Disclaimer: I, HuntedByTrees, and my co-writer, GirlWithNoLife, acknowledge that we do not in any way, shape, or form own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the movies therefore mentioned. GWNL has an obsession with NiGHTS (which we also do not own), and she wouldn't write the story without that game. So this became a NiGHTS/Kingdom Hearts fanfic. The idea of dæmons comes from the Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. The song lyrics we use throughout the story are all given the credit to their artists as due when the song appears, either in the text or at the end of the chapter free talk. As far as I know, the name Disciples of Fate is my own creation, but if there just happens to be a group out there by that name, let us know! We're always looking for new music. Hane and Kane Zenshin are own our creation, and so are the band members Hammi, Kammi, and Katsuyori. My friend Sparky helped make the personalities of Hammi and Kammi, so she gets some credit there. GWNL got the idea of the Dark Queen from some legend of the Ice Queen, though I'm not sure who gets the credit there. The world of Arvia is also our own and whew that should just about cover it!
(X(x(X(x)X)x)X)
/Prologue /: Long before Ansem the Wise began to study hearts, and his apprentice sided with the darkness, there was a beautiful woman who lived all alone within her castle. For some reason, she could never leave the castle. No one was able to get close to her, not many even knew of her existence. Her only companion was an enchanted mirror, made of a rare material. The mirror would always tell her how beautiful she was, how kind she was, how great she was. But the mirror was never able to touch her, hold her, or do anything but talk. Angry that the mirror could do nothing, she smashed it in a fit. She scattered its pieces all over the world.
Before, the darkness in the people's hearts was minimal, but when the Dark Queen's mirror was shattered, her dark emotions caused the darkness everywhere to multiply. Heartless grew abundant, and the world split into many. The light diminished, only able to be found within the hearts of children.
Now, though, the Dark Queen realized what she had done; she had destroyed her only friend, her only companion. She was alone again. Now she needed to collect the shards of the mirror. However, the worlds had split and lay across the universe, the shards of her friend among them.
She began to work hard against the darkness, and to bring the worlds together, but she wasn't able to do it alone. She asked a favor upon eight warriors with hearts untouched by the darkness to assist her. The eight held the powers of a mystical weapon called the Keyblade, and had been granted magic. The eight were called the Warriors of the Heart, for they protected Kingdom Hearts. Now that the worlds had split, they patrolled the universe, keeping the ever-growing darkness at bay.
The Warriors of Heart agreed to help the woman. They promised they'd keep an eye out for these mirror shards. However, they were unable to find all the pieces. They really tried, but they had to protect the people as well. They were over whelmed. They told the woman they had to make a choice between her mirror and the lives of others. Furious and feeling betrayed, the woman unleashed her powers and so began the war between Light and Dark. She killed the Warriors in her rage.
But though their bodies were destroyed, the essence of the eight Warriors survived. The Warriors of the Heart found a way to fight, by reincarnating themselves. By living over and over, they condemned themselves to fight until the darkness was gone. The essence of the eight fought hard, but soon, they seemed to stop being reborn.
The worlds were on their own.
Yet all the fighting took its toll on the woman. Unable to fight and continue to kill the Warriors' reincarnations (due to lack of strength and the fact they no longer were there), she went into a deep sleep, swearing that upon her awakening, she'd take her revenge on the worlds and find the shards of her beloved mirror. Though she no longer took part in the powers of darkness, the results of her many centuries old battle left its mark on the worlds. The Heartless multiplied, and the darkness took a firm hold in people's hearts.
Then Ansem began his studies. While Ansem himself may have discovered the dangers of playing with hearts and attempted to stop, his apprentice Xheanort did not. The Heartless and Nobodies were now being created, and soon it seemed the darkness would take over.
When it was thought that all was lost, a hero emerged. Or, three to be exact. Sora discovered the power of the Keyblade, and with his friends, saved the worlds from Heartless and the evil. He was called upon again, and stopped the Heartless, and Nobodies. Things were good...
Until now. The exploits of Sora were only the beginning. Now it seems history will repeat itself, and only eight warriors can stop it. They are…
The Heart of NobilityThe Heart of Love
The Heart of Honesty
The Heart of Courage
The Heart of Fortitude
The Heart of Devotion
The Heart of Sincerity
The Heart of Wisdom
(O(o(O(o(O)o)O)o)O)
/World: Radiant Gardens (Hollow Bastion)
POV: Third: Aerith gazed out Merlin's house worriedly into the drizzling rain. Yuffie, unusually gloomy and silent, paced behind her while playing with one of her shuriken. Cid and Leon were immersed in the computer while Merlin himself skimmed through his spell books. They all were waiting for news, and weren't entirely sure they wanted to hear it.
