Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to its rightful owners.

CHAPTER NINE: SEVEN MEMBERS

SASUKE

"Your past is always your past. Even if you forget it, it remembers you."
- Sarah Dessen

"LOOK AT THAT."

Our eyes trailed down to the view that Leon had pointed out to us. Yuffie and Aerith had led us to the bailey where the brunet man was waiting. Though, as soon as we got there, they mentioned something about Cid needing them before they jogged away. This left us alone in the dark place. The walls, the floor, even the ceiling was plastered in cobblestone. It would have been completely black if it were not for the hole carved into one of the windows. It let the sunlight shine in to illuminate the bailey. But, there was one thing in front of some of that sunlight, causing a shadow on the ground and walls. It was Leon.

He had motioned us over with a simple tilt of his head. Enough to send the message of urgency to us. We rushed over to the hole in the wall he had been seated on. But, that was where we seen it. My breath hitched into my throat.

The bronze, gear-covered castle sat off in the distance like an unattainable goal. It was surrounded by a ditch dug around it in a wide circle. The ditch itself was filled with dark water. Or, at least, until I looked closer. The ditch was not filled with dark water; the ditch was filled with the swarming, dark abyss of thousands upon thousands of Heartless. Maybe even millions. They clawed at the walls to get out of the ditch, but it was too high. There was so many of them.

"We want to restore Hollow Bastion to what it used to be. Who knows - maybe even something better. There's still a lot to do, but I'm sure we can handle everything . . ." Leon stood up from his seat on the ledge. He moved to stand besides me. Even know - with me growing a few inches - he was a skyscraper compared to me. Motioning a hand to the ditch of Heartless, he mumbled, ". . . except . . . for that . . . and that."

He pointed a finger toward something on the ground below. Two Nobodies gracefully walked along the path. Their hips swung in sync with each other without a care in the world. They were so free. So without worry. I found myself staring at them while Sora sighed. Could these graceful creatures really be our biggest enemies yet?

Sora waved Leon off with a giant hand. "Don't worry. We'll handle 'em."

"Well, that's good to hear," Leon said. I could since an undertone in his voice. It was either relief or amusement. Knowing him, it could be either. "So, Sora - do you know what's going on, then?"

Sora crossed his toned arms over his chest and leaned against the cobblestone wall behind him. His silver chain with the symbolic crown hanging from it rustled from the action. He was beginning to act more and more out of Leon. Whether it was out of habit or a newfound maturity, I did not know. "There's this guy, Pete, who's been going around plotting with the Heartless. But, he's not smart enough to tie his own shoes." A ghost of a smile appeared on my face at his little joke. Nonetheless, he let out a heavy breath. "The ones we need to worry about are the Nobodies."

"And those Organization Thirteen guys in charge, too!" Goofy added.

"You called?"

The deep voice that spoke hadn't come from any of us. It was too deep, too maniacal to belong to us. Our eyes looked around the area for the source of it. There was no doubt that the voice belonged to a member of the Organization XIII - they had confirmed that themselves. Where had it come from? Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Leon stepped out of the cobblestoned area to look around. I peered over the edge of the hole in the wall. Wherever the voice was, it sounded close. They couldn't be too far away from where we were."

"You're doing well. She's safe, too, I see. I suppose I should thank you for that, but I haven't really got the heart for it."

Sora summoned his Keyblade. "Who is that?" he snapped to the empty air around him.

"This calls for a celebration . . ."

Celebration? I turned around to find out what everyone was talking about. However, instead of seeing Sora talking to someone, the image of two Nobodies crawling out of the ground greeted me. The boys were too busy to notice me being cornered. My Keyblade couldn't be summoned; what was I to do? The zippers keeping the creatures' mouths closed undid themselves. Large mouths opened to let out a cry. Slowly, my feet carried me backwards to get away from them. What was I going to do?

A arm wrapped around my waist to move me out of the way. It had all happened so fast. The Nobodies sprung to attack, but they were knocked back by something. Leon was standing in front of me. The long, silvery gun blade was in his hand like a force to be reckoned with. Though, I wasn't given enough time to analyze the situation. My body was shoved out of the way, causing me to stumbled back a few feet. With a loud slam, the iron gates leading into the cobblestoned area closed . . . with Sora and Leon inside. Hoards of Nobodies spawned around them. Sora had moved me out of the way.

He gave me a glance from the corner of his eye. The grip he had on his Keyblade was so tight that his knuckles had begun to turn white. "Stay right there!" he commanded. I didn't want them to fight by themselves, but I also wasn't going to disobey my best friend's wishes. "We'll be done in a minute. Don't move."

True to his word, they finished all of the creatures in five minutes tops. Sora swung his heavy key over his shoulder, and marched over to join Goofy, Donald and me. Leon was right behind him with an irritated expression on his defined face. It was no wonder he was irritated. The attack was random, it would have ticked anyone off.

"The Keyblade . . . a truly marvelous weapon. Were it only in more . . . capable hands . . ."

