KINGDOM HEARTS III:

AWAKENED BY DEATH

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello! My name is The Fanfic Phantom. As many and most of you will not know, I have been writing fanfics for several years. Fortunately however, very few have actually made it to being published onto a website. Among my many accomplishments is a Kingdom Hearts fanfic entitled, Kingdom Hearts III. (Original, I know.) I wrote on the story for several weeks, but it eventually died out, and I kind of forgot about it for several years. The story is still on this site, and those who want to read it may. But let's focus on the real reason that you are reading this.

Today you have the privilege of being able to read a new and improved rewrite of the original story. This is a version that further expands on character development and is more true to my original vision of a true Kingdom Hearts drama. Please enjoy.

Kingdom Hearts III:

Awakened by Death

A Fanfic written by The Fanfic Phantom

Disclaimer: I own nothing from Disney or Square-Enix, or the Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy franchises.

CHAPTER ONE – The Letter

IT had been a long day on the isles of The Destiny Islands. The sun had just barely begun to settle down for what would be a peaceful evening. Sora dragged his feet behind himself as he lazily strolled towards a smaller island that sat away from the rest of the main lands, where he planned to spend a relaxing evening by himself and hopefully with the girl of his dreams, Kairi. Kairi wasn't your ordinary girl next door. No, Kairi was different. She was from another world. And she was a smoking babe too. She was also a girl that Sora had been trying to get into his pants for the past several years but so far has failed miserably.

Sora sat down on his small island. He was alone, and this was the way he liked it. The only thing that would be better than being alone would be having Kairi on top of him. But chances of that happening right now weren't very high. He hadn't had a good day. In fact, he had had a terrible day. And so it didn't take long before he had started to let the tears flow down his cheeks.

But why had his day been so bad? Well, he had spent the previous night making a sign out of sea shells that spelt, "I luv you" for Kairi. The idea and concept of creating the sign was incredibly romantic, and would have been great if Kairi had realized that it was Sora who had actually made it… instead she had mistaken it as a present from one of the other boys that lived on the island. And that other boy was –

"Hey Sora, what are you doing here?"

Sora jerked his head around quickly wiping away tears as he turned. If that voice belonged to Kairi then everything in his life would turn upside down. Everything that he has worked for would fall apart. All of the keyholes he had sealed would open up, and millions of heartless would roam around each and every planet, destroying all life as he knew it. He couldn't let that happen. No, he wouldn't let that happen… he drew his wooden sword which he kept at his side at all times and pointed it ferociously at the person who now approached him.

To his surprise it was not Kairi or a heartless that stood before him, but Riku. Blood began to rush to Sora's head. It was Riku that Kairi had mistaken Sora's gift's creator for, and for that reason Sora was filled with anger. He opened his mouth, and was about to curse Riku with the most humiliating name he could think of, but Riku's mouth opened first.

"What are you doing here?" asked Riku as he sat down next to Sora, oblivious to Sora's rage. Sora didn't answer him for a long time. Instead the two sat there, reflecting their lives and purposes. The sun had finally set, and the stars were brilliantly lighting the night sky. Luckily Riku couldn't tell that Sora was wiping away his snot in this darkness.

"Riku…" began Sora, "Do you think we'll ever get married?"

Riku began to laugh, "Marriage? Well, I don't know about you… but me on the other hand-"

"What do you mean?" growled Sora as he interrupted Riku. Ever since the two of them had returned from The World That Never Was Sora had grown a bit of a temper problem that several psychiatrists had all failed at being able to explain. (Although they all claimed he was experiencing the Oedipus Complex.)

Before Riku could answer Sora, a voice was heard that made them both freeze. There was no need for them to take a moment to ponder whom the voice belonged to. They both knew it belonged to the girl that they loved, Kairi. It wasn't long before she had arrived at their "hang out" spot. Riku wiped away tears of joy from laughing as Sora wiped away tears of fury. It was obvious that the girl had run a long way, as she was breathing heavily. "What's up?" asked Sora, as he slowly put his hand on her shoulder and moved it gently down her arm. Riku stared at him.

Without a word the girl held out her hand to the two boys; in it a bottle with a letter with the king's seal. "That's the king's seal!" exclaimed both Riku and Sora. Kairi anxiously opened the bottle and handed the letter to Sora; Together, the read what it said:

"If you find this letter, then please give it to Sora, Riku, or Kary… unless of course you are Sora, Riku or Kary."

"Did you do it? Good. Now pay attention guys, because I'm only going to write this once. You may not be aware of this, but the Cornerstone of Light can do a bunch of random crap, some of its tricks are more useful than others, for example, it can take you back in time, make illusions, create naughty dreams, show the past, present and what CAN happen in the future… oh yeah, it can also cook really good hot dogs."

"But that's not the point I'm trying to make here. Minney, my spanking hot wife and sexy queen, was cooking a crazy chili-cheese dog when the Cornerstone suddenly gave her a random vision. As you can imagine, it does this often, but usually her visions are of me on the can or something weird like that. (One time she caught me on the computer looking at… never mind.) So yeah, she had this vision, and do you know what she saw?"

"She saw… new worlds full of heartless and other such demons that I have never seen before. She saw creatures that were enslaved, and pigs that had triangles on their hands, and she also claimed to see a new Keyblade bearer, but we know that's not true. (Chuckle, chuckle.)

