's glow vanished from behind me.

"Sora! Watch out!" I heard Kairi scream. Riku's narrowed eyes widened in fear, focused on something behind me. I slowly turned around to find a colossal wave building up so high I couldn't see the sun.

"Grab my hand!" Riku cried. He reached out with a toughened hand. I reached in response and nearly touched his fingers when a wall of water fell abruptly between us. Above me, more water began to collapse. In an instant I was encased in the frigid ocean. It tossed me all over the place like a child playing roughly with dolls. I was slammed into several hard surfaces, of rocks and sand and more rugged rocks, till I was bruised and battered and bleeding. I tried to make my way to the surface but it was impossible to tell which way was up or down at all. All I could tell was that I was being carried farther and farther away from the shore.

I grew dizzy from the lack of air but the strength to fight against the water had been drained from me. I let the currents drag me around, and then I broke the surface of the water, naturally floating upwards. I coughed out the seawater and sucked in air desperately. Through blurry eyes I could see Kairi and Riku, waving and jumping up and down from the shore. When did I get so far away?

"So…ra…!"

Their cries grew softer and softer as I drifted.

"S…o…ra…"

And then I heard an unfamiliar sound. It was the chiming of clock bells.

Dong…dong…dong…dong…dong…dong…dong…

A/N:

Roxas is falling and Sora is drifting…where will they meet? Oh, the suspense!

While you excuse me for this boring piece of crap of a prologue, I'd like to say I spent a good chunk of effort and time to write this, so I would truly appreciate a review.

In addition, I'll admit I'm not the most devout KH fan (I'm still a new in this fandom) so please do not roast me as you shove inaccuracies down my throat. I will do my research but I won't mind a helpful bit of info here and there.

At any rate, I hope you somewhat enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next!

~al Coda