(-CHAPTER-II-)

Beyond Human Aid/Awakening

-nOte-

Sorry this one took so long to get up, I've been either busy or out places. D: So I hope you liked the first chapter of the next generation! I promise things will get more eventful, but Trevor had to explain everything to Amali, and yeah. Heh. It feels so... weird not using the names Charity, Nessa, Quince, etc. more often. ;w; Oh well. Enjoy this chapter!

-/nOte-

Amali laughed and pulled her graduation hat back off of her eyes so she could see. It was only to the peak of her surprise that she saw her mom, dad, and five other very familiar looking adults holding giant keys as they were attacked by shadows.

One of the adults had spiky, brown hair. All of their keyblades looked the same; did that have anything to do with their kids having their keychains? Amali also noticed that a woman with long, red hair, violet-blue eyes and a frail looking body was fighting. These two were Jaiden's parents, Sora and Kairi. She knew that well enough.

Next to them were three more people; all of them were blond, one of them with spiky hair similar to that of the brunet, and the other one with hair tossed to the other side of her shoulder and wearing a long, white dress. The third one Amali knew as Nessa because she came and visited so often; she was Charity's best friend, after all. Although she visited often, Amali, however, had only seen her kids when she was small; and was very shocked to learn that they were, in fact, the June and the boy that she had just met.

Trevor ran up to them with his keyblade out. Amali noticed that his was different than the parents' keyblades; they all had different keychains. That had to be what caused them to change form. Trevor began to fight side-by-side with everybody.

"What ever happened to that promise you guys made?" Trevor growled as he got rid of one of the black creatures in the Pointe that Amali could only guess to be a Heartless.

Riku's face became a hesitant one of anger; Amali had never seen him with this face before. "That promise was broken when I had to save you from the Heartless."

"Still blaming me for something I did when I was four years old?" asked Trevor, raising an eyebrow. Riku no longer responded, and they all seemed to focus on getting rid of the Heartless.

"I wish we could have keyblades," June mentioned, strangely calm, "then we would be able to help." she smiled sadly at the scene.

"So do I." Amali admitted. At only a few of her words, hundreds of yellow eyes pointed her direction. The small shadow-like Heartless began to creep towards her.

"Amali, run!" Trevor commanded her. The Heartless were speeding up.

Amali nodded quickly, "Got it!" she cried. She began to sprint the complete opposite direction, which was very hard in a graduation getup. She could hear Jaiden, June, and whom she was almost positive was Anty call out her name, or, "Hey!" and sprint after her. She glanced back for a second; definitely Jaiden, June, and Anty.

And Heartless less than a foot away from her.

"Why didn't I join the track team?!" Amali scolded herself as she ran, gathering all her strength to push herself as far as she could.

Apparently, her upper body was faster than her lower.

She found herself face down on the ground, and she quickly felt something sharp digging into her back. Amali let out a cry of pain, and Jaiden called out her name, June only gasping, probably with her hands over her mouth.

"Don't these things take your hearts?" she could hear Anty's voice asking.

No, it couldn't be. It wasn't her heart that was going away... it was something... else.

Black out.

ooooo

As the girl came to, her head was swimming and her ears ringing. Her mind was only a little under thinking a thousand thoughts at one time. She could feel the earth below her, but somehow the darkness hadn't left.

"Stand up, stand up..." she mumbled to herself, prying her body off of the floor by pushing herself up by her hands.

In a strange flash, at least a thousand doves or some bird of that sort flew up, getting rid of the darkness below her. Amali looked to her side twice, and then threw her head up to catch the last of the birds flying into the dark nothingness above her.

She looked underneath her, where the birds had flown off of.

It was some sort of circular platform, almost like stained glass, glowing with no source of light. Amali could pick out a boy with odd, brown hair and a seafoam green and purple outfit holding a strange star-shaped fruit with a girl with short, bright auburn hair and a purple outfit right in front of him. Back-to-back with the girl was another one with bleach blonde hair, wearing a simple sundress with her hand extended to meet that of one with two rings, one black and one white. That arm was attached to a boy with honey hair just a bit shorter than the boy he was standing back-to-back with and cobalt eyes to match. He looked almost exactly the same as June's brother; but Amali couldn't even remember his name at the time.

