I own nothing.

~Overcoming Fears~

Chapter 4: When in Rome

I felt something wet and slimy slide up my cheeks, slowly waking me up. I slowly took in my surroundings…a dark alleyway with a panting orange dog. "What a dream…" I commented sleepily. Well, sleepily until the dog pounced on me. "Wha!" I startled awake. "This isn't a dream! Where am I? Oh, boy." I stood.

"Do you know where we are?" I asked the dog, bending down to see it better. Of course, it ran off. "Hey!" I called, straightening. "Are you OK? Hello?"

"Excuse me?" a woman's gentle voice finally shook me awake—just like Sora in my dream. I hoped this wasn't going to become a regular thing, because these dreams are really freaking me out.

"Five more minutes," I groaned, rolling over. With a fedora on, that isn't really the most comfortable position. The woman chuckled.

"I'm sorry, but…do you happen to have a key?"

I opened my eyes, startled, to find a very pretty woman looking down at me, concerned. She had long, brown hair, a pink dress, and an overlarge pink bow. There were a lot of things I could've said right then, but the only thing that I could think of was "You look like my friend Anna!"

The woman smiled. "I hope that's a complement. Do you have a key, though?"

"This?" I asked, summoning my weirdo weapon. She nodded.

"I'll be back," she said, rising. "I need to go find a few people. My name's Aerith," she added, walking out the door.

"Just great," I muttered. "Leave me to sit here and ponder." Luckily, she returned quickly…with a duck and a dog.

"Who are you!" the duck yelled, pointing.

Aerith shushed him. "You all might need to sit down, and hear the whole story."

Not looking too happy about it, the duck did sit, and the dog placed himself peacefully next to me. "The creatures on your world are known as heartless," she explained. "They wanted your heart because you wield the keyblade."

"The Keyblade?" I asked, head cocked. Isn't that what Sora said on the islands?

Aerith nodded. "There are many other worlds out there besides your castle, your world, and this town.

"Yeah," the duck said impatiently.

"But they're supposed to be a secret!" the dog explained, covering his mouth.

I rolled my eyes. "It's a little late for that," I pointed out. The duck glared.

"They've been secret before because they've never been connected," Aerith pointed out. "Until now."

"Wait, what?" I asked, completely lost.

"When the heartless came, everything changed," Aerith continued good-naturedly.

"Just what are the heartless?" I questioned.

"They are beings without hearts," Aerith said.

"Figured that out for myself, thanks," I muttered. "Not like it was hard."

Expertly tuning out my rambling, she went on. "They are attracted to the darkness in people's hearts. And every heart holds some darkness. This is what Ansem discovered."

"Ansem?" the dog asked, confused. You know, I should probably get their names, but for now, I'll nickname the dog Bob and the duck George. Those names just seem to fit them.

"He was studying the heartless. He recorded all of his findings in a very detailed report."

"Gawrsh, uh, can we see it?" Bob asked, hand held out. I decided that I liked Bob.

"It's pages are scattered everywhere!" Aerith exclaimed almost too quickly for my taste.

"Scattered?" George asked, his permanent scowl deepening. Bob is cooler, I couldn't help but think.

"You know, put in random places? Not all together? Not here?" I explained impatiently.

"I know the definition!" he yelled at me. I shrugged it off. I got the feeling that George and I would not be good friends, even if I do figure out his real name.

Completely oblivious to our little spat, Bob pounded a fist on his hand. "Oh, then maybe the king went to find them!" I decided not to ask who the king was. It would just raise questions. George nodded.

"Yes, those were my thoughts exactly," Aerith commented.

"We've gotten find him quick!"

"Umm…random question here," I commented, "but what are your names?"

"I'm—" my dear friend George was cut off when Bob said, "Gawrsh, my name's Goofy!"

"Donald Duck!" Donald added from around his shoulder. "What about you?"

"I'm Lexi," I replied, nodding. "Nice to meet you. Now, could you just tell me what happened to my world?"