Sora frowned, looking around the area to find no one. Yet, we could still hear the laughter of multiple people. "Show yourselves!"

It was then when we seen them. Seven. There were seven of them. They had appeared through portals of darkness on the rooftops of the bailey - seven black cloaked figures in total. Their hoods shielded their faces from our view, but that didn't make them any less scary. If fact, it might have made them even more scary than they already were. My throat ran dry just at the sight. It was them, the people who wanted to cause destruction. They wanted to bring so much pain and suffering to accomplish their goal - whatever that may be. But, that wasn't what concerned me. My body had refused to move in even the slightest twitch. I had never been one to be frightened . . . but, right now . . . there was no way that I wasn't. This feeling creeping up on me . . . it was nothing but pure terror. I was paralyzed with fear.

"Sasuke, Daddy doesn't want you taking that necklace off, all right?"

"Organization Thirteen . . ." Sora mumbled. His eyes were narrowed into slits and he was biting down on his bottom lip. Did he not feel it? Did he not feel the fear coursing through his veins? Because I could, and, boy, did it feel awful. "Good. Now we can settle this!"

The cloaked man standing in the middle chuckled. "What a shame . . . And here I thought we could be friends. You did do me a favour after all."

Portals of darkness appeared again as a round of laughs came from them. It echoed through the cobblestone walls like a torturous song on replay. And then, in that instant, they were gone. All except for one. This one was shorter than the other six. The sleeves of their cloak were a lot thinner, too, along with their waist. The Organization member looked down at us before tossing something down. Were they attacking? I took a step back, preparing to run if need be. But, as the object spun in the air like a ninja star, and landed in the ground between my feet, I knew that she wasn't. It wasn't just any object . . . it was my Keyblade.

"You forgot that." It was a woman's voice. The cloaked member was a woman. There were women in the Organization Thirteen? "You should have stayed away. You guys may have just made the biggest mistake a person could possibly make. Things are going to get hard for you from now on. I trust that you learn how to handle the situation."

What mistake? Why did she have my Keyblade? Was she . . . trying to help us? Before any of us could ask, she was gone. Nothing but a closing portal of darkness was left in her wake. Who was that woman? I yanked the spiked Keyblade out of the ground. It felt almost foreign to have it back in my hands. It's been an entire year since I've used this, hasn't it?

"Stop!" Donald shouted. His webbed feet carried him over to the stairs in attempt to reach where the Organization Thirteen once stood. But, when one of them spawned in front of him, he came to a screeching stop. This one wasn't the woman. This one didn't look all too friendly, either. Still, it didn't scare the duck one bit. "What's the big idea?!"

The cloaked man waved his hands around. "Oopsie daisy."

"Move!" Sora hissed.

"Now do you think that's polite?" the man teased. His voice was raspy; his words were laced in sarcasm. He was about as tall as Leon with a slender body. I could have passed him off as a female if it had not been for his tone. Who was this guy? Why hadn't he left with the rest of them? "Already shutting me down like that? And here everyone was talking about how nice you were. More like rude."

Sora took a step forward. Despite, the man being bigger than him, the teen showed no sign of nervousness. His face was hardened to the point way passed capable of the normal Sora. "I told you to get out of the way, right?"

"As if! You can talk all you want, but that won't change a thing."

"Then we're just gonna have to make you move!" Donald was the one who spoke this time. He stepped forward, summoning his magic staff. He and Sora both took on fighting stances. They clearly were not in a mood to joke around with the man. None of us were, for that matter.

The man let out a hearty chuckle. "See, that would work - if I were just any old dude. 'Cept I'm not. I'm with the Organization. Nothing "any old" about me."

"Hmph." Sora rolled his eyes to show that he was unimpressed. The man's words hadn't spooked him in the slightest. Where was he getting this endless supply of confidence from? He hadn't even noticed that I had managed to sneak behind him a bit. He was too wrapped up in getting the man out of his way. There was no way that I was going to mess around with them. They reduced me to nothing but a shaking child. A child trying to hide behind Sora for protection. "Tough talk for someone who stood on the sidelines while his Nobody flunkies did the fighting!"

"Oh, dear. Are you taking shots at me, lover boy?" The man put his hands on his slim hips. Sora's grip on the handle of his Keyblade tightened. He was ready to attack at any moment. When the boy shot him a heated glare, the man wiggled his index finger at him. "You know, no one had ever really thrown shade at me. I think you got the wrong impression -"

"Are you going to cry?"

The man scoffed. Out of everything that Sora had said, that one seemed to tick him off the most. "As if! Why don't I remind you how tough the crowd you're dealing with really is."

"Remind me?"

My hands gripped onto the back of Sora's black jacket. I knew that I probably looked like a little kid clinging onto their parents, but it didn't matter. This whole scenario wasn't good. This man gave be strange vibes that spelled nothing but bad news for us. Sora turned his head to the side to look down at me. All traces of anger once written on his face had been replaced with confusion. His eyes softened, and his eyebrows knitted together. "Don't do it, Sora," I whispered. Don't fight that man. For all that we knew, this guy could be stronger than all of us. Then we'd be screwed. And I'd be without Sora.

