Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts… :(

I walked through the halls of the castle boredly with Ren by my side and an idea struck. I grinned mischievously and took Ren's hand, putting a finger to my lips. She nodded and I took us round through the secret passage way in the library to the main gates. We made it to the Bailey and I smiled happily. "Let's go see Leon and Mori-chan!" I said. Ren nodded and we skipped along merrily to the Borough. I turned a corner and hit a dead end. "Hm… I was sure it was this way… Guess not." I shrugged and led us another way.

I paused upon seeing a man with a short black beard and mustache holding a rather odd looking sword. It reminded me of Aqua's- who saved me earlier from an Unversed. The man with the ponytail looked at us and walked over.

"Excuse me young ones, but have you seen a girl with blue hair or a man with brown hair and blue eyes?" he asked politely, crouching down to our level. I put an index finger to my chin and thought carefully. Aqua has blue hair doesn't she? I nodded.

"There's Aqua. But the last time I saw her around here was a few days ago." I stated. The man's face fell when I said this.

"And the man?"

"Nope. I haven't seen a guy like that around here. Sorry mister." I apologized. He smiled sadly.

"It's quite alright." He answered. "My name is Eraqus. Do you perchance live with Ansem?" he asked. Ren and I nodded enthusiastically.

"I'm Yoko and this is Ren. Mister Eraqus, why are you looking for Aqua?" I questioned. He smiled and stood up.

"It seems my students haven't reported in and I needed to see how they were faring." Eraqus answered. Then out of nowhere these creatures appeared. The man grew serious. "Wretched things." He muttered. He looked at us and spoke. "Stay close to me." he ordered. We happily obliged as he killed off the strange monsters. When finished, he seemed out of breath. He chuckled and looked me in the eyes.

"You have marvelous blue eyes Yoko, you know that?" I nodded wordlessly. "Touch the handle of my blade." He directed. I did so and a light blue light surrounded us. "Now when I die, you'll inherit my keyblade. I did this to protect you. I think you can handle it. Your heart is so pure." He explained with a smile. He stood up and I blinked owlishly. He had completely confused me, but he knew I'd figure it out later. Then he left.

"Well that was weird." I stated looking at Ren, who was nodding.

. . .

I looked around with a jolt and remembered we had boarded the gummi-ship after I sealed the keyhole in Halloween Town. It was odd, since I've never done it before, but I felt like I'd done it a million times. I was now sitting in a passenger's seat beside Riku, staring at the blade in my hands.

"Do you know its name?" Riku asked me. I looked at him and shook my head.

"No, not like it really matters, does it?" I queried. He shrugged as the ship landed in a new world. We stood and walked outside. I could actually see in this world, but I probably wouldn't after sunset. We were standing on an island made of ships. Totally trippy. "Where are we now?" I asked. Sora grinned.

"Port Royale." He answered. "There's pirates in this world." He said excitedly. Moriko sighed.

"He wants to be a pirate really badly. It's pathetic." She stated. I giggled at Sora's expression from Mori's comment and looked around. It seemed like a nice enough place, except for the part where there's alcoholic rapist pirates living there. I sighed and walked inside the strange structure. We weaved our way through the place, acting as if we belonged there, though it was hard considering we had the weirdest looking clothes to them. I sighed.

"I'm gonna cast a blending spell again, kay?" I didn't wait for their responses. "Phasmatis of ordo, sino nos ut servo ex meddling per orbis terrarum quod change nostrum vultus tanquam nos erant civitas of orbis terrarum." The familiar light surrounded us and we looked like pirates now. I'm not really gonna describe our clothing since it would take way too long. We headed to the top and came upon a strange gathering of sorts. All pirates. Sora seemed to know three of them.

"Jack!" Sora greeted him. Said pirate turned his head and saw us.

"Oh, Zola, I didn't think I'd be seeing you anytime soon. Especially with another girl as well." He said. Did he call Sora "Zola"?

"Sparrow, ignore the damn twerps and cast your vote!" (Wow, he's Ryan Seacrest!)

"Elizabeth Swan." He said causing the other pirates to gasp, even said girl. I looked at him and smirked. Cool, female on top. Everyone began fighting and we kind of just backed away and watched them. It was actually sort of amusing. Soon the other pirates left and Sora walked up to Jack.

"Jack, why is Barbossa here?" he asked quietly.

"Because he's helping us get rid of bigger baddies." The pirate answered as though it were obvious. "And it seems you finally found yourself a girl, mate. And might I say she's quite the looker." He whispered back. I raised a brow and gave the pirate the worst possible glare I could muster up, causing his eyes to widen. He looked away and cleared his throat. "Well Zola, will you be helping as well?" he asked.

