Chapter 2

Link

The faint sound of trumpets reached my ears, but they weren't joyous. They sounded panicked; it was an alarm. I quickly got up and looked towards Hyrule castle.
"That's funny... it looks okay."
"LINK!"
lowering my vision, I saw Pit. An angel I met, oh, 5 years ago? He hadn't aged one day. But his face was panicked and he was frantically waving his arms back and forth while running towards me. It reminded me of a flustered bird. He got to me and collapsed, huffing and puffing.
"Long time no see, Pit."
"Can't... talk... tired."
He wheezed for a few more minutes, and finally caught enough breath to speak.
"Zelda, kidnapped, again."

?

Dreams again... as always, it seems after 2 years of traveling abroad I still know nothing. Well, knowing nothing is better than being nothing, or having nothing.
All those "nothing"s suddenly reminded me of a year ago, the fight with the Nobodies of Organization XIII. It especially reminded me of the fearsome fight with Xemnas. But was he really gone? He did say that "Nothing is eternal". I had a sick feeling in my stomach that told me he would return, somehow, someday. Wouldn't surprise me if it was with a vengeance.
Those dreams also left me with similar questions. Like the one with the station of awakening depicting a boy who looked like Roxas– who was he anyway? I knew him, I just couldn't remember where we'd met. Such a familiar presence... an old friend, a big brother-

I shook my head, trying to clear away that thought. You don't have a big brother Sora, I reminded myself.

I shivered despite the warm, pleasant weather; there was also frantic, frightening visions of a masked boy. I never saw his face, whenever he started taking the mask off I woke with a start. I only got the briefest glimpses of gold and black.

"Hey Sora!" It was Kairi, "It's King Mickey! He needs us in the study!"
I'd been spending the last year helping King Mickey collect a database of various worlds and keep an eye on them.

The fact me, Riku, and Kairi made it beyond the Mark of Mastery exam so little time was astounding, then again, we did spend a little over a year fighting Nobodies and Heartless and ultimately saving the worlds from destruction more than once, and that was no small feat either.

In the study, me and Kairi greeted King Mickey with a formal bow and a
"Hello sir! What do you need?"
Even though he was at least 4 feet shorter than both of us, he was still a king and we had to treat him with respect (ironic considering how I treated Queen Minnie and Master Yen Sid a year ago)*.
"It's about Riku." my heart sank a few inches; Riku had been off scouting another world that was recently discovered, what was it called? Hyrule? He'd been in the general cluster of worlds for awhile now, and I honestly missed his company. "We lost contact with him a week ago–"
"Why didn't you let us know?" I interrupted him,
"Because, Sora, I didn't think anything was wrong. I thought he got his communicator broken or something trivial like that, but the signal has been in one place for the past week. This was his last transmission: one day before we lost him, they had gotten so routine I never bothered to check until now."
"This is Riku." a small device crackled in Riku's unmistakable baritone."Hyrule is a pretty peaceful place– no Heartless, but lots of other creatures. We don't need to worry, there's a guard and I keep hearing stuff about a 'Hero of Hyrule' named Link. I'll be coming back soon- That's peculiar, I sense darkness about... Anyway, tell Sora to stay shar–HEY! What are you doing?" at that point there's nothing but sounds of battle, then static. If Riku was ambushed and overtaken, we definitely had to be worried. Riku wasn't a novice opponent; it'd be unlikely for anyone to take him down that easily.

"You and Kairi will be searching around the lake and forest areas. I'll be searching in other places. Meanwhile, Donald and Goofy will protect the castle. Hopefully we'll be able to find Riku and bring him back here safe and sound." King Mickey said. Me and Kairi nodded in agreement. I felt a little insecure about the plan; I'd never been on a solo mission for long.

* Don't worry, Sora didn't treat Master Yen Sid and Queen Minnie very harshly. He was just a little too informal =P

Link

Me and Pit were heading off. The faster we acted, the sooner we could get Zelda back. My plan of action was to pick up my friend (a very capable one at that), Ciara. She left 2 years ago for Termina, and I hadn't seen her since.
"Hey Link, why are we heading towards Lake Hylia?"
Pit asked.
"We're going to Termina, to pick up a friend of mine."
"Who?"
"She was with me when we last met."

