A/N: Sorry you know for the very very very VERY long months of not updating. If you know me then you know I don't usually update regularly it depends if I'm inspired. So maybe if I try to set a publication date then I'll work on this better... I can try... I mean I have the next two chapters planned how about I plan two more? Don't get too excited I might not be able to update once a week maybe every two weeks or twice a month. Well don't get your hopes up I'm sorry again. Thank Crest of Anubis for getting the story going! (I'm sorry for the late late late update though)
Late A/N I was actually working on this in January but I needed a break from the internet. I mean I still go but just to listen to songs. I got si-tracked and I have a report due every week... I hope this'll do for now.
Another Late A/N: UGH! MY DAD JUST DELETED MY STICKY NOTES FROM MY LAPTOP! EFF I had some important stuff on there including story ideas with an already halfway through story! I AM SO MAD! LOL On with the story! *Still mad though*
OMG 1Direction performed at the KCA's! I've Known them since mid 2011! So Proud! I'm starting to get pissed off about something though. I don't know why though.
BACKGROUND INFO:
Lea (Axel) Pyro Hi (Pronounciation: Hee): Roxas's best friend. He's cocky, perverted and claims to be a ladies man. Somewhere in there, there's actually a nice, sensitive guy. (Nobody's ever seen that side except Roxas and a few others. They use it to blackmail him.) He's got a thing with fire for some reason and HATES water. He is also cracks jokes at all the right times. His timing is impeccable. He can tell a bad joke at the right time and still make it funny. But he doesn't really know when to stop. Age: 20
Vanitas Hikari Strife(update): After you get to know him he can be very cheeky and rude. He knows when to stop and be serious though(unlike some people.) Age: 18
Vaan Ratsbane: He is generally very dreamy. He has big dreams and is best friends with Penelo. Like Penelo he is an orphan but they deal with that just fine. He is seen as a big brother figure to Filo and Kytes and can be very childish. (That's why Penelo's always there to keep him out of trouble.) He will do anything to protect his friends and is very caring. Though he did get a reputation of being a troublemaker in his younger years. Age: 17
CHAPTER 3: Missing
"NAMINE! She's not here! Where is she?" -Roxas
" Well, all I have to say for those art thieving brothers is you better watch out. I don't think you know who you're dealing with." The line kept sticking inside my head. After the party, on the way home and now taking me away from my wonderful sleep. Stop thinking about it. I kept telling myself. Why can't I stop thinking about it. We have to stop the art then. I think it's time to lay low. Really low. I still couldn't sleep. When it was finally 1 AM I decided to put on some music... and I forgot the earphones.
To Glory from Two Steps From Hell blasted through the speakers in a very loud manner. I could say once it turned on I was sonic boomed to the other side of the room because of the loud noise. I struggled to stand up. It took a couple minutes but I managed to turn the music off only to be yelled at by my Dad.
"SORA WHAT THE HELL!" I heard my dad shout from the room next door. I sighed and opened the window seeing right into their room. (Sometimes I wish it wasn't there.) They made me have the room right next to theirs because they wanted to watch their kids. We'd been living in this house since we were kids so you can understand why they wanted to watch us at such a young age. The room on the other side of my dad's was Van and Ven's. Did I mention I that me and Roxas shared a room?
"Sorry dad. I thought it on a low volume. I couldn't get to sleep." I said in a hushed tone. One thing funny about my mom and Roxas were that they both could sleep through anything. (With some exceptions of course.) I looked past my dad and mom was still sleeping soundly. I glanced behind me and I saw Roxas asleep too. With his teddy bear and blankie who he nicknamed Namine. Don't tell him I told you!
"Couldn't sleep huh?" He said wiping his eyes. He walked up to me and I leaned on the wall. I saw his head peak out of the window. "Is this about Kairi?"
I almost thought he knew about the art thing. My parents (and other people we don't trust) are virtually the only people that my brothers and I know that don't know about our rebelling stuff. "Uh, sort of."
"Look they're looking for a cure don't worry." He said putting a hand on my shoulder. "Everything will be alright you'll see. But if I get a complaint from the neighbors then I'll be grounding you for a week. I should remind you that our neighbors are about 2 miles away. "
"I wish I could believe you." I said under my breath ignoring his other comment. If you want to know my house is located far away from all the other houses we even have this emergency flag that you pull when there's an emergency. It just makes a red flag appear at every half mile.
"Did you say something?" My dad asked me giving me a questioning look.
"Goodnight dad." I said and I motioned him to close the window connecting all three of our rooms. I was considering opening the radio back on-
"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!" I could hear dad and Van yell. Yeah I bet Ven didn't stir at all either but Van did, he was just too tired to yell at me. My family's just weird that way.
