CHAPTER II

Gotta Love It

(NOTE)

Okay, I promise this chapter will be more eventful than the last one, I promise. XDD So, disclaimer. I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters, I don't even own one of the Ocs. I do, however, own a really cool new backpack for school tomorrow. Oh yes, be jealous. ;D

(/NOTE)

"They Keyblade Wars," the brunet boy started, glancing up at everybody, "are usually just like a war themselves; side versus side. This one, on the other hand, is different. Every year, a handful of new keyblade wielders are chosen, most of which die after the first couple weeks," this earned the boy a shocked look out of Charity, "but chosen nonetheless. Every one hundred years during the blue hour of the first day of July, many keyblade wielders are chosen instead of the select few. Because of this—"

Tifa's eyes narrowed, "Quince..."

"...Because of this," the boy went on, "The natural balance of dark and light inside of the keyblade wielders is broken. The keyblades react, choosing a side of either dark or light for the wielders, and one side will try to eliminate the other in hopes to shower the world in eternal light or eternal darkness."

"Quince, don't freak them out like that, it's not as dramatic as you're making it seem." Sora warned him. Sora had changed a lot himself; his hair had grown darker, and a bit longer. He was almost Riku's height at this point, and his body was finally starting to fit his head.

"If you tell them anything less, they'll expect less." the boy mentioned, shrugging. Despite his intimidating demeanor, he seemed very carefree and outspoken. "May as well make them expect more so if it's less it'll be easier on them, right?"

"Honestly, er... Quince?" asked Charity, and he turned to her, "You're scaring me."

Quince made a small bow, and Nessa laughed.

"Nessa, you shouldn't have even come," Cloud said sternly, "This Keyblade War is going to be a lot different than the rest; a lot more dangerous. If you don't have a keyblade to defend yourself, you may as well just die on the spot."

"That was... happy." Nessa murmured.

"That's okay, Nessa, was it? You can borrow my keyblade anytime."

"Quince!" Kairi shouted at him. "Honestly, why are we letting him stay here?" asked Kairi to Sora, who shrugged.

"I don't see anything wrong with him." Sora replied back. Kairi shook her head.

"So what are the new keyblade wielders going to do 'shower the world in light and dark'?" asked Charity, the arm around Riku tensing up a little bit.

"The Dark keyblade wielders, the ones that already accepted darkness into their hearts, are unlocking all of the worlds so they can be swallowed in darkness." Leon explained. "And in response, the Light keyblade wielders are—"

"Hurdling the worlds at the sun." Quince finished, sitting down next to Nessa.

Leon just looked at him, while Nessa stared at him with open eyes.

"In a way, actually, they are." Aerith said sadly, "Not in that way, though. They're using a light spell that had been first attempted last year to blind the worlds of any and all darkness. The only problem with that is with too much exposure to light, a world can fade. Worlds need balance."

Charity looked down at her hands; her keyblade was called the Savior of Balance. Was this what her Awakening was telling her? That she had to resurrect the balance in the worlds?

"Your job, however, isn't to go seal the worlds again." said Leon.

At this, the rest of them jumped.

"We've been thinking about this a lot," Leon told them, "and we've come to realize that the Keyblade War will be a never ending cycle; the Dark wielders and the Light wielders will just keep fighting at it. What you need to do is find something for us."

Aerith continued for him, "In each world, there's a part of a new keyblade that was destroyed at the beginning of the war earlier this month. Each army is guarding it with their life, one part of the keyblade in every world. If you can get this keyblade, you need to unseal Kingdom Hearts."

Sora stood up at this, "What do you mean?!"

"It's not what you think," Tifa started, "Unsealing Kingdom Hearts with that keyblade will cause a reaction and destroy all of the dark and light biased keyblades created this year. But you have to do it before the Blue Hour on August 30th."

"The Blue Hour?" asked Charity.

"The perfect inbetween of the dark and the light when the sky outside is a deep blue. Right inbetween dark and light, kind of like your Savior of Balance."

Just the words 'Savior of Balance' triggered enough in Charity's mind for her keyblade to appear in her right hands. Even after a year she was so used to this happening suddenly, and did not jump when her hand became a couple pounds heavier.

