Cross-Roads of the Heart

Summery: it's been 100 years since Sora, Kairi, and Riku last saved the world. Now it's up to a new generation of keyblade wielders to protect the worlds. OC.

Chapter one: Way to the Light

My name is Eli. You may think I'm the main character, but you'd be wrong. I suppose I could explain now, but what fun would that be? Anyway, this is where my side of the story begins.

First off, I should probably describe myself, huh? I have blond hair that seems to always be blown back and green-gray eyes. I am 5'10" and have an extremely slender build. Also, I am 18 years old. Not much else to describe about me other than that I live on "Destiny Islands". It's an okay place to live but nothing happens in this quaint archipelago.

It is rumored that in the "Secret Place" the key bearer and others that had helped save the universe are buried. The "Secret Place" is chained off though. No one has yet to get through. But I aim to be the first.

I woke with the sun bright in the sky. I jumped out of bed and put on a pair of khaki shorts and plain white shirt. I know it's not much, but I like it. As I put on the two metal rings around my wrist, my cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Try going into the 'Secret Place' again," then they just hung up. Ignoring all doubts, as I always do, I set off towards my destination.

Paddling towards the island the only thing on my mind was whom the voice belonged to. When I arrived the guard of the "Secret Place" was running after some freshmen and there was an audience starting to build at the tiny waterfall that was slowly causing the chains and padlocks covering the entrance of the "Secret Place" to rust.

"What's going on?" I ask to the group. The kid I assumed to be the leader got into view.

"Hello, Eli," said Riley coldly, his all too common cheshire smile plastered on his face.

Riley and I have been rivals as long as anyone can remember. His ice blue eyes seemed to pierce right into your soul. Riley has medium length red hair that goes to his shoulders. He's 19 and 6' tall. He has a more muscular build than I do, but still sleek like the Wild Cats that live on the most southern islands. He was wearing his usual green and brown vest and his sheath was used to hold up the long, baggy, jeans he wore.

"Riley," I matched the hatred in his voice.

"How have things been?" he said keeping a steady voice

"You called this morning what do you think?" my hatred rising as Kat, his girlfriend, appeared behind him.

Kat was very pretty with her bright, reckless blue eyes and short tomboyish violet hair. She never seemed to want to be his girl but all the stuff she got . . . no. She didn't seem happy with that either. It burned me up that someone with a spirit as wild as the Kairi the islanders know from the stories was being set with a grade-A jerk.

He just grinned. I began to reach towards my tin-foil sword but the look in Kat's eyes made me stop.

"What's the matter? To scared to fight?"

"No"

"Then let's see what you've got" he pulled his tin foil sword from the leather sheath.

"Fine" I reached behind my back to where I kept my weapon and unsheathed it.

"STOP!" Kat ran between us. "Quit your fighting, for once." I blinked, remembering how much she hated bloodshed. I put away my blade and saw Riley, reluctantly, do the same.

"What did you call for then?"

"The freshmen are distracting the guard, you do the math." His grin gone, for once in his life. I smirked at his anger and began walking towards the chained up hole.

"Don't get scared on us now. We all know you're afraid of the dark." He shouted, his smile returning. I clenched my fists. He always knew what to say to destroy any happiness anyone may have. I was afraid of the dark but his pointing it out to everyone on the islands made my hatred of Riley grow. When you know him like I do it's easy to hate him.

As I crawled underneath the chains I felt a hand grab my ankle. I looked back and saw the guard trying to pull me out. "Weren't the freshman supposed to distract him?"I asked myself.

I just kept crawling until I found a tall stalagmite to help hold me safely. When I grasped onto the tall piece of limestone I held steady as I made a quick jerking motion, bringing my knees to my chest, practically forcing him to let go. I sat up, catching my breath, as the guard began cussing me out. He was too big to go through the chains. I stood up, dusted myself off, and began walking down the dank corridor paying no heed to the foreshadowing events.

I made a sharp turn and ended up in an antechamber of sorts. At the very end was a large set of wooden doors with a gold bordering and a keyhole shape in the center.

I noticed there were three graves. I walked up to the one on the left and read,

Riku Wielder of "The Way to the Dawn" "May he forsake the dark and reach the light of heaven"

I ignored the gravestone as soon as I read his name. He was not who I was searching for. I, then, walked over to the tombstone on the right.

Kairi

Wielder of the "Paopu Islands"

"Even destiny shall not separate these three from each other"

I again ignored the tombstone feeling as though I was soon to regret it. I walked to the middle grave-marker finally finding what I was looking for.

Sora's grave.

