AN: I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Final Fantasy, or anything else awesome mentioned in the following chapter. I am nothing more than a fan and only have claim to my OCs and this story. Also, thanks to White Eclipse of Misfortune, delphigirl689, I-Rock-And-You-Know-It (sorry you got cut off), and blackizwhite for Favoriting, Following, or Reviewing. Also thanks to anyone who waited for this. :) You all get Nami chibis!

IV: Blue to Red…

That's How Spilt Blood Works

I really need to start thinking more about my actions before I do them. I mean, look at the mess I've gotten myself into now.

After King Mickey withdrew the meeting, many of the members teleported out of there without even acknowledging my existence. Rude, right? Whatever, I'd deal with them later. Those who had stayed left their thrones like normal super-powered beings and jumped to the floor with ease. The king and his followers were already evacuating the room when I was getting myself off the ground. Only Kairi, her ever-present beam, and one other bothered to wait for me. The figure was taller than us girls with a broader built leading me to suspect they was male.

They laughed lightly and pulled back their hood, revealing a chocolate catastrophe on his head. "Ha ha, welcome to the club. I'm Sora, Kairi's one and only fantabulous boyfriend." When offered a hand, I shook it. It was a firm shake with a lot of bounce to it.

"Fantabulous?" I giggled, my brow quirked.

"Fantabulous," he recited back. I had to laugh at that; it had been too long since there'd been something to laugh about. From his hair to his apparent personality, this boy was quite a card. Already, I was adding another new friend to my list (I was already doing better than middle school), but I had to wonder-could these people really accomplish Mickey's grand plan? They didn't exactly scream "world-saving vigilante" like Batman or someone else cool. My eyes narrowed in thought, Perhaps there is more to these characters than meets the eye. All well, only time will tell.

Kairi, Sora, and I finally left the meeting room, but the hall was empty. We entered the elevator and the boy pressed for a floor I had not yet seen (which isn't saying much since I've only been on like three floors…You know what, you don't care about this. Let me stop). The doors slid open to reveal a level that was also all one room. It seemed to be a lounge of sorts with couches, La-Z-Boys, a kitchenette area, coffee tables, and entertainment systems, all in white of course. Those who I assumed were the ones to walk away were hanging around, their cloaks removed. They were, much to my shock, a bunch of teenagers and young adults all around my age. Demyx was seated along with a flaming redhead, a large silver-haired guy, a black-haired pixie, and an African-American girl. Vanitas was reclined, drinking a can of something. Mickey was conversing with Donald and another man-lanky, slouched posture, olive skin tone, and baggy clothes. When we entered though, the universe suddenly orbited me.

IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV

Stop looking. Stop looking. Stop looking. Stop looking. Stop looking. Stop looking!

"Well, she's definitely not what I expected." The pixie was the first to verbally express her opinion of me. I had been forced into a seat in the middle of the room while all eyes roamed my person, judging me. Seriously, guys, I don't even know your names yet! My gaze flicked fretfully to Mickey's obsidian one over with the adults, observing off to the side, but the pebble-like surfaces gave away no emotions. You lie, Mouse! I didn't feel like an "equal", like I "belonged", at all. I was the new kid.

It felt like f**kin' high school.

The ebony-haired girl, who was shorter than me, was leaned into the muscular, hot one (not exaggerating here). "Definitely nothing much." Her friend remained silent and withdrawn.

I'd decided not to like this girl.

She acted like she had heard of me somewhere and I ended up being just a disappointment to her, a waste of her precious time. Well, hate to break this to ya', sweetheart, but I'm not here for your entertainment. Hey, I think I feel another song coming on.

I'm not here for your entertainment,

You don't want to mess with me tonight.

Just stop and take a second,

I was fine before you walked into my life…

"She's cute, though," the compliment jarred me from my Pink. It was the male redhead; he was tall and skinny, but his clothes hung tight to his wiry frame. Something unnerving glinted in his jade cat gaze, "Like a bunny rabbit or something…" he licked his lips spread into a Cheshire grin. I blushed at the comment and tucked a flaxen strand behind my ear self-consciously. This caused him to chuckle.

