(Author's Note: This is, for now, a one-shot. HOWEVER...if this story becomes popular I may spin it off into it's own story. Basically: If you like, review and you'll see more.)
Kingdom Hearts/Avatar:
DEEP DIVE
By Agent S7
The city of Ba Sing Se is silent as the void, darkness flowing over the metropolis—an ocean of sorrow. Something rips the emptiness, tears reality asunder: a passage opens, a voice echoes through it.
"Are we there, Sokka? Ba Sing Se?" You would recognize but not know the voice; it resembles the cheery, fiery sound of a blind earthbender, yet the life is gone. The heart is gone.
"Shouldn't you know?" The response is equally lifeless. No emotions, just information in the form of a query.
"I'm blind. You should know that I can't see through the Corridors."
"Right. I just keep forgetting things, ever since I lost my…" he struggles for the word, searches himself. He knows the word well, but does not wish to say it.
"…your heart, Sokka. Your heart. I don't have mine either, if it makes you feel better." There is a faint trace of emotion, like a shadow. The words carry emotion, or they should. But all that comes is a confused ghost of emotion, desperately trying to imitate something long-lost.
"It doesn't."
The moon shines mournfully upon the world below, as if weeping for her lover. Its pale light fills the desecrated vacant streets of Ba Sing Se, illuminating the darkness outside for the few who hold on to their hearts. It shines brightest on Sokka, standing on the top of the steps to the Earth King's abandoned palace. But the boy does not notice it, or if he does, he does not think of it. He only says this, in barely a whisper:
"Yue…hold on to your heart. It is your greatest asset." It does not sound like this Sokka without a heart, nor does it sound like his old self. They are words of the soul, of love. Then, realizing that he is feeling one of the few emotions he has left:
"Toph, do you know why I brought you here?"
Toph shakes her head. "No." A pause. "Does it have to do with Twinkletoes?" She struggles with the name, still learning to lie to herself, to feign emotion.
"It doesn't have much to do with that lousy Keyblade wielder. It has more to do with the Old Days."
Toph raises an eyebrow. The Old Days (was it yesterday? a week ago? a year?) are always a fascinating conversation topic. Nobodies can feel very little, but one thing they most certainly can feel is interest. "Oh? What about them?"
"It's sort of a question, sort of a little fact. When I had…a heart…"
"Yes?"
"When we had hearts, did you love me?"
The question is so abrupt, so confusing that Toph must consider it for a moment. Love. "Did I? I thought I knew the answer, meathead, but now I'm not so sure. Perhaps. I loved you, I know that. But I don't know if it was the way you're thinking of."
"Really."
"Yes. Yes, I think I did." And, a compulsion remaining from long ago, she cries. The tears of a Nobody fall from her misty grey eyes, onto the ground. She sobs, and it feels…nice. It tugs at what is still human inside of her, what is still good. Toph looks at Sokka—a gesture, for him to know who she is thinking of, and hugs him.
"I still love you, Sokka. I don't know if it means anything, but I do."
The tears come, despite Sokka's best efforts. Soon the two are crying on the steps of the derelict palace, sobbing for themselves, their lost hearts, their missing friends and for each other.
The passageway in reality reopens and another cloaked figure steps from the depths. The two immediately recognize her black hair, cold brown eyes, cruel smirk.
"Azula."
"Superior."
"Sokka…Toph…it is time. The two of you are needed. Xehanort, Aang, Katara and my brother have fought valiantly, indeed, but it ends now." The moon is gone. Sokka realizes that Yue is not dead, but simply out of the way. Out of the way for something much more important.
A golden outline forms in the sky, the familiar outline of a heart. The blazing white, cratered moon of a heart shines its beautiful light upon the Nobodies and Sokka is shook to the core. Azula simply smiles.
"Kingdom Hearts…has finally arrived. The other are coming," Azula whispers, "and soon they, along with all of us, shall be human. Oh…and I suppose the Avatar has arrived as well."
Walking up the dark stone steps is a figure, driven not by vengeance but by regret, the need to prevent more tragedy. His blue arrow shines brightly—is it the Avatar State or the light of Kingdom Hearts? It doesn't matter to Azula: she will end it soon.
What surprises her is that Aang is not the only holder of a Keyblade. On Aang's left stands Katara, her face burning with retribution, and to his right Zuko grasps his own with a sense of fiery righteousness. Behind them floats an unexpected sight.
"Xehanort. I expected you…but I did not expect you to ally yourself with them."
Xehanort strokes through her white hair and looks at her Nobody. "Don't flatter yourself. Do you really think I'd ally myself with someone who wants to destroy the world? I just want what I've always wanted—power. As both Azula and Ansem I have wanted power, and now…" she stares up at Kingdom Hearts, burning bright. "Now it is in my grasp."
The two groups glare at each other. More portals open as more Nobodies arrive. Heartless rise from the ground.
The greatest battle of all time is about to begin.
KINGDOM HEARTS/AVATAR:
Coming Soon…?