"It's Sora, and sure. Why not?" Sora agreed willingly. I sighed and smacked Sora's head.

"Making a deal with a pirate is as bad as selling your soul to the devil." I scolded him. He smiled sheepishly.

"Oh yeah, she's a keeper." Jack said walking away to Mori and Riku. I glared at him, then at Sora.

"I know we need to find the keyhole, but we can't help them. It's meddling and we could possibly be killed!" I whisper-shouted at him. He gave me the puppy eyes and spoke.

"I'm sorry, but Jack's a good friend."

"He's a pirate. They don't have friends. And to top it off, they're filthy liars and frauds." I spat.

"Okay, that was a bit harsh, don't ya think?" Sparrow butted in from behind us. I gave him the glare again and he looked away, shutting up. Sora continued to give me the puppy dog eyes and I sighed.

"We can help, but if any of us get hurt, we're leaving." I said caving. He smiled in victory and skipped over to Jack.

"What's next Captain?" he exclaimed. One day… I'm gonna murder that boy. I thought maliciously.

"Holy shit!" Moriko screamed as Tia Dalma grew twenty times in height and size. Barbossa said something to her and she screamed with fury. I covered my ears and crouched down as things fell around us. I looked down and saw little crabs crawling to the sides of the ship into the ocean. The ship rocked over sharply and we looked over the edge to see a maelstrom forming. My eyes widened and I looked up at Sora.

"We need to leave!" I shouted at him over the wind. Sora glanced at me then back at the whirlpool we were being pulled into.

"How? We just have to pull through!" he called back. I climbed up the rope net to him and overlooked the battle going over each ship as we slowly went round and round.

"And how do you suppose we do that while we're sailing to our friggin death?" I growled. Our eyes locked for a moment and then Sora shook his head.

"I don't know." He answered. I suddenly felt like impending doom and rushed past the frantic pirates to the hold below. I rummaged through everything and picked up a bottle of rum. Pulling off the cork I took a long swig and sighed in relief.

"Yoko!" Mori's voice shouted above me. I looked up to see her walking down. She gazed at me and gave me an expression of disappointment. "You're drinking?" she asked me. I met her grey-blue eyes and smiled taking another swig.

"Yep! Because nothing says 'impending doom' like a little rum!" I replied cheerfully, walking up the stairs with a sway. I giggled, feeling disoriented, and stumbled over to the side of the ship.

"Du~de, the ugly ship sank and cameback! That's soawesome!" I stumbled over my words, causing them to slur together. I grinned at Sora and waved goofily as another ship in the background blew up. I turned and gasped looking at it with wide eyes. "Holy cow! It blew up!" I shouted. "WOOOOO!" I screamed. The whirlpool disappeared and I gasped in wonder as a giant keyhole appeared in the ocean. "So pretty!" I breathed out. The keyblade appeared in my hands and I clumsily held it at the ocean, sealing the keyhole. Sora looked at me with confusion, then noticed the bottle in my hands. He sighed and Jack walked up to us.

"Rum?" he asked Sora. Sora nodded

"Rum." He answered. I grinned and took another drink. Moriko snatched the bottle from me and threw it off the boat. I pouted.

"Awe… but it was so yummy…" I whined. She gave me a hard glare and pointed at the cabin's door.

"In the cabin and stay there!" she commanded. I sighed.

"Fine." I muttered stalking to the cabin. I walked inside and sat down in a chair while staring at the ceiling. I felt dizzy, but a good kind of dizzy. I giggled and saw Sora enter the room.

"Good lord Yoko. Why'd you drink rum?" he asked me. I blinked owlishly.

"'Why not' is the question, love." I replied, causing him to blush. I smiled brightly then felt drowsy. I leaned my head back and sighed contently, letting sleep overtake me peacefully for the first time in weeks.

. . .

I groaned, feeling a horrible pain in my head. I cracked open one eye and winced at the lights. I opened them both, squinting to see Moriko smirking at me from across the room. I then noticed we were inside Aerith's house. I sighed and leaned back against the chair I was in, listening tiredly to its breathing and heartbeat. I snuggled into it and smiled. Snickering brought me back to reality and I realized chairs don't breathe or have heartbeats. I jumped up and turned to see I was sitting on a sleeping Sora's lap.

I shrieked from shocked and, sadly, that woke up Sora. He jumped from shock and knocked us over. Sora collapsed on me and I looked up at him with probably the reddest face in history. Not to mention we were in a compromising position. Our eyes locked for a moment and he smiled at me sweetly.