Name: Axel

Age: 20

Number VIII, the Flurry of Dancing Flames, Ax, Aku

Rating: Sexual predator

The unfamiliar man with Donald and Mickey chastised him playfully, "Aw shucks, Axel, you've done embarrassed the poor girl. Don't want to get him on ya' now, do ya'?" I could here the black-haired midget growl. The man spoke in a deeper tone than most anyone there and had a southern drawl. I looked at him curiously at who he meant by "him", but their focus was still on me.

"Yeah," Demyx agreed, but with who is a mystery. "She's not scary or evil like Aqua and Kai here, so how in the world did you struggle with her, Vani-OWW!" A can to the head silenced any more from the dirty-blonde.

"Get him, Vani-Nii!" Kairi cheered him on, "No one calls me evil!"

The raven man pulled his gaze from the whining musician to her. "Don't cam Vani, Nii, or both, princess," he told her in an irritated fashion. She returned with a tongue stuck out at him childishly. Just as quickly as their attention was on me, I was freed from the spotlight as other things interested them more. My redheaded new friend skipped over to the couch and sat next to me, still pouting over her spout with Vanitas. She gladly informed me on those I didn't know:

Goofy was the man with the king and doctor. He apparently worked as some personal guard to Mickey although he liked to think of himself as something of a knight. The guard wasn't the brightest light bulb, but the extent of his loyalty and heart was a rarity. Goofy's curse is elasticity.

Name: "Goofy" (real name unknown)

Age: 40-somethin'

Goofy (we've been over this), Stretch, Sir Knight Goofs-A-Lot (by himself)

Rating: Dumber than one hammer

Axel, as Goofy stated, was a bit older than them, but you'd never guess it by his behavior. He's cocky, crude, immature, perverted, lazy, and devious with a love for everything related to fire (which would explain his gift). Kairi says he's not that bad and is actually a lot of fun, but I'd have to see for myself after that "bunny" comment.

Riku (the hunk) was hers and Sora's childhood friend. He's all "Mr. Cool", but wasn't one of the mean, snobby, jerks that populated my high school. He's blessed with illusion manipulation. I couldn't see why he'd hang out with Xion if he was really such a great guy.

Name: Riku

Age: 17

Number IV, Silver Tongue, Ri-kun

Rating: *drool*

Speaking of, Xion's the woman who irked me. Strike that, girl who irked me. She's only 15, 15! Yeah, I am her senior and she has the nerve to disrespect me like this…and don't tell me I'm overreacting! I know overreacting-you have not seen me overreacting. She has umbrakinesis (shadow manipulation for you Latin-impaired individuals). How fitting.

Name: Xion

Age: 15

Number X, the Shadow Dancer, Xi, XiXi

Rating: Bi-Otch

Lastly, the littlest of us all was named Clover-14, happy-go-lucky, hyper with moments of maturity, and apparently Demyx's "very, bestest friend". His words, not mine. Her name goes well with her green eyes and chlorokinesis.

Name: Clover

Age: 14

Number XII, the Nymph of Blossoming Rage, Tulip, T

Rating: A rose…

I shook my head in disbelief with a small smile tugging at the corners of my lips. "Who are you people?" I asked no one in particular.

"Consider us your new family," Mickey answered my rhetorical question. Seriously? He's worse than a guidance counselor, this so-called king. His smile was kind and I'm sure he meant what he said, but that couldn't stop a painful sting from piercing my heart. I had already lost my birth family in the Triple T as he informed me and now I had to let go of my adopted family. Sultan had taken a chance with this poor, pitiable orphan girl and now I must have brought him only shame and calamity with the mishap with Marluxia. Aladdin must be out of his mind with worry despite the circumstances, which probably reflected negatively on his monkey. And Jaz, oh Jaz. She just wasn't my best friend, but my sister! We shared everything with each other from her teenage romances to my nightmares and headaches (honestly I don't see what she had to complain about, I'm the one obviously missing out on life). But I'll walk this path alone without her; with the weight of a Nobody's responsibility as mine to bear alone. I had to say good-bye, if only in my heart.

During my inner monologue, I failed to notice Mickey give me and Kairi orders and then, her guide my spacing person from the lounge. When I was coming down from my daydreaming high, I began to realize what was going on. Kairi was taking me back to the floor with the rooms(the third). Then I realized the strange door from before, the only one without a roman numeral, was mine. They had known I was coming, I wondered, but…for how long?