"Sora, Riku, Kary, or whoever is reading this letter when they're not supposed to, get ready. Because in three days… maybe five, I'm going to pick you up for another trip, and I do say that this trip will be much longer, dangerous and even sexier than the last ones."

"Your faithful servant/Supreme Ruler,"

"KMM"

The three were silent for a while after finishing the letter. Sora took this moment as an opportunity to glance a look towards Kairi, and Riku to see their faces. And then he pulled out a mirror and looked at his own face.

Kairi's face was worried; she loved any cute living thing. The thought of tortured creatures must have broken her heart, and she didn't want to go on another trip. She just got back; she wanted to be with Sora, but at the same time she wanted to be with Riku.

Riku had a face spoke out, "bring it on." He wasn't worried about anything bad happening. He knew that it would all come out perfect in the end. That's how everything had always been for him; especially when matters came to him and his silver hair. He took this moment and grinned at himself. He had a plan to make things way, and he was determined to keep things that way.

Sora gazed into the small mirror that he had pulled out of his pocket. It was a gift he had received from his mother when he and Riku returned from The World That Never Was. His face looked how it always did. He was a little excited to go on another adventure. But then again, he had just gotten back from the one before. He had only been home for three months, and now he was leaving again. What would his parents think? Would they even notice? With how Sora had been acting lately he felt as if his parents would be glad to have him gone. And what was that? Sora looked at his chin and saw a tiny pimple. How could he have failed to notice this? What would Kairi think of it? He could feel himself slowly falling into despair. He had to get rid of it. "Oh great," he said out loudly.

"I'll say. This will be fun," replied Riku.

"Fun?" replied Kairi, in a tone that sounded unhappy. "Is that what all of this is to you? You just want to have more fun? It doesn't sound fun at all! It's like one of those dumb horror movies you guys used to make me watch when we were little!"

"No, this is better," smiled Riku. Even though he had been grinning to himself all day, this felt like it was the first time he had actually smiled in a long time. He smiled again. And then one more time until his smile was so large that it took up his entire face.

"How can you guys be smiling when I have this crap on my face? I have to pop it!" exclaimed Sora in frustration as he began his battle with the hideous zit that rested on his chin.

"Sora, it's just a pimple," laughed Riku. It was clear that Riku was in a better mood now that he had something to look forward to again. Being home also helped. He had missed his family, and friends, especially Kairi.

"I got it!" Sora triumphantly exclaimed. He showed his face to his friends to confirm that his pimple had been annihilated.

"You're so gross." said Kairi, sticking her tongue out to Sora.

For a while the three of them sat in silence. Each of them was feeling a different emotion, and none of them knew what to make of the night. Riku broke the silence. "Well, it's like seven at night now. My boat has a hole in it, so I have to swim back home. So I've got to go." mumbled Riku as he walked away.

"Oh, we can ride together in my boat Riku. Mine's a little big anyways," replied Kairi with a cheerful smile. She got up to follow Riku, and the two of them walked away without saying goodbye to Sora. Sora was left alone on the island as he watched them walk away. His jaw had dropped. Kairi went with Riku! And to make things worse, they were actually talking! But what could they possibly be talking about? …they could be talking about Sora…

"So Riku, do you like me?" Kairi asked Riku in a rather flirty way as they were rowing back to the island.

"Of course, you're sexy," replied Riku. "I love you. I have loved you ever since I had the privilege of laying my eyes on you. I've always wanted to be with you Kairi. And now that Sora is gone, you're mine."

Kairi blushed. She looked at Riku. He was staring into her eyes, and she was staring into his. But their stare of violent passion didn't last for long because Kairi had closed her eyes as Riku went in for a gentle kiss. She kissed him back. He kissed her back passionately, and to his surprise, Kairi kissed him back even harder and more passionately. Riku had never been so happy in his life and he began to cry. Snot plummeted down his nose as he kissed Kairi.

"Snot? I like that in a guy. It shows you care," said Kairi as she casually removed her shirt.

The amount of snot that was flowing out of Riku's nose doubled.

"NOOOOO!" cried Sora. He was on his knees with his arms raised. He had been crying out towards the sky. He felt like an idiot, but he was pleased to realize that he had been imagining things. "Thank goodness…" he thought to himself. Yes, he was pleased to realize that he had been dreaming, but he was even more pleased to know that Riku and Kairi were both half-way home by now, so they didn't hear his embarrassing scream.

Sora looked at the moon. It didn't look like cheese, yet he couldn't help but wonder. He re-read the King's letter again, and again. "Chuckle, chuckle? When we meet up with the king again, I'm going to speak to him about how to properly write a letter… and how to mail it," thought Sora as he got into his boat.

Sora was halfway home and had just barely begun to wonder what was for dinner as he realized that something was strange about his boat. For some reason he felt wet… and then it hit him. He was in Riku's boat with a hole in it.

"Damn…" Sora coolly said to himself as Riku's boat sunk to the depths of the sea.

A/N: So for those who are still unaware, (Which is probably most of you, since I doubt anyone read that little not at the top.) this is a reboot of my old fanfic that I wrote several years ago, after the release of Kingdom Hearts II. I've thought about getting the old story going again several times over the years, and I just realized that rewriting the whole thing would probably be best. And so yes, althought this story is similar to the old one, this version will branch into a different story within the next few chapters. Please review, and please give me your feedback. I take all of your advice to heart, whether it be good or bad. (Whether I listen to it or not is an entirely different matter.)

The Fanfic Phantom