"Hey, I was worried you wouldn't wake up." he said happily. I blinked and glanced at Riku, whom had just entered the room. He and Moriko were laughing at me. If even possible, my face grew brighter. Sora looked from them to me with confusion and then realized the fact he had me pinned to the floor.

"GAH!" he shouted falling backward, off of me. "I'm sorry!" he cried. I let out a weak laugh.

"It was an accident." I said before giving Riku and Mori the worst glare on earth. If looks could kill… well actually she would've been dead years ago. He quickly got to his feet and helped me up. We stood in silence awkwardly.

"Would you two just admit you like each other already? Seriously!" Moriko shouted with absolute frustration. My eyes widened and I looked at her, my jaw agape. What amused her and Riku was, Sora and I had the same look. Open jaws, wide eyes and red cheeks.

"Shut up Mori!" I squeaked. Sora just stared at the floor with sudden interest.

"Guys, is everything alright?" Aerith called from the doorway. We all looked over at her and she noticed that we had odd looks on our faces. She gazed at us a moment longer and sighed. "I'll go tell Leon you're awake. Try not to break anything." She told us before closing the door. The front door shut after that and I met Moriko's eyes. She looked amused, frightened and exasperated. I turned my gaze to Riku for a moment and saw him smirking at Sora, and then I looked to Sora. He had a blush as bad as my own and was looking at us all nervously- never one person for more than three seconds.

I let out a sigh and ran out behind Aerith. Instead of heading to the Borough, I headed to the Postern. I ran inside Ansem's study and looked around. My eyes stopped on the portrait of Xehanort on the wall. Anger flared up inside me and I picked up a hard object before chucking it at the man's face. Glass broke against the painting and put a few tears in the paper. That guy royally screwed my life. I moved toward the study's chair and plopped myself down. I leaned back and closed my eyes, trying to ignore the headache creeping over my mind.

"Why hello Yoko. I haven't seen you in a while. How's lover boy?" Yamiko asked with his usual grin. I rolled my eyes.

"Leave me alone you bastard."

"Awe. I thought you liked me. I know Xehanort did." He responded. I hissed.

"Why did that bastard use me? What's so special about my heart!" I demanded. He chuckled.

"I had a feeling you'd ask about that. Your heart is pure. There's no doubting that. But there was something missing in your heart that made it vulnerable to invade."

"Oh, and what's that?" I mocked.

"Unconditional love. Sure, you had Ren. But she was too young to understand the true aspects of love. You had your parents but they died. You had Ansem, but you rarely saw him. You've never experienced someone putting their life on the line for you. That's what's missing. You love unconditionally, but you need it in return. It's a shame you'll never get it." he laughed. I growled and snapped open my eyes, rubbing my temples.

"What did I do to get this damn headache?" I murmured. Then it hit me. "Oh yeah… rum." I stated.

"Yoko!" Kairi's voice rang out. I looked at the doorway and saw her standing there. "Everyone told me to get you. You guys are heading out again." She explained. I nodded and stood up from the chair. We walked out to the others, who were at the gummi ship, and I noticed Moriko and Riku standing with Leon and the others. I raised a brow. Mori caught my confusion and grinned as Kairi pushed me toward the open cockpit door.

"Oh right, me and Riku are gonna sit this trip out to help Leon and everyone here. You and Sora can handle everything alone." She stated nonchalantly. I gave her a nasty glare and she returned it by sticking out her tongue and pulling down on her left eyelid. I sighed.

"Fine." I muttered walking up the ramp, dragging a bemused Sora behind me. The door shut and we sat in the seats. "So where to?" I asked. Sora shrugged and we left Radiant Garden.

I sighed leaning back into the seat and glanced at Sora. He seemed on edge to me. "Sora?" I asked. He looked over at me.

"Yeah?" was his almost non-existent response.

"Are you alright? You seem out of it." I stated. He gave me his signature goofy smile and spoke.

"I'm fine. I was just thinking about that Yamiko guy… How are we supposed to get rid of him?" I froze, letting what he said sink in.

"Oh my God… I haven't even thought about that… My guess would be that he's like a parasite…" I said trailing off.

"So you're saying we'd have to kill you?" he asked with disbelief and worry. I shrugged.

"That might have to be a last resort." I stated softly while looking at my hands.

"What?" Sora shouted. I jumped at the volume of his voice. I met his gaze and cringed at his smoldering eyes. "We would never kill you as a last resort! So don't even think about things like that!" he scolded. I smiled.