It was safe to say that I was surprised by the appearance of my room; it was, in a word, perfect. Like, creepily, perfect. The room itself didn't vary much from the rest of the building being mainly white except for a few touches of light blue. All the necessary furnishings were there along with an intricately-designed vanity mirror I'd probably never use, unlike the book cases and flat screen. However, what really stole my heart was the little art setup.

There was an easel already prepared with a canvas and a whole shelf dedicated to an array of supplies and notebooks. And with the utter blankness of the room, I only assumed I could paint on the walls as well. I immediately went to embrace the items, feeling more at home than ever before. My fingers brushed the smooth, painted wood lovingly and traced the rings holding things. It was as magical as a fairy tale to a little girl to an artist like me, if not more so since it was actually mine. Oh, the many wonderful things I could do with that stuff.

I had to back away before I started drooling and embarrassed myself any more in front of my company. Kairi was watching me like a pleased mother. My attention 'stead went towards one of the two large windows. Walking over to the nearest one, I was able to get a glimpse of the beauty out yonder.

The room had a view of one of the immaculate gardens. The flowers and stone fixtures would be great inspiration. It would change consistently with the seasons creating an eternal muse. The current season of fall displayed before me warm-colored trees, leaves blowing across the ground, seasonal plants, and a honey glint off the fountains' water.

Falling back onto my plush white bed, a dreamy sigh escaped my lips. Kairi giggled, "Like it? Ven worked had to try to get it to be just like a dream." I snorted, This is very far from my dreams. A part of me did nag me about how this "Ven" knew what I would want, but I rolled over, face making out with a pillow, to silence my suspicions. If I was to join these people, my fellow Nobodies, I would have to learn to trust them…like "my new family". I snorted again, flaring my nostrils unattractively.

"Try to get some sleep," she continued, "You'll need to be well rested for tomorrow is when the work begins."

Another snort, Easier said than done.

IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV

My new BFF returned in the evening of the next day to get me for lunch. I'd been awake for awhile by then, but I just didn't feel like getting out of bed. After a taste of this magical mouth yesterday, it refused to let me go. But when Kairi arrived and quite literally dragged me to the cafeteria, we had to make a sweet, sorrowful farewell.

Lunch was pleasantly anything I wanted, but I could barely stomach the idea of anything more than soup. However, the cook-a tall, fit African-American woman name Clarabelle, wouldn't have that and piled some meat onto my plate. I barely got a chance to feel queasy before Kairi whisked me away again.

"Where's the fire?" I joked, the usual teasing tone not quite there.

She looked back at me quizzically, "Oh? Sorry, but today marks your first day of training with your blessing."

"Ok…?" I slurred, still not seeing the rush.

Laughing dryly, she looked away. "Sorry again, but you see, your…trainer, I guess you could say, isn't exactly the most likeable person." Then she muttered, "I don't even know why he was chosen, Daisy should've been the best choice since she's blessed too and all." I would've asked her more, but my brain was occupied with sending alert signals about the loss of blood flow in the hand she was crushing.

Suddenly, the horrifying image of Vanitas with a whistle around his thick neck and a sweat band entered my mind. The disgusted shivers didn't come until his image morphed into a certain black-haired junior. I'd much rather get bossed around by the imposing man than bow to that shrimp's command. Hm, probably a first for him. However, when the two of us finally did get to the training room, my feet came to an immediate halt. Kairi started trying to coax an explanation out of me, but I was blind, deaf, and mute to all but who was in front of me.

He stood, leant against the door to a large closed-off area, looking irritated and slightly bored. The Organization cloak fit him perfectly, just showing the curves of his chest and arm muscles. His eyes were hidden at the moment by the lowest-hanging fringe of his golden spikes, but I knew all too well what they looked like. It was imprinted on my heart, brain, and soul.

My breath caught as my eyes stayed glued to him and I severely hoped the raucous pounding in my ears was my hearts beating sporadically. Can this…my inner voice couldn't even phrase the notion at the risk of being crushed if proved false, Can this really be you? I begged him mentally.