There were other circles on the platform, surrounding the center. They seemed to be all miscellaneous people; a happy-go-lucky looking girl with short, black hair, a man with a scar running down his forehead, three fairy-like girls, one of which was sticking out her tongue, a woman with long, braided brown hair; everything.

"Where am I?" she finally managed to call upon her vocal chords to utter a few words.

Right now, you are exactly where you need to be.

Where did she need to be? Amali needed to be back at the school, helping her brother and parents in any way she possibly could.

A platform shot up from the ground, holding another keyblade; this one seemed to be an odd mixture of maroon and black, the handle looking oddly sharp and unnerving. The edges of the head of the keyblade almost looked stained in blood.

She needed to be getting Jaiden out of that mess, and her other new friends, too, if she could even help at all.

Another platform, another keyblade. This one was white, with light purple strands almost like ribbons weaving up to meet at the top of the keyblade, where the edges almost glowed with power.

Try to hold them.

"Hold them?" asked Amali. "Alright. I can do this." she walked towards the platform with the dark looking keyblade; if she had to hold both of them, may as well get the creepy looking one out of the way. As she tried to put her hand to it, the keyblade disappeared under her phantom grip, causing Amali to step back a few paces.

"Okay then." she decided. Walking over to the other platform, she extended her hand. Expecting this one to disappear as well, she was very surprised when her hand managed to grip the keyblade. It was light and long-reach; it was almost beautiful, in a sense.

It seems your darkness has been taken away.

"My darkness? Taken away?" Amali had no idea what the disembodied voice meant, but she tried her hardest to comprehend. She looked over at the empty platform; it was almost upsetting. The keyblade there looked very interesting, too.

"So I have no choice in the matter?" she asked, looking down at her own keyblade.

It all depends, princess. Do you think you have a choice?

"Princess?" asked Amali to herself, running her separate hand down the arm of the keyblade, "Since when am I a princess?"

So easily swayed. So easy to believe. Surely it isn't the darkness, but your lack thereof that will be your downfall.

"I don't even know what you're talking about!" she argued angrily. Before she had a chance to figure out what was going on, her whole surroundings flashed in white. Or was it just her eyes? Nevertheless, she found herself on a whole different platform.

Sitting down on top of a train of some sort, a girl was hugging her knees to her chest, looking out into a sunset of a seemingly urban-looking town. Her hair was auburn. It was short on the top layer, but longer at the bottom, giving her medium-length hair. The eyes shone a golden color from the sunset, but were obviously a dark brown. She wore a white vest over a blue t-shirt, and jeans with odd writing and sayings written on them.

In some kind of a faded background behind her, there were two other faces, looking through their profiles in opposite directions. One of them had short, blonde hair with dark brown ends. She had Charity's eyes and face. The other girl had pale, violet eyes and medium-length black hair, along with Charity's face.

To the left of the picture in its own separate scenery were two, almost identical girls standing and holding hands. They both had long, blonde hair and forest green eyes, although one of them had glasses and a slightly less perfect figure.

On the right of the picture were three boys; one of them had hair that looked like Christmas time, the other one had medium-length brown hair and brown eyes, and the last one had longer, silver hair and teal eyes.

"Dad." she noticed as she looked at the picture of Riku to the right. Staring at the center, she would have almost been positive that the girl on the train was her if she didn't have such a calm looking face and different color hair. "Mom."

You have your weapon.

The keyblade that Amali had attained that had long since disappeared in her hands now reappeared in a flash of white, almost sending Amali backwards and off of the edge of the glasswork platform that seemed ready to break, anyway.

Can you use it?