"Oh! You mean Ciara?"

"Yes, now can I focus on riding?"

"Sorry!"

We arrived at Lake Hylia, and stopped to rest. Epona whinnied gratefully for the break from hours of riding. I left them both and headed into the Lanayru spring for a break of my own.
Fairies were dancing in midair to a soundless waltz that only they could hear. It was restful dangling my legs over the small precipice overhanging the pond below. It was moments like this all warriors strive for, and cherish. Funny, how they get so restless and unappreciative of it.

"WOAH!"

A yell, no, more of a scream, echoed from outside, then a splash. With curiosity and a bad feeling, I left the spring.

There was a boy in the lake. He briefly floated, unconscious from hitting the water, then started sinking towards the bottom. I instinctively dove into the slightly murky water after him. His clothes were strange, and I had no clue how his caramel-brown hair kept so spiky in the water, but I grabbed him around the middle and steadily kicked my way back to the surface. I had a lot of questions, but a dead man can't answer any.

On shore, the boy started coughing up water. He immediately got up and examined his surroundings like a curious puppy.

"Oh, uh... you got me outta there didn't you? Sorry 'bout that, I wasn't being very careful. The name's Sora–" he looked behind himself as if he was going to say something else, but then shrugged with a disappointed look in his crystal blue eyes. It sounded like he was used to introducing himself (maybe with others as well), but that didn't explain how he ended up falling into Lake Hylia, especially from so high up.

Sora

'You'll be fine.' I remembered Donald saying as he dropped me off. ' It's just water'. Jeez, that's probably the last time I'm listening to him again. Why did you listen to him in the first place?
"So how did you end up in that predicament?" the elf in green in front of me said.
"Uh..."
"Where are your parents?"
"Don't have any." I was quite used to this situation; I had parents, I missed them too, but to preserve world order I told people I didn't have any.
The guy in green looked stern and menacing, his icy blue eyes bored into my soul. He then smirked at my panicked expression.
"I sense something special about you Sora. So here's an offer. We fight in combat. You win, and you can come with us, no questions asked. You lose, I'm taking you back to your parents or wherever you came from. Agreed?" the guy held out his gloved hand. Wow, he really thinks he can take you back to Disney Castle? Roxas laughed. Oh be quiet Roxas. He doesn't know.
"Link! Are you crazy? He's just a kid!" some teen in a toga yelled. I then noticed he had wings. Wow, an angel, I thought. The elf, apparently Link, looked back and said
"I was younger than this kid when I killed a Darknut, so pipe down Pit!"

I summoned the Key-blade behind my back (so no one would notice me summoning it out of nowhere)and shook hands.

"Well then," Link said, drawing a sharp, powerful feeling sword and a dense, strong shield, "get ready!"
Link opened with a surprisingly quick slash. I tried to find a kink in his defenses to no avail. He was very skilled with the sword and shield–no surprise there. It seemed as if he'd been using those same weapons for ages, and knew several battle strategies. I was slightly weaker due to my inability to use drive forms, but I was fast, he was slow, and that often decides battles. He left himself open with a missed jab and I dealt a hard blow behind him; I knocked him to the ground with an Aerial Sweep. Right when he rolled onto his back, I had my key-blade pointed at him. Link looked a little surprised (or vaguely annoyed, I couldn't tell)to be so easily beaten, and he was smiling when I helped him up.
"You're not bad, but I don't recognize the style. Where ya from?"
I wasn't ready to dodge that and spent a few moments panicking and trying to come up with a convincing lie. Link laughed "Oh yeah! I said I'd let you accompany us no questions asked! Sorry!"
Link and Pit (the angel) gradually told me and one another about their grand adventures. I didn't tell them much, I couldn't break the world order. I just mentioned I was traveling around and collecting information. Link had been pretty much everywhere in this place and provided much-needed data on Hyrule. Soon, maybe too soon, we arrived at some place Link called Termina.