Light and heat had touched her face as Kierra slowly came back from unconsciousness. She only had a slight headache from passing out, but other than that, she was fine.

It was strange to her as she began to familiarize with her surroundings before opening her eyes. She felt the warm sand of the beach underneath her small body and the light that she could feel on her from the sun. She knew she was still on the beach, at least, she hoped she did. That man that was ordered to kidnap her might be playing a trick on her to think she was back home when she really wasn't. Then again, the man didn't seem like the sharpest tool in the shed.

Using her hands to block out the sun, she opened her eyes and saw that she really was still on the beach.

"What happened?" she whispered to herself and closed her eyes back again.

"You fell asleep on the beach again," a voice told her in a laughing tone. "I swear you and Sora are more alike than you two actually admit."

"What?" Kierra sat up in the sand and saw that Kairi was sitting in the sand next to her watching the waves crash into the sand.

"You two are definitely related somehow. You might not have the same parents, but you act like you're brother and sister," Kairi continued to comment. Then she looked at her brunette friend and said, "You both sure like falling asleep on the beach."

Kierra laughed lightly and said, "For the hundredth time, we are not related." Stretching her arms out and letting out a loud yawn, she asked, "How long have I been out?"

"I don't know... I just got here right before you woke up," Kairi answered. "How can you sleep on the beach? Don't you get hot?"

Kierra stayed silent for a moment, debating whether or not to tell Kairi what really happened. With a sigh, she made a decision and said, "Can you keep a secret?"

"Yeah. What's up?" Kairi said, noticing the seriousness in her friend's tone and got curious on what she had to say.

"I really didn't fall asleep on the beach," she started to explain as she looked around to see if anyone was around that could be eavesdropping. She recieved a strange look from Kairi before she continued, "There was this weird man dressed in a black cloak and he wanted to kidnap me. I fought him and I was able to get him on the ground when I felt someone hit me on the back of my neck and I passed out. You believe me, right?"

"Of course, I believe you. With everything that happened a year ago, there's very little I don't believe," Kairi told her.

"Okay, good. I didn't want you to think I was crazy," Kierra said with a small laugh. "But why did that guy want to kidnap me? I'm nothing special. Just a teenaged girl going through life wondering where the heck Riku and Sora are. And who could have made me pass out? And why didn't they take me when I was unconscious? The man's plan was to kidnap me after all, right? Why didn't they take me when they had the perfect chance?"

"You ask too many questions, Kierra. Be thankful you're all right and you have a guardian angel looking out for you."

"Okay, okay. You're right. But still..." Kierra saw the look that Kairi was giving her and stopped. It was one of those rare glares you see from Kairi and when you do, it made anyone want to shut up. "Nevermind."

The two girls stood up to go home when Kierra realized her arm felt a little bare. She looked down and saw that her bracelet was no longer there.

"My bracelet! I lost my bracelet! I have to find it!"

Kierra began to dig through the sand when Kairi grabbed her arm to stop.

"Kierra, the sun is setting. We can come back out here tomorrow to find it when it's brighter out and we can see better."

Reluctantly, the brunette slowly nodded her head and stood back up in the sand. Her most prized possession was missing. She didn't want to leave the beach without it, but she knew Kairi was right. She would never find it in the dark. Plus, her parents would kill her if she stayed out all night to look from a small trinket, even if it meant so much to her.

I have to find that bracelet tomorrow. I just have to...

.: - :.

"It has to be here. It just has to be!" Kierra yelled as she dug through the sand with Kairi beside her helping. "It just has to be."

It was the next day and Kierra had been searching for her bracelet since the sun came up. Kairi came soon after that, knowing exactly how Kierra was with her bracelet, to help. It was late in the afternoon and they have been searching nonstop for the small piece of jewelry, but they had no luck with it. They did find some loose cash, but that didn't matter to Kierra. She was determined to find her bracelet.

"Did you take it off anywhere else?" Kairi asked, still looking around. "We've searched almost every inch of this area of the beach and we found nothing."

"Yes. I was standing right here with it when that guy came and tried to kidnap me... Oh my... I bet that guy took it. That guy took my bracelet and is now planning on using it as bait to reel me into a trap and take me away. That evil-"

"Kierra! Calm down. I think you're over exaggerating a little bit."

"No, I can't calm down. If I don't have that bracelet when Riku comes home, he'll... he'll..." By the end of her sentence, her voice cracked a little bit and she stopped digging in the sand.

"I see..." Kairi whispered and stopped also. "Riku gave it to you."

"Yeah..." Kierra said in the same tone as her friend. "I had this funny idea that when he returns, he'll see that I'm still wearing the bracelet he gave me a while ago and know that I've been waiting for him to come back and everything will go back to the way it was before all this happened with the worlds and stuff."

