DISCALIMER: I DO NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS, OR ANY APPEARING FINAL FANTASY OR DISNEY CHARACTERS

Kingdom Hearts

Door to Awakening

Chapter 2:

Re:turn of Darkness

Ress hated doing paperwork. He felt it was a waste of time, and it took away from human interaction. If people simply met face-to-face in issues, a lot of problems would be solved. He gave a sigh and began signing away on papers anyways, knowing it was his duty to get these things done. The town's sewer system was acting up lately, so he had to officially sign a petition t get it fixed. Again…he hated paperwork. Maybe he would do away with it. It was his decision, after all. Ress was interrupted from his thoughts by three sudden knocks at the door. He glanced up at it, wondering who it could be for a moment. He figured it was another guard or townsperson asking about something, so, giving a sigh to prepare himself, went back to his paperwork, and called out a quick, "Come in."

A few moments later, he heard the door click open, and saw a swing of the brown wood in is peripheral vision. In stepped two persons, each dressed a little odd for his world. The shapes looked familiar though. Ress finally looked up, and a smile quickly grew across his cheeks. "Noa, Elwing!" Ress stood up from his chair at his desk excitedly, and opened his arms out in astonishment and joy. "My two favorite Keybladers! How are you two doing?" he asked, as giddy as a small child given a candy bar.

Noa couldn't help it. Seeing this man smiling made you smile. He was trying to keep a professional composure, but couldn't help it, and smiled back. Before responding, he quickly remembered the etiquette, and gave a deep bow of respect to the world's ruler, as did Elwing in suit. After standing back erect after the gesture, Noa's smile grew again. "It's a great pleasure and honor to see you again, Ress. I wish our meeting could have been under less dire needs."

Ress' smile fell, and a look of confusion crossed his brow. "Then I take it this is not a meeting among friends?" he guessed. Quickly noticing the two were still standing, he gestured to the two chairs facing his desk. "Please, sit."

Noa glanced to Elwing and nodded, and the two took their seats. "Unfortunately, no," Noa answered. "This is a meeting between Keybladers and the Ruler of a world in trouble."

Ress' eyes widened in surprise. "'A world in trouble'? Is Radiant Garden in danger?" His eyes fell to his desk in shame. "How could I have not noticed this…"

Elwing quickly leaned forwards slightly, a look of concern across her face. "Don't blame yourself for this, Ress. You couldn't have known." She glanced at Noa, who gave a nod as the go-ahead for her to explain. Leaning back into her chair, Elwing gave a clear of her throat and began, "We've been noticing a greater collection of Heartless ships hovering around the Radiant Garden's airspace. For some reason, they're being attracted to something on this world. We're not sure of what yet, but that's what we're here to find out. Now, Radiant Garden's Keyhole has been sealed, but…" Elwing trailed off, unable to finish the explanation.

Ress looked up, now even more concerned. "But..?"

Noa looked at Elwing, who shook her head slightly. He sighed, and looked Ress in the eyes, telling him the hard truth. "We have reason to believe that the Heartless have found a way to reopen the pathway to a world's heart. It seems as if the old locks are, well…beginning to wear off. Or maybe they're getting stronger. Either way, worlds once thought safe forever are now in danger again. We're here to stop this thing before it starts all over again." Noa eyes narrowed in anger. Not at anyone specifically, but at the damned Heartless and all the trouble they cause. "I swear to you, Ress, I will do everything in my power to prevent your world from destruction!"

Elwing quickly glanced at Noa, a deep respect pouring from her heart. Noa always became so emotional about this type of stuff. Maybe it was because his home world was destroyed by the Heartless. Maybe it was just his strong heart and the desire to rid evil. Maybe it was that rather than skill with a weapon that made him a great Keyblader, the best anyone had seen in ages. 'Oh, Noa…'

Ress' expression lightened some, and a small smile crept onto his lips. He slunk back into his chair, feeling a small weight being lifted off his shoulders. He knew he could trust these two with all his [heart]. Giving a sigh of relief, Ress whispered, "Thank you, both of you. Radiant Garden and I owe you a great deal of gratitude." He gave a small bow with his head in appreciation.