While I remained awestruck, Kairi had stepped up to him and the two seemed to be having a heated argument. It was probably about my lateness, but I really couldn't have him mad at me; it was Kairi's fault for letting me sleep in, anyway. She seemed to be losing the fight against the boy's stoic persona. Finally, she gave a dissatisfied huff, a roll of her deep eyes, and conceded, twirling around causing her ruby tresses to float up. I didn't identify the sound of her footfall nearing until the pressure of her manicured hand was on my shoulder, snapping me out of my daze (if only to not be rude like some people).

A sympathetic smile formed on her tilted face. "Good luck with that one," she wished sincerely. Little did either of us know at the time just how much luck I would need.

Freed from my trance, I was assaulted with the realization that I was alone with him.

My line of sight moved ever so slowly,as if frightened, to line up with the other blonde. I was sweating out of nervousness and my mouth was dry. I really wanted the first words I say to him in person to be something memorable. Something that would put our love story on track. Taking a deep breath, eyes closed, I was shocked back to find him standing in front of me when they opened. Oceanic eyes glared coldly into my chicory ones, snuffing out all intelligent thought.

"You're. Late," he growled lowly. Oh my God, his voice. Even if he was berating me, hearing his dark, velvety voice for the first time through my real ears was a heart-melting,weak-in-the-knees experience. One of many I hoped to come.

The two of us continued to look into each others eyes, like we were having a moment, until I realized he was waiting for some kind of response. This is it; brain, don't fail me now! "H-h-h-hIII!" I squeaked, pitch rising at the end. My cheeks colored to match my friend's hair. Nooooo! Darn you, brain. Darn you to he~ck.

He blinked, giving away no hints of emotions through his eyes, only his scowl deepening. With a jerk, he walked away grumbling, and flexing and unflexing his fists. I could only gawk as a response to our first real-life meeting. I mean, what the hell?! W-What about the dreams?! Doesn't he know or remember?! The boy didn't seem very impressed with my "dying-fish" impersonation.

A perfectly arched brow rose on his head, "Problem?" He must have taken my silence as a "no". "Good. Well, we should start with seeing what you can do. You can at least use your blessing, right?"

I remained silent, irking him and causing him to rumble a low growl. That sound, like an animal's, brought me out of my infuriated, confused inner monologue. I rummaged through my brain to try to remember how I had done it the last two times. But I'd been so emotional, I doubt I was really in control, then. And it was pointless looking at how Vanitas, Donald, and Kairi did it because it was second nature to them by now. So how was I to do it; I couldn't make anymore of a fool of myself in front of him.

Breathing slowly, I softened my gaze and tried to find that warm light inside me. I knew it brought me headaches so I returned to searching my brain, picturing a hovering little ball of light. I could almost grasp it with my mind fingers.

I found something to test it on, a wheelie chair pushed under a control panel of buttons and monitors. Not quite sure what to do with the light, I tried "activating" it and found the chair moving to the center of the room. Feeling quite proud of myself, I looked at him waiting for some sort of praise.

He snorted.

"That's all you got?" he spat and snorted again with a roll of those blue eyes. The boy made his way to the control panel, nabbing up the chair as he went, and sat down, leaning back in it lazily. He played with the doo-hickeys, continuing to speak without looking at me, "We're gonna have to start you out on 'Beginner'. God; that's even below Level 1." His long bangs were blown out of those eyes with a puff of air.

Gawking was starting to become my normal reaction to him. He continued to fiddle with the contraption, raising machines and platforms from the floor of what must be their training room. Once done, he sauntered down the stairs to the room, waving me in after him, and I followed mechanically.

He finally faced me, hands in his pockets, once we reached the gadgets he summoned. "I'm going to be attacking you with these so just try not hurt yourself."

I nodded numbly and he pressed a button on a tall, cylindrical machine. It started turning and I had to jump out of the way quickly when a metal disk came flying my way. More came at me and I continued to barely dodge them for at least a good quater hour. I was too focused on tyring not to get hurt like he said to really do anything. Of course, he didn't notice or care. "What are you doing?!" he yelled at me. I spared him a glance allowing a disk to whiz too close to my face and cut a thing red line across my cheek.