Just as she expected, another Heartless appeared on the platform. Two, three more. They were moving towards Amali; she really didn't need this. Saying nothing, she only backed away from the Heartless, but could feel her keyblade shaking underneath her hand.

Amali wanted to cry; she had no idea what was happening. Still, she held out the keyblade in front of her, "Here goes nothing." Running up to the Heartless, she slashed at them a few times with the keyblade. Only being attacked by one Heartless, it had just swiped at her leg. A shadow wound had appeared for a second, but disappeared soon after.

They were gone; disappeared into the air above her like sand. Amali was gasping; she had never done anything so exhilarating in her life; or maybe she had never done anything so frightening. As she gulped, she was almost sent into a heart attack as her keyblade disappeared from her hand.

"It'll come back." she decided, shaking off her fear.

A strange circle of light came up from one part of a platform. Following her instincts, Amali stood in it and found that her leg no longer hurt from the wound that had disappeared.

Stairs appeared that just looked like separate rectangular platforms, leading up to a larger, circular platform above her. "How long has that been there?" Amali asked herself, scratching the back of her head. Thinking nothing more of it, she ran up to the stairs.

Much to her surprise, her foot went straight through the first stair. She was falling, falling, falling into what had turned to a bright light; coming to once more, she found herself on another platform; the platform that the stairs had led up to.

Amali put her hand over her mouth to stop her heavy breathing as she saw what was on the picture in this platform; she was at the center, holding the keyblade she had been holding not more than a few seconds ago. June was resting her head on Amali's shoulder, and on the other side of June was her brother, which Amali could finally remember the name of; Adum. Standing on the other side of Jaiden was Anty, and Q was on the other side of Adum.

But where was Trevor?

She focused back a little bit; there he was. His face was a faded background behind them all. What was going on exactly.

"Mom and dad had a story." Amali got on one knee and put her hand to Jaiden's face; the glass felt cool against her warm skin. "Will I have one, too?"

Your friends are waiting for you.

The keyblade appeared in Amali's hand again; somehow she was more used to it by now. A big door had appeared in the empty space in front of her. She tried pulling at the handle, but it was locked tight.

Unlock your own path. Begin your own story.

"Unlock." she muttered, and pointed her keyblade at the small keyhole on the door handle she had tried to wrench open not a moment before. A small light shot forward at the keyhole, and it clicked. The door opened up.

Amali stepped through, into the pure white.

Remember your friends; they will be the only ones you can trust.

Here's your story.

ooooo

"Amali... Amali! Wake up!" It was Jaiden's voice, she was positive. "William Beckett's here to play you a song."

Amali groaned and opened her eyes to be presented with June, Jaiden, and Anty staring down at her. June was smiling and Jaiden seemed relieved; Anty just looked at her in amusement.

"Told you that always works." Jaiden smiled, and Amali managed to gather enough strength to hit him upside the head as she pushed herself off of the floor.

"Weird dream." she murmured.

"Weird day." Anty admitted, scratching the back of his head.

Amali almost screamed when she looked around; the whole scenery was odd-looking. It seemed to be nighttime, and many buildings surrounded them. She had been laying on a bench of some sort, very close to some kind of outdoor restaurant. Three very large doors were attached to the boundaries of where they were, and she could only guess that wherever it was that they were had multiple districts.

"Where are we?" she asked them.

"I asked someone while you were sleeping." June said, closing her eyes and trying to stay happy, "We're in a place called Traverse Town. They said it's a place you go when your world's been destroyed."

"Has our world been destroyed?" asked Amali, as calmly as she possibly could.

"Somehow I don't think so." Jaiden admitted, "It's mostly a gut feeling, but they only seemed to be after all of us, moreso after you."

"We thought that thing stole your heart." Anty laughed, "I guess it didn't end up getting it after all." Amali was originally unsure about this boy, but he seemed to have some kind of sense of humor anyway, which made him seem more human-like.

"Where are those other two that Trevor told everything about?" asked Amali to the three of them, whom had sat down the second she scooted over to sit down in a more human-like fashion.

