Good Evening, It is I, KHVeteran.

I wish I could have posted my foreword and synopsis without violating the rules. Oh well. Do not hope for a BBSNoir, I have tried, it is impossible. It ends up being too similar to the game.

Disclaimer: I do not own the people who own the stuff in this fic. The only thing I own is my imagination. However, if time travel were possible, I'd buy HUGE stocks in these people before they got so popular.

~Chapter 1: Destiny Begins~

Sora awoke on the beach. He blinked, it wasn't like him to take a nap in such a strange place, let alone in the middle of the day. And the dream...he didn't remember much now that he was awake, but he did know something big and dark tried to eat him. And what had caused him to fall asleep in the first place? He couldn't remember, one moment he was waiting for his friends, Riku and Kairi, to appear so they could continue building their raft, and the-

"Ah, shit!" Sora cursed as he bolted straight up into a sitting position, the raft! With the sun high in the air, no doubt they had already started without him. He had to get to the cove before they-

A crunch of sand signaled the approach of Wakka and his gang, "Feelin' lucky, Sora?" was Wakka's wingman, Tidus's only warning before he brought a bat down on the location where Sora had been moments before. Crouching down, Sora fingered the boken he always had stuffed in the back of his belt.

"You had some nerve," he continued, "Sleeping so casually on OUR turf!"

"Calm down, Tidus," Wakka ordered from his seated posistion near the docks, Lulu and Sephie hanging on him like poupu from a tree, "Sora was just leaving...weren't you, Sora?"

The hell I was, Sora thought, just as ready to go as Tidus was, but he had also proised his mother that he wouldn't get in anymore fights. If he blew it here, Riku and Kairi would have to finish the preparations for the raft themselves. Underneath the bandage on his cheek, his scars ached for revenge, but he had to hold it in, save the rage he felt for another time. But it was so tempting to give in.

They glared daggers at each other for a while, but Sora was saved from having to make a decision by Kairi, who apparently had been watching the proceedings for the last few minutes, "Butt out, Wakka!" she confronted him from behind Sora, "This island belongs to the town, not you. We have as much right to be on the beach as you!"

"What this, Sora?" Lulu smirked, "Is your girlfriend going to fight your fights for you?"

"Says the woman hiding behind Wakka!" Sora countered, "You just gonna keep letting your gang say whatever they want, Wakka? Your control's slipping!"

"What was that?" Wakka growled, "You sayin' I can't handle my crew? Maybe you should put a handle on your mouth, 'fore my boy here does it for ya."

"Enough with the testosterone, guys," came a quiet but commanding voice from the shack. Riku walked up beside Sora, and gently placed the log he was carrying on his shoulder on the ground next to him.

Everything but the waves became still as everyone considered the silver-haired youth. Not only was he good in a fight, but he was also the most dangerous element to the entire arguement. He might be the inhertitor of the largest estate in the town, but he sure as hell didn't act it, much to the chagrin of his parents.

Wearing common clothing, growing his hair long, hanging out with the black sheep of the town, and even going so far as to refuse any predetermined fate presented to him by his parents (which included being engaged to the mayor's daughter, Kairi), he had been threatened of becoming disowned more than once, but everyone knew for a fact they couldn't, as Riku's mother could not bear any more children even if she had wanted to.

"You wanna fight, fight me," Riku drew his boken, "Since Sora can't go breaking his promises. At least he's true to his word," these last words directed at Tidus, who had been Riku's friend at one point.

A wind blew, stirring his yellow shirt and baggy jeans. His green eyes traveled across the battlefield, from Tidus to Wakka and "his" girls.

"Fine, we don't want another embarrasing moment," Wakka spat, his eyes full of fear, envy, and hate, "Four to one and you still beat us, but our time is coming. Stay out of my sight, and I'll consider leaving you alone."

"Fine," Riku bent to pick up the log with one arm, "We'll be at the cove if you change your mind."

The three friends retrated to the opposite side of the island, where their mostly finished raft rested in the shallows of the beach there.

Sora promtly sat down next their ongoing project, spiky brown hair swaying in the breeze, "Thanks, Riku...if you and Kairi hadn't showed up at that exact moment, I wasn't sure how that could have turned out."

Kairi punched him the shoulder, "What were you thinking? Are you trying to get killed, Sora? You've just got out of the hospital because of your rash attitude!"