"Why did I get the Savior of Balance?" Charity asked Aerith.

Aerith shook her head, "We don't know how the keyblade wielders are chosen. I'm sorry." she truly looked it.

"So..." Charity looked up and smiled, "I guess we're on another journey again!" Everyone in the room but Leon, Cloud and Quince cheered.

"Splendid!" came a booming voice from down the hallway. Author's Note: Please picture Darth Vader's theme song coming on.

"Oh no," said Nessa, "no, no, no..." she mumbled, getting out of her chair and hiding behind Quince.

"Since you all are going on such a long journey, I brought a few things for it!" Merlin shouted, as he dragged in a crate full of food and random objects. It took a while for everyone in the group to realize that Merlin was wearing a strapless, blue dress and Sora's shoes.

"Hey!" shouted Sora.

"Wait... how are we supposed to carry all that?" asked Charity, "And is this your clever way of telling us that we can't come back to rob meals from Aerith anymore?"

Without answering the second part of the question, Merlin pulled out his wand and a backpack out of seemingly nowhere. "Like this!" he shouted, and pointed his wand at the objects, dancing around wildly. "Higitus figitus zumbabazing, I want your attention ev'rything! We're packing to leave, come on, let's go! Books are always the first, you know! Hockety pockety, wockety wack—"

"AGAIN WITH THE HOT POCKETS?" asked Nessa, scared out of her mind.

"— Abracabra dabra nack! Shrink in size very small, we've got to save enough room for all! Higitus figitus migitus mum, pres-ti-dig-i-ton-i-um! Cicero, you belong in the 'C's', alphabetical order, please! Ali-i-ca-fez bal-a-ca-zez, malacamez meripides!"

"MERLIN!" shouted Cloud, "That's enough!" The floating objects that were now shrinking. Quince decided to use this for target practice, and whipped out two keyblades, hitting the objects in the air. It was almost as if the objects were in pain.

"Your bra's showing." Quince said, simply to see if Merlin would look.

"Merlin, go back to bed." came the voice of a girl, walking into the room. She had long, green-dyed hair and equally green eyes. A sparkling smile of hers filled the room, and she carried a pink and brown keyblade in her left hand. "Sorry I'm late," she said, closing the door, "the Heartless out there are terrible today."

"Uh... hi." Charity said, a bit confused.

"You must be Charity!" she said sweetly, "I heard a lot about you. My name's May. I'm going with you to find the pieces of Blue Hour."

"She... insisted." Aerith said as nicely as possible.

"Anything to help." she replied sweetly.

xxxxx

"That certainly was... odd." Nessa complained as they waited in the familiar Gummi Ship, "Where did Cid say the first world was?"

"Hula Island." Sora replied. He felt quite stupid answering that.

"Never been there." Kairi said, excitedly. "I can't get over how much you've grown!" she said to both Nessa and Charity.

"Not as much as you," Charity mentioned back, "I guess one year apart can do a lot to some people." she looked over at Riku.

"You're telling me." Kairi mumbled.

"How do we land this thing again?" called Sora from the cockpit.

"God damn." Riku complained, rushing to go help him.

xxxxx

"Shaky landing, but not bad I think!" Sora said proudly, stepping out of the Gummi Ship unharmed.

"Not bad?" asked Charity, "Nessa sprained her ankle! Quince had to use Curaga on her for pete's sake."

"Pete's here?" asked Sora, worried. Charity put her hand to her forehead at least three times before putting her hands together and looking Sora in the eye.

"No. Pete is not— okay, fine. Pete's here."

"Where?!" asked Sora, looking around like a hamster.

"I think you didn't get enough summer vacation." Riku suggested to Charity. Charity nodded slightly, looking back up at him.

Suddenly it was as if Charity felt that she was back at Hollow Bastion with everybody, right at the beginning of their first journey. Leander and Anton were both still there, and Nessa was with the Organization.

"I wonder where the part is." May thought aloud.

"Knowing my luck, it's probably underwater." Charity mumbled, as they walked over to the ocean part of the beach they had landed on. It was a place in which tourists could have been flocking had it not been for Shadows being around every corner.