I laughed a bit and then headed back to bed with a small thump. It was then Roxas woke up. He doesn't wake up from a loud radio but he wakes up from just a little thump.
"Who's there?" He said groggily clutching his teddy bear and holding it out like his keyblade.
"Just me Roxie. Go back to sleep." I said. Immediately he fell to his bed and you could hear a small snore. Man, am I like this too? I asked myself. I shrugged it off and stared at the ceiling. Maybe if we laid low then he wouldn't bother us anymore. I closed my eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.
XoXoXo- THREATS, art, aNd KiNgDoM hEaRtS-OxOxOx
The sun was up to its lowest point and it was still shining brighter than ever. It spread light all over Destiny Island it's low light hinting of the time of day. Birds were singing peacefully high above the sky getting ready to go back to their nests. Leaves were rustling over the breeze. Flowers were almost ready to bloom. Oh and right in the middle of all this were the ashes and remains of the apartment building that burned a month ago. The government was so bad that it didn't even fix these accidents. There in the ruins standing were the Strife brothers (yeah including me), Axel Hi, and Riku Fairview. We were all trying to figure out how Kairi became blind. Looking for evidence.
"Don't you think the police would've found something by now?" Axel commented kneeling down at the remains. He stuck a hand right into the ash and took it out all black and smirked.
"First of all What are you doing Lea?" Roxas asked him looking at his black hand. Axel flinched a bit. Roxas had said his real name. He really didn't mind using Lea but Axel just sounded way cooler. Axel looked up and was about to respond but Roxas continued, "Second, why would we ever trust the police here? I mean I know this is the safest island and all but I still don't trust the police."
"Yeah, yeah I know," Axel said. "I was just trying to see if anything was in the ashes."
"Yeah right." Riku said. Axel was about to argue but decided against it.
"So anyway Ven how can you get blind anyway?" I asked him. I was standing exactly where I found Kairi chained to the floor.
"Cataracts, Macular Degeneration, Glaucoma-"
"Dude can you just say it in a language we can understand and list the ones that would've most likely happened." Van said putting his hands in his pockets. "We may be the older brothers but we can't bore them to death. I didn't get half the things you said."
"Sorry I was just reading off the internet. Alright... Uh..." He typed on his Pearpad. "She could have gotten the debris in her eyes long enough to make her go blind or-." His pearpad just completely shut off.
"What the hell?" Ven said shaking the pearpad aimlessly in the air. "Why'd it shut off?"
"It's called low battery Ven." Van explained. Ven sulked as he took a seat on the hood of Roxas' car. He knew he charged it before they left the house. It would've just been 50% of the battery left not 0.
"I could've sworn it was only half way drained." He mumbled to himself. I looked at my watch and it said 6 PM. The sun was already down too.
"You guys I think we should go it's getting late." I said as I stretched my fingers.
"Wait guys look what I found." Axel said suddenly waving a box in his hands. It was a gray color with a smidgen of ash. The keyhole was a key-shaped heart similar to the ones in the box's design.
"Can you open it?" Roxas asked as he walked closer to his best friend examining it. He tried to open it himself but it wouldn't budge.
"Nope I think you have to have a key."
"I have something to pick the lock with at home I'll go get it when we come back." I said and waved for them to go back to Roxas' car.
..:..F A S T F O R W A R D..:..
Namine POV
Breathe in. Breathe out. Just a little more. Breathe in- BANG! My head shot up and the knife in my hands fell from my grasp. Damnit!
A familiar set of azure colored eyes were in my view. Roxas! He held his keyblade behind him as he finished off one heartless. Close by were Sora and Axel. Why didn't they listen to me?
My hands and feet were tied together tightly with hard rope. I could taste the fabric from the handkerchief tied around my mouth. I was tied to a chair in the middle of the factory. I'd been trying to escape when Roxas came in. Don't get me wrong I was sort of relieved he was here but he ruined my chance to freedom. And not to mention he put himself in danger!
"Roxas!" I muffled with the cloth in my mouth. I gagged closing my eyes. If you've ever been gagged before you know what it's like.
"Namine!" Roxas looked at me with relief in his eyes. I stared back but with fear present in my baby blue eyes. I knew this was a trap. A trap that they might not survive from...
..:.. R E W I N D..:..
All was peaceful in the Strife household. They were all out of the house so that left the whole house to me. The Strife parents had let me use their art studio( which was really my second studio) since mine... burned down with our old home. Cloud and Tifa had both gone away on a business trip early this morning. It was a little sudden if you asked me. They got the call that morning too. Music was on since I could never draw anything without inspiration. I Wish by One Direction was playing and next were more songs on their album(really unrelated to what I was doing but I just liked the song.) Yup that's right I, Namine Gainsborough, am a directioner. (Kairi is too you know!)