Sora looked up into the redhead's angular face, her ocean blue eyes shimmering in anger.

"Relax, Kairi," Riku dopped the log next to the raft, "From what I heard, Sora was almost dragged into that fight by no fault of his own."

"But...," She argued, crossing her arms over her white tank top, which managed to conceal her budding breasts quite well, despite the deep drop in the collar.

"Drop it," Riku said with a flash of his green eyes, "But Tidus did raise a good point, Sora. Why were you taking a nap on the beach, of all places."

"I was waiting for you," Sora rubbed his shoulder, which hurt like the dickens where Kairi had struck it, "I guess I just didn't get as much sleep as I thought I did, and my sleepiness caught up to me."

"Showing up early's a good thing," Riku pointed out as he took out a knife and began to whittle at the log, "But not at the expense of trouble. Show up later tomorrow, and don't bother trying to tie your boat up at the docks, either. Wakka'll no doubt be ready for another fight with me out of the picture. We all made him look bad today, he won't go forgetting that easy."

Sora stood up, brushing sand off his oversized shorts, "Yeah, I got it."

Kairi handed him a list, "What's this?" Sora asked, fearing he already knew the answer.

"We need this stuff to complete the raft," Kairi said with a simmering anger in her voice, "Riku's busy making sure the logs are up to snuff, so it's up to you to find rigging and a sail."

"Rigging? For a raft?" Sora asked incredulously.

"Gotta tie the sail up with something," Riku commented without looking up from his work.

"Fine," Sora sighed, "I'll see what I can do without provoking Wakka and his lackeys."

"While you're both doing that, I'm going to see what kind of foodstuff we can procure for the trip," Kairi said, "Which means I won't be around until around sunset."

"We can take care of ourselves," Sora pounded his red-clad chest with his fist.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Kairi sighed, "Sora, just...be careful, okay?"

"We'll be fine," Riku spoke up again, "Go do what you have to."

Kairi nodded and left, leaving the boys to do the tasks they had been given.

Miraculously, they had all survived the day. Wakka and his crew left early today, so the trio had a jump start on the sunset.

"You think there's other worlds out there?" Sora wondered, not realizing he had, once again, thought out loud.

"I dunno," Riku shrugged, "I always assumed that we have always meant to be here, together, on these islands. If there are other worlds out there, why'd we end up on this one?"

"What do you mean?" Sora asked, thinking that he started the conversation, he might as well continue it.

"Well, if there are other worlds out there, then that means that's just that many more worlds that we could have just as easily ended up in. Can't we have just have easily ended up somewhere else?"

"I dunno," Sora sighed, swing his legs over the poupu tree so he as laying with his back against it.

"That's why we gotta go out there and find out," The silver haired boy crossed his arms, "We can't change anything sitting on our asses all day."

"But," Kairi began timidly, "We can always come back, can't we?"

"Yeah," Sora agreed, "Of course!"

"Well big day tomorrow, with the raft finished, and the food packed up and everything," Riku walked off, "Be sure to get home early, Sora. Looks like we'll be heading out earlier than we thought."

"Yeah."

Riku walked off, leaving Sora and Kairi to watch him row to shore.

"Riku's changed," Kairi said all of the sudden.

"Huh?" Sora asked in surprise, "What do you mean?"

"Well...," came the timid reply.

What's up with Kairi? Sora's eyebrows knitted in concen, She's never this softspoken, especially about Riku or me.

Then Kairi said something that took Sora completely by surprise again, "Sora, why don't we just take the raft and go? Just the two of us!"

"W-what?" Sora was completely bewildered now.

An odd look and a blush crossed Kairi's face simultaneously as she giggled, "Just kidding!"

"What's gotten into you?" Sora asked, deciding it could be one of those girl things again, "You're the one who's saying a bunch of wierd stuff."

Kairi was silent for a beat before she muttered, "Maybe..."

"I'm taking off, too," Kairi got up, "Tomorrow, when we set sail...it'll be the most exciting moment of our lives."

"Don't go jinxing our adventure, now," Sora smiled, "There's bunch of things more exciting than setting out on a journey."

Kairi smiled as well, "Yeah, I guess you're right, Sora. 'Bye."