"Obvious," I thought as I grinned widely. I had proved that it was not just a myth! As I reached that resolution a hand rested on my shoulder; I jumped, startled that anyone else would even try to get inside the "Secret Place". Luckily, or maybe not, it was Riley and Kat.

"So you did find something in here after all?" asked an amused rival.

"What do you want?" I replied, my smile gone and reaching for my tinfoil sword.

"The brute outside told me to get you." Riley motioned behind him with his thumb.

"I'm stayin' here a bit longer," I said, wanting, now, to memorize the epitaphs.

"I don't think so," he pulled out his blade and swung at me. I was able to dodge with a grunt. Reaching a side of the catacomb I tried to do the move I was famous for on the islands. An aerial dive from directly above the opponent. But the walls were too slippery. I fell flat on my back the wind knocked right out of me. My diaphragm began to spasm as I tried to get oxygen to my brain. He was right over me.

"This feud ends now." He brought down his sword. I braced myself, closing my eyes…but nothing happened. I was able to get up a few moments later and took a huge breath of air. Looking around I saw Kat lying on the floor grasping her stomach. I rushed over to her.

"Kat! Kat, are you okay?"

She groaned and I lifted her hand; bloodied. I quick took off my shirt and pressed it to her wound. I began to look around for Riley. I finally found him, curled in a corner, eyes wide.

"Get over here!" I shouted to him. That seemed to get him out of his trance. He rushed over and handed me his vest. I laid it down. If I needed it I would use it. As the bleeding slowed, Riley was able to begin using Potions on her. It helped keep her alive but it also kept her in pain.

"This isn't working!"

"What else can we do?"

Praying for some way to save Kat I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that the gold on the door began glowing. Paying no attention to it I told Riley to keep my shirt pressed to her. Being cold I threw on his vest. It didn't help much but it worked. As I retook my position, pressing the blood-drenched shirt to Kat, the doors burst open.

"Help!" Riley shouted as a black, gaseous, nothingness grabbed onto him; pulling him through the open portal. I kept even closer to Kat, making sure to keep her safe. A dark, seemingly solid, object began walking towards us. Praying for her safety I pulled out the dense blade, ready to fight. The black thing stopped moving and slowly dissipated, as so did Kat.

"Kat!" I screamed throwing myself to the ground, searching the dust and trying to find her in the black liquid that began to rise in the chamber. As quickly as my fear rose, so did the mass of darkness.

I began to drown. I couldn't breath. I couldn't move. But then, as I began to lose hope there was a flash of light and I was standing on solid ground holding a golden…thing. It looked like a large key. It was black and gold with similar prongs on each side. The hilt was golden and looked, to me, like coliseum doors.

"Way to the Light" a voice inside my head echoed as I examined it.

"Keyblade" the voice hissed. It began spewing a tale of Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Of King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. And of Roxas, Naminè, and Organization XIII. I collapsed; too much was happening, I couldn't comprehend any of the information given to me. When I finally awoke, I knew I was not on the islands anymore.

Chapter two: Way to the Dawn

Xaven. That's my name. Don't like it, too bad. I was born and raised on the Southern Hemisphere of 'The World That Never Was'. That's the black part of this black and white world. No, I'm not a Nobody. How could I have been born if I wasn't? I'm just a minor-yet-major part in this story so let's begin.

I have charcoal-gray eyes and silvery hair to match. I can never seem to get it to stay out of my face so I don't try anymore. I'm 18 years of age and 5'11" tall. I'm a tad bit more muscular than Saïx, er, number VII of Organization XIII. Sorry, even though it's been over a millennium since Organization XIII has been destroyed, you still need to respect them on this desolate world.

Anyway, when I woke up it was still late at night. The moon was full and high in the sky with stars shimmering like there were billions of tiny holes in the atmosphere. I threw on a pair of black pants with steel welded on and a black jacket resembling the coats of Organization XIII.

I strolled on over to "Memory Skyscraper", my favorite place to reflect and think when I have insomnia. I rushed up the stairs-can anyone walk on stairs without concentrating on that one thing-and, out of habit, I pulled on the handle and the door opened. When has that ever happened? I queried; the doors had always been locked before.

I got to the top of the tower and saw Xeril. Xeril has been my friend ever since I can remember. Everyone thinks we're twins. We finish each other's sentences and even look alike! She is 17 and, also, not a Nobody. She's 5'9" tall, electric blue hair that is as long as mine, and her eyes are the same glass blue as the Naminè from the world's folklores.

"Hey," I said quietly. I call it 'friend-not-wanting-to-disturb' but everyone says its 'crushes-hello'. Jerks.

"Hey," she said in the same tone, turning to me.