Aerith tore her eyes from the window and walked over to Leon and Cid. Yuffie took her place at the window.
"Anything?" she asked hopefully. Leon didn't answer and Cid gave the reply of, "No."
Aerith just sighed. It didn't surprise her. She walked over to Merlin.
"Before you ask my dear, no, I haven't found anything useful," he said as he sighed. He wearily sat on his bed. "His Majesty should be back soon. We should know for sure then."
The room remained in oppressive silence until Yuffie called out, "He's coming!"
They all sat there until the door opened and a short figure with large round ears entered. Before he even had a chance to close the door, Aerith and Yuffie already were drying him off.
"Well King Mickey? Is it their ship?" Aerith asked worriedly. The King shook his head.
"No, it's not theirs. Those ruins must have been there for ages, and the recent rains washed all the debris from it," he replied. It seemed as if the entire room sighed in relief. But Leon posed the next question they all wanted to ask.
"If that's not their ship, then where are they?" No one had an answer, or said a thing until a large crash of thunder caused them to jump.
"Will you shut my door?" the Merlin asked as the rain changed direction and pelted towards the front of the house. Cid hurriedly shut it on the storm as the King put his coat back on.
"Where are you going your Majesty? You should at least wait until the storm passes!" Aerith told him. Mickey shook his head.
"No, I must get back to the castle. With any luck, Kairi will have left me a message," he said.
"Hmm? But I thought she said that they weren't there?" Yuffie asked.
"She did say that, but she also said it was possible that they landed in the ocean, and are stranded. She told me that when Sora and Riku came back from some charity fishing trip, they'd all go search for them."
Merlin just shook his head and replied, "It's no use your Majesty. If Goofy and Donald were stranded at sea, Donald could just use his magic to get them ashore in no time. Besides, Chip and Dale are great at assisting landings. They did it all the time for Sora and co. before. No, Chip and Dale inexplicably lost their ship signal in the middle of nowhere, you said. I tell you, something with great magic is behind this!"
"I gotta agree," Cid spoke up. "It's just not like them. They go on the gummi ship to visit Sora on the islands, and still haven't shown up a week later. Radar around Destiny Islands shows that there ain't anythin' bigger than a watermelon floatin' in space anywhere near that world! You've already checked the worlds that they could have possibly ended up stranded on due to a meteor storm, but they just aren't there!"
"And when I found the remains of what seemed a gummi ship near the old ruins where Ansem's computer is, I called you, knowing you were searching for them. If that ship crashed here such a long time ago, there's nowhere else they could be," Leon said. "Someone, or something, took them. What's worse, is that if someone did take them, they have to have a helluva lot stronger magic than Maleficent or Xemnas. This could be a new enemy worse than them."
"But Leon! There are no Heartless, or Nobodies, not enough to show unusual activity. There isn't sufficient proof that Goofy and Donald are missing from foul play," Aerith pointed out hopefully.
"No Aerith," the King said. "On some of the worlds I found evidence that the Heartless are back. I've even had to fight some of 'em off. We have a new enemy."
"No!" Aerith gasped. Yuffie just gripped the kunai in her hand until her knuckles went white.
"Which brings me to my other concern," Mickey started. He zipped his coat and said, "Come, we go to Ansem's computer. You'll have to see it, not just listen."
"Can't we use Cid's computer?" Merlin asked glancing ruefully out into the rain. Mickey shook his head as everyone got ready to face the storm.
"No. Ansem's already has the needed information. Also, it holds older legends, one of which will be crucial. Not just your typical legends, old legends, the ones that have been forgotten by most," added the King as Cid opened to retort. Everyone followed out into the rain, the Merlin sealing his house by magic before leaving.
"Wow, this place is creepy when it's storming," Aerith said as they approached the ruins of where Ansem's computer was. They made their way through the dark halls and to Ansem's old office, with its books and papers still scattered about.
"Y'know, I bet'cha someday someone will clean this office and find tons of stuff that's been forgotten," Yuffie said nudging a stack of books with her foot.
"Then let's keep it this way. The Heartless were brought from Xheanort and Ansem sticking their noses where they didn't belong," Leon replied as they opened the secret entrance. Yuffie was quiet, and left the books alone.
They followed Mickey as he turned the computer on, and Tron's voice happily said, "Welcome back everyone! How are you?"
"Not so well Tron," Mickey replied (standing on a stool to reach to keyboard).
"Oh, that's not good," Tron said. "How can I help you?"