As Sora watched her boat sink into the distance, a thought occured to him. Getting up and walking down where the base of the large tree on this side of the island intersected with a sheer stone wall, carved and sanded from the existing cliff, there was an entrance to a cave. Doubling over so he could fit, he stood up and followed the cavern to his Secret Place.

It was a location that he had only shared with his best friends, it was their playground, their secret hideout, where they had scribbled on the walls for fun. In the rearmost location of the cave was a wooden door set into the wall. It possessed no knob or keyhole, but it was hinged and locked into place. He and Riku had tried to break into that thing so many times. Even metal rods didn't leave dents in its smooth, polished appearance. They'd pretty much given up trying to open it, but every now and then, they try again with a different idea. Last time, Riku tried prying apart the hinges, but they were just as solid and unyeilding as the rest of the door.

But it wasn't the door Sora had come for, but a very specific drawing, which he found afer clearing away some mushrooms. It was a drawing he and Kairi had done eight years ago, on the anniversary night of Kairi's sudden appearance to Destiny Islands. It was a drawing of themselves, but Sora was the one who had drawn Kairi and vice versa. The simplistic profiles were facing each other, smiling.

Sora found a rock to draw with nearby, and sat down to work. As he did, he recalled the legend of the poupu fruit. If someone possessed a poupu fruit and offered it freely to someone else, and those two people shared it, their destiny's would become intertwined together forever. They would be destined to be a part of each other's lives, no matter what.

Sora leaned back, his drawing finished. to his head, he had added a hand offering the star shaped fruit to Kairi. I wish I could just tell her how I feel, but her situation's already complicated far enough, with the rejection of Riku's engagement and all...the mayor was furious when he found out Kairi felt the same way...

For the second time that day, the crunch of sand was his only warning that someone was nearby, "Who's there?" he challenged.

Next to the door was...someone dressed up in a brown robe, the hood drawn to hide the wearer's face. The stranger was silent for a moment before saying, "I have come to see the door to this world before it becomes eclipsed by darkness."

Sora's mouth twitched, "You're from another world?"

"There is much to learn, you understand little," the stranger remarked as if Sora were one of those annoying bugs that you only notice when you hear the loud whine in your ear.

Face burning, Sora challenged the cloaked man, "Well, I'll go out and learned what's out there! What do you think of that?"

"A meaningless effort," the man scoffed softly, "One who knows nothing can't understand anything. You will never learn what lies beyond this door."

The door? Sora thought, looking at it for a moment, Is that what this is about?

Shifting his gaze back to the stranger, Sora found that he was gone.

Where did he go? Sora thought surprised, but then there was a large rumbling noise. Sora looked up through a small hole in the roof to see the sky had darkened considerably with clouds.

"A storm?" Sora wondered, no one was expecting one, and then something else hit him, "The raft! I have to bring it ashore, or it'll wash away!"

Panicking, Sora ran for the cave mouth, not stopping to ponder on the keyhole that had suddenly appeared on the door. As soon as he scrambled from under the roots of the tree, Sora discovered something that drove all thought of the raft from his mind.

Up in the sky, high above the small inslet where Sora was sitting not but an hour before on the poupu tree, was a dark orb. Sora didn't know what else to call it. There was something foreboding about it. Something that spoke of his deepest fears, his darkest secrets, and the end of all things to come.

But as fixated on the orb as he was, he still detected movement on the inslet out of the corner of his eye. Standing there, looking up into the deep recesses of the monstrous circlet of dark energies, was Riku.

"Riku, what are you doing?" Sora didn't know what was going on, but he knew that it was wrong, he felt it in his gut, "Get away from-!"Something cut him off, attacking him. Holding his injured and bleeding cheek again in as many days, Sora stared at the thing that attacked him, and its allies rising up from the ground from the darkness, like shadows.

Sora didn't remember much from his dream, but he remembered these things. The small, jet-black, and cat-like creature that made sniffing motions towards him, with its oversized antennae, moon-colored eyes staring in all directions, blindly. These creatures...if they were here than did that mean he was still dreaming? He tried to summon his sword, like he did when he first obtained it, and...nothing happened. Then did that mean that it wasn't a dream? Sora gowled and pulled out his boken.

