From the Rubble
A Kingdom Hearts fanfic
By:
Chison
Climbing up from the ruins, a girl with brown hair and shining blue eyes looks over the wasteland. "Wow…Melantha really twisted this world…" She said to herself, and continued wandering around. "Hey, cut that out…" she said to the little Heartless that had been pulling on her hair, "come on, that hurts." The small, black creature stopped, and looked over the girl's shoulder and shuddered. "I know…" she responded, looking to the small Shadow, "I can't believe that this is Zashi!" thinking to herself, she pressed onward, then something caught her eye, and she slowly walked towards it. Placing her hand on the object, she twisted it with her hand, "YES!" she shouted, and the shadow scrambled off her back and tilted its head at her, "well don't just stand there… could you give me a hand?" She asked with a smile on her face, and the creature crawled toward her and helped remove the debris.
Wiping off a few beads of sweat from her brow, she looked at her find: a door. "This means I can finally leave this world and look for your Nobody!" With that, she summoned her keyblade into her hands, and the Shadow heartless scurried away, fearing the weapon. "Its all right. I'm not going to hurt you." With that, she pointed the keyblade at the door, and repeated one phrase in her mind, "Traverse Town" over and over, and a beam of light shot from the tip of the weapon towards the door, causing the entire door to shine with light. Crouching down, she reached for the door handle and opened the door, peering down; she could clearly see the dimly lit streets of Traverse Town. "Come on…" she said, stretching her hand toward the heartless, it slowly made its way towards her and she held the creature in her arms and jumped into the door.
Falling for what seemed like a moment, the woman had hoped to land on her feet, but as she passed through the door at Traverse Town, she suddenly found herself looking to the stars and fell flat on her back. "Ow ow ow…" she said as her body ached from the sudden fall. She slowly got to her feet and looked around. To her right was a small hotel, and a courtyard was down below with a familiar fountain she recognized right away, to her left was the gizmo factory, and into the other districts. Walking down the path, she came to a pair of wooden doors and pushed them open, finding herself in the first district, she made her way left, then right, around the various buildings she knew very well and into the shop labeled: Accessory Shop.
"Hello?" she asked, opening the door, she found a familiar face, but it was not the one she was expecting, "oh, Marlena! Its been a while since you came around." The man behind the counter greeted her, raising a hand. "Hey Johan…have you seen Cid around?" she questioned, Johan put a hand to his chin in thought, "well…if I recall…Cid and the others left…" Marlena put her hands on the counter, "do you know where?" Johan looked to the ceiling, then back to her but he gave a shout, "Heart…less!" Pointing to the shadow that was with her, she put a hand in protest, "no! Its not like the others…he…" she lowered her head, "is Zashi." Johan looked at Marlena, then to the shadow and back to Marlena, "all right…whatever you say…you're the Keyblade master." He said shrugging his shoulders. "Oh! That jogged my memory! Cid and the others are in Hollow Bastion! They said they were going to rebuild their world, lots of other people went with them…" Marlena was looking towards the fireplace, "yea…there are not a lot of people I noticed…" She got up, and the heartless crawled up onto her arms, "Thanks Johan, I'll see you later!" she said with a nod, and wandered towards the massive wooden doors and set the shadow down, and summoned her Keyblade.
Repeating the phrase Hollow Bastion over and over, a beam of light shot from the end of the keyblade and to the door, causing the doors to disappear, and a vision of a different Hollow Bastion greeted her: Ansem's castle had been stripped, leaving only the Heartless emblem and a new town had sprung, filled with people going about their lives. Scooping the shadow in her arms, they passed through the portal, and a warm breeze greeted them on the other side. Suddenly, sparks of magic appeared on Marlena's left, which formed into a man with a long white beard wearing a blue pointed hat and blue clothes, "oh Marlena! We were expecting you sometime soon, but this is wonderful." Her face was washed with confusion, "we?" she repeated, and the magician smiled, "why yes, Cid, Leon and the others are waiting at the house." While walking they caught up on many of the things that had happened then, they came to the house, Merlin opened the door, "ah, hello? Is anyone home?" They wandered inside, where Leon and the gang came from the back, "Marlena!" everyone gave a joyous shout, "You just missed Iris and Zashi's Nobody." Leon stated, which saddened Marlena, who took a seat on a chair, "aw man…" However, his expression changed as he spotted the Heartless. "What…What is that Heartless…" he cut off his own words and looked to Marlena, "…that's Zashi?" he asked, and she simply nodded.