Then he chose to pause the machine. He continued, "This exercise is to test your blessing not your reflexes, which, by the way, are shotty at best! You waste too much energy and that reaction time will get you killed in this business!" We stared heatedly at one another, but then he suddenly restarted the exercise and I was back to work. Ass.

If this was an anime, a vein would've popped just then. My psychic powers kicked in on full blast, and I was able to take a break and just force the onslaught of disks away with my mind. If I wasn't so peeved at the moment, I probably would be feeling like a frickin' Jedi or something, but no. I was supposed to be learning how to fight without having to get all emotional, but he was making that impossible.

The anger started to affect my abilities and I was defending myself with ease. But then, he had to press another stupid, f**king button, upping both the speed and number. I was pushed harder, but still not breaking much of a sweat.

"Naminé!" That was the first time he said my name, but it was all wrong. So wrong. "Don't you get it? 'Nough defense, attack!" He sure was yelling a lot, but he definitely had no reason to be angry. No, that was me.

Seeing red, I psychically gathered up the offending metal circles before launching them back from whence they came. They hit their targets one right after the other, but I had collected one more. Without thinking things through again, I hurtled it at the jackass. Something dark flashed through the air and deflected it, but I was more concerned with him.

He was literally quivering with rage and his eyes, which I previously adored so much, were actually red. Blue blood dripped through his fingers from his fists being balled so tight. "What is wrong with you?" he demanded so evenly I flinched, suddenly fearing him in this state.

But I digress.

"Wrong with me? No, what is wrong with you?!" I screamed, "Do you have any idea how long I've fantasized about finally meeting my blue-eyed boy and you turn out like this?!" Now, I was shouting with my hands gesturing towards him dramatically. "Or do you just not know what affect you had on me even though I don't even know your stupid name?"

A part of me relaxed when his eyes returned to normal, though they narrowed. "Roxas." Oh so that's your name, well news-flash! That's not important right now. "And that doesn't matter; it never did," he looked away from me as if not being able to look at the destroyed, crumbling look on my face. His volume dropped, "You know my name, but that's all you know about me." With finality, he leapt from where he stood and crashed through the large glass window of the control room (Really? Drama Queen, much?).

So he did know? In a way, that was the last nail in the coffin of my broken heart. I was numb again. To the world, to my fatigue, to the hot tears streaming down my face, and to Kairi, feet crunching on all the broken glass when my legs finally decided to leave.

I felt another mini coma coming on, but I wouldn't succumb this time. He, Roxas, couldn't mean that much to me; I wouldn't let him. It had to be that I was just more wrecked about the whole Nobody change than I originally though. Yeah, that was it.

Although, that didn't stop me from running up and sucker-punching the douche when he randomly walked around a corner, chatting and laughing with some tall and leggy, blue-haired skank. Frankly, it was a very terrible and awkward way to me the Ventus "Ven" I'd heard so much about (and so misfortunately happened to be his (yeah, we're back to that) identical twin brother) and his friend, Aqua, but again,

I digress.

IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV

"Really, Mickey, you can't be serious!" Xion yelled. She was standing in front of the mouse king's desk in his office with Goofy looking nervous by Mickey's side. The little leader listened patiently to the young girl's cries, leaning his elbows on the wood with his hands clasped. The subject of the debate paced agitatedly back and forth in front of the door. His fists were clenched again and he mumbled dark words to himself. Roxas's eyes were dyed red once more in his rage, but at least he hadn't gotten to the point of lashing out.

Yet.

His old friend continued on with her argument, "I can understand that we have to accept all members, but why pair that girl up with Roxas?! We've already seen what has happened between the two of them in just one training session; she-they'll screw up the objective if placed together." Though it would have added to her point, the 15-year-old did not want to bring up the two blondes' apparent history as she didn't want to know herself.

Mickey blinked, his expression not changing at all. "First of all," he started, "'That girl', as you so plainly put it, has a name-"

"Naminé," came the grumbled answer from behind them. Unknowingly to them, the raven girl felt another stab to her heart, one of many she had had to suffer through since Roxas carried the girl, so delicately and carefully like Naminé was so precious, all those days ago.