He knew he made a promise, but it wasn't like he had any choice now. Sora tried to swing at the creatures, but to no avail. All he got for his trouble was scratches and frustration. Hating to run from a fight, but knowing he had, again no other choice, Sora tried to run. Fearing he would be overtaken, Sora looked back only to find that the creatures, whatever they were, could not keep up, even with their oversized feet flailing and bending in impossible directions.

Finally catching up to Riku, Sora tried another attempt at talking to him, but Sora was interrupted again, this time by Riku, "The door...has opened, Sora."

"What do you mean, Riku? Can't you feel that this whole thing is wrong? We got to get somewhere else!"

Turning towards Sora, he could tell Riku was, of all things, estatic, "We are going somewhere else, Sora! Don't you get it? With the door opening, we'll be able to go see other worlds!"

"The door," Sora echoed quietly, suddenly he felt as though all these years of curiousity were finally coming to bite him on the ass.

"Once we step through," Riku spoke, staring up into the abyss with shining eyes, "We may never see home or our loved ones again, but this is our only chance, and we can't let fear stop us!"

"Riku...," Sora began, but couldn't finish because his throat had tightened with fear.

"Sora," Riku said, holding out his hand in invitation, and Sora had another flash from his dream. Riku was in this pose, exactly like this. The hand, the chilling smile, and there was a tsunami coming to crash down on both of them. Sora was running, calling out to Riku, to rescue him, but the wave blew him away.

Riku's next words snapped him out of his reverie, "Don't be afraid of the darkness."

With that, Sora tried to run to him. The dream will not come true, Sora promised himself, but was stopped short by a portal of darkness opening under his feet. But Sora wouldn't give up, not now! He tried to fight against the current, but the waves of darkness creeping up his body like the tentacles of an octupus. If Riku noticed the grasping tendrils, he didn't show it, but continued to hold out his hand, with a distant smile on his face.

But with a final wave of darkness, Sora was swallowed up by the darkness.

Fighting back tears and the feeling of failure, Sora continued to fight against the darkness, but found that he had nothing to fight. He was simply floating in the dark abyss, unable to see, hear, smell, or even touch anything. For the first time in a long time, Sora was afraid, and that angered him. There was no need to be scared of this darkness, he would find his way out, and-

A bright light shone through the murky blackness, blinding Sora, and suddenly he could hear the sound of waves, feel the ground as he fell on his ass, and taste the bittersweet scent of darkness. When he could see again, Riku was gone. The tears that Sora was holding in flowed bitterly down his face. He had failed to protect his friend.

He then realized there was something heavy in his hand, looking down he saw...a key?

It was huge, just large enough to be a weapon...recalling his dream, Sora remembered a weapon of the same length and weight.

It wasn't a dream was it? Sora thought, and the voice of a young boy once more filled his thoughts: "Keyblade...Keyblade..."

"But that would mean...," Sora recalled in his...dream that Kairi was in it as well. He was falling into the ocean, staring up at Kairi as she faded away.

"No!" Sora exclaimed and tried to stand up, but one of the creatures came up suddenly and attacked him. Parrying by reflex alone, the creature dissolved into a dark, smoke-like substance as his new weapon went through it.

I can fight back, Sora thought as he got up to face more of the monsters, I CAN FIGHT BACK!

Sora flew through the creatures in a blind rage, the murky darkness that was the creatures only legacy only made it harder to see. With no sense of direction, Sora took a step forward, and felt his stomach fall out from under him as he fell from the bridge into the ocean separating the inslet and the island. Standing up in the shallow water, Sora swung wildly three times before realizing that the shadowy beings wouldn't, or couldn't follow him into the water.

A weakness, Sora smirked, I can exploit that. Running along the shoreline, Sora heded for the piers, hoping, praying that Kairi was not on the island. But as he stared at the moored boats, he felt his heart fall as he realized that they were all here. Avoiding the creatures with ease, only swinging his blade when a monster got in his way, Sora ran all over the island, searching for Kairi, but couldn't find her anywhere.

Finally, Sora found himself standing at the entrance of the Secret Place, but found that there was now a huge set of double doors blocking his path. He recognized this specific pair of doors, too, from his dream, even the smallest details of the stained glass windows. Gritting his teeth, he reached up to open the door, but heard the telltale sound of the creatures appearing out of the shadows. Jumping into the pool of water nerby that was fed by a small watefall spring, Sora readied his Keyblade for a battle against the lineup of enemies before him, but didn't expect the sharp sting of pain from behind.