"What you doing' here all by your lonesome?" I said sitting down beside her.

"Just thinking'"

"'Bout what?"

She did a quick little 'heh' as she looked down, hair falling around; shielding her face, then said, "Nothing'"

I smirked as I unconsciously scooted closer to her. "Something's wrong," I said turning my head down and towards her.

"It's nothing"

"If you came up here, it's something"

"No, it's nothing, really," she said, smiles gone.

My grin vanished and I turned my head facing down. "I'm sorry"

She shook her head and raised it, "Don't be." We sat there in silence side-by-side just staring at the heart shaped moon.

A while later I noticed a warmth in my hand. I looked out through the corner of my eye and saw our hands interlocked. I blushed and looked skyward again not wanting anything to change. The edges of my lips curved upwards slightly. How could this moment get any better? As soon as I thought it I came up with the answer.

As I held his hand in mine I thought to myself Should I go bolder? I decided against it.

This is probably just a kid-crush anyway. I turned my head to speak but as soon as I did so Xaven put his lips on mine. Startled? Yes, but as soon as I realized what was going on the kiss ended.

"Sorry" he said pulling his hand from mine and scooted farther away.

"D-d-don't be" I said pushing a strand of hair out of my face.

He stood up to leave, "I-I shouldn't have done that"

"So?" I started, myself rising as well, "You did it and, well, I kind of…enjoyed it"

He turned to me. "What?"

I stepped closer, closing the gap, and began again, "I…I liked it." I grabbed both his hands, one in each of mine. "And…I'd like it to continue."

I don't know what we were thinking but as he leaned down again…but, I didn't care.

As I laid on the cold steel I couldn't believe what I had just done. More importantly who! The sun had still a long time to rise but Xeril was fast asleep in my arms. I couldn't fathom sleeping on this cold metal without anything to warm me. I slowly slid out from under her and redressed her. Luckily she didn't wake. But as I put my clothes back on she did.

"Xaven?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's go to the castle. I know it's off-limits but I think that maybe we could sneak in."

Putting on my jacket, "Sounds like a plan"

We arrived at the teal glass walkway that connected 'The Brink of Despair' to 'Nothing's Call'.

"You sure this is a good idea?" I asked nervously

"What? Did you think that what happened on the skyscraper was a good idea?"

"At the time yes." She rolled her eyes.

As we ascended towards 'Nothing's Call' I saw a black, thorny ring circle the ground as a Sorcerer Nobody wiggled up; materializing right in front of us. I grabbed Xeril's hand and rushed us past the Sorcerer's pink, cubic-like snake before it could take a swing at us. Keeping up our momentum I rushed us into a weird sort of an elevator.

"What is this place?" Xeril asked staring up at the ceiling.

"Who would know?"

The elevator started with a jump. As it rose 5 Berserker Nobodies appeared.

"Uh, oh"

She giggled, "Don't be such a baby."

"I'm not!"

"Sure"

One of the closer ones took a step towards us. Without warning, Xeril rushed up to it, jumped up, and kicked it with both feet, forcing the Berserker to let go of its hammer. She picked it up and swung it upwards, knocking the Berserker off of the elevator. Keeping her speed she began to twirl in mid air, knocking two others into the near-infinite chasm.

I had been standing there the whole time. When I noticed one had taken a step towards me I pulled out my 6 inch, black handled jackknife and whipped it open. I waited for it to reach me. When he, or she, did I made a quick slash and he lost his hand. A few more slices and he was definitely down for the count. Xeril looked like she needed some help so I ran over and mad a left diagonal cut downward, slicing through his whole body.

"Thanks" she managed to gasp out

"You did most of the work"

"Yeah, well… let's just get going"

I chuckled. "Then let's hurry up, daylight's in-"

"6 hours?" She interrupted making the statement sound like a question to try to annoy me.

"Yeah…"

When the elevator finally stopped we walked outside. Ignoring all of the questions that entered my mind, I grabbed Xeril's hand and continued walking. We entered a strange hallway where in the center was a large rectangle which I suspected to be a room. When we exited that large area of the castle I expected the rest of the rooms to get bigger as we went higher up. I recognized the winding area we were in to be Naught's Skyway. I could see it from my room as well as the Altar of Naught…but we'll get to that later.

We walked through the upper area of the weird hallway and into the Proof of Existence. All of the "grave stones" were to be down, destroyed even, but all of them up…and teal.

"Wow"

"Yeah"

We wandered around and I noticed that one didn't have a pillar. After searching the "graves" I found images of some weapons that I liked. Chakrams, a scythe, and Keyblades.

The word resonated in my mind…Keyblade.

