Chapter 1

"Urrgh."

Sora groaned as a beam of light shown through the window on his face, waking him up. Comfortable, he tried to bury his face in the pillows. …Wait…we didn't bring pillows on the raft, did we?

The raft...

The storm!

"Riku! Kairi!" Sora said as he shot up out of bed, his body tumbling from the soft mattress, quickly standing, his eyes scanned the room for his friends, his mind calming after spotting them in a pair of neighboring beds. Asleep, like he had been.

Sora tried to go over to them, but his legs were tangled in the sheets and he crashed onto the floor with a loud groan, the commotion causing the others to stir.

"…Wha? Sora? What did you-where are we?" Riku asked as he noticed the unfamiliar room they were in, his features going from confused to guarded in seconds. Kairi, slowly pulled herself from the sheets, far more graceful than Sora's exit.

"Beats me, the last thing I remember is being underwater during that crazy storm, then I woke up... here, where ever this is." Sora replied as he began to take in the room as he got back up.

Kairi looked thoughtful for a moment, "Maybe someone saved us and brought us here to recover?" she said, a finger to her chin as she wandered close to a painting on the wall.

Riku nodded, "That would be my guess. No chains, no locks and no guards means we're not prisoners, or our kidnappers need practice. Come on, let's see if anyone's around." he said, pointing to an old wooden staircase

With silent nods, Sora and Kairi followed Riku, who had taken the lead, downstairs, into a room that looked like it was being renovated. Large boxes lined one side of the room, sheets covering odd furniture and desks on the other.

"Oh, you're up!" Startled, the trio whirled around to see a young woman with black hair and a mischievous smirk back from at the top of the stairs where they just came. The woman had appeared when they're had only been one entrance in and out.

"Who are you?" Riku demanded sharply. Yuffie waved him off as she walked past them on the stairs.

"I am the Great Ninja, Yuffie." The woman proclaimed before turning her head to a nearby door, "Hey Squall, Aerith. Our guests are awake." she shouted cheerfully.

"It's Leon." stated a serious looking man with a scar across his face as he walked in, Sora stared unabashed at the scar until Kairi nudged him, he rubbed the back of head with a grin.

"I was wondering when you guys would wake up, I suppose you want to know what happened, right? What do you remember?" he asked, no emotion in his voice. Riku stepped forward and was about to answer, but Sora beat him to it.

"We were on our raft, trying to sail to a new world when a freaky storm hit. A giant wave smashed our raft and we were pulled underwater." Sora answered, scratching his head as he thought back to the storm's sudden appearance.

Yuffie smiled, "Well, congratulations. You made it to one. Welcome to Traverse Town, Unfortunately, you won't be able to go back." she said apologetically as she sat on a table.

"What!?"

"Are you serious?"

"How can that be?"

The trio said at the same time.

"Yuffie." Scolded a young woman with brown hair wearing a pink dress before she addressed the islanders, "That storm you were caught in was caused by creatures known as Heartless…"

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"So what you're saying is that our world, our family and friends, were consumed by living embodiments of the darkness in people's heart, and that we got lucky. Oh, and Sora is apparently the wielder of a legendary weapon that is the only way of stopping these Heartless?" Riku asked, his tone reaching new levels of incredulity at each word.

"Yep. That's it exactly." Yuffie cheerfully replied.

Riku began rubbing his temples, "…Well, this is great."

"Well, look at it this way Riku, we made it to another world." Sora weakly grinned at his friend.

"And our world is apparently gone, Sora." Riku snapped back. Sora took a step back, before his face puffed up and he opened his mouth to argue.

"Guys, calm down. Fighting isn't going to help anyone." The pair stopped as Kairi stepped between them, they shot looks at each other, promising this would continue later, Kairi turned to Yuffie.

"Is there anything that can be done to restore our world?" she asked, her voice carrying a touch of pleading. Yuffie looked at Leon, who shrugged, and then nodded at Aerith. Aerith, a woman who made all three of the Destiny Island inhabitants feel completely at ease, her manner and person seem to emit a mysterious, but trusting aura.

"Well, if anyone knew it would be Ansem. He was studying the Heartless, and compiled a very detailed report. Unfortunately, his world was one of the first to be consumed. Ansem hasn't been seen since, and his report was scattered across the worlds." Aerith explained.

Seeing the trio's downcast faces, Yuffie spoke up, "It's not completely hopeless. A King named Mickey is believed to be searching for the reports. If he finds them, maybe you can find a way to restore the lost worlds."

"And speaking of the King, he assigned a pair named Donald and Goofy to look for you, or at least the Keyblade. They actually left to search another world not long before you arrived. Once they get back you can probably go with them. Try to find a way to stop the Heartless." Leon added.

"Well, when will they get back?" Sora asked, excitement at hearing new worlds perking his posture up.

"In a week or so, they planned to search a world or two and then come back to see if the Keyblade turned up here." Aerith answered.

"Which means," Leon stated as he moved from his position against the wall, "We have one week to make sure you're ready to fight and there's plenty to practice on right here in Traverse Town."

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"Gah!" Sora grunted as he hit the ground again with a roll.

After learning Sora and Riku's combat experience was limited to spars against each other and other kids with sticks and that Kairi was one of the few that hadn't participated at all, Leon had seemed even more irritated than he originally appeared.

He passed Kairi off to Aerith, his reason that he didn't have time for the absolute basics, before leading the two boys to an underground waterway. Once there he passed them a pair of practice weapons and attacked. Neither of the boys lasted very long, even when they started really working together, though Sora begrudgingly acknowledged that Riku did usually last longer than he did.

The sessions never lasted long, the odd effect of, no matter what weapon Sora picked up, if he got too absorbed into the fight, his Keyblade flashed in and replaced it, usually forcing Sora to drop his practice weapon

This particular session, It only took a few more strikes and Riku was disarmed, but instead of returning their weapons and continuing, Leon put aside his weapon, "You two are going to need a lot of work. But it's late, and Aerith and Yuffie should be finishing up with your friend."

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The next day, Leon took them to the First District with Riku and Kairi to get them a sword and quarterstaff. Unlike Sora, they didn't have the luxury of not getting use to not carrying a weapon at all times.

Once they got back, Leon began to drill the boys on how to properly wield a sword while Kairi continued to learn how to use a staff with Aerith. The woman was determined to drive Kairi to excel in leaps and bounds, the two seemed to be the perfect master and student. They also encountered their first Heartless when Sora was practicing with his Keyblade properly, to see the difference between it and his practice blade.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Ah, I see I was correct when I thought that the 'Key' had arrived while I was gone." Sora almost choked on his breakfast when a puff of smoke suddenly poofed into existence and then dispersed, revealing an elderly man with a long white beard and blue robes.

Aerith clapped her hands together and smiled, "Ah, Merlin. You're just in time. I was planning to see if they could use magic today."

"No need to worry about that my dear, I'll have them casting like they were born to do it in no time." Merlin chuckled, then he opened his bag and things began to happen.

Sora would always remember today as the day Riku got into a fight with a sugar bowl and lost.