Gritting his teeth, he saw that the creatures could stand in the pool with their heads barely above the water level. That's why they didn't try to follow me into the ocean, Sora realized, they must need air to survive, and I'm guessing that they can't swim.

The number of enemies was almost too much to bear, but he soon stood once more before the door, scratched and bloody. He took a moment to knock back a Potion, feeling the restorative drink knit his skin back together and wash away his fatigue. Wiping his mouth and thowing the empty bottle to the ground somewhere to his left, he boldly opened the doors and strode into the darkness of the cavern.

Once he could stand up, Sora felt something like alarm in his heart, growing stronger with each step he took. Finally back in the room where this had all started, Sora saw Kairi standing, almost slumping, in front of the door.

"Kairi?" Sora called, concerned.

The young woman turned slowly to his voice, her eyes dull and glazed over, "Sora...?" She said, raising her hand in an detatched manner.

Suddenly the door flung open, and a wave of darkness, much stronger than the one that kept him from reaching Riku, flung Kairi into him and then he was blown away himself.

Waking up from unconsciousness, Sora found that he was on the edge of a cliff that opened up into nothingness.

Crying out, Sora scrambled away from the brink, only to find that he was sitting on what was the left of the beach. There's nothing left, a small, calm voice in his mind came piercing through his panicked state, there's nothing left of my world but this shard. Sora had never felt so small in his life.

There was a quake, Sora turned, thinking that another chunk had been sucked away into the orb of darkness, but saw that it was something much, much worse. The giant creature that had been summoned from is shadow was here. The size of a two-story building, the monster possessed a physique that would make gold medal athletes jealous, two wings, disportionate to the massive size of the creature were flared up, like winds of a demented imp attached to a minotaur. Twin moonlit eyes glared at Sora through strands of dark matter that formed its hair, which shifted and floated in an ethereal manner. Sora could see the orb floating behind the creature through the heart-shaped hole that stared in its chest and ended right above where its nether regions should have been.

Sora summoned his new wepon and got ready for the grueling fight to come. Sure enough, the monster cocked its fist and swung at Sora-who dodged such an obvious, and time-consuming strike-which had opened up a pool of swirling darkness that would no doubt summon more of its smaller buddies. In his dream, Sora had swung at the creatures humongous hands and barely defeated it. This time he charged up the thing's arm to its head and let loose.

With a mighty scream, the creature reared back, making Sora loose his balance.

The small moons glared at Sora and growled though the strands of hair that wrapped around the lower half of its face. Reaching up to the abyss, the creature grabbed some of it and released the energy into the air to float down to Sora.

Sora didn't know what the thing had done, but he didn't think it was a good idea to let those small orbs touch him. The creature then kneeled down as Sora kept moving around to avoid the orbs. Dark energy swirled within the hollow of the monster's chest, and Sora instantly knew what it was about to do.

That little sparring session in the dream is really starting to pay off, Sora smiled, as he swung his blade to deflect the five projectiles that came out of it's chest into it's face, so far the only new trick this thing has had was that dark orb thing.

The creature let out two more salvos, one of five projectiles and another of seven, before it decided that firing them at Sora was a waste of time. It got up and growled as it cocked back its fist again. Sora dodged deftly again and use the same trick again, swinging his Keyblade at its head.

As it shook him off, he taunted, "How's that? You done, or you want some more?"

Landing on what was left of his islands, Sora felt somewhat lighter, almost weightless. The large creature started making a strange huffing noise. As he continued to listen, Sora ealized the thing was laughing.

"What? What's so funny?" he took a challenging step forward. Or at least, he tried to, what he ended up doing was sprawling forward two feet. It was then he realized that he just didn't feel lighter, he was lighter! The dark orb was sucking the rest of the islands into itself. Sora scrambled for what was left of the pier, grabbing ahold of it just as the creature was lifted up into the orb. Sora tried to hold on, not wanting to leave the islands, even though there was nothing left but this small shard, prefering it to the darkness above him. But the windshear eventually got the better of him and with several explixitives, Sora was shoved into the unknown.

Criticism is highly approved and appreciated. Anything that can be use to increase the quality of this work is loved to death.

Please flame nicely, this may not be my first fanfic ever written, but it is my first published.

BTW, boken = wooden sword

Catch ya later!