Kairi slowly stood up after hearing her explanation and looked out into the ocean. She looked so deep in thought so Kierra decided not to talk anymore.

"Maybe... waiting isn't good enough," she spoke. It was like she wasn't talking to Kierra anymore. It sounded like she was talking more to herself than anyone else.

My thoughts exactly," a voice said from no where. It was unfamiliar to both of the teenaged girls and they looked around to see if they could find the body the voice belonged to. "If you have a dream, don't wait. Act. One of life's little rules. Got it memorized?"

Kierra stood up and began to look around quickly around her, waiting for anything unexpectedly to happen. Strange things have been happening to her and she could tell that this was one of those strange things.

"Who are you?!" she yelled out to whomever was talking.

Then right on the beach, a dark black and purple showed up and a man much taller than her appeared. He had bright red hair that stood out like a sore thumb. It was spiked back so that it somewhat resembled a porcupine. His flashing green eyes stood out just as equally while the two small green specks on each of his cheek bones finished his facial features. His clothes were just like the other two strange men Kierra had met: a black cloak.

"My name is Axel. I happen to be an acquaintance of Sora's," the man who called himself Axel answered. Kierra gave him a glare not quite believing he knew Sora while Kairi looked at him curiously.

"What does you knowing Sora have anything to do with being here?" Kierra asked him. "Why are you here?"

Axel didn't look in Kierra's direction at all. He just looked at Kairi and held out his hand. "I can take you to see him."

"..Sora?"

"Kairi, don't believe him. This could be a trap," Kierra tried to tell her friend. "He's wearing the same outfit one of his gooney friends was wearing when he tried to kidnap me."

Kairi took a moment to think of what to do. Kierra looked at her, not understanding why she was even thinking about what to do next. In that time, a dog barked, interrupting her thoughts and the two girls turned their attention to the yellow dog with big eyes and a long skinny black tail.

"Pluto?" Kierra said, confused why the King's pet was in her world. "How did he..."

Suddenly, four white figures appeared around Kierra, Kairi, and Pluto. They almost reminded Kierra of heartless, but they looked so different. She came to the conclusion that they couldn't be heartless with how they looked.

W-What are these things? she thought as she continued to look at the strange forms surrounding them.

A whistle was soon heard and another dark cloud appeared behind the two girls. Pluto ran into the portal but not without giving a bark that said to follow.

"You two and I have something in common. We all miss someone we care about," Axel added, trying to convince the girls to go with him.

Kairi finally made her decision and ran over to the portal while saying, "There's no way I'm going with you!"

Kierra ran to catch up with her. This could be the only way to find Riku and she wasn't going to let anything get in her way from that. Too bad she felt something grip her arm and made her stop from going to the portal.

"Let go!" she yelled at her captor and saw that it was Axel who was holding onto her. "Didn't you hear me the first time? I said let go!"

"Sorry. I can't do that," he said with a smirk.

"And why not?" she asked angrily as she saw the dark portal dissipate. She huffed and glared daggered at the red-head holding her arm. "There goes my last chance to find him. No thanks to you."

"I can help you find Riku."

"Like I'm going to fall for that one again. One of you pals already tried that one on me," Kierra said while rolling her eyes. "I doubt you even know who he is."

"Silver hair, torquios eyes, cocky attitude? Yeah, I know him."

Kierra gasped, not really expecting him to know who Riku was. Then she, going against her intincts, actually thought about what to do. To trust this Axel guy who was most likely on the same team as the last dork who tried to kidnap her or to punch him right in the nose. Now she understood why Kairi hesitated before.

Before she knew it, a force pushed her into the warm sand and she was no longer in Axel's grip.

"What the..." She couldn't finish her sentence because the person who she figured pushed her down was standing in front of her. And the person was the man from her dream. Even though she had seen many people with the same outfit and his hood was up, she could tell just by feeling his presence that it was the same man from her dream. "It's you... From my dream... But how..."

"There's no time. Get out of here," the man ordered her and she scoffed in response. She doesn't run away from anything.

"No way. I want to fight," she told him and stood up. She stood next to him with her fists up in front of her, ready to throw a punch in a blink of an eye. She noticed the mysterious man holding something that seemed very familiar to her. What the... That looks like a...

While she was in her daze, the man began to fight Axel. The man tried to keep Axel's attention away from Kierra but it didn't go according to plan.

"Watch out!"

"What?" Before Kierra could look to see what was going on, she saw Axel's spiked wheeled weapon aka chakram was coming straight at her. There wasn't enough time to dodge it so she quickly placed her arms in front of her to help protect her body. The next thing she knew, she was thrown back and hit her head on a large rock. Soon she became light headed and then blacked out.

Yep... This chapter sucks, I'm sorry... The next chapter will be better. Kierra will finally get out of her mini depression and show her true personality. :D I'll try to post the next chapter as soon as I can.