Roxas was investigating the cause of Kairi's blindness. I just hoped they would find the cause so we could get Kairi to see again. She was acting like she was fine like she always does. She's always so happy all the time because she doesn't want people to worry about her, or to think she's weak. I'd never been able to pull that off but she manages to everyday when she's down. That's what I look up to her for since I'm generally shy and she's very outgoing. If she weren't alive right now I would probably be the loneliest antisocial loner in the whole world.
Her facade only cracks the tiniest bit when we mention something like "how pretty this looks" or " Oh My Gosh look at it it's amazing!" or "They Look GORGEOUS!". If I were to find the person that made her... I would just...
Anyway right now I was currently trying to figure out what to paint. My canvas was blank and I was in there for almost two hours. Actually the floor was clattered with many sketches from my notebook. They all didn't suit the picture I wanted to draw. Actually they just... weren't right. First I'd thought I should paint something for Kairi but then I realized she was blind. Then I thought that maybe I should paint for Kairi after all. It would be the second thing she would see. First being Sora second being whatever I decided to draw. I just couldn't decide. Kairi liked a lot of things but I didn't really know what she would really really love to see when she wakes up.
... I got it! Wait. I turned my head around. My music was cut off.
BANG!What the he-.
XoXoXo- T h R E A T S, A rt and K I N G d O m H e A r T s - OxOxOx
ROXAS POV
The Strife house was isolated from the other houses. So far that it could probably be lonely. It clung to the top of the hill threatening to fall off the edge. Today to say the least it was a wreck. To say the most some bad guys broke in, stole lots of things, broke vases, made the house a MESS (Tifa was not going to be happy about this) kidnapped Namine, not a single person was home, et cetera.
When I was just could just see the house from where I was and I knew something was wrong. Everything was quiet. Too quiet. Namine usually put the music on full blast since no one was around for a couple miles. I was starting to get suspicious but I drove on a couple of miles without too much hurry. Something caught my eye. It was the emergency flag, shining red in the sunlight. Why hadn't I noticed before? I sped up just as Sora pointed at the flag alarming everyone about it. He said the obvious, "Guys look the red flag! Something's not right."
"Namine, Rox." Axel pointed out. Namine was the only one left in the house. Why did I leave her alone in the house?
"I know." I replied speeding up in response.
"What do you think they wanted?" Van pondered.
"Damnit." Sora said looking out the window. "We haven't done anything wrong for the past few weeks. What gives them the right to raid our home?"
Everyone stayed quiet as I sped up to his house. They really couldn't answer the question now. I could see that everyone, especially me, couldn't really think of anything to do. We couldn't do anything but wait. You know the feeling when you really want to help someone/something but you just can't? You feel all hopeless inside. We didn't know the situation so we didn't know how to prepare. I guess it's just hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
"Wait! Van give me you're phone I left mine at home." Sora said suddenly realizing something. Van didn't question him knowing it was something important. The thing that I liked about Van the most was he that he knew when to be serious and when to be himself. Sora grabbed the phone from his hands quickly turning on the-. OH!
"You guys look at this. I linked Van's phone to the security camera's at home." Sora let everyone see I glanced a bit every few minutes because I was driving. I was pulling up on the hill. As soon as I parked I ripped the door open(not literally) and zipped inside. As soon as I stepped inside my feet took over and led me to her art room. I barged in and almost tripped on the keyblades scattered on the floor. I barely noticed what a mess the living room was."NAMINE! She's not here! Where is she?" I shouted. In the art room papers were scattered around everywhere, paint was splattered to the floor, the canvas's and sketch books were on the unkempt floor. I scanned the room for anything that might lead to Namine's disappearance. Something bright yellow caught my eye as I scanned the room. A note. I turned my head looking for the note inching closer into the room. I was still a little hostile. I know what you're thinking I should be running around crazy screaming out Namine's name and calling the cops. Well that's what Sora thinks I would've been doing.
"Oh God is that who I think it is?" I heard Sora scream. I jumped. I was getting used to the quiet. I turned as he reached my location, the others hot on his trail, almost running into me. He was holding the phone to my face and I grabbed it.
"Well I can't see it when you hold it like that!" I said looking at the paused security tape. Oh god. No way, he wouldn't do that to Namine. If I wasn't mistaken I was looking at-
"Vaan!" Axel said beside me making Vanitas jump. I looked up and saw them looking at me expectantly.
"What?" Vanitas said looking at Axel.