"Yes, thank you, Number XIII," the three lower ranking members startled at the use of formal ranking: that meant things were serious. "Now as I was saying, I must disagree with you, Number X. I believe that Numbers XIII and 0 need each other." His eyes narrowed as his eyebrows formed a flat "V", "They can help each other where we have failed. As it has been foreseen," he whispered. Shivers went down the two taller, black-haired figures at their leader's unusual prophetic tone, but before any of them could say anything, a familiar dark flash crashed down onto the king's desk.

As the sawdust cleared, you could see that the desk was demolished, but Mickey stayed literally in the same position as if the desk was still there, completely unfazed. When the air was fully clear, the dark flash was revealed to be a red-black scythe-tail belonging to this sci-fi love story's very own "Prince Charming". The blade was a shiny obsidian that stood scratch-less in the splintered wood.

Roxas was growling at the mouse king infuriated and starting to slip, but quickly withdrew his tail and stormed out before he did something he regretted. His frantic (and slightly frightened) childhood friend chased after him soon after. Mickey sighed, "The work he puts his brother through, I swear…"

"Er-yup!" Goofy agreed, nodding, well, goofily, "Teenagers these here days."

"True, true," his superior yet friend added, "Not only do they make a mess during their plethora of emotional tirades," his eyes darted to the window behind them where something quickly dashed out of sight, "But they also tend to have a nasty habit of eavesdropping."

No longer having any reason to hide, the spying cloaked member teleported into the office, appearing sitting Indian-style in front of the pile of wood chips that used to be the boss's desk. The same unknown member from before whistled, "Da~mn, Roxy sure has a clean cut, doesn't he?"

"Please focus, Number XI," said boss complained in his child's voice. His fingers were pinching the bridge of his tiny nose, feeling a headache coming on from all his "children".

"Fine," Number XI whined, seeing that the king's last buttons had already been pushed by the moody Number XIII. Number XI finally peeled back their hood and revealed herself to be a young woman with short, dark hair and similar eyes. A headband kept her bangs out of the way.

Name: Yuffie

Age: 17

Number XI, the Ninja Assassin, Yuff, Yuffie the Ninja, Psycho (by most anyone who meets her)

Rating: Like a boss

Yuffie continued, kneeling down to Mickey to try to be as dramatic as Roxas, "Oh sire, Yuffie the Ninja returns with news of a successful mission."

"Oh?" he asked, used to the teen's strange behavior. He had sent Yuffie out on scouting missions on several possible leads to a fragment to the Kingdom Heart, but all had been duds so far. The girl was constantly complaining about the lack of action, but this was her job in Organization XIII. Her power of teleportation could only be so useful once they were able to store her blessing for the others' usage.

He stroked his nonexistent beard on his unnaturally pale baby face, his thoughts still on the two troublesome blondes. Perhaps, this could be just what they needed as well.

Oh my God, I am so sorry this took this long! There is absolutely no excuse at all; I'm fairly good at time management and still have plenty of time despite being back in school. In fact, I'm taking Creative Writing as an elective this year and we actually have to write outside of class for that so I've been working on this whenever I had time. It's just that it has to be in a notebook and I write so slowly. Wait, that's an excuse.

Anyway, more characters are revealed, but I realized I forgot Mickey's "Scott Pilgrim" biography so I'll put it here with Clarabelle's (since she won't have a speaking line till a while).

Name: Mickey

Age: ?

The King, King Mickey, Mickey Mouse, Mouse

Rating: Top dog

Name: Clarabelle

Age: Late thirties

Chef Belle, "Purdy Lady" (by Goofy secretly)

Rating: Gourmet! (read in French accent)

There! Now before I wrap up this ridiculously, unnecessarily long AN, I'd like to ask one-how you all feel about how I'm portraying Mickey. I mean, I know it's off because he's a freakin' Disney character and all cheery, but this is supposed to be realistic. So a cartoon character won't cut, just saying.

Two-I've recently read that "wordy" fics tend to ward readers off so if you think I'm writing too much, please tell me and I'll shorten them (successfully quickening my update time) and even possibly go back and edit the earlier chapters or at least put a notice that "shorter chapters are ahead". Really, just drop me a line. You'll get a cyber cookie! And I don't mean the icky ones that are like little viruses. That would be bad.

Three-Yeah, I added an Oc, but she's nothing like anyone I know in real life and I promise she won't be annoying and hog real character's time.

Swear to update again early next month, R&R!