Noa's face turned red with embarrassment. The Ruler of a world shouldn't give this much gratitude to low-class people like him, he thought. Nodded to Ely, they stood up and each gave a deep bow of respect to Ress, each mumbling the traditional, "Thank you, Ress Ahtel." Ress dismissed them, and Noa reached for the door, holding it open as Elwing walked through. Noa followed, closing the door behind him. As they walked through the corridors of the castle, heading towards the entrance, Noa breathed a sigh of relief. "Glad to get that out of the way. I love being around Ress as much as anyone else does, but…someone with that much power just makes me feel…I don't know, out of place. Uncomfortable. Don't you?" he asked, turning his head towards Ely.

Ely simply gave a shrug. "Not really. I love being around him. I don't let things like status get in the way. Besides, he only has as much power as the people give him. We're the ones with the real power!" she said jokingly, smirking at the thought. A small daydream crept into her head of her beating Ress in the head with her keyblade. It made her giggle at the thought.

Noa's eyes, however, widened in shock. "Don't say stuff like that! Especially around here! If people heard you, they might—"

"They might what? Tell Ress?" Elwing interrupted, still smiling. "I'm sure he'd get a kick out of it!" She looked back up at a still worried Noa. Letting out a sigh, she placed a hand on his shoulder. "You've gotta calm down, Noa. Stop being such a worry-wart! Loosen up a bit, have fun!"

Noa's face reddened in embarrassment. He gave a sigh and looked forwards, his stoic "leader face" on. "I'll 'loosen up' when we get this mission over with! But right now, we're here on business, not to fool around! An entire world is in danger of the darkness, Elwing. Show at least a little respect…"

Ely's face fell, and soon turned to annoyance. "Fine…crybaby…"

Noa simply sighed at her immaturity…

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Once outside, Noa and Ely took a rest just outside the castle walls. Ely gave herself a boost, and sat on the tall rock wall ledge that was around the castle. Swinging her legs, she looked, for once, at eye-level to Noa. "What's next, then?"

Noa smirked and reached into a chest pocket on the inside of his coat. "This." He pulled out a hand-sized electronic device that had only a few buttons, and a large screen. On the tiny space above the screen was the Heart insignia with a small crown above it, the symbol of the Keybladers. "The HT700, or simply The H Tracker, the "h" of course standing for Heartless. Newest model out, top of the line! I got it from the Master just before we left!" Noa said, smiling in pride at the newest piece of technology, his other hobby. He became even more proud of it as Ely stared at it, wide-eyed, letting out an "Ooooooooh!" of interest. Noa tapped the touchscreen for it to turn on. "This tiny thing sends out a huge signal for about 100 miles in each direction, and anything that has a Darkness Reading will bounce the signal back. This thing even has an almost-complete Heartless database! It should help us track down the source of darkness around here attracting all the Heartless."

Ely gave a small laugh. "Wow, if this thing could wield a keyblade, we'd be out of the business!" she joked. She was happy to see Noa laugh at one of her jokes, for once. She laughed again at his remark of, "Don't give them the idea!"

Noa selected "Radiant Garden" from the World List on the HT, and then hit "Pulse" on the screen. With a continuous beeping radar noise, the HT began sending out the signal. The seconds, then minutes began to pass, and Noa's brow slowly became more confused and concerned. Nothing was coming up. Why? Was this thing busted? Something attracting that many Heartless should surely show up! Maybe it was gone already…No, then the Heartless would have followed it…right? Noa gave a growl of anger and turned the HT off, shoving it back into his pocket. "Damned thing…"

Ely, too, became concerned. "What is it? Not working?"

