Kingdom Hearts: The True Light

*Makodo (Mah-Cō-Dō)= Meaning will be explained later.

Ch. 1:

A Single Memory

Where am I?

I was laying on something soft and springy. A mattress? Something was pressing against my lips, forcing air into my lungs. Then it lifted off of my lips and something else pushed down on my chest three times, forcing the air back out. I heard noises that sounded like voices in the distance but I couldn't make out what they were saying.

Again, something forced me to breathe.

Again.

Again.

Finally, salt water was pushed out of my lungs as I choked and coughed, my lungs burning. The voices stopped. A gentle one spoke, "You okay?" I tried to answer but my throat and mouth were too dry, all I could manage was a few painful raspy noises. "Kairi," the gentle voice said to someone else, "could you get some water?" I heard the steps as somebody left the room. "Can you sit up or at least open your eyes?" the voice asked me now. I nodded weakly and heard a sigh of relief in the background.

It was surprisingly hard but I managed to make my eyes flutter open.

It was too bright at first, my eyes wanted to close up again but I strained to keep them open. The first thing that came into focus was a boy. Well, man actually. He looked like he was in his early twenties. Though he was a man he was absolutely gorgeous. Snow white hair extended a little past his shoulders and his skin was pale. He wore a white, sleeveless shirt that zipped up. The bottom part of the zipper didn't go all the way down to the bottom of his shirt which revealed a little bit of his belly button. He wore a yellow and white zip-up vest over it. His blue jeans were loose, but not to loose and they had pockets that were a slightly lighter colored material than the rest of his jeans. When I saw his eyes I froze, shocked. They were a bright, beautiful aquamarine color.

One hand, which had a white glove that only went down to the knuckles, was lying on my forehead, checking my temperature, I guessed. I wanted to ask him where we were but, once again, all I could manage was the burning rasps. Until now he hadn't looked me in the eye because he was to preoccupied with making sure I was alright, but now he looked at my eyes with first shock then curiosity.

Suddenly a dog started barking and an earsplitting crash came from somewhere outside of the room, which, at the moment, I hadn't bothered to observe. "Oh, no!" cried the girl, "I'm so sorry, Riku!" The gentle man laughed, "It's fine, just don't get cut, and make sure *Makodo doesn't step on it!" "Okay!" the girl responded.

So, I thought to myself, his name is Riku? "Sora?" Riku said as he turned around, "Will you watch her while I go help Kairi?" A younger looking boy walked up behind him, smiling, "Yeah, of course!" Riku got up and walked out as Sora sat down in his seat.

Sora had spiky brown hair that stuck out all over the place. His eyes were a vivid blue. He wore a black zip-up shirt with a black and white, short sleeved, zip-up jacket over it. In fact, everything he wore was zip-up. His hands were covered with black and white gloves that went a little past his knuckles. His shorts were baggy, black and white with yellow trimming here and there, and held up by a black leather belt. He wore a necklace with a crown pendant around his neck and a few chains hung from a couple of the belt loops on his pants.

"So…" he stopped, trying to think of something to say. I managed to laugh weakly, amused by the look on his face. He laughed just as the girl walked into the room. She held a glass of water in her hand. Sora laughed, "Took you long enough, Kairi!" I struggled to sit up as Kairi walked toward us, holding out the glass for me, "Well, it's not my fault Riku's new dog tackles me practically every time he sees me!"

Kairi was a little shorter than Sora, who was average height, with deep, nearly black red hair that went a little past her shoulders and was parted on the side. She wore a baby pink, leather dress that stopped half way down her thighs and she had a white spaghetti strap shirt under it.

I took the glass and I planned on drinking it slowly, not wanting to look like a pig or something, but as soon as I swallowed the first mouthful of water, I was too thirsty to pay any attention to what these kind strangers thought of me. The girl giggled and the boy just smiled and crossed his arms. Riku walked back into the room just as I finished drinking and he came and sat down in the seat next to the bed that the strangers had put me in.

"So," he asked, taking the empty glass from my hands, "think you can talk now?" I nodded and braced myself for the burning that would come from talking with a still semi-dry throat, "Thank you." Then, Riku smiled. The expression fit him perfectly because of the fact that the smile was so gentle. Also, because he was so beautiful. Suddenly and inexplicably my cheeks got hot and, though I wanted to, I couldn't look away from his face.

Suddenly, the perfect smile left his face and was replaced with worry, "Do you feel hot? Maybe you have a fever?" He turned his attention to Sora, "Could you go get me a thermometer?" Sora nodded, "Sure!" and he left the room, a dopy smile on his face. "No!" I said, a little too late, "Really! I'm fine!" But, he was already gone and Riku turned and picked up the empty glass, "I'll go get some water."

I took this chance to observe my surroundings. We were in a room that was actually quite small, but still big enough to hold a dresser, a vanity, a bookshelf, and a bed, with room to spare. The door was on the opposite side of the rectangular room and the vanity was against the left wall, the closet door to the right of it. The dresser was at the foot of the bed and a window was right in the middle of the wall that both the bed and the dresser were against. The book shelf was on the left wall and was completely over loaded with books that looked like they hadn't been read for a while.

The girl, who I guessed was named Kairi, was waiting patiently in the middle of the room. The carpet was a deep, rosy pink so it looked like a girl's room. "This is your room?" I guessed. "Yup!" she answered. Riku walked back in with Sora behind him. Riku handed me the glass, "You can drink this later, but…" He turned to Sora and Sora handed him the thermometer. For some inexplicable reason I began to panic, "No! I'm fine!" Riku began to look puzzled, "Your cheeks were red earlier, so…" his voice trailed off.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kairi roll her eyes, "Of course she blushed! What with the way you keep staring at her like that!" For a second Riku looked a little embarrassed that he was caught but he laughed it off. "So," He said, sitting down on the edge of the bed, "why are your eyes like that?" I raised one eye brow, completely confused, "Like what?"