"Tron, can ya pull up a map of the worlds and their positions to each other? Like the one I wanted to see several months ago?" Mickey asked. Tron replied, "Of course!" as the screen came to life above them.
"I love your new installment Merlin. The screen may have been large before, but having it appear above us makes it looks so cool!" Yuffie said happily.
"King Mickey, what's with those worlds down in the corner? They're all faintly glowing blue," Aerith said pointing to the bottom left corner of the screen. Three worlds, Agraba, Halloween Town, and Pride Lands had a sinister blue glow around them, and a fog surrounded the area of space they resided. It seemed to want to move even further, and engulf the rest of the worlds beyond the three it already had…eaten.
"Those are the worlds that I've seen Heartless. I had a feeling the worlds would be marked. Ya see," Mickey started explaining, "It's been a year since Sora and Riku defeated Xemnas, and peace was restored. Several months ago, I came here wantin' to see if there was any activity from the Heartless or Nobodies. If they were to swarm up again, we wanted to have more notice than last time. Tron here told me that he would be able to pull up a map that could show me where there was unusual activity. There was nothing out of the ordinary at the time.
"But now," Mickey said gesturing toward the map on the screen, "It seems there's trouble. I had already thought there was something weird amidst space when Goofy and Donald told me they wanted to visit Sora in his home world. I told them to be careful, since I felt danger. I told them to contact me when they got there. A week passed without hearing from them. I figured they were havin' so much fun they just forgot to let me know they were there. I managed to get in touch with Kairi after even Chip and Dale couldn't get contact back.
"She told me that Goofy and Donald weren't there. Sora and Riku got bullied into a fishing trip to help raise money for a new hospital, and had been gone for three days. She got a hold of them, and they replied that neither Donald nor Goofy were there. Suspicious, I left to track where Donald or Goofy could have been. But in my search of these worlds down here," he once again motioned the blue glowing worlds, "I found Heartless, and no Donald or Goofy. Now Tron, I see you're missin' a world up here."
"That's not possible your Majesty. All and every world in my database is up there," Tron replied. Mickey frowned. He peered at the screen.
"No, I'm sure there is a world right there," he said pointing to a spot at the very edge of the screen, to the left of the Pride Lands. "Can ya do a search for the world of 'Arvia' Tron?"
"I shall try. This may take several minutes," he said as the screen showed a small box that appeared to be scanning different names.
"Thank you Tron," Mickey said. He turned to the others. "Now the world that Tron is searchin' for is known as Arvia. I had no inkling it even existed, until I flew into the heart of an asteroid field. I thought that maybe Donald's ship was caught in the field. It was a long shot, and only a few kilometers in I was ready to turn back. It was impossible that they got that far in without purposely wanting to get through, and I doubted their ship would want to purposely go in.
"And then my radar was telling me there was something within the very heart of the field –"
"King Mickey, the search for 'Arvia' was unsuccessful. The closest I was able to come to it was the name Arvina among a list of journals. I heard you saying something about an asteroid field. Shall I search for that?" Tron asked. Mickey nodded and told him, "Yes, please. We must find info on this world. It relates to finding Goofy and Donald."
"You were saying King Mickey?" Merlin said.
"Yes. When my radar told me there was somethin' within the middle of this asteroid field, my Keyblade started acting funny. It wanted to go to the center, as if somethin' was calling it."
"Do you think maybe it was Donald and Goofy?" Yuffie asked. Mickey shook his head.
"No. I maneuvered my way through the field, and as I neared within twenty kilometers of the center, a world appeared! It was as if I flew through a veil that rendered whatever lay behind it invisible. Flyin' close enough to pass this barrier reveals the world. But I'd never even seen this world before. It was new."
"King Mickey, I have found the asteroid field, and am currently projecting it on the screen for your visual aid," Tron reported. Within the midst of the fog, near the place Mickey had pointed earlier, a large area of little asteroids appeared.
"Good Tron. Can you do a scope around that area?"
"Right away your Majesty!"
"So, what did you find in this new world?" Aerith asked.
"I found twins. Lots and lots of twins," Mickey said allowing himself a smile. "Twins with these animal creatures followin' them around. The world is unlike any I've seen before. The closest I've seen to it is Twilight Town, and a little of Sora's world. But it's different. It's hard to explain, but it's just different. The people are twins. In most places twins aren't as common, and if they are twins, they're twins with noticeable differences. No, in this world, the twins are normal, and they're identical twins. Even twins of opposite gender look almost the same. People without a twin are like people in our worlds with a twin, somethin' not seen often. And they each have these little creatures they call dæmons. Dæmons, one woman told me, are like the person's soul in a physical form. The children's dæmons can change form, but adults have a permanent look. I didn't quite understand what else she told me about them, but it's complicated.