Feeling refreshed from the sight of the renewed Organization XIII I grabbed Xaven's hand and rushed out of the room, again, reaching the outdoors. We headed through the walkway, a pink and violet gas billowing out of the door we intended to walk through. We went inside again.

There was no path.

"Xaven look out!" He walked off of the steel and…didn't fall? What just happened? I questioned myself

"What?"

"Y-you didn't fall?"

"Was I supposed to?"

"Yeah! It defies gravity!"

"If you haven't noticed, nothing tonight has been normal! Nobodies have appeared and we visited Proof of Existence! Now I'm standing on a paper-thin sheet of glass!" I doubt he realized his voice was rising. I looked down and realized why he was floating. "Anything else to add to this insane evening?"

I just stood there, staring at the floor. I wanted remind him about Memory Skyscraper but I feared it wouldn't be a wise thing to do.

His face softened "Oh! I-I'm sorry…I didn't think about that…that was a good thing though!"

A tear fell from my face. He walked over to me and gave me a hug, himself crying as well.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think about the good things that happened tonight. I don't know what I was saying. I'm so sorry"

As his silver hair fell around my face it felt like he would protect me from anything. I hugged him back wishing I could give him the same feeling of security. I pulled away from the hug.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing" I said in complete honesty. I stood on my toes and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around me and he lifted me slightly so that I didn't have to do a balancing act during the kiss.

When the kiss ended he started, "I don't know why I didn't tell you how I felt before"

"Because you didn't understand the emotion"

He grinned. "Too true."

We decided to stay in the castle for the day. We both were exhausted and needed some rest. As we nestled into each other's arms I couldn't help but feel like there was another person cuddling with us.

When I awoke Xeril was nowhere to be found. What if something bad happened! I jumped up and ran out of the passage. I got to the bottomless hallway when I saw her. She was looking down at what looked like a thermometer.

"Xeril!"

She lifted her head. When she saw me she quick shoved the thermometer into her pocked and raced over to me.

"Where were you?" I demanded.

"I just left a note at our parents' houses so that they didn't worry."

"You scared me; not knowing where you were." I said more softly as I felt a tear roll down my cheek.

"I'm sorry. I thought I would be back before you woke up." She put her hand down by her pocket, trying to hide the bulge in her pants.

"What's that?"

"What's what?" she said, her eyes showing guilt.

"The thing in your pocket"

"There's nothing in my pocket," she stated as she hustled past me. "We'd better finish exploring so we can get home before our parents worry."

I decided not to argue.

We ended up back at where we slept the night before in a matter of minutes. As we walked on thin air a teal colored crystal appeared underneath our feet. At numerous points we almost fell off of the invisible pathway. When we reached the end Xeril didn't so much as pause, she just continued on her way all the way up to The Altar of Naught.

When we reached the top of the tabernacle we could only stare in amazement. The entrance to Kingdom Hearts still existed. Xeril took the first step onto the teal walkway. As soon as her foot touched flat the doors burst open throwing the both of us to the edges of the altar. When I was able to sit up I saw Xeril unconscious on the other side of the tower. I rushed over to her and lifted her head up.

She was still breathing. That's a good sign. As I thought that thought I saw what she had shoved into her pocket.

It was a pregnancy test.

As I stared at the little window in disbelief, I didn't notice the shadow that was slowly rising behind me…

Chapter three: Way to the Dark

Isis is my name. I'm an orphaned 17 year old girl who doesn't care about the lives of those on this lowly world named Hallow Bastion. Sure it's been rebuilt and supposedly a better place than it was before, but that was while Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, Cid, and Cloud were patrolling the area. They're dead now but who's complaining? Tifa is the only one alive at this point. She's a grandmother to everyone and can give any Heartless that shows up a good pounding.

Back to me. I have green eyes and hair so blond it's white. Granny Tifa styles it the way she used to wear it for me and teaches me how to be as tough as she was. If it weren't for Granny Tifa I would have been in jail since I was four years old. She even gave me her old clothes for me to wear. Sure it was a tad small around the bust area but she fixed that right up for me.

Now lets get to the story! I'm nowhere as major a part as I'd hope to be but I'm happy with how my life has turned out.

"Isis! Get the children inside!" shouted Granny Tifa as the towns defense system activated.

"Roger!" picking up Denzil and his sister I ran inside. "Can I fight the Heartless now?"

"No! You're still too young."

"I'm 17 thank you very much!" I said as I grabbed the next set of orphans.

"I said no and that's that!" I sighed because I knew she was right. She hadn't taught me how to fight, only how to get stronger and stay stronger than the rest. Grabbing the last set of orphans a Shadow Heartless appeared in front of the door. As it leapt for us Granny Tifa sent it flying with a solid punch. "Next time you might not want to waste breath and energy with arguing with me."