Kairi turned to her white metal vanity and picked up a white porcelain mirror, "This is what he means." I took the mirror and looked at my eyes. My mouth fell open when I found that one of my eyes was actually a different color than the other; one was pale silver while the other was pale gold. Kairi and Sora laughed but Riku simply sat patiently waiting for my answer to his question. When I was finally able to answer I could only manage to stutter, "I-I don't know."

I looked back in the mirror. My skin was somewhat tan and I had blonde, bobbed hair that hung just a little lower than my chin. Then, I looked down to observe what I was wearing. It was a simple, yet somehow elegant, white silk gown that had spaghetti straps that criss-crossed on my back. It looked like a night gown. "Oh!" Kiari suddenly gasped, "That black cloak thingy you were wearing over that is in the drying machine."

Cloak? Was I really wearing a cloak? The more I thought about it the more confused I became. Because the more I tried to think about it, I began to realize that I couldn't even remember what the cloak might have looked like. When I tried to think of other things I found that I couldn't remember anything else either. I could feel the panic rise in me and I was sure that the others could see it. That's when I began to really ask questions, "Where am I? How did I get here? Why can't I-" "Calm down." Riku demanded, gently laying his gloved hand on my shoulder, "One question at a time."

So, I started to sort out the billions of frantic questions in my head and started with the one that I thought was most important, "Why can't I remember anything?" I was so scarred, and you could easily hear that in my voice, but I didn't really care how I ended up in this place, I just wanted to know why I couldn't remember a single thing.

"Well," Sora said walking up next to where Riku was sitting, "Start with your name. Can you remember that?" I searched my mind but everything was blank. The fear and panic struck me again, this time it was like a wave, consuming everything. That's when two shiny objects that appeared to be giant keys, one black one that looked like the cross between a bat wing and a key and one silver and gold one that looked like a normal key, caught my eye. A sudden and inexplicable pain surged over me. Then, my body and my voice reacted, as if I no longer had control over them.

"No…" I said as my hands flew up to the sides of my head of their own accord. I pulled my legs up so that my knees were pressing against my chest and began yelling, "No, no, no!" I began to scream as a strange image entered my mind.

It was a nearly empty room. There was only a man with red hair, bright, vivid green eyes and distinct triangular marks just below each eye and a woman with jet black hair and black eyes. They were both wearing black cloaks but the man with the red hair was down on the ground, chains restraining his arms. I could feel chains restraining me as well. The more I saw the more I wanted to close my eyes as tight as I could but that didn't help. No … This isn't really happening. Is this … A memory?

I heard myself start screaming again, only louder and the sound was more distant than before. I could feel my body start lashing around. "I think she's going into shock!" Riku's voice sounded like he was far away. Soon, everything else started dropping off into the back ground and disappearing. All that was left was the memory that was playing through my mind. The black haired woman was torturing the red haired man with a whip that was covered in spikes.

Every time she struck the man it was like having my heart ripped in two. I could feel it, a strange connection between him and me. It was intense, and made me feel as if he was the most precious and most important thing in the world. Love!, my mind supplied the term for me. No … I didn't even know him … did I? It didn't matter. The feeling compelled me forward each time the man was struck, making me pull against the chains that held me.

Finally, the beating stopped. The black haired woman looked over her shoulder and smiled as she spoke, "If he won't tell me … perhaps you will." Her voice was hauntingly familiar. She began to walk toward me and I felt a scream rise in my throat but before it made it out the red haired man yelled a name and the memory disappeared. Was he yelling my name or the other woman's name?

Everything was black for a second but I felt my body loosen and my screams stopped. When I was able to tell what was actually happening I was completely surprised. Riku, Sora, and Kiari were restraining me. Was it really that bad?

"Well," Kiari asked as they all loosened their grip and relaxed, "what happened? Are you alright?" For a moment I couldn't speak, I could only look around and observe the expressions on their faces. They all looked concerned, which was actually no surprise. Here they were with this strange girl that had such an odd appearance and who couldn't remember anything and suddenly the girl goes into a panic, throwing her arms and legs all over the place and screaming loud enough to bust an ear drum. I'd be pretty worried, too.

They waited patiently while I gathered my thoughts. Well, actually Sora didn't look very patient. He looked like he was so curious that he could barely contain it. "I don't know … I think…" I paused, not really sure how to explain, "Did I just remembered something?" Suddenly, Riku's expression turned into a frown, "I guess it wasn't a very good memory." I shook my head and finally Sora gave up on holding back his curiosity, "What was it about?" "Sora!" Kiari scolded him, "If it was that bad she probably doesn't want to talk about it to a bunch of strangers!" "No," I said, feeling strangely numb, "It's okay."

So I explained it to them. When I finished, they were all staring in shock. The first one to speak was Riku, "That doesn't help … except for the name at the end." Sora shifted his weight to his other foot, crossing his arms, "All it does is bring up more questions." Kiari sat down next to Riku, "Is that the only name you can remember?" I nodded and saw Sora smile out of the corner of my eye, "Then that will just have to be your new name!" Kiari rolled her eyes and her and Riku smiled as they stood up in front of me. "Yeah!" Kiari agreed.

Then Riku offered me his hand, smiling his beautiful smile, "Welcome to Destiny Islands, Hikari."