"Thanks Sora… I think we should be going…" I said changing the topic. He grinned and nodded. We left for a world that was all too familiar for me… Neverland. Damn Hook. I hated that guy. He had wanted to kill off Sora. We landed on a beach on a small island where his ship was anchored. There were long boats on the shore, so I assumed Hook was here. The moment I stepped out of the ship I was surrounded by pirate minions. "Holy mother of God!" I shouted cringing away at seeing the swords. Sora followed me and mimicked my actions, also surprised.

"Well, looky here. It seems we've caught some codfish Mr. Smee." Hook said. He peered at our faces. "And we know these two. Yes, they're the ones who foiled my plans and killed Maleficent." He stated. I narrowed my eyes at him and he laughed. "Throw 'em in the brig!" he commanded. Just as one stinky pirate reached for my arm an arrow pierced his heart. He tumbled over and then the others ran away seeing a rainstorm of arrows flying toward them.

"Retreat!" Hook shouted. They all fell back and a girl leapt from the trees, landing before us. She smiled widely.

"That'll teach them." She stated. I raised a brow.

"Who're you?" I asked, now filled with curiosity. She looked at me with her chocolate brown eyes and tucked a piece of her black hair behind her right ear.

"I'm Aoi. I'm a vigilante." She stated grinning ear to ear, holding out her hand. Sora deadpanned.

"If you're a vigilante, why'd you tell us if it's illegal." He asked. I gasped.

"It's illegal?"

"And I thought I was the dense one."

"You are the dense one Sora." I retorted. Aoi laughed at our dispute and pulled back her hand.

"I've just been trying to keep the Heartless, Nobody and Soul Eater population growth in check. Don't want them breeding into numerous amounts." She laughed. I raised a brow.

"Alright then." I stated not completely understanding this Aoi character. Sora sighed and looked around for a moment before returning to Aoi's previous statement.

"Wait, you're not from this world then?"

"Nope, I'm from Radiant Garden." She responded. I made a low guttural laugh. Everyone's from Radiant Garden. I find it kind of amusing. Aoi smiled brushing off her pants. "So you guys are from another world as well?"

"Yeah, Destiny Islands." I stated. Sora smiled at me. I guess he was happy I didn't refer to Radiant Garden as my home.

"Oh, I've never been. What's it like?"

"It beautiful. Nice sandy beaches, blue ocean, bright plants. Everyone's nice there too." Sora responded. We stood in silence for a few moments and then I paused.

"Wait, we should go somewhere before those damn pirates come back." I stated. Sora and Aoi nodded and we left after cloaking the gummi-ship. And into the forest we went. I tripped over various roots and rocks on the way and we came upon a tree-house of some sorts. Several male children climbed in the trees, swung from vines, and rushed past us. Aoi did some weird sort of whistle and the kids bustled about even faster than before and a boy in green tights appeared.

I raised a brow when Sora seemed to recognize him and waved enthusiastically. "Sora, you know this fruit?" I asked under my breath. Sora gave me a look and shook his head.

"He's the one who helped us get out of Hook's hold to find you and Kairi. You never met him because you fell unconscious." Sora explained. I folded my arms across my chest and huffed.

"Well." I scoffed. Sora smirked and nudged my side.

"Leave him alone, he helped us out a lot." He scolded. I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever, here he comes."

"Hey Pan." Aoi greeted the fruit. He smiled and saluted her.

"Aoi, my favorite vigilante. And Sora! I haven't seen you in forever. But you're not Moriko…" the fruit said stopping at me. I raised a brow and gave him a look while Sora laughed.

"This is Yoko; she's one of the friends I was looking for when I met you." Sora stated.

"Oh! Peter Pan." He said bowing. I blinked and nodded my head.

"Nice to meet you Pan." I responded as nicely as I could. He nodded and looked at the kids gathered around us.

"Alright Lost Boys, get back to your stations! Hook is upon us!" he called. I made a look of discomfort.

"Great, Hook again." I muttered. Aoi laughed at my expression.

"You know you guys could just leave. I have things under control here. Hook's not much of a concern." Sora nodded.

"Alright, but before we go. Have you seen any creatures that are human sized with a withered decayed body and wearing a black hooded cloak?" he asked them. Pan and Aoi had faces of disgust.

"No, I haven't seen any. You Aoi?"

"Nope. Sorry guys." Aoi apologized.

"No problem. We'll see ya around." Sora stated lifting a hand in farewell. I threw a goodbye over my shoulder and we boarded our gummi-ship.

"Maybe this means Yamiko's weakening?" I suggested, taking my seat beside the pilot's seat. Sora shrugged.

"Either way, we shouldn't take this guy too lightly." Sora added. I sighed in agreement and we left the world. There was an incessant beeping noise and I searched for the source, failing miserably. Sora laughed at me and hit the big red button that screamed: "DO NOT TOUCH" to me. Riku's face appeared on the windshield screen and I fell off my chair in fright.