"And…I found the next Keyblade masters."
Yuffie and Aerith gasped, while Cid shouted, "WHAT?!" and the Merlin was saying, "TWO more masters?"
Leon just calmly told Mickey, "Explain."
Mickey sighed.
"I landed, and was wanderin' through the city closest to me. I was goin' by a park, where a local music band was playin', and the Keyblade started actin' up. There was girl up on the stage, and the Keyblade was respondin' to her, and her twin, whom I saw with her on stage." The King pulled out a sheet of paper that was slightly damp. He put it on a smooth glass area next to the keyboard. "Tron, please take the data from this paper and store it in your hard drives."
"Right away. I'm still in the process of searching the area of asteroids, but so far I'm finding nothing, King Mickey," Tron reported. A light was light under the paper from beneath the glass it lay on, and it slowly starting running up and down the paper (think of a scanner). "Here is the paper. Would you like me to save it in your folder?"
"Please do," Mickey answered. The screen popped up a box, and saved the data from the paper. The box disappeared to be replaced by another with writing. "If you do not believe me when I say that these girls on this new world are Keyblade masters-to-be, then have a look at what is up there. I learned from the locals that these girls and their band, Disciples of Fate, are famous and well loved. The girls are almost sixteen, and have played in this band since they were quite young. They write their own songs, and raise their own money for equipment and instruments. This paper holds the lyrics to the song they were performin' when I heard them. Naturally, upon hearin' the song, and with the Keyblade acting up, I put two and two together."
Aerith was reading the screen with large eyes. Yuffie was mirroring her, and even Leon looked a tad bit astonished.
"But your Majesty…how do these girls know about all that?!" Yuffie asked.
"They don't, at least not like we do. I overheard the band after their performance. The twins wrote that song based upon bits of dreams they've had over the past month. I had to leave when I got your transmission about the gummi ship ruins though, Leon," Mickey said.
"Are you going back? Perhaps you should talk to these girls about their duty as Keyblade masters. You could even bring Sora to teach them!" Aerith suggested.
"No." Everyone glanced at Leon in surprise at the firmness of his answer. "We already have Sora and his friends. We don't need to ruin the lives of anyone else. The burden of a Keyblade master is enough to scar a person for life. We shouldn't scar anymore children than we already have."
Mickey didn't chide him, and nodded seriously. "I know what you mean Leon, but we have no choice. I think that finally, the Warriors of Heart are being brought together again."
Everyone just stared at him blankly.
"Warriors of Heart?" Yuffie asked. Mickey smirked.
"That's why we're here-"
Mickey was then interrupted by an error that popped up on the screen.
"What the…Tron, what happened?"
"I am sorry your Majesty, but the scope of the asteroid field as you requested has failed. As my scope was nearing the center of the field, my systems were temporarily overridden. I can't scope the center of the field," Tron reported. Mickey studied the screen with confusion on his face before realization dawned on him.
"Of course…I'll bet Ansem wanted to protect Arvia for reasons we don't know…Tron, is there any possible way to fix that?"
"It may be possible. Please wait for a moment." The room was silent. "King Mickey, it is asking me for a password. For some unknown reason, the password is not listed among my databases with lists of other passwords."
"Wha-! This is getting' ridiculous! I know that this world exists! Why can't I get any information on it?!" Mickey said in disbelief. Aerith spoke up, "Wait, your Majesty, I have an idea.
"Tron, you said the closest thing to 'Arvia' was the name Arvina. That's just one letter away from the name of the world. What if, for its protection, Ansem altered the name of the world in his computer, and referred to it as a person?" she suggested. Leon nodded thoughtfully.
"That's an idea. Tron, please look up this Arvina."
(X(x(X(x)X)x)X)
Hello! This is HuntedByTrees, along with GirlWithNoLife. We want to thank you for choosing our story among many, many other game-based fanfics. We don't know if we lived up to your initial expectations, and if we haven't, we ask you keep reading past the awkward first three chapters before making a final decision regarding whether you should keep reading. We deeply apologize if we're having a hard time projecting the characters' personalities through right now. Things get smoother, we promise.
The prologue happens to be longer than we expected, and would have been longer if we didn't realize how much information we were loading onto you guys. All the little back-stories will be explained later on once we're past introducing people and we're off into the good part of the story.
Please read the next installment when it's out, and post nice reviews! Thank you! bows