"No, it's working," Noa replied. "The problem is it's not showing anything. Besides the normal amounts of bits of darkness in the people, there's nothing showing up as pure darkness. Nothing big enough to attract Heartless like that…that's what concerns me. I thought maybe it had come and left, but—"

"But that would mean the Heartless should have left, too…" Ely figured. Noa nodded in response. She sighed, and leapt down from the wall. "Well, we better get busy, then."

Noa looked at her confused. "Busy?" He watched as she started to walk down the steps leading to the castle towards the Town. She looked back at him for a few brief moments.

"You're not giving up just because that little plastic box told you nothing was here, are you?" She saw Noa getting a bit embarrassed and started to stammer. She quickly smiled and interrupted him. "I'm going to go ask around. Maybe the townspeople can tell us something. Something we've missed."

"Oh, yes…right…" With a cough to clear his embarrassment, he began to follow Ely towards the Town.

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While on the trail leading into the town, both Noa and Elwing's stomachs began to growl from slight hunger pains. They both glanced at each other and smirked at the incident. Noa then decided to kill two birds with one stone, and said that their first stop would be at a restaurant they would frequently visit. They had begun to befriend the owner of the small tavern over their stops to the Garden, and he had become a useful source of information…and egg buns.

When they arrived into the Town, the familiar and quite simple sign of "Food" came into sight. Again, as if in planned unison, their stomach's growled. Picking up their pace a bit, Noa and Ely arrived at the tavern, opening the creaky wooden door. As they stepped inside the old, musty place, they first noticed it was almost empty, besides one or two random people at tables far from each other, a waitress cleaning the tables, and the owner standing behind the cash register and bar at the end of the far wall. The large, middle-aged, balding man looked up, getting ready for the usual greeting, but his glum face quickly lit up when he saw who had walked in.

"Hey, hey! If it isn't my two favorite customers again!" the man said in his old, gravelly voice.

Noa gave a smile and a small nod of his head in acknowledgement. "Sal, old friend. How's the business going?"

"Haha, well, I'm still open, aren't I?" His old grey eyes shifted down to Ely, and they grew wide and brighter. "Well, well, the little Elwing. Growing every time I see you!" The comment was followed by a perverted old laugh.

Ely's face grew deep red with embarrassment, and she quickly folded her arms across her chest and took a step closer to Noa. Noa was about to open his mouth in protest, but an equally old and large woman as Sal came out from the back, and gave a quick smack to the old man's bald head. With a grunt, Sal turned around to begin yelling, but quickly stopped when he realized it was his disgruntled wife.

"E-Elenor!" Sal stammered in a bit of fear.

"Don't be goin' around makin' those ol' perverted wise-cracks, ya hear me, Sal?!" Elenor said in her (in Noa's opinion) awful accent. She then turned to the two Keybladers and a big smile grew across her face. "Please, won'thca come 'n 'n sit down? I'll have these ol' sack o' dirt fix ya up somethin' quick!" She turned over her shoulder, and her demeanor changed back again. "Sal! Gives these two a good plate, will ya?! They look starved!" After all her raving, and another quick smile to the two, Elenor turned around and disappeared back into the back part of the store. Noa and Ely tried their hardest not to burst out laughing, and instead decided to sit down and wait.

Noa wanted to get the business out of the way, first, however. He pulled a chair out for Elwing and sat her down, then, after giving her a raised index finger for a "one minute" gesture, he walked over to the counter that separated the rest of the restaurant from Sal and the kitchen. Leaning over the counter on his elbows, Noa got a mischievous grin on his face before getting Sal's attention. "Hey, Sal."

Without turning around or missing a beat with his cooking, Sal threw a "Hey, Noa!" over his shoulder. After a few more moments of quick work, Sal took a deep breath and turned around from the cooking food, and rested his hands on the counter, a big smile on his chubby face. "What can I do for ya?"