"Not you. Him." He gestured to the photo of Vaan. Vaan was one of our friends. We hadn't seen him since the party for Kairi. He was known to be a troublemaker but he was just framed every time he actually committed a crime. All his friends knew that. So maybe he was framed for this too...
"You guys we don't have time to think about that right now. Let's check out the house first." I say leading them into the house. I was already getting more and more anxious. Now the questions popped into my head. What if she's hurt? What does Vaan have to do with this? Who did this? and the question burning inside my mind just waiting to be answered; Where is Namine?
I willed myself not to react crazy about this whole ordeal but I was about to burst. When we all reached the room I started to kneel down on the floor to grab the note on the ground stuffing it in my pocket;I would read it later. The others were still looking at the mess jaws open. Dead silence filled the air. It was deafening to say the least. Axel was the one to break the ice this time looking at the keyblades, "At least you know she can probably kick your ass Roxas."
I knew what he meant but I still glared at him. He meant that she could protect herself if she needed to. I put my hands in my pockets as I put them into fists trying to relax, but all I could think about was Namine. Then I felt the note that was in my pocket. I took it out and had a glance at it before Axel grabbed it out of my hand. It was a map too. I didn't realize that before.
"Axel!" I shouted. "That could be a potential lead to where Namine is!"
"I think it's a trap. He purposely left it on the floor like that. It has to be a trap!" Axel claimed looking at it. "And yes I saw you pick it up Roxas."
"You guys we have to think this through." Ven said calmly. Something inside me snaps for some reason. I can't explain it right now. I just had this feeling.
"We don't have time! Namine is out there right now and I'm not there to protect her!" I shouted trying to take the note from Axel's grasp. Why did he have to be taller than me?
"Calm down Roxas. Namine can protect herself." Van said prying me off of Axel and blocking the note from my grasp.
"Look at this mess! She couldn't even handle them!" I said trying to make a point. In the corner of my eyes I saw Axel hand Ven the map. Why hand him the map and not me?
I was about to say more but Ven saw this and quickly said, "STOP! Look you, Sora and Axel head towards the warehouse and me and Ven will contact the local authorities." I look at him realizing my outburst.
"We can't call the police guys." Axel said in a matter-of-fact tone holding the note up high.
"Why not?" I said.
"Read this." He finally gave me the note and the others crowded all around me. It was from our mystery person for sure. I read it quickly and then turned away looking at the map.
"Hey isn't this the warehouse near the fire?" I asked not really expecting an answer. Of course. I mentally slapped myself.
"It is isn't it?" Sora said pondering on something. He was in deep thought. I could tell.
"You guys go over to the warehouse. Me and Van'll get our friends. I'm thinking that this is going to be more dangerous than we will think it is." Ven said already getting the keys. He handed us the keys to The Den.
"What are these for? We don't need to go to the Den." Sora asks holding up the keys confused. I was a bit confused too.
"You're not going in there without weapons right?" Van reasoned giving me a grin. I sneaked a peak at Sora. He was definitely excited. You could practically imagine him jumping up and down inside right now. I flashed a quick grin and put the key in my pocket.
"Okay we'll meet you there okay." Ven said giving me a look. He didn't trust me. I almost rolled my eyes but I remembered the matter at hand. I nodded and waved at them as they left. A plan was already formulating in my head. When we get there...
"Come on Roxas you should be the one hurrying here right?" Axel said and waved for him to hurry up. I must have gotten lost in thought.
"Sorry I was just thinking." I replied running a bit to catch up. We were almost there as I said it wasn't as far away from the house. The Den was pretty much like a lair or hangout that only us Hikari brothers know about. Our parents know and a few friends too but we're the ones who go inside almost everyday. In the Den was every guy's dream. There was a video game room that was about half the size of our house, a pool and hot tub, A party room(complete with a disco floor, DJ station and a big flat screen TV), a movie theater and many more. We also had a dojo inside there where we trained with some weapons. I hadn't gone in there in a while because of an accident that happened in there. Yeah I don't really want to talk about it. And now was our ticket back to our weapons. I could just feel the keyblade in my ha-
I can't explain what's happening to me. My sanity is in the passenger seat. I let her drive she is my gui-.
"NAMINE!"
A/N: Yes another cliff hanger I am so sorry! Got the next two planned out though. So I'm sorry for not updating in a long time again! Please Review! I planned to have this out like 2 months ago in February but stuff got in the way. I'll work on the next chapter though I have time. I'll do it now because I have camp next week! EXCITED! Yeah this chapter is UNEDITED and it didn't turn out as long as I wanted but... Okay anyway PLEASE REVIEW! 4/2/12