"Wait!" Donald exclaimed. "First we need those 'keys!'"

"That's right. The Keyblade," Aerith interrupted, causing us all to stare at her. Unconsciously, I summoned Lock and Key into my hand. "The heartless have great fear of it. They will constantly be trying to steal your heart."

"But why?" I asked desperately, holding out my keyblade. "It's not like I wanted this."

"The Keyblade chooses its master. It has chosen you," she explained quietly.

I frowned. "How did I even get here? All I remember is…hey, wait! Where's Broderick? Or Riku? Or Kairi?" I looked around desperately, as if they would just appear out of thin air. Unfortunately, the air was just as boring as always.

"I can't be sure," Aerith admitted.

I scowled. "Well, I can't just sit here! I have to go look for them!" I stood, but Goofy pulled me back down.

"Gawrsh, how about we find the other key and then you can chose to leave or stay?" he pleaded. I sighed, but nodded, and the four of us started to walk down the hall, which was apparently where we were supposed to be moving. And then, something made my day.

Donald was slammed against the wall.

If you'd have been there, you would laughed, too. Truthfully, I literally collapsed. It was just that funny. I laughed even harder when I realized that he was pretty much flat against the wall.

When he came unstuck, he scowled at me, and I stopped, giving him a glare of my own. I stood and, after adjusting my sunglasses slightly, we started to run forward.

We were standing on a balcony when these three weird things in armor suddenly popped up. "Gawrsh, are these the heartless guys?" Goofy questioned, raising his shield to block his face.

"Let's go get 'em, Goofy!" Donald yelled, running forward.

Now, I don't claim to be an expert on fighting, but I did know that Donald was doing something wrong. "Donald, you're going to get thrown"—he and Goofy flew through the air—"off." I sighed, shaking my head, before taking off my own battle stance and fighting off the supposed heartless.

When I looked back down, a very strange sight greeted me. There was a huge heartless-thing, and Donald and Goofy were fighting, which I expected. But next to them was someone, I was not expecting to see…

I slashed downward with my keyblade as a jumped down, landing a good, solid hit on the back of the thing's head. "Sora?" I yelled after landing on the ground.

"Lexi?" he yelled back, but we really didn't have time for a proper reunion. My instincts went into overdrive; slash, dodge, stab, repeat. Pretty soon, only the head and the torso were left, and they pretty much imploded before sending a crystal heart into the sky and disappearing.

I grinned at Sora. "Miss me?" I asked.

He, on the other hand, was gawking like an idiot. "When did you get here! And—you have them too? Since when—"

"I showed you back on the islands, remember?" I rolled my eyes. "Or were you in your trance then?"

After a few moments of introductions and reuniting, Sora (as always) started to ask questions. "So, you were looking for us?" he asked Donald and Goofy, gesturing to himself and me.

"Uh-huh," they nodded.

"They, too, have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade," said some random voice, and I turned to see a guy with long brown hair. A black-haired ninja girl nodded in agreement.

"Hey, why don't you come with us? We can go to other worlds on our vessel!" Goofy commented.

"I wonder if I could find Riku and Kairi," Sora commented, leaning his head down.

"Or Broderick," I added, giving out a frown of my own.

"Of course," Donald commented. He and Goofy exchanged a few whispers, which made me a bit suspicious.

"Sora, umm…other girl, go with them. Especially if you want to find your friends," said the brown-haired guy.

"Yeah, I guess…" Sora looked sort of depressed, which was the weirdest thing I'd seen all day, and that includes talking animals.

I guess I must've looked pretty sad, too, because Donald kept looking between us. "You guys can't come along looking like that, understand? No frowning. No sad face, OK?"

"Yeah," Goofy agreed, invading Donald's personal space. "You gotta look funny, like us!"

"I don't think that's how he meant it, Goofy," I commented, a smile flickering onto my face.

Donald pushed Goofy to the side. "This boat runs on happy faces!"