"You should listen to your girlfriend," the man teased. Girlfriend? Sora's jaw tensed up before he looked back over at the man. The angry look he had previously returned. Though, that didn't help the confusion from still clouding his face. He was angry and confused. Was he going to fight? Of course he was. But, the man had a different plan. He threw his hooded head back, and let out an exaggerated laugh. "That's right, he used to give me that same exact look. All pissed and clueless."

The brunet boy shook his head with a huff. His right foot took a step back to keep me blocked behind him - as if to let me know that he had my back. Could he tell that I was afraid of this guy? "I guess you think that you can psych me out by saying really random stuff."

"Gee . . . I just don't know anymore," the man mumbled under his breath. That was it. Silence covered the area around us like a thick blanket. None of them were faltering from their defensive positions. Especially Sora, who had not moved a muscle. But, just when I thought a fight was going to break out between them, the man called upon a portal of darkness. With a wave of his hand, he said, "You be a good boy now! Nice seeing you again, girly! I hardly recognized you."

Girly? That nickname . . . where have I heard that before? Girly . . .

"Are you kidding me, girly? You can't even colour in the lines. All of your pictures look like shit. Who is this supposed to be, anyways? Me and Luxord? As if! He looks like a pile of blonde shit. Why'd I get stuck on babysitting duty . . ."

"Wait!" Donald dived forward to catch the man before he had the chance to disappear through the portal. However, the duck was too slow. Instead of catching him, he landed on his face. "Damn it! He got away!"

Who in the world was that man? Faint traces of him were filling my head, but each time they did, his head was blacked out. He was there, nonetheless. I knew that man . . . I think. But, from where? If I truly knew him, why couldn't I piece together where I knew him from? He was nothing but an empty memory. A piece of my mind that had been only seventy percent erased. I raked my brain for answers as to who that man was. The only thing that it earned me was a newly forming headache. My hands reached up to grip my head. The pounding wouldn't stop, but neither would my racing mind. Who was that man?

Sora's arms crossed over his chest, a heavy breath blowing from his lips. "That was weird. Who gave him the same look? There's only one of me." I let out a groan when the pain became too much. He turned around to see me squeezing my eyes shut. My head was hurting and it didn't feel like it was going to stop any time soon. My knees buckled after that. Thankfully, Goofy move to catch me in time before that could happen, causing the tall boy to frown. "Hey! Sasuke, what's wrong?"

"Sasuke," Leon started carefully. "Do you . . . know them?"

I gritted my teeth together. Now that I was no longer fully standing, the pain had subsided to a dull pounding. "I don't . . . know . . ."

"She's covered in Nobody symbols. Sora, are you sure she isn't -"

"Don't even say it," the brunet hissed. He stepped closer to where Goofy was keeping me up, dropping his Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee Honorary card in the process. Not that he seemed to care. "She's not. Sasuke, are you okay?"

The pain was no longer an issue for me, but something else had caught my eye. I raised my finger to point behind him. "Sora . . . turn around . . ."

They turned around to see his card rising into the air from where it had fell onto the ground. It was no longer a card. It had changed into an orb of light. Everyone watched the light in the sky with questioning expressions. "What is that?" Sora asked no one in particular. He knew that the rest of us didn't know, either.

"Gawrsh, do ya think . . ."

Goofy's words trailed off when the orb of light shifted into the shape of a glowing keyhole. There it was. This was the keyhole to this world. Sora pointed the Kingdom Key at it; he already knew what to do. There was a beam of light followed by a locking sound. I stood up straight, my episode having ended. This was the first Keyhole that he had locked on our new journey. We were just getting started.

He looked down at his Keyblade with wide cerulean eyes. "Oh, now I get it. That must've been the gate Yen Sid was talking about," he mumbled. With a quick turn, he looked over at the taller brunet. His face was now dripping in determination. Any uneasiness that it could have once held had been completely banished. "Sorry to run, Leon, but other worlds are calling."

Leon nodded in understanding. "Organization Thirteen . . . They look tough. Be careful out there. And, if there is any chance that she does know them, keep them away from Sasuke. I have a feeling that they don't exactly have the best intentions."

"Okay." Sora looked over at me. "Can you walk?"

"Of course. I'm not crippled; it was just a headache."

He rolled his eyes. The ghost of a smile that had pulled on his lips was enough to make me send him one back. Looking back at Leon, he said, "We'll see you soon."

Leon gave us a salute with two fingers. We were going to leave. Any second now, everything was going to start. The journey has just begun. Though, I hope that this one has way less heartache.

"Stop picking on her! She's only -"

"An eight-year-old who knows how to fend for herself. You have to stop babying her, Hixari. If she's depending on you all the time, how is she going to grow up?"

HI! A short chapter, I know, but this one held a lot of information and I wanted to separate it from the next world. Next is Mulan, are you excited?

Oh, and sorry for not updating for so long!

~ Insane