"Yes ma'am." I said rolling my eyes.

Days passed before the next alert and I was ready for it this time.

"Isis! Get the children inside!" shouted Granny Tifa as the towns defense system activated.

"Roger!" picking up three orphans this time I put them inside. Deciding to take the advice to save breath I ran outside for the other three without a word.

As I set the last of the children down I heard the words I had been waiting to hear all my life, "Wanna fight the Heartless?" I turned around and saw Granny Tifa lying on the ground. I rushed to her and found she was dead. Crying, I heard the same voice that I thought was Granny Tifa's say, "'Cause you're gonna have to." I looked out the door and saw a man clad in a black trench coat with the hood covering his face.

"Who are you?" I shouted as tears fell from my eyes.

As he lifted up his hood he said one word that chilled me to the bone, "Xigbar". He left; stepping back into a weird dark portal, leaving me stunned in the doorway. I wiped the tears away and as I put on Granny Tifa's gloves I swore that I would kill him using only what Granny Tifa gave me.

Life.

She gave her life and I swore I would give mine to kill Xigbar. I ran outside and began to smash the Heartless in a frenzy. Not until I had given my all did I let the creatures smother me. I cried. Underneath all of the creatures I cried that I couldn't help the orphans. I cried because I couldn't help Granny Tifa. I cried because I couldn't even help myself. Not much later did I fall asleep, cold, and tear stained.

I was awakened by unfamiliar voices. When I opened my eyes I saw two boys and a girl. The boy farthest me had the most unkempt hair I had ever seen and didn't even care I was there. The other boy was stockier and wore a red headband and a red sleeveless-tee that had a dog on it. The girl had on an orange, flowery, shirt on and red hair that reminded me of the hairstyles the preppy girls wore.

"I think she's awake," said the guy in red.

"Good, now get her out of here," the other guy said, getting off of his seat.

"Be nice Hayner! She probably doesn't know where she is," the girl said sternly.

The three argued for a while in which I found out their names. I learned that the one with messy hair was Hayner, the stocky guy was Pence, and that the girl was Olette. When they were done, by my doing, they took me in and helped me adapt to the quiet life of Twilight town. All the time I was there though I never met the fourth of the main characters in this story. But you'll learn about him later.

They took me to the top of the train station where they ate sea-salt ice cream until the twilight came up. I made a lot of munny during the summer so when the time came to go to the beach I was able to pay for it all. I even won the Struggle tournament! Sadly by the time they had to go to school I had no other friends. I went to work at the accessory shop but I still hadn't found anyone on the street to talk to.

Things stayed that way until an unknown creature appeared and stole all pictures and videos that I was in. It even stole the word photo! I chased it down through the forest to no avail. I reached the mansion and still had not damaged it. My punches and kicks didn't work so I began to use the struggle club. That didn't help me either. I was exhausted and realized that the white being had not taken any damage whatsoever. I fell to my knees and the being began to walk towards me. When it was within striking distance I slashed at it with my struggle club. I was amazed when I saw that I had destroyed it. I looked at the weapon and realized it was not what I had held in my hand a moment ago. It had two bat-wings around the handle that was plain black up to where the wings conjoined where there was a blue eye with a slit-type pupil. Its blade was like a normal blade except for the crown, which was attached to the side. As I admired the beauty and power it wielded I heard clapping. I turned around to see who it was and was knocked unconscious.

Way to the Twilight

I did what I had to do. I knocked her unconscious. You may be wondering who I am. I've been asking myself the same question. I know that I am 19. I know that I have a name . . . but I do not know what my name is. I called myself Shadow until the Heartless showed up. Then I went with a new name. One with more power to it than I knew. Sai. Simple and yet it struck fear into the hearts of those who knew what the word meant.

I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder. Unlocking the gate with my keyblade, a beautiful weapon with spikes and curves thrown around in a constant pattern, I went inside. I threw her into Betwixt and Between next to the blond in the vest and followed her in. There I put myself, too, to sleep and awaited for the final member to arrive before we began our journey to the Depths of the Heart.

In Betwixt and Between I had a dream. The wielder of the Way to the Dawn was fighting against the creature I summoned to capture him. It was not faring well for him. He had not yet to summon his blade.

That's it for my first chappie. I'm trying to get in all 4 people in the story so that's why there's 4 in 1. I'm stuck on how to begin the next part that's why I stopped here but fear not for I shall return with much success. So R&R thru e-mail not thru I'm abird. ttfn, ta-ta for now!

Abird