"Happy?" Sora asked. Then he looked up with the cheesiest grin I'd ever seen. There was a heartbeat of silence until, for the second time that day, I had collapsed laughing.

"Oh…my…gosh!" I panted out. "Sora, that's hilarious!"

Donald and Goofy were laughing, too. "That's one funny face!"

Sora shrugged. "OK, why not? I'll go with you guys." He looked at me for approval, and I nodded.

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do," I commented. "All right, I'm in."

"Donald Duck," Donald commented, putting his hand in.

"Name's Goofy," Goofy grinned, doing the same.

"I'm Sora," Sora continued.

"Don't forget Lexi!" I piped up, completing the group with my hand.

"All for one, one for all," Goofy said, obviously pleased.

I snorted. "We're not exactly the three musketeers, but OK."


Meanwhile…

In a small, secluded room, a small green platform was laid out, and the four friends were shown talking about them. "Those little squirts took down that Heartless! Who would have thought it?" a smooth voice asked.

The next person in the circle spoke in some strange accent. "Such is the power of the Keyblade. The child's strength is not his own."

"Why don't we turn him into a Heartless?" a scratchy, female voice asked before laughing hard. "That would settle things quick enough."

"And the brat's friends are the king's lackeys." another voice exclaimed. "Swoggle me eyes, they're all bilge rats by the look of them."

"You're no prize yourself," said another voice with a high laugh.

"Shut up!" the first voice yelled, showing a shining hook for a hand.

"Enough," said the final voice, and it had a ring of authority that caused everyone to look at her. "The Keyblades have chosen them. Will it be they who conquer the darkness? Or will the darkness swallow them? Either way, they might be quite useful…" the green witch starved hungrily at the platform. "And the girl…she is the protector. We could definitely use her."


"Not to bother anyone," I commented off-handedly, "but THIS HURTS!"

At the moment, we were all on the gummy ship that Donald and Goofy had apparently brought with them. Will the three of them got cushy chairs, I was stuck sitting on the floor and banging my head against the wall every time we bounced. Not the best experience. "Gawrsh, we're almost there!" Goofy exclaimed. I rolled my eyes.

"Next time, one of you is sitting back here," I declared, glaring. Sora and Donald both rolled their eyes, so I glared harder.

"We're here!" Donald declared before turning to me. "All right, you first."

"What?" I asked, working to scramble away from his staff. "No way! No magi—"

Oh, that duck was going to get it!

I watched as my three companions (not really friends, because I didn't know them well enough) alighted softly upon the ground. Goofy, from his spot on the floor, looked around. "Uh, where's Lexi?"

"DONALD, I WILL KILL YOU!" I yelled from the type of my lungs. Unlike them, I'd been speeding towards the ground at at LEAST 95 mph, and was now hanging onto a ledge for dear life.

Donald opened his mouth to say something, but it was lost when a small white rabbit in a suit hopped by. "Oh, great," I muttered. "More talking animals."

"Oh, my fur and whiskers!" it yelled. "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! I'm here, I should be there! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! The queen, she'll have my head for sure!"

They all nodded at each other before running after it. "HEY!" I yelled. "Thanks a lot, guys!" I took a deep breath before letting go and plunging downwards.


Six pages! That should satisfy some of you. Well, from the beginning to now I've been doing it the lazy way (AKA YOUTUBE!), but from now on I'm actually going to play the game so that I get the speech-bubble-things too. This story's going a bit faster than I thought it would, but it'll probably slow down within the next couple chapters.

Thank you to:

Those who alerted this story:

Edward Cullen's Girl

Those who favorited this story:

…I really hope this isn't some pattern we're developing…

Review responses:

Lele-the-Greek-Geek: Aw, come on! Not even a hint? Please?

Yay! Regular reviewer! I feel so accomplished…

Glad I did something unexpected…I think.

Pomegranata: Awesome! I have a fan. That is so cool that you're so much like Lexi! I think it would make any story more interesting to relate to the main character, don't you?