"You mean my brother and his brother?" asked June, pointing over at Anty. "I don't know. They could be around here somewhere!" she smiled. For someone that dressed in such an odd fashion, she sure was a happy girl.

"Yeah." Amali managed a weak smile. "Let's go find them."

ooooo

"We're where?" asked Adum to the older boy, his arms outstretched as if to emphasize his confusion. Trevor looked at the horizon.

"Wonderland." he responded, quite calmly.

"...Wonderland." Q said quietly. They seemed to be in some kind of court room.

"It's another world. We're here because the Heartless swallowed us into a kind of darkness." Trevor clarified. He seemed much to calm for all this; for someone who had been living on some sort of islands for most of his life, he sure knew a lot.

"Does that mean something happened to Earth?" asked Q.

"Azure Daybreak. Our Earth, anyway. And no, we were just swallowed up. The Heartless wanted Amali's darkness. They got it." Trevor shook his head. "Or else we wouldn't have been swallowed by it. I'm sure Azure Daybreak's fine."

"But Wonderland?" asked Adum. There was some oddly fat woman with a crown on the top of her head sitting on a high platform with some sort of a mallet in her hand. Sitting close by was a white rabbit with a stopwatch, and on the other side of her was a very tiny man.

Animated cards surrounded them everywhere.

"SHUT UP!" the woman commanded. As if a bomb went off, all three of them covered their ears, but then looked up at the fat woman. She must have been a queen of some sort. "Thank you!" she told them happily, and slammed her gavel onto the stand in front of her. "Court is now in session! Intruders, we don't have time for witnesses, so tell me why you're here!"

"That's what Keyboy over here was just telling us." Adum said. Author's Note: Dear Lord, I almost typed in 'Anton'.

"Keyboy? My name is Trevor."

"I know. I'm gonna call you Keyboy." he crossed his arms.

"Then I'm going to call you Squishy." Trevor raised an eyebrow.

"ENOUGH! I HATE ARGUING! OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!"

The cards surrounding them began to slowly edge towards the group of boys.

"Get out your keyblades." Trevor told them, as his appeared in his hand in a sudden burst. "Don't ask me how."

They didn't have to. Simply by imitating what Trevor did, Q and Adum found themselves with keyblades in their hands. Q's was a greenish shade of blue, and almost looked like a sea in the way the arm waved up into the top, which looked very normal. Adum's, however, almost looked steel on its way up the keyblade. They noticed that the keyblades each had different keychains on them.

"Now attack these!" Trevor told them. Shrugging and obeying his orders, they all ran in for the attack on the cards.

ooooo

"Back again, are you?" The man with the scar on his face and the brown hair hardly got a chance to smile before Charity ran up to him and hugged him. Although he couldn't have been more than ten years older than her, he still felt like a father to her. In fact, she had just thought about this; this would make him about forty years old. He still looked so young.

"Can't tell me something else is wrong." Riku mentioned, giving the committee a look. They all looked at each other, and then back at Riku.

"What's going on?" Roxas asked them all.

"Yasuyo might be able to explain a little better." Cloud nodded at them all; he was still in shock to see them all as adults. In fact, he was still in shock that him and the committee had to get back together to keep the Heartless away; after all, the count had raised so much so slowly in the past thirteen years.

"Then, we'll go see Yasuyo!" Naminé put her hands together like she used to when she was younger. Only Roxas, June, and Adum would know for sure. Surely this group had not seen each other in too long.

Kairi gave them the thumbs-up before they turned to leave the house.

"Hey," came a familiar voice. A fiery redhead in blue pants and a white shirt walked out in front of them. How awkward he looked in something other than an Organization coat, "You're not going anywhere without me."

Roxas grinned.

Author's Note: And there you have it! Again, I'm sorry this took so long. So Amali's new group has just been split up, and their parents are off to find out why the Heartless count has raised so much and why they were sucked away from their homes. What will happen? Dundundun. XD Hope you enjoyed it!