Noa's smiling faded just slightly. "Well, unfortunately, we're here on business." He saw Sal get a bit confused and concerned. Noa leaned in closer, as did Sal, and whispered, "It looks like the Garden may be in a bit of trouble."

Sal's head turned to stare him straight in the eyes, a look of shock and horror on them. He glanced behind Noa in both directions, making sure the two locals weren't listening, and leaned back in, mumbling very low, "How much trouble..?"

Noa gave a small shrug as a response. "We're not sure. All we know is that there's a mass of Heartless floating around Radiant Garden, and we think something down here is attracting them here. Unfortunately, we can't find what that thing is. We think it might have left, but then the Heartless should have to," Noa explained.

Sal stared at the counter for a moment, deep in thought. An idea suddenly struck him, and he looked back up at Noa. "Or maybe whatever was here left something behind…"

Noa's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "I never thought about that…" Noa began thinking on the idea, but then remembered the readings he got, and quickly dismissed it. "No, it can' be…I used a darkness tracking device earlier, and got no abnormal readings. Nothing showed up."

Sal gave a small grunt of dissatisfaction, and lifted his hand to run it over his bald head. "Sorry, then, son…I'm all outta ideas," he said a few moments later, putting his hand back into its previous position.

Noa gave a small inward curse. He wasn't out of ideas yet, though. Leaning back in to whisper again, Noa asked, "What about people? Has anyone around here been acting strange lately? Or maybe someone new came into town? Anyone looking suspicious, or dark?" Noa probed.

Taking a few moments and letting out a long breath, Sal's eyes wandered over the ceiling above them, trying to remember the past few days and weeks. He slowly began to shake his head, then returned his gaze back to Noa. "Sorry, boy. Nothing I can remember." Just as Noa was about to give up and go back to sit down, Sal struck another thought. "Wait, now I remember! Yeah! About a week or so ago, I was sweepin' outside, when I noticed a really oddly-dressed man walking by. I didn't see his face, though, 'cause it was covered by a hood, see? Dressed all in black, too. He didn't say nutin', but he just gave me an empty feelin'…"

Noa's eyes shot as wide as they physically could. A cold chill ran through Noa, and he could almost feel his hands shaking. A black coat with a hood, a cold empty feeling around them…Noa reached into the side pocket of his pants pockets and brought out a small circular machine. Holding it between Sal and himself, and pressed a button on the side. A hologram of a figure popped up above the machine, and Noa shakily asked, "Does this look like him?"

Sal's eyes lit up. "Yeah, that's him! That's him all over, looked just like that! What, he a wanted man or somethin'?"

"Y-yeah…you could say that." Noa turned off the hologram and put it back in his pocket. If it was what Noa was sure it was, Radiant Garden was in a lot more trouble than he thought. Mustering a smile, Noa gave a thanks to Sal, then turned around and hurried back to the table Ely was waiting at. His legs feeling like jell-o, Noa quickly slunked into his chair, and put his head in his hands, almost rocking back and forth with fear and concern.

Elwing quickly noticed, and instantly became deadly concerned. She reached a hand out to touch Noa, and quietly whispered, "Noa? What's wrong..?"

Noa, hands shaking, looked up from the darkness of his cupped hands and looked straight into Ely's concerned eyes. Taking a deep breath, he finally whispered out his revelation. "…we're dealing with Thirteens…"

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Alright, so, there's Chapter 2! Again, a but short in length, I think, but it seems like a good place to stop.

I want to make a note that, in case anyone is wondering, no, this isn't the return of the Organization, and "The Thirteens" is not their name. Just to let you guys know, "Thirteens" are the names given to the humanoid Nobodies, named of course ofter Organization XIII. I had to give them a name somehow, and there it is.

So no more confusion. Chapter 3 will be up soon, but only if I start getting reviews. No reviews, no story!

Seriously, even 1 review will make me estatic. Alright, I'm done...Seeya next time!

-Grim