"HOLY SHIT RIKU! DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" I shouted from the floor. I heard giggles from behind his enormous face and he smirked.

"It's good to see you too, Yoko." He teased. I sat in the seat again looking away, fuming. "Sora, we need you back here. There's a new world on the radar that we researched. You need to see it." he explained. Soon I saw him get pushed out of the monitor's view and Moriko replaced his face.

"Have you two confessed your lo-" I hit the big red button, effectively cutting her off. Sora looked at me with bemusement and I laughed nervously.

"I don't trust her words." I stated looking ahead. "Let's go." He smiled and we headed back to Radiant Garden.

. . .

"So what's this new world?" Sora asked. Riku sighed.

"It seems this place is called the Keyblade Graveyard. I learned from his majesty that there had been a keyblade war there not long ago. People rarely go there and he set up an activity scanner there. It seems that Soul Eaters have been gathering there for the past month or so." I blinked.

"So…?"

"So, I'm guessing something big is going to happen there." He retorted, shutting me up. I pouted and looked away.

"In other words, we're going there to check it out." Kairi stated.

"And we're all going." Moriko added. I blinked.

"Fine, let's go then. I want to get this over with." I murmured walking outside. I sulked over to the Bailey and leaned against the wall, looking over at Villain's Vale from my shoulder.

"Yoko?" Kairi's voice came from behind me. "Are you alright?" she asked. I smiled softly and nodded.

"Yeah. I've just got this feeling that something really bad is going to happen soon. And I don't want to linger anywhere they may be danger for too long." I whispered fingering my different shaped necklace. It brought an odd sense of relief to me, but not for long. Kairi sighed and sat down on the wall beside me.

"You know that we can take care of ourselves. And you have Sora there to help you-"

"That's the problem!" I cut her off. She looked at me with wide eyes. My expression softened and tears moistened my eyes. "I don't want him to be hurt because of me…" I sobbed. She let out a sigh and brought me into a side hug.

"It'll be alright. Riku wouldn't let his best friend get hurt on his life. So you can believe in Riku. And Moriko would do anything to keep you happy." She said wiping my tears. "Now put a smile on your face and let's go check out that world." I smiled and nodded standing up.

. . .

I swept my gaze across the devastated world. It was barren and Keyblades littered the entire area. It looked absolutely horrid. We walked around not seeing a single Soul Eater, but felt the presence. I saw smoky tendrils creeping along the ground. I stepped away from one that was coiling around my left leg, shaking it off. "I don't like it here." I stated plainly. Riku smirked.

"You scared?"

I looked him in the eyes. "Yes." There was a silence. I felt the wind tug at my hair softly and whispers filled my ears.

"Behold... These lifeless keys used to be full of power—united with the hearts of their masters. On this barren soil, Keyblades of light and darkness were locked in combat...as a great Keyblade War raged."

A large dark smoky portal, that was 15 meters in diameter, appeared above our heads, Soul Eaters pouring out and surrounding us. I summoned my keyblade and heard a different voice. It sounded like Eraqus.

The "Mark of Mastery"…

I looked down at my skeleton key keyblade. The one I inherited from Eraqus himself without even knowing. The Soul eaters began approaching us and I took my fighting stance. Sora looked at me with worry and I smiled reassuringly. I slashed through the creatures easily. They didn't even try to attack me. Well, it could do with the fact that my mind contains their master. Hm… works to my advantage. I held out Mark of Mastery with both hands in front of me and a blue fire engulfed the tip of the key teeth. Then my entire body as I burned the creatures to a crisp.

I charged at one about to hit Kairi and it fell away covered in the blue flames. She sent me a look of thanks and I nodded to her. I heard Yamiko laughing at me inside my head. I frowned and appeared before him.

"What's so funny?" I spat. He grinned.

"You're actually trying to fight me. It's not going to work." He stated. I rolled my eyes.

"That's what you think."

"Oh?" he asked grinning. I felt a horrible pain as he stabbed me through my right shoulder. I cringed in pain and returned to the outside world grasping my shoulder. Blood seeped through my shirt. My appearance flickered between that of Yamiko's and mine own. Then I felt as though someone walked out of my body and I fell back, lying in the dirt. I groaned in pain and heard the familiar laugh.

"What's wrong Yoko? Cat got yer tongue?" he asked. I snapped open my eyes and sat up to see Yamiko standing before me.

"Oh my God."

Alright, getting close to the end. One more chapter. Please review my sad little story. But no flames. Flames will only hurt my feelings.

~Luka Grimm