"Actually," May said, looking over the horizon, "I might know."

As she led the keyblade wielders and Nessa farther down, Charity noticed something odd, and it wasn't the fact that a small, blue dog-like creature had tackled Sora.

"Stitch!" he laughed, "What are you doing here?" Apparently Stitch had been somebody that he met on his journeys.

"Lilo!" he managed to blurt out, pointing behind him.

A little girl who couldn't have been much older than five years old ran up to him, yelling for him. "Sorry, he always gets ahead of me."

"That's okay," Sora mentioned, "We're friends. Er... but, doesn't he usually have more arms than that?"

Lilo's eyes widened, "You know? Don't tell anybody."

"This is just a little weird." Charity mumbled to Nessa.

Suddenly, May got an odd look on her face. "Hey, Charity, I was wondering, could you teach me how you do that specialty light spell of yours?" she asked.

Charity was flattered, "Sure. I had no idea that other people know about it."

"You have no idea." she mumbled. Charity took May to the side.

"I don't have a really good feeling about that girl." Riku muttered.

"Actually, neither do I." Quince told her, "I guess we have to deal with it."

"So, what do you need to learn about it?" asked Charity, when they were far enough out of sight for May's liking. She sure had a weird taste in her surroundings when she learned a new technique.

"Well, sort of... how to surprise the enemy with it." Her lips curled into a smile, "Look up."

xxxxx

"They've been gone for a while." complained Sora.

"If you need me to help you find them," offered the strange Hawaiian little girl, "I know every part of this area of the island. Except lately all these weird people with black and white keys are running around."

"Where are they, mostly?" asked Riku to Lilo.

"Well, they're mostly over where those two girls went." she said, holding Stitch back from attacking a small butterfly.

"They're—?" Riku's eyes widened to an extent they never had before, "I knew there was something wrong about that girl!"

After running in the same general direction for a long time, they finally came upon May, who was standing on her own in the middle of the field, grinning.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" asked Kairi, as Destiny Blade flashed into her hands.

"Just following orders." she said innocently.

"Do you work for the Light wielders?" asked Riku, very upset at this point, "I want answers!" he shouted at her.

"Surprisingly... no." Her pink and brown keyblade suddenly slipped its guise right off, to reveal a pitch black keyblade, "I belong with the Dark wielders."

Without thinking, Riku jumped at May with his keyblade. As if she had carried a keyblade years before he even knew they existed, she spun around and knocked his keyblade out of place, jamming hers into his gut. As Riku lay on the floor, he felt something burning up inside of him— something he hadn't felt in at least two years. He was not in pain, no, far from it. He was enjoying this feeling. Looking up at May as his Way to Dawn appeared in his hands, he swiftly hit the girl, and she fell to the floor.

"Riku! What's wrong with you?" came Kairi's voice.

Riku calmed down slightly, shaking his head, "It's nothing. Nothing." he said, trying to convince himself more than anyone around him.

May smiled despite her hard blow, "That's what falling into the darkness twice can do. It gets to you." she said in a sugar sweet voice, pointing to her head.

"Yes, it can." Charity's voice pierced, stabbing May with her keyblade in the back. Before she could say anything, May fell to the ground. She was either paralyzed or in shock, but nonetheless, the group decided it was time to go.

"What's going on?" asked Lilo, who finally caught up to them.

"N-nothing, sweetie." Nessa reassured her.

"Do you all need to come inside?" she asked, pointing in the direction to her house, "you look like you've got something that my sister calls 'hysteria'."

"What a sweet child." Charity mumbled. They followed her out of the field, and Riku began to whisper to her.

"How did you escape?" he asked her.

"They weren't very bright. I just knocked a couple of them around a little bit, and grabbed this." she mumbled, holding out half of what looked to be a keyblade handle. It was beautiful, almost as if it was made of opal.

"I love you." Riku laughed, kissing her on the head.

"Ew." Lilo mumbled, looking back at them.

Author's Note: This is my shortest chapter in a long time, and I'm sorry, but I couldn't think of a good place to end it. X.x; I've got a great idea for the next chapter, though, and I suppose I'm rushing to it. XD See you next chapter.